In a few days, it’s time for us to leave the Pelopenessos again. It has been great! We’ve travelled the ‘three fingers,’ starting East and slowly making our way to the West.
One of our favorite spots in the East was an ‘island’ called Monemvasia. People compare it to Mont Saint Michel sometimes, but we have to say we like Monemvasia better! It’s reachable by a bridge and the city is divided into two parts. The upper town is still completely in ruins and is a cool archeological site in which we wandered around. It lies on a hill and we walked all the way to the top. The view over the bay was spectacular. The lower town of Monemvasia is mostly renovated, but kept in the old style with very cute and narrow streets and houses.
After a couple hours at this fun place, we decided it was time to relax and cool off a little (it was 20+ degrees on the day that we visited Monemvasia). We drove to a nearby beach and jumped in the water. The fun didn’t last long though… After a few minutes we both got the feeling that we were not the only ones in the water. Tamara felt something hairy on her hand and suddenly Nienke started shouting. We were being stung by jellyfish!! We hurried out of the water, but had already been stung several times. Wow that burns! Luckily, we had Aloe Vera to cool it down a bit. It’s been 2 weeks, but the spots are still visible and itchy at times. From now on, we will double check before running in the sea! We cannot believe that we didn’t see the jellyfish, because the water is crystal clear here!
After our jellyfish adventure, we decided to drive on to another beach. There are just so many here! It’s easy to find one where you are all alone and where you can park your van right on the beach. We love that it is November and we are still able to swim in the sea and take showers on the beach.
Then, we left the beach for a couple of days, because we wanted to visit the city Sparta and the archeological sites there. We especially loved Mystras, where we walked around for more than 2 hours, visiting all the ruins and the pretty monastery. This city is situated on a steep hill, so we climbed many steps, but it was totally worth it!
Since we had a Workaway planned in the second week of November, we decided to head back to the beach again for some relaxing days. We swam, sunbathed, took some runs on the beach with Sparta and visited some very picturesque coastal towns. On November 9th we started the Workaway in the west of the Pelopenessos. We helped out at “Filia Laundry”, where 2 Germans (Sarah and Patrick) have created a place for travelers to do their laundry and have a cup of coffee. They also foster some dogs that people have found on the street. We really enjoyed helping at this great place, being surrounded by about 9 dogs, some of them puppies. There was always something we could do, but cuddling with the dogs was definitely our favorite job. If you ever want a dog and you’re thinking about adopting one, you should definitely check here.
Besides helping out with the dogs, we also learned some new skills, which was great! We rebuild a fence, made 2 beds for the dogs, and did lots of other small chores. We only stayed for one week, although we could have easily stayed a lot longer! And we think that Sparta agrees, because he made some good friends!
We actually couldn’t stay longer, because we have something else lined up! We are going to Bansko, Bulgaria, to help out with a worldschooling project! We’re super excited and we’ll tell you more about this in our new blog! Winter, here we come!
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