and here is a drawing i made of the beach adam and i tented on in kiparissia, greece. our decision to go to greece was last minute, but am i ever glad we did! the best way to decribe what we saw of this country, is "heaven on earth". we caught a ferry from brindisi, italy, across the mediterranean into patras, greece (which is right on the most western/northern end of the main island). we were stuck in patras for 3 days, because the largest greek festival of the year was starting, by pure chance, on the very day we decided to arrive. it was impossible to leave, even if we wanted to. and the festival was enormous, beautiful, and quite an alcoholic celebration!

but as soon as it was over, we hightailed it by train to the southern west coast of greece, known as "polypenesia" (not sure of the spelling with that). we had wanted to go to kalamata where the world famous olives were made, but our train ticket ended in kiparissia. i think we were supposed to buy a transfer ticket to kalamata, but not many people spoke english, and neither of us could get the hang of the greek alphabet, let alone the spoken language! so, we stayed in kiparissia, and i'm so terribly grateful we did. we hunted around this tiny town (of probably 1000 citizens) for a youth hostel, or camping site, but the people we tried to speak to weren't the most friendly (which is ok, cuz travelling around europe, you get used to it... people aren't interested in your business there, they just want their culture to remain uncorrupted by american society. something i completely understand).

eventually, we opted for the far end of the beach. it was a bit of a hike, but finally we found a quiet spot, enclosed from the horrendous wind (that seemed only to stop for 2 random hours a day) by some short rocky cliffs. we set up tent there by noon, and were lounging around on the beach, when the most amazing woman i have ever met walked down to meet us.

her name is marissa, and she was staying on the same beach as us, just a bit farther away from town, and in a cozy little spot under a cliff. she was born and raised in australia, and one day, she stopped whatever she was doing there, packed her bags, and bought a one way plane ticket to japan. and for eleven years she hitch-hiked her way across the continents!!! when we met her, she had been living under the cliff in kiparissia for 4 months with her german shepard, and was planning that very week to make her way to spain. she survived by working odd jobs, and making jewelery, and pretty much living off the land where ever she could. the greatest thing about her was her tremendous spirit and wonderful honesty! she was truly a beautiful woman. marissa had befriended half the village, so in meeting her we also got to know many other people: the smiley old lady who lived up the hill in town, who marissa called grandma; the quiet albanian boy who was hiding out in forest and would go into town everyday to work odd jobs for food money; the fellow with the handlebar moustache who spent all day in the bar and spoke italian and german; the nerdy old yugoslavian man who came by the beach everyday to see if marissa had enough food....

we stayed on this beach for a week or so, then adam went on to continue his journeys in greece by himself, and i went to visit family in italy. but our experiences and encounters in kiparissia were certainly the highlight of our voyages in europe.