16 January 2015 – katakolon, Greece
A small town as such locations in Greece go. The sidewalks appear to be new in the last several years complete with textured insets for the visually impaired. The main section next to the dock is heavily weighted to souvenirs and cafes with a few clothing shops interspersed. The gauntlet of independent tour operators, taxi drivers and sales personal is extremely polite as such crowds go. They have signs but are not in your face as is common in the Caribbean.
There are two small museums in town: one on musical instruments, the other claims ownership of over 300 early inventions as Greek. Guess that South America, China and the mid-east aren’t important…. Almost as much fun as the class of ~30 school children (best guess as they never stopped moving long enough to be sure of an accurate count) who had invaded just before I arrived at the door. For 2€ it was a reasonable bargain although the translations were a bit interesting.
I wandered the town which is small and seems mostly a stepping off place for the port and home to a motley collection of smaller fishing vessels. Hugh season is April-Sept with only 1-2 ships/month off season which may explain why the welcome mat was out at 0800. This maybe Greece, but not being open for the tourists is lost money. I finally found an ATM. Taking a hike about 1km out of town I found a hole in the wall local Mercado. They had a few items I wanted; later finding the shiny new shop in town with most of the same products at 20% higher. Also Prominently featured here as well as in many other local shops are olive oil products. Oil to wood to soap and a variety of cosmetics in between.
I enjoyed the day of no pressure, a walk along the sea wall and even the mailing off of a few postcards. Note to self, it’s ok to get the self stick stamps even if they feature Rudolph. The Greeks don’t place a decent amount of glue on their regular stamps. I am more concerned with them falling off than with some crime unit identifying me from saliva. After all, I signed all the cards…..