Not Your Typical Greece

So…we didn’t make it out to the famous Greek Islands that are pictured on all of the Greek tourist guides. It was mostly due to time constraints and the fact that we didn’t want to deal with the hassle (and expense) of ferrying our van out there. Who knows, maybe we’ll visit the islands someday the way they were meant to be seen, by sail. However, we did manage to see a less touristy, and probably more authentic, side of Greece.

We ended up spending a few days in a little fishing village located on a small peninsula in northern Greece. The town was so small we couldn’t even locate it on the map, let alone tell you the name, but it did manage to provide an escape from feeling like we should be running around trying to see everything. We parked our van on the beach, enjoyed daily swims in the Aegean Sea, ate freshly grilled sardines, and drank the local wine. With zero tourist attractions and nothing to do in town, it was a nice break to have nothing to do but relax.

Not a bad view from our bedroom:

After a few days of doing absolutely nothing and loving it, we found our next hideaway a couple of hours west in a town nestled on a lake flanked by mountains. Our most adventurous under-taking consisted of walking along the promenade searching out the bakery with the best Greek pastry desserts.

With Dustin hoping to get a little fishing in before we left Greece, we went in search of a very remote river that was rumored to hold trout. The river was supposed to be great for fly fishing, but everyone we talked to warned us that it was next to impossible to find…..it sounded like a fun challenge to us. After driving for several hours up and over two mountains on a very narrow, curvy road we ended up in a tiny, picturesque mountain village.

Pramanta, Greece:

With our hopes of finding the river fading, we decided to take a quick break to stretch our legs in town. As soon as we opened the van doors we were overwhelmed with the smell of freshly baked gingerbread cookies. We followed our noses to a small bakery run by a very sweet Greek lady that didn’t speak a word of English. After a few gestures, and lots of smiling and pointing, we walked out with a big box of cookies.

Deciding we should get a little bite to eat before we dug into our dessert, we walked into the one open restaurant to see what we could find. Again, the owner did not speak a word of English. (Notice a theme here? Not a single one of the 8 or 10 people we talked to in this town spoke any English at all.) Since we couldn’t communicate verbally, she showed us some tomatoes, cheese, and potatoes. With no menus in sight, and no one else in the restaurant for us to point to their plates and say “We’ll have that”, we just nodded and said okay to whatever it was she would make with those ingredients.

We picked a table with a view and sat down having no idea what to expect. Little did we know that by agreeing to those three ingredients we were going to get way more than the little snack we were looking for. She first brought us plates of cheese, yogurt mixed with herbs, and bread. A nice start and it would’ve been more than enough. Then came a traditional Greek salad and fried potatoes. That was followed up with a huge “Sarikopita” (filo dough stuffed with cheese and then fried). Just when we thought we were going to burst, she brought out a heaping plate of grilled goat chops. We literally had a smorgasbord of food. The food was absolutely fantastic and we felt bad not eating it, so we proceeded to do our best to devour every last morsel. We gave it a valiant effort and managed to shovel most of it into our stuffed bellies except for a few fried potatoes.

And this was just the start of it:

We finally did end up finding the river, and it was as beautiful as expected. Unfortunately with only an hour before dark, and a ferry to catch in the morning, Dustin had just enough time to discover how great of a river he had missed. Maybe next time…

Nice river, but no daylight left for fishing:

It probably wasn’t the typical Greek experience, but it was exactly what we needed.