Sunday - Pylos Fortress

Sunday morning started bright and early with all of us trying to figure out what to eat for breakfast. Since very little planning went into this trip the lack of real food was palpable. Thank goodness for my stash of breakfast bars (I think ahead).

Today we went to Pylos with more of those mountain roads that I have come to loathe and fear. Every so often you see a shrine at the side of the road and you know that someone has missed the curve and died there. In spite of the tight turns there were still cars passing in what I considered dangerous conditions and by the time we reached Pylos I had a king sized headache from stress. These are not roads for those faint of heart…

Pylos is a pretty town, incredibly picturesque with a tree shaded centre square. The history as quoted from the Lonely Planet is;

20 October 1827, the British, French and Russian fleets, under the command of Admiral Codrington, fired at point-blank range on Ibrahim Pasha’s combined Turkish, Egyptian and Tunisian fleet, sinking 53 ships and killing 6000 men.

There was also the Fortress of Pylos to explore and from there many battles the biggest being the battle of Navarone. Without the shoes I bought to climb my mountain (remember that one)I would have been screwed. These shoes are god awful ugly but comfortable as all get out and with a solid sole there was no slip sliding on the uneven rocks that are all over these excavated castles.

So Steve and me were off to explore leaving the rest of the crew behind in town. After a couple of hours of climbing we met up with the rest of our party at a little seaside café for some fried Calamari and Ouzo. I needed to fortify myself for the trip back to the house and even though I hate Ouzo I had my fair share.

Then back to the house for what was to be a wonderful barbeque, which turned into a near fiasco. In what I have come to understand as typical Greek, or maybe just typical Stavros fashion, things don’t always work out as planned. He had brought what seemed like hundreds’ of pork chops from home to be barbequed, that’s it…just pork chops. We did stop in a market in Kalamata to buy water and when both my SIL and I tried to explain that we needed more than meat he said, “don’t worry, we can get everything we need in the village”. I guess he forgot that village shops as are most shops in Greece, close on Sundays. Remember that song “Never On A Sunday”? I think they meant more than sex…Everything is closed tighter than a drum. Not even a tomato was to be found so no salads or veggies.

The plan to barbeque went somewhat awry as it was too windy to start the fire outside so he thought to cook the chops inside on the fireplace! Bad plan, by the time he had the fire going and some coals happening the entire lower floor of his house was inhabitable from smoke. Not fit for mice or men. Step two was taking all the coals from inside to an outside grill, fire danger having passed.

That being done Steve and me spent the next two hours grilling chops. About an hour in we scored 3 potatoes, which also ended up on the grill, and we had bread. There were also copious quantities of wine naturally. As far as meals go, this one won’t go down as one of our better ones but I’ve learned to go with the flow…

We were rewarded though with an amazing sunset.

As always, there are more photos in Flickr with more to come in the next couple of days. We are gearing up for the return trip next Tuesday and I'll be able to catch up on all my favourite blogs...