Proti Island Photo Reportage

Proti Island of Messinia is an inhabited island in the Ionian Sea, on the west coast of the Peloponnese. Th Kalamata Hiking Club organized an excursion there and me and some other EVS decided to join. Here you have my photo reportage from our lovely Sunday.

Climbing a mountain in the dark

Last week we climbed a mountain, in the dark.
Prophet Elias, the peak of the Taygetos Mountain range.

2,407 metres.
The highest mountain in the Peloponnese.

13.00, we were sitting in our kitchen, drinking the last dregs of our morning coffee.
Talking about nothing, thinking lazily about having a shower.

15.00, we were at the office of Kalamata’s Hiking Club,
where we impulsively agreed to a hike, in the dark.

18.00, we were in the car, rolling up the mountain roads.
Staring at cows, singing our hearts out to terrible party songs.

23.00, we were in the forest.
Hunting shooting stars and preparing to snooze in our tent.

02.30 am, we were awake.
Our sleepy heads wrapped in gleaming headtorches,
we began our ascent.

Walking in a line, like an army troupe.
We wound our way along the paths, up and around the black masses.
We were not getting higher, just following in the darkness.

04.00am, we found the wind.
It shook us and chilled us.
Forced us to crawl like animals on the ground.

05.00am, we began to see the top.
The mountain played with us, moving stones, changing the route again and again.

06.00am, we saw it,
a small layer of glorious orange spread across the sky
and all felt impossible.

07.30, our feet and hands scrambled up.
We stared at the glorious scene ringing around us.
Goats, pyramid and sea.
Bitterly cold, we huddled in coats and stuffed snacks in our mouths.
We arrived.

Photos courtesy of Kalamata Hiking Club, Ορειβατικός Καλαμάτας

http://www.eoskal.gr/index.php/arthra-exormiseon/item/729-taygetos-12-13-avg-2017

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Having flatmates can, sometimes, be a real booster for my creativity. It's like putting in line dominos. You have an idea, you share it, then flatemate N°2 has another idea connected to the first one. She shares, flatemate N°3 adds another idea etc etc etc. That's how we have fun in the house. That's how we thought :

 "ok, let's improvise something about the daily life in this crazy house full of people".

"You get up in the morning"

"And then you take your shower. We  look at the towels in the room

"Let's also dry ourself like after having a shower"

And then...

note from author : we believe in a humble way this video is gonna play a role in the contemporary dance history.

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NEW VOLUNTEERS ARE HERE!

In these weeks I am one of the coordinators of the short term volunteers and they have arrived with a lot of energy. They are here to help at the street festival, and they are working on it with very good results. They come from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia and United Kingdom.

I have very good feelings with this group, I am sure they will work very well.

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Summer dessert!

Chocolate-dipped cannoli cupcakes

What do you need (for 12 cupcakes):

Cupcakes:

• 1 box of cake mix 

or

• 260 gr of flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 100 gr of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar (optional)
• 1 egg
• 110 gr of oil
• 220 gr of milk

Cream:

• 425 gr of riccotta
• 225 gr of mascarpone
• 130 gr of powdered sugar
• 1 cup of chocolate chips (or one milk chocolate chopped into pieces)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla (optional)

Chocolate coating:

• 2 bars of dark chocolates
• 3 tablespoons of butter

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. "Dry ingredients" (flour, baking powder, sugar, vanilla sugar) mix together in a bowl. Next add eggs, oil and milk and mix together (do it with a fork, don't use a mixer). Fill the muffin tin about 3/4 of the way up with a cupcake dough. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Cool cupcakes completly.
3. In a big bowl mix riccotta, mascarpone, sugar and vanilla together, using mixer until it's well combined. Add all chocolate chips and mix it carefully.
4. Cut a small circle in the center in each of muffin and press it down (to the bottom) to create a hole. Fill cupcakes with cream and make a small hill on top of them. Put them in the freezer for 1 hour (until firm).
5. Melt the dark chocolate and butter together. Dip the tops of cupcakes into the melted chocolate. Put them in the fridge to firm up.  

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Photo report - Kalamata Music Day

Photo credits

Palm trees on the airport. I'm definitely in a tropical climate.
My enthusiasm was apparent. She just laughed. 

Ροδος

One thing you need to know about planning your trip to Rodos or, anywhere actually. You can flush all your lovely plans down the toilet if you have a greek grandpa who made his own plans for you already.

Now, something about the wonderful sights. 

Kamiros

Do you like ancient stuff? Roman city foundations make you excited? Or maybe you're crazy about greek temple remains? Kamiros is the place to go. There's a big archeological site you can explore with remains of temples (they loved the goddess Athena!), baths, houses... so we strolled down the city and went house-hunting.

Butterfly valley

Πεταλούδες, meaning butterfly, was the greek word of the day. A green oasis in the middle of the island is home to an astounding number of butterflies that attract tourists every year... but they are quick and timid creatures so catching a photo of them is not as easy as one would think. Narrow wooden bridges and winding paths, a stream going through the valley – all of it gave the place an elvish feel.

Rodos

The city of Rodos is an interesting mixture of different cultures that influenced it over time. First, you have these AMAZING medieval fortifications, then you see mosques and eastern-influenced buildings from the ottomans, then scattered around some ancient greek remains and then surrounding the old city – the new part with modern buildings. The castle and the archeological museum (with a feautiful garden) left me in awe! Also, it seemed like they just took all the mosaic floors from the island of Kos (really, now I'm wondering is there anything left on Kos at all?). You can always just go around the city and try to pass through all the entrances, climb on every wall you can and pretend you're a princess living there (that's what I did, of course, all that was missing was a long flowy dress).

Lindos

You know those little sparkling white houses you see on postcards from Greece? Well some of those photos must have been taken in Lindos. After you get enough of the white labyrinth, and move towards the higher areas of the city, you will start seeing donkey droppings and that's your cue! Follow the donkey shit up to the ancient acropolis (at some point you will see the donkeys as well). As you go up, the view gets better and better until you reach medieval fortifications. Same owners as in Rodos. But, there's a twist! I did mention that you were going up to the ancient acropolis and indeed, on the top, there are parts of ancient temples! Passing through the propylaeum and climbing up the stairs you reach a plato with a wonderful view in which ever direction you look.

These are just the major sights I visited. There were also a couple of hills with nice views around the island, beautiful beaches and foresty areas.

I totally get it why so many foreign people retire in Greece. It's a happy place. A beautiful tropical place and Rodos is a true jewel among the treasures of the country.