One of the sites the girls really wanted to see while we were down south was the caves of Diros. All of the sightseeing books highly recommended them so off we went.
First we needed a detour to Areopolis which is the unofficial capital of Mani, not a very big town, they had a couple of super markets, which are nothing in comparison to our super markets. We needed to pick up a train ticket to Athens for Sharon who was leaving us the next day (sniff) and go to the bank. We didn't want to carry all of our cash with us so decided before we left the states we'd hit the ATMs a couple of times and pay the $5 service fee versus using our cards where we could (lots of places want cash) because there would be a fee with each purchase.
Now we were off to the caves. I believe it was 8 euros a person. Every site you go to costs money, well except Cape Tenaro. Guess they figure if you're willing to make the hike, no need to pay. There were 5 of us in the boat for the cave tour and the navigator who did not speak English, not convenient when he's talking about the caves. He wasn't very chatty anyway so we weren't missing out on much.
The caves were pretty cool, it felt like we were inside the belly of the beast! Su was in the front and spent the whole time saying heads or left side, right side. I'm 4'11", if I have to duck that tells you how low the ceilings are at some points. We were so close to the walls of the cave we could reach out and touch but I didn't want to get yelled at. He already yelled at me once for leaning too far to take a pic. My big complaint is we went so fast so we didn't get to just sit and enjoy the moment (and some of my pics came out blurry).
My camera had the flash on, Sharon's didn't hence the difference in the colors but I love her photos and want to share them too!
The following pic was taken outside of the caves, walking to the car. Greece is truly beautiful, inside and out.
We decided to go to MarMari for lunch. The best thing about MarMari was the hot waiters. They were super cute and made lunch more enjoyable. Actually, the food here wasn't the greatest but I can't get enough of grilled squid and eat it every chance I get in Greece. I'll skip the aubergine (eggplant) salad.
We're dark in this pic but check out the background to our lunch!
After lunch we hit the beach at MarMari. Linda mentioned it was windy but it was out of control windy. Makes for great waves but I wasn't going in. The entire time we were in Greece we never made it to the beach before 5pm, try as we might (except for the one day we went snorkeling outside our room). I think the water would have been warmer if we made it in sooner.
Nancy and Su braved the waters, Sharon and I read. There was a wedding happening right there on the beach which was fun to watch (as well as the couple making out on the beach). Due to the wind, we only stayed about an hour and decided to go back to the room to relax.
Once we finally got moving, we got dressed up for dinner and our date with our waiter. We went and ate at the restaurant we ate at the first night. Our waiter was doing the big up sell and we were all over it. We're weak when it comes to food. One thing we had that was different that we loved was the giant beans. That's what they're called on the menu and if you google Greek giant beans, there are recipes for it. Nancy and I killed them! What can I say, I'm a fan of the bean.
We were supposed to meet up with our other waiter after dinner but we were 20 minutes late and he got tired of waiting so he went home. We did tell him would meet up with him but as he knows first hand, it takes awhile to get thru dinner. The owner offered us a free drink but since we had plans we said no but we couldn't say no to free dessert. There's a cake-like dessert that was given to us at 3 different restaurants, turns out we don't like it but we don't want to be rude so we try to eat a piece, well most of us anyway (I win!).
Even tho our waiter ditched us, we decided to still go to the Temple of the Gods for a drink. Turns out, we were the only ones with that idea, well, other then the staff. So we only stayed for one drink. We tried to take some pics but they came out too dark. We were going to snag the bartender's phone to take some pics of us for him as a memento but he was smart and picked it up before we could. Drat!
We had an early night, got home about 1am.
0 Mannions Speak :
Post a Comment