From Athens to Nafplio

Kalimera ! Welcome in Greece !

I was afraid that the weather would be a bit hot, but it is almost nicely fresh, compared with Arizona and Nevada : around 35°C, this is bearable, compared with 50°C 2 weeks ago (except when the air conditioning is not working in the bedroom, as yesterday evening, but this is another story...).

First good surprise in Athens : there is a lot more to be seen than the Acropolis. It is easy to spend hours in the archaeological museum (please don't ask me to which centuries are linked the paleolitical era, or the mesolitical, neolitical, geometrical, archaical, classical, hellenistic or roman ones, I am getting more and more confused, not sure that the situation will get any better before I leave the country...), to imagine the first races in the Panathinaikon stadium, centuries and centuries ago, or walk through the Plaka or Anafiotika districts. In the first one, your main issue will be to chose the tavern or café in which you want to stop, all of them are enticing. In Anafiotika, you can forget during a moment that you are in a big capital, which gathers almost half of the population of the country, and pretend that you are on an island, walking between the white houses. To complete the visit, a short stop at the Parliament, just to be sure not to miss the guards and their strange « dance ».

Then direction the Korinthos canal, and the Argolid. Nafplio is a pure heaven if you want to have a rest and enjoy the mediterranean « dolce vita » (ok, Greece is not Italy, but I don't know how to say it in Greek). Pedestrian streets full of flowers and nice little restaurants and gorgeous ice creams !), old churches turned a few centuries ago into mosques, then in churches again, beaches... I understand why so many people come here from Athens every week end.

A midnight (ok, let's say 10pm) swim under the (almost) full moon sounded like a good idea, but it seems that the mosquitoes had the same one. Result : a dozen of bites in a few seconds. Bad idea...