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Swimming holiday on hold

Now it's time to leave Archimedes and his watery home and climb up from the bathing platform for the last time for a while, because we are going towards the mainland to see how the ancient Greeks lived and played thousands of years ago.

We set an even more southerly course and arrived at the town Katakolo on the Peleponnese.  This is the best place to leave your boat and catch a bus to visit the place where the Olympic Games began! 

On arrival to Katakolo we were met by a very friendly young man on an old bicycle which he carefully locked everytime he parked it  "You want a hot shower?" he asked us, whilst we looked at each other thinking "surely we don't smell SO much!".

We thanked him but said no, so he then offered us homemade red wine "from my garden" at the amazing price of 1.66 Euro per litre - now that's the kind of price we like, so we ordered 3 litres straightaway.

It turns out that this young man, ca. 30 yrs old, like the patron saint of Kefalonia, whose coffin we visited and whose mummified feet we also kissed, is called Gerasimus.  Hmm, I suppose we must treat him with respect...

Gerasimus was young, and had not yet discovered his own style of dress, but has copied and blended various styles that young people read about in magazines. For example, he wore a pair of smart black jogging pants which hung a good way below his stomach or on his hips, whilst the upper part of his body was covered by a baggy red checked shirt which was only half buttoned up.  OK so far?  These two items of clothing however did not hide his thick white underpants and vest, maybe the reason for them was to soak up the sweat from his body so as not to stain his cool clothes? 

Giggling to ourselves, we decided that Gerasimus had opted for the cool "street dress code" , but there was one accessory that just did not fit :  elegant, frameless italian designer glasses,  but then again,  they were sitting lopsided on his face, and they were so greasy that he could hardly see through them.  We were at a loss to describe this style, must have missed the latest copy of "Cosmo".  To end the ensemble, Gerasimus wore a brand new shining white pair of Nike runners, which meant the whole town could see him as he cycled around on his little bike.  

As always, with us, we ended up being invited to his home to visit his mother and father.  We made one mistake - we forgot to take a camera!! So we learnt an important lesson, never leave your boat without your camera, you never know what crazy experiences you are going to meet.

Mother and Father were very friendly well dressed people, we sat at the terrace of the house that has been in the family for many generations, looking over the most wonderful view of the whole town, bay and the mountains in the distance.  Well, the Family Gerasimus, may think they are poor people, but as we left them, clutching our bag of tomatoes "from the garden" and climbed down the steep stairs towards town, we agreed between us that he must be the leading business man and property tycoon of all the Peleponnese.  

We had such a laugh that evening as we drank our wine from "Gerasimus Incorporated Vineyard" or "the garden".  He really impressed us.

Greek robbers and cops!

 ”OK its culture time”, we said to each other the next day, as we wanted to go and visit ancient Olympia.

”The bus goes only once a day, you must change bus half way and the trip takes apprx. 2 hours, and the return trip is even worse" said the lady at the bus stop.

With a big smile, a taxi driver came up to us and offered us a "good price" to drive to Olympia, "no thank you " we said, shocked at the price.

With a big smile, a car hire man offered to rent a car to us for a "very good price", "no thank you" we said, shocked at the price.

With a big smile, a scruffy young man on the street corner, offered to rent us a scooter - for a much lower price. "Yes please" we said, thinking once again about what clever business people the greeks are.

”To hell with the price, we want to get going now", as we buzzed off on our (t)rusty little scooter towards Olympia. 

”Kasket, Kasket” shouted the local traffic policeman when he stopped us ... now we have learned a new greek word - kasket means crash helmet, which we were not wearing.  We played stupid (easy enough for us) and were waved away.  Thank you we said loudly and clearly in greek and set off again, without having to pay any fines.

So we drove up to Ancient Olympia and stepped back ca. 4,000 years in time, exploring the site where the Olympic Games started, and the famous Temple of Zeus, where one of the Wonders of the Ancient World, the Statue of Zeus once stood.

This is the gate through which the Olympic Torch is still born by the athletes today, run around the old stadium before it is taken to the country where the Games shall be held.

In 2004, when the Games shall be held in Athens, the plan is that the Torch shall be carried throughout the majority of the outlying greek islands also before arriving in Athens for what will surely be a spectacular opening ceremony.

Sunray's crew was really impressed and moved by this "trip into the past".  It's really amazing to walk around temples that are hard to build now with modern technology and so think that they are 3000 years old .