Just writing from Greece

So we’re here in southern Greece, in Monemvasia with the new host Ellie. It took a bit of time to work things out. We ended up staying in Athens and seeing the city beforehand like we planned originally. We also got caught in the middle of a yearly protest! The entire city was shutdown: streets closed and police with full riot gear on every corner. As we were walking across the city we saw the protestors (two groups) shouting, cheering, chanting, as they marched towards parliament. The atmosphere was quite surreal.

Ellie was sick and still kind of is (and that was the reason for the delay) but we’re here at the cottage now and it’s storming right now. Rain started around 4 pm and it’s supposed to go until tomorrow evening. A little bit of thunder here and there. Temperature outside is quite warm though, right around 60 degrees and we’re right near the beach, probably about a half-mile away. The village of Monemvasia is about a mile and a half away. Not sure how long we’ll stay here but the longer the better I suppose

 but we’ve been invited to stay until the end of the month. 

 

The bus ride from Athens yesterday was pretty spectacular; through the mountains and valleys. It’s easy to see why places like this spawn mythological religious beliefs like the ones believed by the Ancient Greeks. We even had a brief stop in the famous city of Sparta! Walking through the neighbourhood last night it was amazing to see the various kinds of fruit trees people have growing in their yards: grapes, plums, pears, almonds, figs, grapefruit, oranges, lemons, limes, pomegranates, walnuts, carob, and I’m probably missing a whole bunch of other varieties. Today we fixed the bathroom door, and cut wood. We were lucky since we just finished the majority of the work right before it started raining. Not sure what we’ll do tomorrow but we’re eager to get out for a swim sometime. We went down to the ocean last night and the water must have been 75 degrees! Next clear day you’ll find us at the beach! That’s all, ciao for now! 

Zach