How About Some Nostalgia for Greece

Looking out over the Ionian Sea from a hill / wannabe mountain with the Pontikastro near where I lived.  Katakolon is about a kilometer or two to the left and Agios Andreas is relatively close.  The Pontikastro is to my right and behind me.

The Kastro Bar is somewhat lower and it extends down to the beach where they had such outrageous beach parties they were banned for a time as punishment.  I was lucky enough to be there during that time but Kastro Bar was still open and was my favorite place to hang out.  Nevertheless, the parties on the beach were out.

Kastro has nothing to do with Cuba since kastro means castle in Greek.  Ponti is a Greek reference to a mouse so the Pontikastro was the Mouse Castle which had mostly fallen into ruins although I did find the remains of it (i.e. not much).


Pick up the vibe a little since the temperature is about 30C (86F in America but we're in Greece now) and there's a light breeze.  The Sun is blazing but skin cancer hadn't been a big problem to that point so I didn't care; I was just diggin' it, scooting around on Haximoto and enjoying an incredible vibe.

The Ionian Sea and the Mediterranean are the same thing with different names and there's never much for waves except during the Winter.  Those were fantastic to watch when they hit the breakwater near Katakolo.  The water is extremely shallow and you can walk out into it for some distance without getting completely wet and there's a city under that water as well.

Pheia was destroyed in an earthquake in the 5th Century and the ruins are easily accessible to snorkelers.  Greeks also get off on going out to catch an octopus since that's some good eating but not after you see how they prepare it although it is kind of cool to watch.  The octopus is already croaked so it doesn't really matter but they whack it against a rock over and over as kind of Med tenderizer.

Often there was almost nothing to eat and I would even boil some pasta just to put olive oil on it since, wtf, at least it was hot and felt like something was actually eaten.  If you keep stacking on top of that pasta base, you'll want some tomato bits, feta cheese, olives (of course ... it's Greece), and what other devilment of that nature you may contrive.  Congrats on your brand-new Mediterranean diet and, yes, you will live longer.