Election Day - Athens Bound

Another beautiful day awaited when I awoke this morning.  A strong sun shone over the mainland's westernmost ridge and quickly warmed up the field outside Stamatina and Alex's backyard.  I made a cup of coffee and proceeded to grab a base map of the site and explore the area, noting landscape features and other observations.  

Stamatina had had a professional scale map made of the site along with a proposed design at some point in the last year which is quite an asset as we started to think about design considerations.  At first glance, the property is quite plain - fairly flat with a few distinct patches of vegetation and scattered trees, but as usual, as you get to know it a bit better, many more characteristics begin to reveal themselves like micro-topographic patterns, prevailing wind directions, access routes and vegetation.

While young Anna had been the very first one up, the rest of the house began to stir much more gradually.  Stamatina and I spoke about ideas for the phased implementation of her landscape plan (which isn't really developed yet, but at least what might need to be done and in what order) along with other ideas she has for the site.  I put together a short video for Tim Rieth depicting the current state of the structure we'd originally planned to repair/replace during a

cob/natural building workshop there.  It looks like we might be doing it next summer - working vacation in Greece anyone?  If interested, sign up for the Seven Generations Natural

Builders newsletter at www.sgnb.com  Seriously!

We were packed and ready to go by about noon and then made our way off the island, back to the mainland and on our way to Athens.  I can honestly say that I don't think I've knowingly 

ever gone any faster in a car.  We topped 180 for extended periods numerous times during the trip (now that's 180 km/h but still that's about 110mph).  I learned a lot about Greek driving customs during this journey.  Much of it was undertaken on a two lane road which most drivers maintained as a 3 or even 4 laner.  Courteously, most drivers who weren't passing would

 straddle the white line on the edge of the road, half driving on the shoulder while the more active drivers would pass - very actively!  I was in one of those cars and 2 lane road passing that

 would nearly stop your heart in the states quickly became very routine.  I was amazed at what

 Alex was able to make that Hyundai station wagon do.  Fortunately, I felt safe in his care so I really wasn't nervous - I know it sounds kinda crazy but I felt that if he hadn't had real experience as a race car driver earlier in life, he definitely must have done it in a previous one.

We stopped after 45 minutes or so to pick up some lunch.  I got my first souvlaki and it was 

awesome - the pita was delightfully spiced and the occasional fry inside was a surprising treat. 

 Our stop in a small town along a bay off the Ionian Sea afforded us a great view of a not-too-distant hilltop castle type compound as well as some metal sculptures of pollarded trees.

The rest of the drive was basically one postcard worthy landscape after another.  The mountains never ceased and after cruising along the aforementioned extensive inland bay, we passed lakes and then came upon the strait that separates mainland Greece from the Peloponneisan Peninsula.  

While we didn't need to cross over to the peninsula to reach Athens, apparently the road is much quicker so we ended up scaling the largest bridge in Greece - with a toll fee of 11.80 Euros (nearly $18! to pass).  I did my best to soak up the view and make the most of that charge.

The entire trip took about five hours and I was 

feeling pretty worn by the time we were re-immersed in the hustle of the Athenian megalopolis.  We reached their apartment and settled right in.  I caught up on several dozen e-mails, updated the blog with nearly a week's delayed postings and tried to get myself to a point where I can put the computer away - am I still on it?

Stamatina and Alex stepped out to vote.  I should probably check to see if the results are in yet - the polls closed at 7.  I really don't know all that much about the election except that they've got about 10 more parties running than we do in the states, their current prime minister looks and sounds a lot similar to a former do-nothing, daddy's boy who ran an oh so familiar country into the ground economically and the toilet internationally, and the people vote for the party they'd like to see in power, with the prime minister being the leader of the winning party.

Last week at the event at Nea Makri we had loosely organized another meeting of folks at a woman's home just outside of Athens for tomorrow (Monday).  I spoke with Nicos about our plans for the day and it still sounds a little hazy to me.  I guess it was left that way though and it's up to us to schedule it.  Whatever the case, I think it's going to be some type of permaculture workshop with a continued discussion about the event/meeting last week and the direction people would like to take to move ahead.

My return to the states is growing very near and I've already begun to fill up my schedule.  I'm looking forward to getting back involved at home though I think the weather will be a rude awakening.  I'm going to spend a bit more time tonight working on a timeline for Stamatina's landscape and then call it a night.