Day 26

Firstly, because we are falling behind, I will type and Natalie will dictate.

Secondly, to Jim and Mary, we have stayed in several hotels, but almost everyone of our campsites offers bungalows! Do not get discoraged,and maybe we can all travel together.

Kato Alissos Campsite, Greece 10:06pm 7-16-10

We thought our ferry got into Patras at 5am. So we got up at four am and were ready to go. No one else was up and we were very confused. Finally we decided to go to sleep for a couple of hours. Later we found out that the ferry didn´t get in until10:30. . .Oops! Our boat docked and we said goodbye to the people we had met onboard and headed into Patras. We weren´tsure how we were going to get around not knowing the language or the Greek letters but we found that more Greek people speak English then Italians do. We made our way to the bus stop and finally figured out the right bus. We had no idea how to tell which stop was ours and we ended up getting off two stops too early at a different campground (One with a waterpark). we thought about staying there but decided against it. They gave us a ride to Kato Alissos and we checked in and set up our tent. Then we headed down toward the beach and the woman at reception told us there was greek dancing at the restaraunt that night,so we walked over and reserved a table. The restaraunt was quaint, with a thousand year old olive tree which spread over the dinning area. The tree was filled with large round lights.

Troy and I explored the beach for a bit and found a nice spot with some shade. The water was an amazing shade of blue and it was such a quiet day that I felt like I was in a Corona commercial. We read fora bit and then both feel asleep. I got sunburned. Then we got into the water and headed back to the tent. Two motorcycles pulled up next to us and started setting up camp. We learned they were two men from Romania, Mikail(Michael) and Valentine. They were very talkative and funny. They offered us some Romanian bourbon, which was very strong. We talked with them until dinner. We headed to the restaraunt. The prices were so cheap Troy and I decided to order a little bit of everything. The food was delicious and Mikail ended up joining us a bit later. The dancing started around 10pm and, of course,they pulled people out of the audience to dance. Needless to say Troy has plenty of video footage of me dancing. Later Troy and I both got pulled up and there was also a dance with fire!Mikail talked about "Pulp Fiction" all night and when we walked back to our tent Valentine let us try some Romanian food. Then we said goodnight and headed off to bed.

The next morning we headed up to reception to get breakfast and we saw this couple sitting on the benches. Troy asked them where they were from and it turns out that they were Canadian and that they had seen us in the McDonald´s in Naples. Troy and I sat down with them and had some breakfast. We talked about traveling and our plans and they were heading to the waterpark for the day so we decided to all go. Mikail and Valentine were leaving so Troy and I got a picture with them and said goodbye. Then we headed to the water park. We went on the slides, had some lunch and tried to take pictures of ourselves underwarter. We had lots of fun with our new freinds, Jenny and Liam. We made plans to travel together to Olympia and Athens over the next couple of days. After the water park we went in search of a grocery store for dinner food,but we ended up taking the wrong road and found some orange trees. Troy and Liam picked a bag full of oranges(the best I´ve had so far in Europe). then we got to the grocery store, got some pasta, sauce and parmesean cheese. Then we prepared dinner. Jenny,Liam, Troy and I hungout in the kitchen talking and enjoying each other´s copmpany.

The next morning Troy woke me up and said "We have four mintues to catch the bus!" I jumped up and got ready and we ran down the road to catch the bus to Olympia. Thankfully we made it in time. We got to Olympia and headed toward the ancient ruins. It was an incredibly hot day, but the ruins were amazing. We got to see where they light the torch for the Olympics and where the first Olympics were held. We ran around on the first track, then we headed to the museam and saw artifacts from 4300B.C.E. We headed back to camp and decided to have breakfast for dinner that night. When we got back to camp there were two new tents, one in our campsite. A guy asked if that was ok and we said it was The two guys who setup their tent next to us were in the kitchen as well cooking dinner. We ended up talking with them, Massimo and Jacob all night. After finishing our potatoes,egss and bacon Troy pulled out his guitar and we had a little singalong by our camp before going to bed.

The next day we decided to take a rest. it was sorely needed. Troy wanted to go to the music shop and Liam wanted to buy a harmonica so they went in to Patras while Jenny and I stayed back at camp. I got some laundry done and then we took our thermarests and went down to the beach. We talked and enjoyed the sun and the water while Massimo sat near us and built a table out of reeds. We headed back up to the campsite just before Troy and Liam got back. Everything had been closed in Patras, but Troy talked a shopowner into letting Liam buy a harmonica. They played together for a little bit. For dinner we had tortellini with red sauce and cheese and bread with tsatsiki sauce... So delicious! We tried to got to bed early because we wanted to catch the bus to Patras to rent a car to go to Athens early in the morning.