Last night, in Pylos, we had our best Greek meal of the holiday so far. A quayside restaurant which wasn’t too expensive and where, when we asked about vegetarian options for Sarah, the owner took her into the kitchen where the elderly lady cook showed Sarah the various dishes she was preparing. The squid I had was the tenderest I have ever tasted. Great.
Our night on the marina was mostly quiet, but in the distance we could hear some poor people were less lucky as the faint, but distinct, heavy drum and bass which means a modern day dance party came wafting across the harbour from Pylos. I’m sure I’m being terribly ignorant by calling it a “dance party”. It probably should be termed a rave or some word I’ve never heard of, but all I know is that if I’d been in Pylos itself I would not have got much sleep last night.
There was also a slight disturbance at 5am at our end of the harbour when the local refuse collection team turned up to empty the huge dumpsters* Greece seems to leave at every possible location. I get the impression that Greek citizens are responsible for transferring their waste to these dumpsters rather than having a door to door collection of their rubbish. The racket was quickly brought to an end by Sarah reaching for her ear plugs, because as soon as she put her plugs in the garbage men disappeared.
Before we moved on we wandered into Pylos for a bit of shopping, buying some vegetables from a greengrocer and bread from a baker where the man serving me was alternating between serving customers and putting dough in his ovens. You just don’t see that in England, well at least in our part of England.
We only had about 15 miles to drive today, but before we reached our campsite we decided to call in at the small town of Methoni. This has the attraction of yet another castle!! But this one is built with water on three sides, jutting out into the bay. Originally it would have had water on the fourth side in the form of a moat but this is now overgrown.
Methoni is typical of the turbulence of this part of Greece. It was occupied by the Venetians after the Fourth Crusade and although not originally fortified the castle was built at some stage before the 16thcentury. The castle was briefly taken by the Ottoman Turks in 1500 and then recaptured by the Knights Hospitaller in 1532, on the first occasion all Christians were killed or taken into slavery and the second all Muslims were massacred. The Venetians returned in the late 17thand early 18thcentury, only to be conquered again by the Ottomans. The castle was even besieged by the Russians for reasons to obtuse to go into in 1777 and finally was returned to the Greeks in 1833 following the War of Independence.
Being Good Friday in Greece the castle was closed but we were still able to walk round the outside including the excellent sandy beach which lines some of the walls.
Finally we arrived at Camping Fines in Foinikounta (36.804988, 21.795766 – €15 with ACSI) in time for lunch to find the site surprisingly full. The site is right next to a lovely beach but the pitches are a little cramped for big lads like Basil. The intention was to stay here until Monday, so we could enjoy Easter in one place, but Sarah is initially not too impressed with the site so we will see.
There is a parade from the Orthodox Church in the local village tonight and our current intention is to go to witness it. If we stay on the site for three or four nights I may not post every day, but only when there is enough of interest (is any of it interesting?) to warrant a post.
* I have used the American term “dumpster” because, much to my surprise, there isn’t an English equivalent which is as descriptive.
