Day 19 - Wednesday September 17

We finally arrived to the ghost town of Areopoli after passing a few smaller towns on the way up (Neoitilo & Lemini). We got there just in time for siesta time! Figures, banks are only open Tuesday and Wednesday (9am -12pm) in this town, and the post office had just closed for the day! (the only other place in Areopoli that provides money). We only had 3500 drachmas on us so getting lunch, dinner and a room for the night seemed rather difficult! After viewing a couple of traditional towers (one was 10800 drachmas without bath!) we settle for Tsimova (7000 Drachmas with bath). It was a nice little place where a cute old man wearing a sailor hat and a couple of old ladies greeted us. One lady who was lying on the sofa kept telling me to watch my head! The doorways were rather low! After looking everywhere for money without any luck, we decided to have lunch/dinner at a small family run restaurant. It was cheap and the food was very good. We had baby cannelonnies with tomato sauce and a Greek salad (I guess it is just called a salad since we are in Greece) for 2300 drachmas! Afterwards, we walked around town to find a snack for the evening so we could last the night. We found bananas, cucumbers, peanuts, cookies, bread and cheese pastries and we only had 5 drachmas left!!! Luckily for us the owners of Tsimova did not require payment for the room until we checked out! Back at the tower for a quiet evening in the room watching TV (real bad TV), snacking on food and trying to flush Mona’s floating crotte! (Toilets don’t flush very well in Greece!). We were also lucky enough to listen to the 2 ladies argue very loudly just outside our room. We made plans to go to the caves the next day and went to bed early. (Late that evening Thierry finally got rid of the crotte with a lot of patience and the help of javex)

Day 20 - Thursday September 18

We woke up around 8 AM, we had to get up early so we could get to the bank before it ran out of money! Now that we had lots of cash, we decided to treat ourselves with a big breakfast. Never seen a breakfast more complicated than this one though! It took three people at the little restaurant to figure out how to make omelets. It was a very filling meal though. En route to the Dirou Caves. What a production! A photographer was taking pictures as we were boarding the boat. I thought it was for an advertisement. They’re no dummies though. They sell the pictures at the end of the trip to the many tourists that visited. A guide takes you by boat for about 20 minutes in the caves. They are very beautiful and amazing. Once off the boat, there is a short walk to the end of the caves and you exit to a beautiful view of the bay and of course to the souvenir shop where our pictures were waiting for us. We got 2 for 1000 drachmas each. We had planned on swimming at the beach after the visit, but it was not very sunny and kind of cool. So we decided to pack up and head for Athens. Picked up a few local cookies for the trip and off on the bus to Athens via Sparta.


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