A Winter's Walk on the Wild Side

February's departure and March's arrival made it clear that winter's wild side is still with us in our slice of the Greek Peloponnese where we make our expat home.

Windblown lamp post on the way to the village

When we decided to move from the U.S. Pacific Northwest among the factors that helped drive the decision was getting away from ice, snow, cold and the long dreary winter that seemed to stretch from November until April.  

The highest waves we've seen here. This is Agios Dimitrios below us.

We succeeded in leaving the snow and cold behind. But we still have winter.  And while winter storms in our area don't strike often or stay long, they are wild. 

Our signature storms bring near gale-force howling wind, thunder so loud it reverberates as if bombs were falling in the grove and lightning strikes that turns the sky into an electrified kaleidoscope.  The sea becomes a boiling cauldron of angry waves. And sometimes we even get a blanket of African dust! 

This is dust - from Africa - heading our way

Even though the storms are often short-lived, they are so ferocious that we understand how ancient ones developed beliefs in mythological gods.  Some days we are certain that Poseidon, god of the sea, and Zeus, commonly thought of as, the god of the sky and weather, are having one grand war between their respective worlds.

Our municipal parking lot flooded from waves and weather

The storm that came with February's end hit with such power and force that it left many of us newcomers shaking our heads in wonder at the destruction left in its wake.  In our village, Agios Nikolaos, waves flooded the municipal parking lot - a lot where fishing boats had been moved to from the harbor to keep them safe from the storm.  One boat was washed from its trailer and still sits on its side in the lot.  

Municipal garbage bins scattered by the storm

Municipal garbage bins that normal line the street like soldiers were tossed about by the wind as if they were leaves. Rocks and downed limbs were strewn about the roadway making it impossible to drive on in places.   

Walkway closed in town due to high waves in the harbor

The walkway at harborside (the one we've been using since road construction closed the road above it) was also closed by waves crashing into it.  

The good news about winter storms is that we have pretty accurate weather warning systems in place these days and we know when a storm is coming and approximately what its strength and duration will be.  Advisories are posted on FB by emergency service and government pages.  

The African dust that covered us recently

We also use a weather app called Poseidon, which shows not only wind and rain but dust storms as well.  Our Peloponnese in the map above is under that red circle. And did we have dust!

Garbage crews had bins uprighted the next day

The other good thing about these winter storms is that local folks know how to deal with them. Cleanup was underway as soon as the waves and the wind gusts lessened.

The morning after. . .

Dimos, as our municipality is called, had bulldozers out clearing roads and parking lots. Business owners were also at the ready to clear up storm debris.  Our Pantazi Beach Bar's outdoor terrace - a favorite place of ours for coffee . . .

A February morning before the storm - Pantazi Beach Bar

. . .was hit hard by the storm as show in the photo below. I took it from nearly the same spot.  But within days debris was cleared, and we are again able to sit on the beachside terrace.

Pantazi Beach Bar terrace the morning after the storm.

Road construction has resumed in the village, and we are again using the harborside walkway as a bypass.

Harborside bypass is open again

Winter storm watching is popular on the Pacific Northwest West Coast (United States and Canada). I can tell you that it is much warmer watching storms here than there!  The tourism folks in Greece are missing a bet by not promoting winter storm watching. Maybe those of you who like to storm watch should take advantage of the off-season lower airfares and hotel rates and head to our part of Greece and do some storm watching here next winter! 

We hope that whatever season you are in while reading this that the weather gods have been good to you!  Thanks so much for being with us on this walk on the wild side of winter in Greece.  

In Greece ~ The Weather Outside is Frightful!

Frightfully cold. Frightfully wet. And frightfully -- delightfully -- winter in Greece!

Mani olive groves and the Taygetos Mountains

Had I written last week, I would have been telling you that we were having an unseasonal heat wave with temperatures reaching near 70F or 21C degrees. I would have told you that some were swimming in the sea. Wild flowers, usually not seen in the groves until March had begun blooming. We were able to hike in shirtsleeves.

Hiking the Mani in our shirtsleeves

'Haven't had these temperatures in 50 years', reported one media. Another said 160 years since such a heat wave. . .so it wasn't climate change, just a climate cycle involving such a span of time we missed the first two!

Swimmer on the beach below our house last week

And then came winter! Real winter. 

Our Taygetos Mountains finally have a dusting of snow

I know, for those of you dreaming of basking on sun baked Greek beaches, it could be a shock to think of Greece as cold and wet, but it can be. And it is! This time Leandros is to blame. It is the name given the system that put an end to those sunny warm days. The system that will keep it wet and cold for at least a few more days.

Snow continues to fall on the peak behind us

Yesterday we took a short drive to get closer to the snowy mountain peaks. Today all the hillsides around us are dusted with snow - no need to drive anywhere. We can see them from our deck - that is, when the clouds lift enough to see them. Our high today is supposed to be 43F or 6C. The wind is rattling our shutters and doors. Rain falls in heavy bursts at our elevation. Just a bit higher and it is snow.  Thunder and lightening opened this Monday and blue sky and sunshine are predicted before the day is over. Such is winter in our slice of Greece.

Views of our valley in winter

At least we aren't alone as Facebook friends in Istanbul, Italy and Spain have all been posting photos of snowfall! 

Thessaloniki - drone photo; credit: Greek Reporter

It is our first full winter in the Greek Peloponnese. We normally leave about this time of year and don't return until sometime in February. Many of you who've been with us at TravelnWrite for a few years, know that for the last decade, we've made Hawaii our timeshare-home-away-from-home this time of year.  Covid-19 prevented that this year, so we are half-way through our first full January at our Stone House on the Hill. 

Like a cake dusted with powdered sugar

According to a variety of internet sources, the average weather in the Peloponnese during this first month of the year is a high of 47F or 9C and low of 37F or 3C. The average rainfall is about 129 mm or 5-inches and it rains on average 13 days in January. 

Kardamyli and the Messinian Gulf from a hiking trail

Our current Covid lockdown allows us time outside for exercise and on most days - even if bundled up in scarves and mittens, heavy coats and sweaters - we can get outside and enjoy the countryside. We shiver, though, when we see those folks for whom olive harvest continues - especially in those groves at higher elevations. We are most happy to have completed ours in October!

Olive harvest continues in January

Of course that same Covid lockdown is providing us a slightly skewed winter experience because what one might have done in a pre-Covid winter is certainly different than this year. Our second lockdown of 2020, which began November 7th, continues into 2021. Our destinations are limited, we text the government prior to leaving the house, we wear masks, we distance and we are home before the 9 pm curfew takes effect each day.

During a normal winter we could have gone to the big city - our nearby Kalamata or further to Athens - to shop and enjoy their restaurants and tavernas.  Since November retail stores and all entertainment outlets have been closed. 

Shopping in Kalamata - a treat these days

We aren't allowed inside any restaurant or bar, other than to pick up 'to go' orders of food and drink, nor are we allowed to sit outside at any of them. So in order to break up the sameness and routines of winter and lockdown, we indulge in a 'to go' coffee or wine, consumed along side the village street or in the parking lot. The inclement weather has made those outings rather short but we aren't complaining - they give us a change of scenery and sometimes that is all it takes.

Winter lockdown night out in the village parking lot

We hope you are finding a change of scenery, a new hobby, a good book, or a new Netflix series is providing you 'what it takes' as January marches on.  Believe it or not, we haven't given up on travel yet for 2021 and that will be a future topic. As we sign off today we send our wishes for a Healthy and Happy New Year whatever the season it is where you are.  As always, thanks for the time you've spent with us ~

Linking soon with:

Through My Lens
Travel Tuesday
Our World Tuesday
My Corner of the World Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday

Greek Signs of Spring ~ Awakening from Winter

Those signs of spring began slowly, slowly. Siga, Siga, as we say in Greece. Those sly indicators that means ‘the season’ is nearly here. ‘The season’ is the catchall term for ‘tourist season/spring/summer/the good times’ here.

Like the proverbial bear, the villages are stretching and yawning; awakening from their winter’s hibernation. The pace of life in The Mani is picking up momentum as it welcomes spring and 'the season'.

Wild poppies are in full bloom

The wildflowers may have been the first signs of winter’s passing – the olive groves and road sides have been carpeted with them since we arrived in our Peloponnese paradise in mid-March. (Pssst -- I whisper this secret --  those tourists who come to Greece during its blistering hot summers and see only barren scorched landscapes have no idea of the lush countryside they are missing by not visiting in the spring.)

Our olive grove mid-March

Maybe we were so focused on those wild wonders that we didn’t pay attention to the budding blooms in our tended gardens that also are signs of the new season. All of a sudden it seems the geraniums have burst forth, the lilacs are a purple profusion, roses are budding rainbow colors. Wisteria, the poster child of Mediterranean gardens, drapes fences and buildings throughout the area.

Wisteria, the Mediterranean poster child

Of course, they all go by Greek names here (which we are trying to learn, siga, siga.)  But as Shakespeare would say, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” and bottom line: they all mean winter has headed into the history books!

Signs of spring aren’t limited to the blooms in this part of Greece, there’s been an accompanying frenzy of activity the last couple of weeks as owners prepare their restaurants, tavernas, retail stores and beaches for what is hoped to be an onslaught of tourists.

Grooming Pantazi Beach

The area’s popular Pantazi Beach, – which we refer to as ‘ours’ because it is just below our hillside home - was getting a grooming this week– removing the accumulation of rocks dumped by winter storms so that beach goers will have even a better time here (pssst, another secret: it isn’t bad even with the rocks as locals will attest!).

Restaurant beach cabana in Kalamata readies for the season

Kalamata, (the big city an hour north of us) was sprucing up its long beachfront as well the last couple weeks. Upscale restaurants and coffee shops which line the beach road were already serving customers when we drove past early in the week. The Scout tap danced with our car’s brake pedal to avoid hitting a few of ‘the season’s’ waitstaff who dash back and forth across the two-lane road to serve the sun-and-sand seeking patrons seated on the beach. 

With the new freeway bypass you can avoid Kalamata's beach road completely - but why?

The real tip off to ‘the season’ is the crescendo of activity that comes with Easter Week.  This year the full moon puts all Christendom's Easter celebrations on the same Sunday; this coming Sunday.  Greek Easter, as long time readers here know, is one of the most magical time to be in this country.  It is celebrated over the course of several days beginning in earnest Friday morning, Good Friday, and ending Monday evening, Easter Monday.

Window display at the Shell Service Station - Kalamata

Even non-believers can’t help but be moved by the sound of church bells tolling out the call to worship and the sights of processionals through towns and villages during this holiest of weeks here.

We’ve seen an increase in the commercial side of the holiday this year with Easter baskets, bunnies and candies available to purchase from every type of store imaginable.

Even with bunnies and baskets, the traditional long decorated candles are still prominently displayed – in fact, there were some for sale at the neighboring village’s post office.

Those candles are lit during Saturday’s late night service as the Pappas, the priest announces to the gathered crowd in the squares near churches,“Cristos Anesti!” or Christ is Risen!

For more photos of that celebration, click here for a look at last year’s Easter in the village.

Seasonal Easter kiosks in the pedestrian square of Kalamata sell candles and jewelry

We had a glitch with the internet service in our area this week so I am a bit tardy in getting this seasonal update posted. But Good Friday seems as good a day as any to do so. It has begun with blue sky, sunshine and the promise of a beautiful weekend ahead.

Good Friday, our village church, 2016

Whether you are celebrating Easter, Passover,  the weekend or the arrival of a new season, we hope you are surrounded by the things that make you happy – we certainly are!  Next week I will give you that long promised update on the 'Road to Greek Residency'. I can tell you that our journey has come to a standstill for the most interesting of reasons – and one over which we have no control. We hope it doesn’t bring our journey to an end before we reach our destination. . .but that’s the story for next week. Hope you'll be back then!

The Stone House on the Hill

We thank you for the time you’ve spent with us and wish you and yours happy and safe travels. We are linking this week (internet permitting) with a number of other most interesting bloggers from around the world. Check them out, by clicking on the links below:

Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday –
Photo Friday
Weekend Travel Inspiration