Tuesday
12th June Got up early and went to the
station for the 7.25 to Pirgos. This was only one carriage, Olympia is at the
end of the line. I talked with a couple of Canadian girls. In Pirgos I had an
hour to wait for the train to Patras, so I went to the bank and changed $100
(had only 200ΔΡX left).
The train to Patras takes about two hours along the flat coastal plain
of the west Peloponnese. The carriage was another of these antiquated machines
and was the bumpiest train I have been on. [Actually, the worst train ride I've ever had.] I didn’t look much at the scenery, I
was reading.
We
arrived in Patras about 11.00. I bought a ticket on the Argostoli for Ithaca and went up one of the streets of Patras. A
lot of colonnaded shops, neo-classical in style. At the top of the street was a
grand flight of steps. There are ruins of an old fortress on top of the hill
which would be interesting to see. But I turned right before the steps and
discovered an old Roman amphitheatre (admission free) which is still used today
for performances – restored marble seats, wooden stage. [A nice print of the photo I took of
this adorned my father’s wall for many years. It’s the Roman Odeon, and was
uncovered in 1889 after being buried for centuries. It has been restored more
since I was there.]
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| Patras Roman Odeon from the air |
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| Satellite view of Patras |
I
then went down to the wharf and got on board t’boat.
Patras looks very interesting from offshore, with the mountains shrouded
in clouds behind. (Cloudy today, but still lots of blue sky.) I read for much
of the six hour voyage. We called in at Sami on Kefalonia, a mountainous isle
covered in green shrubs, or they’re small trees, and stabbed by spears of
cypress trees. It looks like an island worth visiting, especially for its
caves.
We
then went round to the port of Vahti on Ithaca, a beautiful green island. The
horseshoe-shaped town is faced by a high (again) clouded mountain was across
the bay; there are trees and shrubs aplenty, and on the portside as the boat
goes in, there are some hills in an arc, with the hills at each end getting
higher in succession to the middle (which has another hill in front of it).
It’s
no wonder that Ulysses yearned for home so much.
In
Vahti, I stayed in a room which is the most typical, I suppose, of a room in a
Greek home – it had probably been the landlady’s daughter’s room. 400ΔΡX.
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