"Wife" is on the road to Hades

As we linger in the cool shade of a stone church in the Mani region of the Peloponnese, digesting our delicious picnic lunch and letting the steep climb's sweat dry, Paul points out that one of our upcoming towns, called Νιφι (wife) is on the road to Hell. Well, it's on the road to the entrance to Hades to be more specific.

Alix and I cycled for about a week together, starting in Xiropigado and then met up with our good friend Paul in Neapoli (he had been cycling in Crete), and now we're cycling together around the beautiful Mani region in the southern part of the "middle finger" of the Peloponnese.

Samos

It was good to be back in my home island Samos again after 16 years! And wonderful to see my cousin Aki again and his wife Chrisa and to meet his daughters Mirto and Melina.

My other cousin Angela (Kiki) is busy fixing up her late mother's house to use as a summer home, now that she's retired.

Journey to Samos

Time to head to Samos. We ferried back to Alexandroupolis (in Thrace) and then a long overnight ferry to Samos, passing by Samothrace and watching the sun set behind holy Mount Athos.

Samothrace

Samothrace is a gem of an island in the north east corner of the Aegean. Very small, but it has the tallest mountain (Fengari - moon) in the Aegean at around 1500 meters (depending on which source you believe). Well, we decided to climb it. Could we do it? We didn't know but we tried and succeeded and it was absolutely beautiful. Then we decided, rather than going back down the way we came, to keep going and descend onto the opposite side of the island. Well, it was tough going, a very treacherous trail. Not much fun, but looking back it was quite a rewarding accomplishment. A 10 hour, 20km hike up from sea level to 1500m and back down over slippery steep boulders and rockslides. All this with not enough water and perhaps not the most appropriate shoes.

The next day was spent limping around and soaking in thermal waters, resting and eating. Boy were we sore! It was a full moon that night and the "Temple of the Great Gods" had free admission (as do all Greek ancient sites on such nights) and a guitar concert.

On our last day in Samothrace we visited some beautiful waterfalls on the Fonias river (Killer river).

Thrace

Thrace is the north-eastern most part of Greece, sharing a border with Turkey and Bulgaria. Before Greece became the modern nation that it is, it was under Turkish rule and many Turks lived all over Greece, and many Greeks lived all over Turkey. In the 1920's there was a massive population exchange, all Greeks in Turkey were sent to Greece and all Turks in Greece to Turkey All except for the Turks in Thrace and the Greeks in Istanbul (Constantinople?) The Greeks in Istanbul have since been forced into Greece, but Thrace continues to have a large Turkish population, so even though we were still in Greece, we frequently came across Mosques and Turkish Greeks.

First Fig

Alix (AKA the big fig pig) finally had her first fresh-off-the-tree fig! This picture is only a dramatization though, the actual event was much too exciting for anyone to think of taking a picture. No figs were harmed for the purpose of this blog.

Virgin booby

Who says that public breast feeding is not acceptable? I have it on good faith that it's fine just about anywhere.