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Greece - Kaves of Kalamata

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Caves Were Promised! stovetop espresso (of course) brad brought the tiny camping espresso maker that we gave him more than 20 years ago. We have used it on various hikes including in Italy. Now, in Greece :) Attempted Breakfast We tried and failed to get breakfast in Stoupa. There was only one place open (VERY local) and there was only toast on offer. Could also have been a language barrier? We got coffee and set off on an exploratory hike at the beach. Shoreside cave we spent a bunch of time carefully climbing our way out through razor sharp rock formations to the entrance of a cave. It is too cold to swim in at this time of year (without wetsuits) so we had to settle for a few photos from the outside . I amused myself by utterly exhausting my arms and shredding my hands while carefully climbing the rock formations. Another Cave? After searching for over an hour, through even more dangerous rock than this morning, and based only on a single google maps post, we managed to find a beaut
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Greece - A Castle, a Good Omen, and Olympia!

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The Venetian Castle of Nafpaktos On the road toward Olympia, for a strangely low price of 2 euros, we were free to wander the outdoor portions of a 15th century castle. Sadly not allowed on the battlements, but very cool, nonetheless. Bananas good Bakery As we drove, I stopped on the road to try and get a picture of a hovering hawk at the seaside. Not an amazing picture, by any means...     Hawk of Good Fortune However, while stopped we checked out this nondescript shop along the roadside.     Bakery of the Gods It looks like nothing on the outside, but has every kind of greek baked good that you can imagine. The prices were also really reasonable. I'm not sure who they were selling all of this to in the middle of nowhere, but what a lucky find. Olympia!  We are staying at Hotel Pelops, a vintage hotel that feels like it is from the era of my grandmothers youth. Old, highly polished mahogany furniture with tiny wheels on the bottom, plates on the wall, ornate shelves with porcelain
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Greece: Diakuw of Delphi

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Getting out of Athens 10:30 Travelling light with no checked baggage has several drawbacks. Everything is carefully organized and it is a bit of a pain getting it back into place each time I use anything. I don't have everything I want with me. And the few things I have for clothing need to be washed several times during the trip. Honestly, I should have been okay with just washing clothes once, but it has been so cold (for Greece) that I've been wearing all of my long sleeve shirts and sweaters, so they get dirty and I don't want to wear shorts or a T-shirt. All this to say, we found a laundry mat and had coffee while we waited (twist my arm). I also too the opportunity to find the perfect photo opportunity to show you a standard street set up for Athens. I don't know if I mentioned the traffic in my last post, but it is bad. The streets can be incredibly narrow usually two cars wide, with a row of parked cars on one or both sides. Sometimes only wide enough for 1 vehi
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Cats of Athens (and the Peloponnesus)

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12 days of finding cats everywhere Athens This isn't the first cat I saw in Athens, but it was the one that inspired this blog post. How could I say no to the killer combo of a cat in a locked courtyard and a hundred oranges. This cat was in no way tame and fled at the first opportunity, even though it was protected from me by a locked gate. This orange cat was hunting something, but Brad said we didn't have time to investigate. Cat on a (not so hot) tin roof and protected by barbed wire. I called it, but it was too busy trying to get some sleep to bother with me. Apparently this part of Athens has a cat hostel?!? Even a place for them to hitch their horses while they wet their whiskers at a local saloon ;) Lazy morning of absorbing the aroma of this Tree Germander  which is in the mint family. Leo said this one reminds them on the cat from Stray , a game we played together on the PS5 entirely based on the fact that you can play a cat with a backpack. Most of the cats look like
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