Early mornings are my favorite, as if. Traveling for five weeks in a row starts to have its effects on our crew, but we still manage to get the job done. We were so super tired when we got to the other side of the sea, from Turkey to Athens. Although we were in Greece, the transportation can be anything, so the first thing was to rent a car. It is so much easier to travel in your own vehicle, so that you can stop if you see something interesting and go check it out.
We rented a four by four SUV from Hertz for a quite nice price. Only for 70 Euros per day, and I can say that it was totally worth it. In these so called warm countries they don't have any winter tires or winter chains, so four by four is a good option, if you are heading to the snowy mountains as we were. The rental guy was kind enough to give us a map and some directions to how to get to our destination.
The first place to visit in our schedule was called Kalavrita, which is approx. 200 kilometers from Athens. It is a small mountain village quietly resting at 950 meters above sea level, and it has a ski resort just above it. The accommodation is cheap and the atmosphere amazing. From the village of Kalavrita, you will have to drive for maybe 15 minutes up the serpentine road to get to the ski resort at 1850 meters, so the car really was a nice option. I couldn't find any clue about any buses going up to the mountain. To Kalavrita itself you can get by train, and I bet the ride is going to be really memorable, as the train goes through tens of tunnels and over tens of bridges on its way up the mountains sides.
We got to Kalavrita village at around 11 and drove straight up to the ski resort. The resort isn't really that big, but it has a lot of tree runs and some really nice looking steep lines that are definitely doable after a good snowfall. Too bad that this year it seems that everywhere, except in Japan and the States, it really is a bad winter with very little snowfall.
We got the lift tickets and went up to find some spots. When we got to the top, we saw that on the backside of the mountain exists some really steep stuff to ski. There were some really good lines, but no snow, so we decided to stick with the tree runs.
While I and Blumi were filming some scenery, Ape started chatting with one of the pisteurs called Vasillis, and he was more than happy to show us around the ski resort. We found some good snow, some good tree runs, and we were good to head back to the village to plan the next day's filming.
Vasillis invited us to join him and some of the locals for after-ski, but first we needed to find a place to stay. We found a nice hotel just next to the village center, so it was close to all the cafés, where we could relax after all the long days of filming at the ski resort. We got our stuff to our room and headed to Event Café, where the guys normally go for a beer after a long day of work on the mountain. It was nice to meet some local riders and talk about skiing in Kalavrita and Greece itself. We even got a small interview out of one local snowboarder, Gustas, who later became a very good friend to us. Gustas really lives for the riding, so he felt like one of us straight from the beginning.
The locals invited us to their apartment for a few more beers, and of course we went. Apparently, the boys love to play poker, but due to my and Blumi's bad luck in such games, we decided to let the boys play and just watch. We also watched some epic ski movies, and after a long while, it was time to head home for some rest before the next day's filming.
On the last day, we had spotted some runs that we wanted to do, so it was easy to start filming. We got some great shots in a short time, and after a dozen nice ones, it felt like the day was a wrap, so we spent the rest of the day just chilling and filming some people in the ski bistro. They even have a snow park in the ski resort, just next to the bistro, so of course we had to go and do a few laps with Blumi. Too bad the guys had closed the biggest jump, because they had some film crews coming the next day. They told us that we are welcome to hit the jump the next day, though. The sun went down at the park, and it was time to head back to the village for some dinner and after-ski. Only this time the after-ski was just a fast beer, and then we had to rush to the grocery store to buy something to eat before it closed.
We had a stow in our hotel room, so we figured that it would be fun to make something of our own, since we had only eaten restaurant food for the past 5 or 6 weeks. We bought some pasta, cream, onions, garlic, canned tomatoes and two different local sausages, which all together turned out to make a one hell of a pasta set. Blumi also got some weird white wine to go with the pasta, haha. The food and the wine were good enough and there was plenty, so everyone was happy. Later on we just hanged out in our room and watched what we had on tape from the laptop, and pretty soon after that it was good night for us.
On the last evening, when we were checking out the day's footage, we became surprised on how much good stuff we had got and how easily it had come. So, the last day on the mountain was fast planned to be a really mellow day with just a couple of lines, and the rest of the day to be spent hanging out at the snow park with the locals. We filmed the two lines that the boys had in mind, and then headed to the bistro for a beer and to do some park riding on the snow park next to it. Blumi gave Vasillis' brother some tips with his 360's and we tried out the big jump. With just a little more kick on the jump and it would have been perfect, but the guys still had made some excellent job with the jump last evening. We watched the sunset and headed back to the village, once again stopping at the after-ski place, haha.
A couple of days earlier Vasillis told us about some get-together that they were planning on having, and now he invited us to join them. They told us that they have this similar thing once or twice every year and that it is going to be a blast. We gathered our stuff from our hotel room, checked out and then followed Vasillis car for 30 kilometers out of Kalavrita to the next small village. There was this nice small tavern, where the party was happening and it was packed. Earlier, Vasillis told me that there was going to be a lot of people, but I never would have expected over 30 friends from the resort and its surroundings come together for a dinner.
The party itself was also something I could never have even imagined. When we were walking towards the tavern from our car, Gustas told me what we were having for dinner; a cow's head that his friend had brought. First, I thought that he was joking, but he was actually dead serious. They part the meat from the cow's head and then serve it on different plates with different parts from the head on each plate. Some of the local skiers are actually farmers, including our happy guide Vasillis, so it seems they have a pretty nice supply of meat on their hands. With all the meat on the table, they also served some coleslaw, feta, fries, sausages, spinach pie, and of course some really good homemade wine. Old Greek tunes were playing, everyone was laughing in their own clicks and every time you finished your wine, someone just filled your glass. They appeared to have an infinite source of this wine, hid in the back room of the tavern, haha. The evening literally flew by, and soon we had to head back, but to where. We forgot that we had checked out from our hotel the same day, so we had no place to go. No worries thought, one of the guys made a phone call and we had our old room back, nice.
The next morning it was time for us to say goodbye to Kalavrita, hello to hangover and head to the next place in our tight schedule, called the Parnassos. We started our engines and there we went again, ready for a new adventure.
What happened on that trip you will find out in a few days.
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