Redemption II

We leave Athens and drive several hours to the town of Nafplion, the original Greek capital. It’s a stunning little town right on the sea. Of course, this is Greece, so the rental car was several hours late, but we make up for it by sitting in hot Athens traffic for an hour ourselves . . . .. Once free, we make good time, and arrive in early afternoon.

Nafplion is a gorgeous little town, with a citadel overlooking it on the hill above, as well as a small fortified island just off the port. We find some lunch, meander through the town and end up on a small swimming area with nice tented loungers. The kind you’d expect to see in any Mediterranean coastal city, teeming with tourists and being charged a minimum purchase of a bottle of Dom to sit there. Only here,there are 3 or 4 other people around, and about 18 of the loungers! We take advantage of the good fortune, lounge for an hour or two, and fit in a small swim (even though a local warns us of the dangers of small biting creatures that lurk in the waters – which apparently turn out to be vicious, blood-thirsty . . . little crabs. No big deal!)

We leave Nafplion and decide to have dinner in a small town along the coast on our way back to Athens. We arrive in another little gem on the sea called Pal Epidavros (I have it on good authority – D’ell- that ‘Pal” means ‘Old” as opposed to ‘good buddy’). This little town is another winner with a coastline that faces east.

Our wanderings here lead us past a restaurant along the main road where a lamb – an entire lamb! – is being roasted on a spit over coals. I insist we make our way back to it after having driven passed earlier. We make it there, but on our way back to the port area, we decide to pass down a small alley. We follow a guy carrying a whole butchered lamb down the alley, and happen upon a wonderful small al fresco restaurant. The place can seat probably 150 people, and at 8PM . . . it is dead! Having just seen a tour ship pull in with 10 buses waiting, I figure it’s going to be a tourist spot. But when we ask one of the waiters (obviously one of the sons of the owners with a T-shirt that reads: “Chess sucks, lets #@*!”) he tells us they open (OPEN) at 9:30PM for dinner. We make the best decision we’ve made in days and opt to find a small café, get a glass of wine and return.

Our return to the restaurant at 9:30 finds us once again, alone! We sit, check the menu (like most, very simple but here the prices are nice – as in very low!), and order up some Tzatziki (garlic, yoghurt, cucumber and phenomenal) , some bread, a Greek salad, French fries (for Jacquie!), and then the meat. Of course we order the roast lamb (as cooked below), but we also order a couple other meat items that, well, we have no idea what they are. Let’s just say that those dishes are every other thing OTHER than the meat you’d expect off a lamb, yet turn out to be absolutely delicious. Just like the roast lamb! And as our dished started to roll out to the table, every local in town seemed to appear for dinner around 10PM. Young, old, man, woman – you name it. And not ONE tourist (other than us!). Fantastic! Awesome food, great atmosphere, wonderful company and . . . 54 Euro later we were sated, happy and feeling very positive that Greece had been redeemed. Thank you Pal Epidavros!