Day 15: Meet and Greet with the Thunder God

Zeus was the god of thunder to the Greeks, a fact which many people know, but no one really thinks about why.  We found out today.

We both woke up slightly before our alarm, curious as to why it was still dark outside despite it being 8 in the morning.  I got up and peeked out the window...into a very wet world.  The gloom was everywhere, cutting off the mountains at their base and limiting any view of the bay, only a football field away from our room.  And this rain was not just mist, it was substantially pouring, drenching my boots and forcing Katie to throw her cardigan over her head for the twenty steps it took to get to breakfast.  Just to give you an idea.

We ate our last wonderful breakfast and started to realize that perhaps our excellent plan to go BACK over the treacherous mountain path to Sparta was going to have to be nixed, but we weren't quite certain yet.  After packing the car and pulling out onto the road, we found that our decision was practically made for us: though Baby Splash got his bath that we were going to eventually invest in him for free, he was still a newbie with the whole puddle thing.  Back to the (slightly safer) main road it was.

Road out of Kalamata---speeding Greeks+pot holes+rain+hydroplaning= tense Americans.

 However, this main road of course comes after the steep climb out of the valley, which was nerve wracking until we got caught behind a very slow moving Opel, which backed several cars up behind it.  I was hesitant to pass on a mountain road, though the several cars in front of me had, but we were also very annoyed at the almost dangerously slow pace now.  However, when we finally got to a straight part and passed, we saw the baby on board sticker, which I had thought made Katie feel slightly guilty for saying rude things, but she has informed me that she didn't really think that was a good excuse.  We've clearly adjusted to being Greek.

Note the river in the road.

We made it over the mountains perfectly fine, only to be greeted by the same storm moving through, which we were hoping had been limited to the coastal region.  The rain proceeded to get worse, and the little windshield wipers were going so fast that I thought they were going to fly off.  But the road was positively modern and we felt positively safe with the four lane motor way (well, I did, I'm assuming Katie did because here feet weren't braced in the 'pressing break pedal' position).  We also only went through a slight toll and got off on the road past Tripoli that led to Argos and Nafplio, our eventual destination.

There isn't much to be said about the drive, save that it was gray and miserable, and once we got into Argos, we could have been in Costa Rica with the stands and overhang set up of the town and the branching dirt roads with the pouring rain coming down.  Nafplio was similar, and though we entered from a different road than the one we had planned previously, we managed to navigate the (very confusing) bustling roads, though most people seemed to evaporate as the rain increased its torrential force.  We (I) parked opposite the Park Hotel that is home for the next three nights and seeing as we couldn't check in until 1, proceeded to have our lunch in the car, stared at by a group of bored men lining the wall in front of us.  I don't quite understand how we can be entertaining while eating peanut butter and jelly (yes, we found both--score) sandwiches, but apparently it was enough for them to stay there for the entirety of our meal.  At about five till, we braved the rain, which had slackened off slightly, and ran across to get our rooms.  The drive which we had thought would take at least until mid afternoon took approximately 2 and a half hours.  Not that I was driving fast, and this goes for most of our estimations, but rather that there's some things that looking at a map just doesn't tell you: like the road between Kalamata and Sparta took 90 minutes, and was a fourth of the distance (if that) driven today.  Clearly well paved roads and taking the valley floor instead of driving on sheer cliff faces is a better choice, who knew.

Nafplio or Argos; I was too focused on the road to tell.

So, we had an entire half of a day before us...but the rain picked up again and there was little we could do (and I was loathe to give up our fabulous parking space, literally in front of the hotel doors), so we sat down and began to catch up on important things.  Katie successfully navigated the train system to get us to Guildford once we return to England, which took three hours due to the failure of competing English rail system websites.  I caught up on budgeting (worked out the next year and a half, a necessary action I assure you) and did some revision after planning out our time here.  Then the thunder and lightning started and I--the Californian who gets excited when anywhere has 'real weather'--ran out to sit on our little balcony, sheltered from the rain, and watch the lightning go across.  Katie laughed and laughed, as is the right of someone who gets to see desert storms every summer.  But other than that, our day has been mostly uneventful save traveling and catching up.

The exhausted driver