We don’t really like to bounce between towns with one night stays, it feels pretty superficial and it’s difficult to cook when you are leaving the next day (our packing is pretty tight, we try not to carry a pantry). In order to approximate what we wanted to do with the KTEL schedule, that is what we did.
We were really happy when we met our new travel chefs; adorable, easily transported and pretty good.
So, in preparation for our next KTEL designated stop-Kalamata, we got a tub of olive tapenade. With time to kill waiting for the bus at the Sparta depot, and eager to get a preview taste of Kalamata, we ended up devouring the entire tub of olive tapenade to the point of feeling sick and never wanting to see another olive. We recovered on the smooth bus ride via a very nice freeway looping through the central valley, avoiding the windy coastal mountain road (our stomachs appreciated the chosen route).
Kalamata’s lovely central plaza and park were full of families, shops were bustling, beach was breezy, all just very pleasant. You could envision this area being packed (like olives) with tourists in the summer. Kalamata even had its own version of the LA River. It’s understandable that it keeps showing up on lists of great places for ex-pats (ex-pits?). In contrast with the olive tapenade, we could easily have had more of this Kalamata.
Our next KTEL required stop on our way to our ultimate goal of Ancient Olympia was Kyparissia. Since we had very briefly lived in Olympia, WA we were eager to connect with its ancestry. Kyparissia is another beach town, but with unusually boggy beaches of seaweed drifts (felt like walking on sponges). This town did not feel like it was reliant on tourists.
Other than the beach, we struggled to find things to do for the 20 hours we were there (and 3 of those hours were spent waiting on the boggy beach to check in). In fact, Kyparissia may mean struggle in Greek as we also struggled to find our lodging in Kyparissia, then we struggled finding places to eat especially since it was Sunday and markets were closed. Actually, neither of those things were unique to Kyparissia for us.
Pyrgos, our next KTEL destination, and our stay for a couple of nights also did not feel like a major tourist draw, which we appreciated here as it felt like just a working city. It was a short 30 minute meandering local bus ride to the site of Ancient Olympia.
Like Sparta, many travel guides dismissed Ancient Olympia and like Sparta we found it pretty emotionally compelling. Maybe these guides focus on restaurants, easy access, transportation time and shopping which apparently are low on our list of important things.
Ancient Olympia was magical, Nick’s favorite place in Greece (Nick also likes modern Olympia in WA state). While the ruins were ruins, good written descriptions plus an imagination made it feel complete. You could envision the grandeur of the Ancient Olympic Village. The pageantry of the Games. To be able to walk or run on the original track. A true celebration of art, sport and athletics. You could feel the appreciation they had for the athletes and competition.
The museum was tremendous and there is something special about seeing these items where they were found rather than in a city miles away.
These two displays, positioned across from each other in the museum and originally on the east (above) and west (below) pediments of the Temple of Zeus. Beautiful, and fascinating to imagine fully intact in ancient times. The east depicts the chariot race of Pelops and Oinomaos (the fundamental myth of Olympia, which was a battle for the hand of Hippodamia, Oinomaos’s daughter). The west (below) depicting the Battle of Lapiths and Centaurs. A drunken revelry, with the Centaurs (those beasts) attempting the abduction of the lovely Lapith women and fighting during a wedding. Sounds like a modern day TV reality series told in statues.
Another highlight of our Ancient Olympia visit occurred as we were walking over to the site. We had a a chat with a very gregarious gentleman who seemed to be the unofficial city greeter. Called into his souvenir and jewelry shop, he proceeded to share with us files and files of pictures with celebrities; a lot of US military, George and Barbara Bush and tourists from all over. His photo collection included a picture of him as a teen carrying the Olympic torch as it began its journey from ancient Olympia to Montreal for the 1976 Olympics. Our send off was a picture with him, wearing our laurels and holding an Olympic torch.
Back to Pyrgos, we tried to celebrate our triumphant day with a cup of hot milk (Centaurs, we are not!). Nick put a cup with a gold painted handle in the microwave. It cracked and the handle broke into 3 pieces. He grabbed the pieces then realized they were burning hot, torching the tips of multiple fingers. The pieces were hurled to the ground. The place started smelling, he thought it was the microwave, but it was the broken pieces singeing the rug. A quick clean up of the burned rug and slight shift of the coffee table to cover the medal-sized burn spots. He re-glued the cup handle with super glue we had from an earlier shoe repair of Patricia’s boots but the results were not a winning effort. We then dashed to 5 different stores in Pyrgos to find a decent substitute to replace the broken mug. The final result is we really got to know Pyrgos, saw a rainbow and Nick found a 10 euro bill on the street. We bought a matched pair of mugs, but once back we noticed one had a cracked handle, so he raced off to exchange it, completing the accident pentathlon. Quite an Olympic day! Be careful when you reach for the gold!
Chosen Fugue 
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