Interrailing in Europe summer 2010 POROS part3

So the next morning or the night we were supposed to wake up at 4.20 but we barely slept at all and woke up before the clock even alarmed. I woke up when Saija was in the kitchen eating at 3am.. We got to the town and crossed the canal to the side of  Galatas where we hopped to Manos' car. His mom was sick so he had to drive her to a hospital three times a week so he also gave us a ride to the city of Nafplio. In Nafplio the main sight is the fortness called Palamidi and it's built on a 216-metre high hill somewhere around 1680-1715. You can either drive to the top of the hill or climb 999 stairs up the hill.. It was 7.30am when we arrived below the hill. We were almost the only ones in the area at that time of the day and we decided to start our day by walking the stairs!

Quite scary looking, where is she going..?

Quite easily we got up the hill and we only stopped a few times to admire the view and the sleeping city. :) As you can imagine the stair were uneven and slippery. On the top there was this man almost sleeping at the ticket booth and was really surprised to see anyone there at that time. We got in for free with showing one finnish student card. :D I had been at the fortness once before but it was much bigger than I remembered! We had so much fun walking around it and being the only ones there! Our talks were sounding like we had woken up before 3am and had barely eaten anything and walked over 1000 steps.. We also filmed amazing nature films.. From the request of one of my loyal readers see the videos below:

Palamidi on the top of the hill

One part or side of the Palamidi

After watching the view and the fortness enough we made our way back down the stairs and wandered around Nafplio waiting for Manos to pick us up. The car ride went quickly when I fell a sleep, I had tried not to but I couldn't help it. Back at Poros we went to a supermarket and straight to the beach. And this scariest thing happened when we left from the beach! This old man started walking with us and talking nice things and nothing but when we started to make our way to our hotel he suggested something that we go to his house and...! I've grown on that the most safe place on earth and that happens there of all the places we had been in! And that wasn't even it! We made the rookie mistake to go straight to our hotel even though we watched that he didn't follow us..! I went to our balcony (maybe 30minutes later) which was next to the stairs that you have to walk up to come inside the hotel and the man came out of the hotel door!!! I just screamed! That was fucking scary!!! Saija came running from the shower and I pulled myself together and told the man that I will tell the owner if he comes even near the hotel! We never saw him again.

From the roof of Villa Violetta

On that Nafplio day we laughed a lot! Here some funny things what happened.. On the car at maybe 6.30am waiting Manos in front of the hospital Saija says: "This map smells so good! It's like.. it's like paper." or the next one at the same place suddenly from the silence Saija says: "But HEY, now I'll call to my friends to Finland!!" (I had to remind her that it was only 6.30am..)

In the evening Saija was about to leave without her shoes from the hotel.. We left to the town to eat at Manos place and after that we went to another restaurand with my family friend working there. And they took good care of us well, we drank ouzo, white wine.. We stayed in the restaurant untill it closed. :D 

Jorgos' restaurant in Askeli

On 26th of June it was our last day in Poros and we headed to the beach in the morning and in the afternoon to eat at Jorgos' place. His place has the best view of Askeli! It's built on the rocks beside the sea! We slept 3,5 hours on a naptime (as we did almost every day in Poros). In the evening we went to Manos place to eat and he seemed really sad knowing it was our last night! Every summer that I can remember the last night has been so sad saying goodbay to everyone we know on the island. A crybaby that I sometimes am, it's not fun at all! I hate to say goodbay, whether it's only for a days, months or years! The situation where you don't know when you're gonna see someone again has been the worst one so far.

Manos

 Anyway, the night at Manos restaurant was great but also sad. He introduced me to some couple from Holland telling them that i'm his daughter, not on paper but otherwise. We paid and got discounts as we had had on the other nights also. Hugging Manos was sad but he promised to come in the morning to say goodbay to us before we hopped on the ferry. Being the last night we wanted to have the last drinks at the Malibu bar (the thing we found different at bars in Greece was that you need to get a table and just sit and wait there and they'll come and serve you.. At the first night there we went to the bar to order and they staff looked at us like what are u doing..) From the Malibu bar we went to this Maskes Club which was so full of young people that people were hanging around on the street also. At that place I had to discuss this one guy (the same guy still trying to get me out on a date..) about 30 minutes to tell him why I don't like him more than just a friend.. Saija was laughing to me when I really struggled with my words. It was akward 'cause it seemed like I really hurt that guy by telling him that and not liking him like he liked me and I really didn't want to hurt his feelings. From Maskes club we started to walk to the island's only real night club called Room (it's open only maybe once a week). Our company was joined by two guys from which we really couldn't get rid of all night.. One of them I said really straight that i'm not interested in but he didn't really understand or spoke english. We had fun anyway with Saija and the view from the bar to the sea was amazing at night when it was full moon! Suddenly at 3.30 am we became aware of the time! :D So we left by taxi and went to bed around 4.30am. We thought that we didn't even drink that much but when we really started thinking about what we had drinken all night it wasn't that little..

On the 27th of June we got a ride from Thannassis to the harbour of Poros (If you can even call it as a harbour). In the morning we had packed again and paid to Thanassis who lowered the price for us for 17€/night/head. The room had tv, air condition, kitchen with all the cooking stuff, fridge, big balcony, toilet etc.. Manos came to the harbour to give me some papers I had to deliver to her daughter living and studying in Athens. During the days in Poros we had planned were to stay at in Athens and all the hostels were situated in the area of Omonia, to which Manos didn't allow us to go in! So, he ended up calling to his daughter Poppy if we could stay at her place. Poppy's mom is from the United Kingdom so she speaks fluent english. Poppy is my age but I really didn't know her at all. I had seen her couple of times when growing up but that's all. It was so difficult to say goodbay to Manos and even he was really touched, hugging me and letting me go. :/ In the ferry I felt really really down.

When the ferry took of from the port of Poros I felt like crying seeing the town get smaller and smaller. And I had no idea when I'll go back there. Poros was the best summer holiday place and memories my parent could have given me! It's the place were I fell in love Greece, the language and the people. The place were I got the sparkle to travel and meet new people. The place where I learnt how to swim and where I had my first crush. Most of the young people hate Poros when they get older because it's so small place where everyone knows everyone and there is nothing to do in winter time so that's way young people tend to move to Athens to study.

Last evening in Poros and the sunset

Poros <3

At Palamidi and the only way to come down those slippery rocks with flipflops..