Well after the enjoyment that was Athens we decided to head to the untraveled south of Greece known as the Peloponnese. It's was apparently home to one of the prettiest towns in Greece, Nafplion.
We headed to the train station early to try and organise our train ride down. Only thing weren't going to go as planned. At the train station we were told that trains no longer run to Nafplion and they haven't done so for the past 3 years. Ooh! That wasn't in our plans. Our map clearly stated that we could travel there by train and even the guide book said we could get the train to the small town near by called Argos. But "No" we were told. You can only take the bus. Well we had a rail pass that we wanted to use so we weren't going to spend all that extra money on the bus if we could get the train half way. So we decided to take the train to the half way stop of Corinth and then catch the bus from the station across the road, or at least that was the plan. We arrived into Corinth and walked out of the train station to be greeted by the most remote hole on earth. And to top of all the planning there was no longer a bus station across the road from the train station. We ended up having to pay a taxi to take us 6 kilometers down the road to the bus station before buying our ticket to Nafplion which departed about 2 hours later. All this work and in the end we only saved 2 Euros. But the lesson learnt from this is that you can save money if you are willing to swim through shit.
That evening we arrived into Nafplion bus station and to our delight the town was everything we thought it would be. It's a small quaint town on the coast built in the Venetian style. The cobblestone streets are lined with small cafes, restaurants, shops and hotels and it is one of the nicest places in Greece to walk about or just hang for a few days. That evening we took a sunset stroll around the water front just admiring the forts built above the blue, blue water.
The next morning after a little bit of a sleep in we decided to walk up to the 857 steps to the fortress of Palamidi which overlooks the old town. Just like evening thing else in Europe is amazes me the places that they choose to build there biggest structures. The castle is more than impressive even though it has seen better days. The part of the fortress facing the water is still in condition but the rest of the castle that expands along the hill tops is laying in ruins.
The next morning we decided to take a day trip out to Mycenae to check out the ruins from some of the bigger civilisations of the Peloponnese. We went across the road to the small bakery were we picked up some kind of pizza bread for breakfast. Within a matter of 30 minutes this proved to be a mistake. My stomach started turning and before to long I had food poisoning. That was it for our planned day trip. I spent the rest of the day in bed sick. And unfortunately for me it stayed with me for a few days after.
On our second last day I popped some pills and finally got out to Mycenea. There isn't that much left to see at the ancient sights except for a few palace and city foundations but there were some very cool tombs still intact that are worth a visit.
On our last day we decided to head out to some of the local islands and bought a full day cruise to the islands of Hydra and Spetses. I wasn't sure what to expect from this but it actually turned out to be a good day. Very long but good. The island of Hydra has a feeling that I think you would get from most of the islands. It has white washed buildings built around a fortified harbour surrounded by crystal clear blue water. We were only here for about 3 hours which to be honest was probably long enough. In the afternoon we visited the island of Spetses which I think was a bit take it or leave it. once again it had beautiful crystal clear swimming water but there wasn't that much to the town.
We are now back in Athens and have finally been able to by our tickets to Turkey on the overnight train. Tomorrow we leave for Kalambaka for 1 night before moving on to Thessaloniki for 1 night.