Greece | wordsfromanneli

July 14, 2025
by wordsfromanneli 31 Comments

Three-wheelers in Greece

Once again, old, old photos taken with a cheap camera, but I find the content a treasure so I put up with the poor quality.

I don’t know what brand of vehicle this is, but I wonder if it’s something that was built in a backyard workshop. You can see that the vehicle up ahead is also a three-wheeler, but the blue one in the foreground looks like it has had some modifications.

One thing I wonder about is the stability of the vehicle. I can imagine that it isn’t particularly safe to go too fast around a corner or it could roll over.

Check out the license plate.

Several modes of transportation were popular.

Even the bus can have a mishap. The tools lying beside the flat tire tell the story. The driver has gone for help. Either that or he has left town. Perhaps in a three-wheeler. One less tire to go flat.

These photos were taken in Kalamata (known for its olives, although it should be known for its dogs that bark all night).

During both nights we spent in a campground in Kalamata in our VW van, once heading south and then, weeks later, heading north again, dogs in the neighbourhood barked for much of the night.

When I checked my journal that I kept in those days, I noticed that after I mentioned the dogs barking, I also made a comment about people walking around late at night. This seemed to be a common thing; women pushing their babies in strollers at 11 p.m., because it was at last cool enough to be outside. So maybe that’s what the dogs were barking at – all the people going for walks at night.

June 15, 2025
by wordsfromanneli 26 Comments

Epidaurus or Love on the Rocks

This ancient Greek theater of Epidaurus was built in the 4th century, BC, right into the west side of Cynortion Mountain in eastern Greece, about 70 km south of the Corinth Canal.

It can seat up to about 14,000 people and has been used for plays and concerts over many hundreds of years.

This photo was taken with a small point and click camera in 1977. The resolution is not great, but what I have noticed in more modern photos of the theater, is that some of the rocks where the stage entrance used to be in 1977, are not there anymore. In fact, much of that area, sadly, has been dismantled. Possibly it is being reconstructed, but it will never be as precious as the original rockwork. In the first photo, I am standing on the far side of that stage entrance. You can see the whole stage entrance area, from a different perspective, in the second photo.

The claim is that the acoustics of the theater are so good that even if you are sitting at the very top of the stadium you can hear a penny dropped in the center of the stage. Of course I had to find out, climbing up to the very top of the seating area. By the way, I had been thinking that it would be uncomfortable to sit through a performance seated on those rocks, but they were incredibly smooth, worn to a perfect polish from centuries of bums.

As a tour bus load of people arrived, I decided to listen in on the tour guide’s lecture. As she did her tourist guide “spiel,” she talked about the perfect acoustics and proceeded to demonstrate them. I could clearly hear the sound when a penny she dropped hit the concrete in the center of the performance area. Then she struck a match, and I heard the scratch of the match on the striking part of the matchbook, and the sizzle of the match as it flamed up.

But, not to be outdone, once the tourist show was over, the Captain took center stage and declared his love for me, calling out in his best Al Jolson imitation, “MAMMY, how I love ya, how I love ya, my dear old mammy.” Not that I was his mother, but I’ll accept the rest of the message. And it was loud and clear, without him having to shout at all.

What a brave guy!

December 11, 2024
by wordsfromanneli 22 Comments

K is for Kalamata

The Greek city of Kalamata could quite rightfully be called Calamity that day.

When the bus gets a flat tire in the main intersection of town, everyone needs to find an alternate method of transportation. Even the bus driver is gone, leaving his tools on the ground as he most likely is looking for help. That would be quite a heavy tire to change, assuming he had a spare to put on there.

The coffee store roasts the coffee right there in the front of the store, but I don’t think they serve coffee. They just sell the beans. Next to the yellow Pepsi crate, is the container of coffee beans that looks like the top part of an old-fashioned washtub. That tub full of beans is heated from underneath to roast the beans while some mechanical arms constantly turn and stir them so they don’t burn. The smell is delicious.