Friday, September 2, 2011

Greece, Finally.

I am sitting on my deck chair, looking out towards the sea and the Taygetos mountains. There is nothing but the sound of what might be crickets (I am no naturalist), and the occasional motorboat drifting up the hillside.

I keep having to tell myself that I am actually in Greece. This is no elaborate fantasy out of my half baked mind.

It is just past 1pm, and is therefore getting quite warm. People will be settling in for a siesta soon - apparently the only thing to do during the heat of the day.

I have been up since 6am, and feel ready for a nap by now. While sitting on my patio and eating breakfast, I watched the sunrise, a mellow pink outlining the mountains, deepening into coral, then expanding into a golden glow that spread over all the trees and water and land that I could see. I ate my yogurt (bought from the market in a little clay tub) drizzled with honey (goldeny orange, and tasting nothing like anything you have ever tried), and then went for a walk down to the beach.

The walk down the hillside through the olive groves is supposed to take about 10 - 15 minutes, even though it feels as if I could leap off my patio straight into the sea.

The round trip took me two and a half hours. Not possessing enough patience to read my directions carefully, and not having the ability to read maps adequately, I got vastly lost.

At about the one and a half hour mark, as I looked across the valley at olive groves and cyprus trees and vines and villas, and down at my sand covered, beginning - to - blister - feet, it occurred to me that it might have been idiotic to step out with no map, no money, no cell phone, and no ability speak the local language. Thirst was starting to get to me, and I wondered if I might end up dying in the middle of the Peloponneses.

I can jump fairly quickly to the most drastic outcome of any situation.

But then, I thought that I would not really mind if I died of lostness and thirst and starvation. I was in a breathtakingly gorgeous place - what a poetic end.

I did not actually take my swimsuit down with me this morning, and so I plan to do that this afternoon, after the heat has lifted a little bit. The sea is bluer than the sky, and incredibly enticing. I kept hearing about the surreal color of the water, and that is true. And I kept hearing about the faded blue of the sky - and that is true as well. The sky is almost white - like the extremely faded denim of a much loved, much washed, much worn pair of jeans.

Why is the whole world not here? Are we all insane, that we choose to live away from heat and beach and sea and fresh grapes and tomatoes pulled straight from the vine? We should live with sun warmed skin, silent nights, quiet days and dancing taste buds (I could write an ode to tomatoes just about now).

Come to Greece, it might save your soul. At the very least, it will save your sanity.



2 comments:

  1. J.e.a.l.o.u.s.y.

    SO happy you finally made it - my heart is bursting!

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  2. "No map, no money, and no cellphone"...Mary will you never learn? We all miss you lots! Be safe :)

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