One Long Day:Olympia to Ermioni      The biggest bummer on a vacation in Europe is to waste a day traveling and seeing little. It was the summer of 1999 and I was in the middle of a trip through Portugal ,Spain , France , Italy, and Greece . On this trip I had made the most of not wasting time traveling between points A,B, and C, as well as X,Y and Z. I had accomplished this through taking night trains in Spain, thus saving a day in a hotel and 8 hours of wasted time. Furthermore by cutting my blitz across Southern France so I see sights such as Carcassone , Montpellie and Nice Nice instead of making one long train trip from Barcelona to Nice or Milan.I also saved time by taking the night boat from Brendisi to Corfu and a second night boat from Corfu to Cephelonia. By doing this I saved valuable sunlight for seeing various sites in all of these countries.      I was currently in Olympia , site of the original Olympic games and the statue of Zeus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. I had arrived the previous day and visited the very impressive and scenic ruins of the Olympic compound and had a mellow night. Olympia is a very small town, about four blocks long, a couple of blocks wide all thriving on the tourist trade for the intrepid travel arriving in Olympia. Olympia is not that hard to get to, it's just out there, on the far western side of the Peloponnesian region of Greece. A very long days train ride from Athens and an even longer bus ride. But I was happy I had come. The ruins are scenically situated in lovely mountains and, despite being one dimensional, as a result of earthquakes, are still wondrous to behold.      I was faced with a problem. I was on the far western cost of the Peloponnesian peninsula in a very little town. I wanted to get to one of two places. Ermioni where my aunt's cousin lived or the Byzantine citadel of Mystras . Mystra is considered the best preserved Byzantine city in Greece and is well worth the trip to see. I had spent the previous evening pondering my options over my evening Frappe. To get to Mystra I could either take a bus, transfer in Prago, Transfer in Tripolis, Transfer in Sparta and hopefully arrive that evening around 8 or so. I would then have to follow a similar trek back to Ermioni, my eventual destination. The plus of this is I would be traveling through a part of Greece I had not been to. The minus, missed busses, packed busses, and being deposited in the center of a town I had no map of. I declined this option because it was too much transferring and I would cost me an entire day of traveling.      My second option to get to Mystras was to try to catch the train to Tripolis. The one train a day from Corinth, not the original city-state but the modern town with not much to see. When I investigated this alternative I discovered that train I would have to catch out of Corinth was at 9:00 A.M. Even if I left at 6 A.M., on the first train out of town., I doubt I would make it to Corinth by 9. This was no alternative. I had also investigated renting cars when I arrived in Patras, the main port of the Peloponnese. What I wanted to do was to rent a car there and drop if off in Nauplion, Corinth or Even Athens. All three of those options had meant I would be traveling east, towards my eventual destination. None of the rental agencies, including Hertz and Avis had ever heard of doing such a thing. I believe they are locally owned and they wanted to keep their cars, well local.      I had one last option. It would take me all day to travel by train to Ermioni. However, I knew the town well, it is hard to get lost in a town that is one mile long and 3 blocks wide. I knew the people well and I knew I had accommodations and I could crash for a couple days and then rent a car and do a circle of the Peloponnese returning the car to Ermioni.. I figured that this was my best option, especially since I knew that the three connection points I would make had hourly busses or trains leaving. This wasn't a bad option. I would be wasting the better part of the day traveling. However, the Peloponnesian train line runs right along the coast making for a scenic train ride. I would have a short lay over in Corinth and hopefully a bit longer one in Nauplion. More on that latter.      I was up bright and early at 7:00 to catch the 7:10 train. I arrived at the train station at 7:05 (I said Olympia was a small town) and the train came at 7:10, which was a minor miracle. In fact the two trains I had to catch to come to Olympia had also been on time. They also were air-conditioned. This is very good for the Greek train system. My cousins did not believe me when I told them of this good fortune. I was hoping my luck would hold for my long train ride from Prago to Corinth. The train made the forty five minute trek to Prago with no real problems and I enjoyed a pleasant, uncrowded , smoke free ride.      The Greek train line is in its infancy, still! There are two main routes, the narrow gauge Peloponnesian line the Athens-Thessalonica line. There are a couple other lines originating off of both of these lines, however there service is less than extraordinary. The Olympia line runs once every two hours. Another line, up to Halkinda runs about every two hours or so. There is one train a day to Tripoli and one a day to Nauplion, a train that I was hopping to catch by noon. In Europe, connections between major train lines are well planed and carried out. Greece tries to do this at well. In theory, the "branch lines" do meet up with the main lines with trains waiting there. There was just one problem. Trains normally run late, thus missing the "Connections" (This may change for the Olympics)      When I arrived at the Prago train station, I had apparently just missed the train I was hopping to catch. According to the schedule, I only had to wait forty five minutes for the next train. As I was waiting for the train, I waited with a few hundred Greeks who were happily chain smoking on the platform. As you travel through Greece you either see chain smokers, or people playing with worry beads and trying their hardest to resist a cigarette. What made their chain smoking convenient is that the tracks were apparently one large ashtray with thousands if not millions of cigarette butts.      Remarkably, forty five minutes latter the train to Athens, as well as Corinth my destination, pulled into the station. I carefully boarded a second class car with the icon of a bar through a cigarette. This symbolized that it was a non-smoking car. I found a nice window seat and the train began to meander across the coast of the Peloponnese. Several Greeks lit up immediately. I was debating whether or not I should ask them to extinguish their cigarettes when I noticed that the Greeks had discovered "white out" and found a good use for it. Some nicotine addict had whited out the slash going through the no-smoking icon, thus changing it to the smoking icon.      I quickly exited to the next, no-smoking car and found an empty seat. It appeared my luck was holding. Unfortunately, I learned at the next stop a very smart Greek lady had reserved this seat. Unlike the Italian, French, Spanish or German trains where a tag is placed on a seat that is reserved, the Greeks don't do that. I am guessing that station attendants probably hand out reservations assuming the chances of that seat being reserved by another passenger at another station. Fortunately the woman was very nice and sat in an empty seat allowing me to stay seated.      The train I was on meandered its way across the Peloponnese with no sense of urgency of reaching Athens. In fact, it was very insistent on taking its time, allowing the passengers to enjoy the very scenic northern coast of the Peloponnese. I didn't really mind this. After all, it is one of the most scenic train rides I have taken (and it links up to the most scenic one at diafatakno!) However, we didn't arrive in Corinth until well after the train to Nauplion, my next transfer point, had left. Still I wasn't panicked. The other good thing about this route is I had done it before and knew all the ins and outs of the transfers I would be making. I walked about a mile from the station through the streets of Corinth to the bus depot and bakery. I noticed that not much had changed since my previous stay in the city. Tall, monstrous skyscrapers, hot, muggy, and not much to see. This is the 20th century Corinth not the ancient one. I bought a ticket for Nauplion and a Greek pastry and had a very short wait for the hourly bus making the trek to the southern part of the Peloponnese. It was about 12:30 and I had already gone from as about far west as you could get on the Peloponnese. My next goal was to south. Fortunately I was only going about half the latitude of the Peloponnese      The bus was packed with French school children. Well school teenagers who were most likely on their way to Mycenae , home of the famed Agamemnon and Clydmystra. Therefore I was content to stand for the first half our of the journey. Unlike the train, the bus driver had a sense of urgency to reach his destination, Nauplion. Greek buses are always EARLY for their destinations. We jerked and spun around the corners. This was not like the horror stories people brought back from the 1970's or from my trip to Indonesia but it still made it hard to stand. Fortunately, my guess was right and the French students disembarked at Mycenae, or the town that supported the ruins. At least for the rest of the haphazard ride I had a seat. I have to admit, it is cool to ride a bus through Corinth, Mycenae and Argos, three towns that are prominent in Mythology and History. You can see the ruins as the bus speeds by and you realize you are making a journey over a few hours that use to take at least a day to do on foot.      The Bus arrived in Nauplion without incident. As I collected my pack the agent for a hotel instantly fingered me as a tourist and offered me accommodations for the night, in a reasonable priced place near the base of the hill that supports Nauplion's famous fortresses. I took her flyer, just in case. I may have to stay in Nauplion for the night.      I did have another option to get to Ermioni that I had thought about for about fourty five seconds.. Ride the train for about another two hours to Athens. Then catch a cab to the Zea Marina for a two hour flying dolphin ride. This meant that I would be spending a good chunk of my afternoon in Zea/Perris, in the Athenian heat with the slight chance of being stranded the night. I had a similar chance of being stranded in Nauplion. I knew this when I made the choice. However, I would prefer to spend cool day and evening in Nauplion than a hot day in Athens. (I had visited both towns before.)      Mt next inland destination was Krinadi to change buses to get to Ermioni or catch the hydrofoil directly to Ermioni (As of 2003 the hydrofoil does not call in Nauplion anymore). I was not 100 percent sure when the next bus there would be. I also didn't know when the two daily hydrofoils left for Ermioni. Since I was at the bus depot I decided to ask here first. This was a slight challenge because I can not spell nor say Krinadi in any language. Fortunately the schedule was on the wall. It was about two and the bus left at five. So I had about 3 hours to spend in Nauplion, which, when you think about it, isn't all that bad.      Nauplion is on the coast and was a major stop for the Venetians. In fact they had fortified the harbor with a picturesque fortress and then built an even more impressive one overlooking the harbor. As a result many of the buildings in the center of town are Venetian and very well preserved. I spent about a half hour wandering through the old town. I checked out the trains station, situated in two old train cars and then spent the rest of my time drink frappes and reading a news paper I had bought on a harbor front taverna. What makes the waterfront of this town so special is the Venetian/Frankish fort/prison in the center of the harbor. Overall this was a much more enjoyable time than Athens/Perias/Zea would have been (my other option of connecting to Ermioni.) I had a picturesque view in front of me in the old harbor, behind me in Venetian fortress and I was in a relaxing tranquil town. You ask why I didn't spend more time in Nauplion since it is such a cool town. Simple, I had already visited there, I would have to come through again on my way to Mystras and I was very sweaty and didn't want to walk around that much.      I returned to the bus station and bought my ticket. I had a little problem. I could not pronounce Krinidi right. I finally took out my guide book and pointed to the name, and the station attendant gladly helped my pronunciation. I also asked about transferring to Ermioni. After all, if I didn't want to be stuck in Athens overnight, by no means I wanted to be stuck in Krinidi. I was in luck, the bus was to "connect" with the Ermioni bus.      We traveled for about an hour when the attendant promptly told me and the rest of the passengers to Krinidi to get off. He then, to me, told me the bus to Krinidi would be by in about 20 minutes. I was sort of panicked. He dropped us off in a town in the middle of nowhere. I had an idea where it was, I had driven through it several times on my previous trip. However, I still had no idea if the bus was coming, or what the name of the place was. I became more panicked when two busses passed us by. Finally the proper bus came. We got to Krinidi at 7:20, 20 minutes after the bus for Erminoi was suppose to leave, as I recalled. I got off to grab my bag and asked the attendant if he knew about the bus to Ermioni. He took me outside, pointed to the sign, which was changing from Krinidi to Ermioni. Finally I relaxed.      The bus arrived in Ermioni a little before 8:00. I now had to walk all the way across town to my aunt's cousin's house, an entire three blocks. There was one more problem. Jason was expecting me. He just didn't know exactly when I was to arrive. When as in what date. I had been calling and calling for about five days but no one ever picked up the phone. My original message had said I would arrive a couple days latter. There was a chance no one was home. Which wasn't a big deal in reality since I had several options of where to sleep including his patio, his mother's house and numerous hotels. Fortunately, his girlfriend was there. She promptly greeted me and ushered me to the shower. God knows what I smelt like. Guide Books |  FAQs |  Photos for Sale |  Travel Essays |  Links Contact info: