I < 3 Ναύπλιο

Overviewing Nafplio

Ok, this post was supposed to appear here a lot earlier, but I encountered some difficulties with the pictures, which are still not available, because the memory card does not fit into my card reader (guess what? My camera broke...), but I promise they will follow as soon as I have them on my harddrive.

Anyway, so here is the story, before I forget. There is already too much to tell, so that I will probably forget half of it.

1st breakfast outside this year

Last Friday I left to go to Ναύπλιο (Nafplio), the former capital of Greece (very touristic) and located about one hour south from Κορινθος (Korinthos). It was a great opportunity to just get away for a couple of days and see something else. Those days priceless!!! We stayed in a very nice suite located on the hill overlooking Ναύπλιο. The interior was very modern combined with the typical style of the city (olive dark wood and something similar to sand stone). Every day a woman brought us a breakfast basket with delicious goods (toast, croissants, cake, oranges, clementines, jam, ham&cheese, milk, orange juice, cereal and other biscuits) which we ate on the balacony one day :)

Greek coffee

Friday night was fanastic. After we left the suite we went to the city to have dinner and stopped at a typical Greek ΤΑΒΕΡΝΑ (tavern) eating delicious salads, great olive oil dunked grilled veggies, some traditional meat balls and finished off with Greek coffee and a sweet that looked like a cube dipped in confection sugar but not all that sweet. Oh my God, but Greek coffee my new favorite!!! The next day we went to a café called Εσ Αει (forever) where the owner let me look behind the bar how it is made.
So instead of pressing loose powder into a piece of metal and inserting it into a machine, loose coffee powder is put in a small metal pot. This pot is placed onto a sandcovered hot plate where the temperature is constant and lower than from a regular coffee machine. When the coffee is poured into the cup a lot of coffee dregs stays at the bottom. The taste is overall milder than normal coffee, but it still pumps my veins ;) I am very grateful for this experience!

yeah...this is not a dumpster but the trashiest and coolest bar ever!

BUT... back to Friday night, of course the night did not finish after dinner. Walking around the city made us discover small shops in even smaller streets with even smaller owners ;) At some point we went past a bar and paused with the next step. Giorgos and I looked at each other not believing what we just saw. Taking a few steps back we discovered a "bar" called λάθος (which means "wrong") and indeed I think there was nothing more WRONG in this bar that it could be. So much trash I have never seen in my entire life, seriously, if one had to move out, three containers would have not been enough!! From an old laundry machine, to ancient film equipment, to wooden objects, to a complete trashed up bar (where the bartender woman could barely look up from), to the most funniest thing: a MOVING leg of a store window mannequin!!! Hystrical, I am telling you!!! The owner probably completely out of his mind made the funniest comments about his bar and ended up singing to tunes Giorgos produced with an acustic guitar (I was sooo impressed). BEST NIGHT EVER!!!

I so want to go back to this city, it has so much to offer!!!

P.S. Ναύπλιο is also famous for the creation and production of κομπολόι (Komboloi) the string made of amber pearls (I told you about in one of my previous posts). I found out that people here use it to first of all calm their nerves, but also because they believe that amber is good for their health.
P.S.2. On the way back from Ναύπλιο I saw an orange stand where they sold 12kg of oranges for €3!!

# Fun facts for today #
1. The best olive oil comes actually from Greece and not from Italy, what I always thought. Truth is, in order to be able to sell olive oil it needs to have an acidity content of less then 1%. Italy and Spain have always over 2%, which is why they are not allowed to sell it (this way it could only be used for frying). Therefore, they import olive oil from Greece to mix it with theirs to be able to sell it. Pay attention next time you go to an Italian restaurant and the olive oil, often served with bread in the beginning, tastes a little bitter...

Gotta fly high!!! :)

2. Street signs, e.g. the triangle with a predestrian or "caution - right of way" are not white with a red edge like in Germany/Netherlands/France, but they are yellow inside.
3. When people are angry or telling each other to get lost they often use the middle finger. The Brits however often use their index finger and their middle (palm facing the body). Why? After the British conquered the French, they took the remaining soldiers as slaves and cut off their index and middle finger. In order to express their disgust they showed them these two fingers, because they were not able to do so anymore. So better think twice before you raise these two fingers next time you are in the UK ;) !
4. Why do waiters keep one hand on their back when they pour out wine (or any other drink) from a bottle? Orignially, this comes from the Roman times. People were afraid to get poisoned, with the waiter´s one hand on his back they believed this was not possible. In addition they clinked their glasses so hard that a little bit of content would swap into the other persons glass (and vice versa).