Peloponnese and Athens, 14 days October/November.

Vathia village. They say it is the most photographed village in the Mani peninsula. Gerolimenas village. With the best orange cake in Mani and probably all Mediterranean.

Cape Matapan aka Tainaron, Mani. The southernmost point of mainland Greece, and the second southernmost point in mainland Europe. Ten galima vejo paklausti ir jis tau atsakys.

Tigani castle. Well, sort off. Supposed to be byzantine. Longish walk out into the sea. Peninsula is called a frying pan, even in November it justifies the name. Mani.
Greek cubism.
Diros caves. Abandoned as human habitation in 4 BC after an earthquake. However remote the possibility of an earthquake, it is a little comfort while rowing and walking under the countless stalactites. Mani.
Olives. Olives all around. Mani.
Doric. Ionic. Corinthian. Repeat.
Kardamyli. It is said to be referrenced in Iliad “Seven well-peopled cities will I give him, The first of which is Kardamyli Neigh to the sea.” And thats how you do it, one succesfull mention in the media and you are good for ages. A room with a view. Peloponnese.
Vyros Gorge. Literaly the last day for a walk on the rivebed this season.
Vyros Gorge. Early warning for those who would attemp walking the gorge after Gods took a shower up in the hills.
Kalamata. Beach. Peloponnese.
Mystras. It was built in 1249. The most important Byzantine monument in Greece. In 1349 Mystras became the capital of the semi-independent Despotate of Moreas. That is when it prospered. If you ask me, Byzantine architecture is not my cup of tea, seems kind of sloppy when compared to antic. But then again, you just get spoiled quick when in Greece. And moreover - you can hardly think of a better walk for a day in hills than trotting streets of the ancient Byzantine city.
Too much wine. 

Stemnitsa monastery of St. John the Baptist. 200 meters above the river bed. Menalon trail.
Stemnitsa monastery of St. John the Baptist. The last room on “the second floor” must be for the most devoted , for those truly resting their lives in the hands of the God. Menalon trail.
Time. Filosofou monastery. Menalon trail.
The old Filosofou monastery. In the gorge of Lucius, one of the oldest monasteries in Greece was founded in 927 by John Lampardopoulos, the so-called Philosopher. Menalon trail.
We are good at planning and getting ourselves ready. You know, we focus, we make a bullet proof plan and we go. Then we get a bit lost while driving, then we have coffee and juice, bit of panic what to do what to do - we are so late, hence more coffee and juice in the village square. And isntead of 9 AM, we are departing 1 PM. Again, the strict plan is to go to Stemnitsa monastery and take a taxi back to the car, which should be like 10 eur, 10 km.
Then once already there - but it is only few km accros the gorge to Filosofou and it is so nice here! Let’s walk and get a taxi from there. The key was - accros the gorge. We are the people of plains, what do we know. Taxi home became 35 km.
OXI! October 28. Olympia.
Tomb of Agamemnon. City state of Mycenae. A bit of Egypt feel in Greece. Probably the oldest dome in the World (1250 BC), and the largest until Romans started to spend like crazy on the construction of baths in Rome, but that was only 1100 years or so later.
The Mask of Agamemnon. Which in all likelihood is not the mask of Agamemnon, but of some other ruler who lived 400 years before him. It is a great discovery however, for Mr. Heinrich Schliemann this needed to be Agamemnon, to finish his personal quest and dream in proving Homer story on Troy was true. Mr. Schliemann was a self-made archaeologist and above all a great PR specialist with probably even greater wealth (coming from gold rush banking and trading saltpeter, sulfur, and lead, constituents of ammunition, with the Russia during the Crimean War). Even to the day museum in Athens stands behind the man and calls it “Mask of Agamemnon” with no added footnote.
We go great lengths to believe in what we want to be true.

The great city of Mycenae. Cyclopes were instructed to build the walls of Mycenae with stones no human could lift. The reason why it almost stands in our days. In 1350 BC, its glory days, 30.000 people lived here and in rooms with a view drank coffee from golden cups. Then from 1200 BC all went down the drain - fires, earth quakes, Persian wars, you name it. During Persian wars the city sent 80 !?!?!! men to the Battle of Thermopylae. Mycenae’s neighbouring city Argos, which had remained neutral in the war, retaliated by conquering the town and destroying parts of its walls. Neutral, my a**. But if sending 80 men out of the city left it so defenceless then maybe it really was the end of the game.

Nafplio. The first capital of modern Greece. Views, good fish (not given fact in other places in Peloponnese), beaches, blue sea, Palamidi castle towering from one side and masts of the Maltese Falcon from the other.

Palamidi fortress in Nafplio. It took 3 years for Venetians to build it. My house took six. 216 meters up. Then down for a refreshing swim.

< In the world's first architecture textbook, "De architectura" (30 B.C.), Vitruvius tells the story of a young girl from the city-state of Corinth. "A free-born maiden of Corinth, just of marriageable age, was attacked by an illness and passed away," writes Vitruvius. She was buried with a basket of her favorite things atop her tomb, near the root of an acanthus tree. That spring, leaves and stalks grew up through the basket, creating a delicate explosion of natural beauty. The effect caught the eye of a passing sculptor named Callimachus, who began to incorporate the intricate design onto column capitals. Because the sculptor found this design in Corinth, the columns that bear it became known as Corinthian columns. >
No too many Corinthian columns in Corinth nowadays though.

The Corinth canal. History shows now and back then, infrastructure projects cannot be done in time and budget. Not possible. The first idea to make a canal came in 602 BC from Periander but was indefinitely postponed as Gods said OXI. Poliocretes tried it in 336 BC but his engineers miscalculated sea levels and the project was shelved again for the fear that it will cause floods. Then Nero dusted the idea in 67 AD, however his death halted the project again. Many other project developers tried and postponed it for the fear of Gods, prophecies or something as banal as economics.
Lessons learned were not transferred to modern Greece.
Construction was started in 1830 and in a very modern fashion was accompanied with spectacular bankruptcies and bailouts. Finally, it was completed in 1893. As no surprise after that many attempts, redesigns and I bet, cost cuts making it every time more expensive to run, the canal is not used to the extend it was planned. It might be because Gods said OXI or simply the nature of most of larger infrastructure investments. Today one can bungee jump from one of the bridges connecting continental Greece to no longer continental Peloponesse. Finally credit is where it is due – it took some time but they have managed to create a wonderful landmark and a tourist attraction.

Loukanikos, aka the Sausage. It participated in almost every anti-austerity protest in Greece. It was groomed and cared for by multiple leftist organizations. It died in 2014 at the age of ten. Loukanikos was the subject of a large amount of monuments and murals in his honor.
No matter if I like it, it is still a part of Athens story.
Acropolis. I’ll tell a fairytale for you.
This exact tree in the picture (well maybe not this exactly, but who cares for such a detail) in this exact place (almost) is an evidence of foundation myth for Athens as it established the primacy of the goddess Athena within the city that would take her name.
Zeus offered a contest between Athena and Poseidon for the possession of Athens. Poseidon raised up his three-pronged trident, smashed it upon the hard rock of the Acropolis and out a salt spring sprang. Athena on the other hand produced an olive tree, its rich fruits bountifully dangling from the branches.
The Athenians chose Athena’s gift and the olive tree has remained a central part of Greek life ever since for all of its profound qualities.
Olympia. Athletes were running naked because why not? The lengh of the stadium was 600 Greek feet, not standard one. Olympic stadium hosted 45.000 men and 1 woman. One of the most frequent disqualification reasons of athletes was…. late arrival to the start.
Truly yours, Cape Matapan, Mani, Peloponnese, Greece, 2021.