Corinth to Kalamata

Monday morning and today I am heading to Kalamata. First though, I want to go check out the Acrocorinth that I missed seeing properly yesterday. I am about 25 minutes away from there and I dropped the keys at the reception desk by about 8:15. I was doing alright for time, on the way to the site I got to drive over the Corinth canal. This was my last chance to stop and get a good view, so I did. It was spitting a bit this morning, there was a bit of a drizzle but I was still pushing forward to head to Acrocorinth. The rain emptied itself just as I got to the site and this was such a magical time to be here. There was one other car here already, the temperature was fantastic and the morning light was glorious. There was even a rainbow in the sky. I started the climb to the first gate, there are three gates for defence of this castle.

I am still excited by how I started my week. Every week should start with an epic castle hill climb with lush, stunning views. I climbed up towards the Frankish Tower where you can then climb to the top of for full 360° views. From this position you can see so far. I got to be alone up here for about 5 – 10 minutes and I thoroughly enjoyed every second.

It’s funny as I was up here I was thinking about how just climbing up a mountain I wouldn’t do on my own. But you put some old ruins I also get to climb and navigate my way through and I will happily explore it on my own. In fact, I prefer doing this on my own and just getting to be with myself in the moment. Maybe because there is a clear path I can see, or just ruins that I can start to make up stories, piece things together, and all that?

I was doing pretty well for time and as much as I could have walked around here more and for longer it was about 10:30 and today I was leaving Corinth and heading for Kalamata. The next stop on the way was suggested to me by my first taxi driver. When I was telling him about my plans he recommended checking out Napflio, so I saved it in my list of places and added it to the driving plan for the day. When I am travelling between accomodation locations I am trying to add in some stops along the way just to try to see more things. Napflio was really nice to visit, even for such a short time. I could definitely stay here longer. The water castle of Bourtzi looks like a giant sandcastle sitting in the middle of the harbour. While here I stopped in at the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation museum. There are so many things to explore here that it’s definitely somewhere I would come back to on another trip and probably stay here.

After a little exploration and a lemon sorbet it was time to head to Kalamata and check in to my next accomodation. I rocked up to meet my lovely host Helen who showed me to my apartment. It has a kitchen with a little table where I am sitting and writing this, a bathroom with a washing machine ( I now have clean clothes), and a bedroom with a balcony. It’s an incredible little place with parking on site. So perfect to call home for 3 nights. Again I did my usual, check in and then go for a walk. It actually ended up raining, so I ducked into a place for a meal while I waited it out.

The sun then started shining again and I headed off to check out the Archaeological Museum of Messinia. This is a great collection of items from around the area and laid out in a way that it takes you on a journey through the region. After exploring the museum I headed off in search of a supermarket to pick up some breakfast food and snacks, then headed back to my apartment.

I did a little bit of work and then checked out Netflix and watched We Came By. If you’re in the mood for a bit of a thriller(?) it’s not a bad flick. I then watched the new episode of Rick & Morty before going to bed.

There has been a bit of travel bits and I feel like I am constantly playing work catch up so I decided that I would use Tuesday morning to work, go out for a little break during the afternoon and then come back and work again. So after working I headed out to Ancient Messene. Wow, this site was incredible! There was so much to look at and take in. This site was pretty large and there was still so much still being unearthed. There was 2 theatres and a stadium here that were incredible to walk around and imagine seeing a show and being part of one. I spent about 2.5 hours walking around this site.

On the way back home I travelled via the Arcadian Gate and the Castle of Androusa. These were just short little stops that took me through the small streets of small towns. It’s nice just to get to see some of these places that just taking freeways between bigger cities you miss out on.

Since getting back earlier this eventing I just had some muesli for dinner, deciding to stay in and do some work tonight and save some money on food. Tomorrow I am off to Sparta.