Two Day Road Trip

so, aristidis and evangelia took us for a wonderful road trip around north central greece. ostensibly the trip was to take myself, eleftheria and artemis to the village where aristidis and evangelia spent their summers, and also where their parents grew up. it turned into a grand tour and a wonderful couple of days.

this is kind of how it felt for the whole trip. the man in the middle of the picture is eleftheria's second cousin on her father's side. we did not know that he would be at the cafe that we stopped at for a coffee, but, we walked in and there he was. he is a traditional dance teacher, with a school in . . . germany. he works with a tour company that brings tourists to greece with dancing as the theme. they travel practice and perform.

on day one, we spent a lot of time in the car, but also made a number of stops along the way. the region that we drove through gets a good deal of rain and was very lush, a stark contrast to how dry halkidiki has become.

this park was really beautiful. we went on a pleasant walk to the springs that feed the rivers in the area.

the duck pond in the park was a big draw and artemis thoroughly enjoyed the view from the observation deck.

i got to play around too. i have not seen one of these in the states for ages; too dangerous for little kids, but really fun.   

This was a wonderful picnic area that we drove up to. we sat and ate cheese, grapes, bread and tomatoes. it was such a relaxing seat.

valleys and pastures surrounded by hills mountains and forests. it was beautiful driving. we spent much of it on old dirt service roads and farm access roads. the highway takes about 2 hours, but we spent the day driving with a bunch of stops. we ended up making a 9 hour day of it.

a beautiful spot for coffee and some super friendly locals. plus the added bonus of a swing. perhaps the most exotic swing spot yet. she was psyched.

had to stop for the goats. aristidis knew a bunch of the herding families in the area.

this is mt. sniatchko. eleftheria summitted in the winter time when she was in the mountaineering school. the mountain overlooks the village of blasti.

this is the village as it sits in a bowl surrounded on all sides by mountains and hills (i neglected the opportunity to take a really nice picture, oh well, next time)

my belief is that this is a black swallowtail catipillar. super cool. my camera has a viewfinder, not very accruate, and my new hipster thing is to not use the lcd screen. i like this picture a lot actually, but still wish i wasn't silly and that the little guy/girl was a bit more in frame.

this is the house where evangalias spent her summers, her grandfather built it, and the whole family stayed when they were there with the goats. aristidis' family house has been torn down.

here is artemis crushing some bread.

we drove aristidis' truck, which was great for the off-roading as well as hauling all of artemis' stuff. the amount of stuff she adds to the voyage is astounding.

back in silata, this is the volunteer watermelon in evangelia's front garden.

artemis just kind of crawled all of a sudden, and is doing a good job of bear crawling as well. it has been one of the most amazing developmental leaps. she has to be under 24 hour surveillance now as she is prone to be into everything.

i always think that i take more pictures than i actually do, but i feel like maybe i missed a lot this time. the trip was full of little stops, mini adventures and so many new places. perhaps the best part was the people. it seemed like every-other person that we saw was related to, or a childhood friend of, aristidis and/or evangelia. we were offered coffee after coffee and we could have stayed in any of 4 separate houses we were offered had we not had a hotel room. Both mom and dad really enjoyed, the visit and it was so much fun to see them so comfortable in their element.