Village Life

From Sifnos we headed back to Athens and drove that same day right to Peloponnese. This was our first time spending time on the mainland and we were excited to see the Peloponnese. The ferry and drive took us all day and we arrived around sunset to the house we had rented. This house ended up being the most beautiful old villa, decorated like a French country home on the top end of a small fishing boat port. We had hit the VRBO lottery. This house was comfy and nice and walkable to town. We settled right in and woke up early to explore.

We headed right to the beach, because when in Greece! The beaches were amazing as always. And the restaurants were delicious!

But the real star of Pylos was the plateia, the Greek word for square. In the mainland of Greece all towns, villages even neighborhoods of Greece have a plateia. A square that is open and surrounded by restaurants, sweet shops and little stalls selling candy and toyws. A kids dream. Also a parents dream because all the kids could run around and play with other kids while you sat on the outskirts enjoying some wine and chatting with other parents. Like I said, a parent’s dream. Adam made a friend their, Thesius that he has kept in contact with after this trip.

Also amazing about Pylis is that there was actually a place that was flat for running. After two weeks of high hills and steep inclines this was pretty amazing. I also saw these snails on the way. Reminded me of my aunt who, when I was little, would collect snails off the road, clean them and then pickle them for eating. It was my dad’s favorite food. I never tried them and she has since passed away. I wonder sometimes if I would like her snails now or still be too scared to eat them.

There was a cute pier town right near our villa that we walked to for dinner most nights. There was a great restaurant right on the water with the best sunset view.

We sent some postcards to remind everyone how much we love them!

Randy had training all week in the afternoon so it as me and the kids on the beach most days. Thankfully they were old enough to be pretty easy. A few tantrums here or there but overall it ended up being fun, but we did miss Randy of course!

This picture may look idyllic, but it was actually taken after one of those before mentioned tantrums that occured after Miral chose an icecream and ate it and then was upset she couldn’t have a second ice-cream….because I was solo parenting on the beach for a week I decided to compromise and get an ice-cream that I ‘shared’ (in case you don’t know me I don’t actually eat sweets and ice-cream so it wasn’t really shared). But you know what, when in Greece, on vacation, on a beach, in an ice-cream shop, solo parenting- you do you! That’s what I told myself and I got this super cute pic after, so it was worth it.

We did manage to all go on a boatride in the morning before Randy’s training started and it was great! The captain even let all the kids drive the boat. There were some beautiful caves and cliffs and we all jumped off from the boat and swam in the ocean, even Miral!

In case you’re wondering, don’t worry, I still managed to squeeze in a Greek salad every day!

and Malcolm managed to squeeze in french fries and plain pasta every day.

Our week in Pylos also happened to be the hottest week of the year. It was 100 degrees every day, so we had to spend all day on the beach having ice-creams and iced drinks. Our new friends from the plateia told us where to go and we met them there and it was great to have friends on the beach, parents and kids. Then at night we would meet them in the main square after dinner and have some drinks while the kids all played. SUCH a night life. I need to move to a small Greek village where I can walk to the plateia every night and hang out with friends.

This was also the week we started having drawing competitions. Can you guess who drew what?

For our last night we headed back to the restaurant with the great view of the sunsnet and got a few last pictures in.

After a three hour drive we were back in Athens. We stayed at this awesome hotel, The Foundry with a great view of the Acropolis.

For our last day in Athens we headed to the Margi for a pool day. This was the hotel we stayed at with our friends and family for our wedding weekend so it was pretty special to be back and with three kids in tow! Who would have ever imagined ten years later we would be flying to Greeece from Kyiv where we both work at the Embassy with our three kids. Goes to show you, you never really know where you’ll end up. For us, we ended up back at the Margi again but in a completely different life.