Hi y'all. It's been awhile since my last entry and I have lots to tell and show you. Maybe you should get a cup of coffee or something, we're gonna be here a while................

Two Sundays ago, my Greek friend Marinos and I, along with his motorcycle, took the ferry to Kithera.
It's a medium sized island just off the south coast of the Peloponnese peninsula. I had heard of its reputation of being a haven for pirates and more recently, lots of Australian-Greeks.
Arriving at the port there, you see this View image

Creepy huh!? We later learned the story behind it from our new Australian-Greek friend Georgos (more on him later). It seems that this ship captain was drunk on vodka and thought that the tiny island was the port. Obviously, he hit the rocks and the ship sunk. Luckilly, he was okay (but now probably job-less) and they were able to remove the cargo from the ship safely (it was an oil tanker). The port authority tried to remove the wreck but it broke in half and sank to where it is today. I knew right away that Kithera is cool!

So, Marinos and I drove to the south part of the island and tried to find a room. Tourist season being totally over, we were a bit worried as to what we were going to be able to find. Did we ever start getting lucky! We found a huge room with a fridge and stove (never used that!) and this incredible veranda with tons of plants and flowers and a beautiful view of the harbour and ancient castle.
Here's the only picture I have of it, you'll have to use your imagination, it was completely awesome View image

Being pretty much the only tourists on the island, many restaurants were closed (of course the one open by us was great) and there wasn't much night life to speak of, which was okay because we had our 'villa' to hang out in. Marinos had brought his little speakers and we passed the first night with some stkoudia I brought from Chania (thanks Costas and Sophia!) and Marinos recieved his first lesson in country-bluegrass music (thanks Andy!)

The next day was a beachy day and we found this small rocky one near the port. Here's some good ones.....View image
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Then we went to the castle ruins, very nice..... View image View image View image View image
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That night, we went to the only bar half-way worth going to. We walked in, and the one dude sitting there was like, "Hi! How are you guys?"
Now, I'm thinking, 'who is this guy, do we know him?' He was just so familiar with his greeting. This was just more of the wonderful luck we had on Kithera.

Georgos is an Austrailian-Greek (not the other way around, he made sure to tell us) who had just gotten out of the Greek army, and was spending some time at his home in Kithera before flying to London to meet the wife and son he hasn't seen for almost a year.
We had a great time talking, telling stories, and drinking a bit of tequila. We capped off the evening at our 'villa' and Georgos offered to drive us around the next day for a tour of the island.

*owch, sun*
We first went to the 'Black Virgin' Monastary for some quick looks and prayers. This was a very special place for the island. Its namesake is an icon that was found in a field and has the unique attribute of blank, black faces on the Virgin and Child. There was a huge fire a few years ago on Kithera, surrounding the Monastary. Not having a very sophistocated fire brigade meant that they had to pool all their resources to save the compound. It was striking to see the acres of destruction with this beautiful ornate white church at the center.
Pictures weren't allowed, sorry peeps.

Then we went through the interior and walked down to this waterfall View image
Finally, here's Georgos! View image

It was an incredible day, I nearly peed myself a few times from some of Georgos' stories. So, after some nap-time and a good dinner, we met again at the bar we were at before. Georgos was a bit ahead of us when we arrived View image
and I truely saw the reason the Kitherians call him 'Lolovos' (crazy man). View image

We blew the bar and went to 'Lolovos'' house. View image View image View image View image
Dancing! Bacardi! Crazy Greeks! American Girl Keeping Up! Awesome.

The next day we (understandably) slept late, and I got some pictures printed for us, since my boat left for the Peloponnesse that afternoon and we had to say our goodbyes. Marinos' boat to Crete was in the opposite direction, so he was leaving the next day. It was sad to leave Kithera, obviously because I would miss my friends, but I would also miss this very special island which I know one day I'd have to return to, it has a part of me. View image View image

Well, I think that's enough for now. Next time I'll tell you about Githio on the Peloponnese and try to explain why I'm now back in Chania.

Take care everybody,
Kate

P.S. If you can, tell your grandmother today that you love her.