so so much.

Posted in the rest.

i hate the internet. or, more accurately, i hate when it isn’t easily available. i’ve spent two hours, two hours, looking for it today. what a waste.

i had a post all typed up last night that covered sunday and monday. but if i tack on today (tuesday), you will never finish it and it would have been a waste of my precious internet time.

so you aren’t getting all the deets, but just the ones i find the most important.

i’ve packed my past few days, but i like it that way. it began on sunday night when i almost missed the ferry back to the mainland due to an unexpected travel buddy. the ferry was much better this time having someone to talk to. as an added bonus, i got 4 hours uninterrupted sleep in a makeshift bed consisting of a travel pillow and two chairs pushed together.

arriving at the port at 5 am gave me 3 hours to meander about until i could pick up the rental car. part of living abroad is driving abroad. if you think i have mad skills because of my driving abilities, you are right. but in all seriousness, drivers in greece are only one notch of crazy above american drivers. the only difference (aside from winding mountain roads and distance in kilometers) is that i have to pay much more attention and fight for my turn. people better watch out when i get back to texas because ill be turning when i want to turn and going when i want to go.

finding cities isn’t the hard part because signs clearly lead you there. its only once you are there that finding your way takes twice the time that you want it to.
after picking up the car in the morning, i was quite excited to be cruising through greece listening to crappy pop music while eating a nutella-filled croissant. while on my way to kalamata, i decided to stop in at ancient corinth to check out where the corinthians lived. it was not as well preserved as i was hoping. but this is coming from expectations of something as intact as ephesus is.

i’ve been excited to find that i am able to live in my full capacity here. and with me, for all the incredible highs and excitements i come across, there are as many lows and melancholy moments. unexpectedly in corinth, a feeling of despair came over me. i don’t know what caused it but it was there for a good few hours. eventually, it turned into fear.

of course there is fear that tries to push its way up as i go along this journey. fear that i won’t be okay. that something won’t work out, that something will go terribly wrong. but the thing is, something could go terribly wrong any day of the year, no matter where i am. having a roof over my head isn’t having eternal security. having someone to talk to doesn’t mean i won’t feel lonely. in those moments, i knew that i just had to trust that God holds me. because there is nothing else to trust. there is nothing else to believe, there is nothing else period. and surely he has given me undeserved provision throughout this journey, and in my journey in life. i don’t know why i don’t always believe it. but if i’m honest, i don’t. and i didn’t. but only trust brought me peace.

i explored kalamata a bit when i first arrived and then met up with my hosts for a few minutes so they could show me their home and then head back to work. they live in an adorable little flat in the main part of the city. i feel like i am at home with the smell of greek food wafting through the windows and the endless chatter of people. the balcony is an added bonus.

i spent the evening huddled together with a bunch of people smoking and speaking greek during the most intense thunderstorm i have seen in years. we had gone out for drinks and souvlaki and ended up a lot closer than we expected.

today was incredible. having the car is great because i love the freedom to do what i want when i want. i got up late and headed to areopoli, a supposed “old world” town on the mediterranean. unfortunately, it was quite disappointing so i continued on 5 km until i reached the caves of diros. i took a boat ride with a bunch of older greek women who were flirting with the man moving the boat through the coolest cave i have ever been in. the stalactites (stalacmites?) were sparkling shades of pink, green, and orange.

i felt like indiana jones’ faithful companion, on an adventure through unexplored caves. really, i was a quiet, american girl illegally taking video as we rode through the cave.

upon exiting the caves, i made two new friends (hi irene and michelle!) who live in london. that is one of the best parts of traveling alone. you meet all kinds of people that you wouldn’t get to know if you stuck to your comfort zone. this entire thing feels like a MASSIVE move out of my comfort zone. sometimes i hate it, but i mostly just love it.

after i left the caves, i headed back towards kalamata, planning to stop in the most beautiful little town i have ever seen. its called kardamili, it is tiny, it wasn’t in my guidebook, and i have loved it the most as far as towns go in greece. if you ever come to greece, you must visit the region of mani in the pelopponesus region. before i got to kardamili, i stopped by this cute little greek man on the side of the road and bought some of his olives (yum!) and no lie, the best honey that bees have ever produced. we had a good time trying to communicate. me more than him because everytime he said six, as in six euros, he really said sex. i giggled to myself.
in kardamili i tanned in the mediteranean sun, bought some plain yogurt to mix some of my new honey in, and walked around taking photographs. in the town, and in the mani region in general, all the buildings are made out of stone, like little castles. they are set into the mountains, overlooking the sea, and lined with olive groves. incredible beauty.

i think this post has been sufficiently long, and i have related to you the most important parts of my journey of the past three days. i hope you enjoy the photos.

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