We were slightly tired from the last night's party, and when we drove down the serpentine road to the sea, we all felt a little sad to leave Kalavrita and the guys behind, but at the same time we were all happy to see some new stuff. The first thing was to get to the sea and to find some food. We got a hint from one of the pisteurs about a nice coastal city with great food, so of course we went there.
When we got to the city, we were a little surprised. There were some restaurants, but the place was filled with not so good looking people. Everywhere you looked, you'd see some bums with leather jackets doing absolutely nothing. As we drove a little further the city's coast road we found out why. There was the biggest marina in Greece and all of bums were probably trying to sneak into one of the ferries to get to Italy. So, it was not the nicest place to have lunch and so we decided to drive to somewhere else for some food.
Next we had to drive over a huge bridge to get to the other side of the long bay that goes all the way to Athens. On that side is Parnassos, the ski resort that we were heading to. On the other side there were too many roads with only Greek signs, so we had to look for a little help from our map. It seemed that Ape had accidentally forgotten the map to Kalavrita. So, no help from that one we thought, and drove to this one gas station nearby to buy a new map. Apparently, gas stations in Greece don't sell maps, so we kind of had to figure things out by ourselves. Well, that didn't work either, so we drove back to the bridge and because the bridge toll was 14 Euros per way, we decided to move some cones and make a super illegal U-turn, haha.
Finally, we found the right road and were going in the right direction. On the way we spotted a nice looking small coastal village, and we just had to pay a visit there. It was a small village with approx. a few hundred people living there, and it had a small marina for leisure boats. There were many really good looking restaurants and we just picked one with the most Greek decorations. We ordered feta salads and cokes and in no time we had them in front of our noses. I have to say that it was the best Greek salad I have ever tasted. All the ingredients were amazing and especially the red onions were fantastic. They were really sweet, instead of the bitter ones we have back home in Finland.
After a nice late lunch we walked to the pier on the marina to take some nice photos of the sun set and continued our way to the next city to find a hotel. The night came fast, but luckily we found one from Itea, a small city really close to Parnassos, so it suited us great. The hotel cost us a mere 60 euros, which is not bad for a 3 star hotel just next to shoreline.
We woke up quite late and missed the breakfast, so we went out to find a café for some food. When we arrived to Itea last night, we didn't notice how beautiful the city really was from the dark. There were a lot of small cafés just next to the sea, and the fishermen tried to catch some fish to sell to the restaurants from the few piers next to our hotel. One guy got a maybe 10 kilo fish that looked like a mix of tuna and something else, and of course as fishermen, I and Ape were stoked to see this struggle and everything. The town seemed like a sleeping paradise in the middle of nowhere. Too bad that the time wasn't on our side and we had to continue our way towards Parnassos. We got really nice directions from the owner of the hotel and so it was easy to find our way to the ski center.
We got to the ski center at around noon and went to the main lift station to look for a local pisteur, Kostas, a friend of Vasillis, our friend from Kalavrita. Vasillis had called him earlier that we are coming, so that he could show us around the ski center and tell us the best spots to film. We didn't reach Kostas at this time, but they gave us free tickets, so it was a victory for the team anyway.
Up to the mountain we went. First there was an old cabin with really goofy looking trash bin kind of cabins. It was impossible to fit our wide skis into the boxes outside the cabin in this kind of lifts, so we had to take them inside the cabin with the head of our skis pointing out from the roof. With the cabin you get to the point from where all the chair lifts go from.
We chose a long chair up to go and see the top, and then skied down to the other side of the mountain to find Kostas. Parnassos is actually two different resorts, one on each side of the mountain, but one ticket works in both. We went to ask for Kostas from this one lift booth, and the guys were so kind as to call him through la-phone, and after a little while Kostas showed up. As a long fit-looking guy he really looked like a pisteur to me.
Kostas took us around the resort and showed us the best places to film, so it was really easy to plan the next day. Later that day, when we were having after-ski with Kostas, he suddenly wanted us to come to this one ski booth for a special treat. In this particular booth, the lift guys had a head of a wild boar and a head of a goat or something. The heads were grilled in an oven and with some local wine we were to eat them with the guys. The boar was excellent with nice gamy taste and with a little encouraging from the guys I tasted the eye of the boar. And as a big surprise, it tasted really good.
After this nice treat, we went to ski a couple of runs and then headed to the top for local after-ski. Every evening the guys from the lifts gather and have a cigarette or two and watch the sunset from this booth on the top. Me and Blumi went to ski a couple more runs and then headed down to our car and to find a hotel for the night.
We found a hotel just next to Arachova, a city meant for the rich people. Although everything looks expensive with a lot of fur coats on the shop's windows and well-built houses, it is cheap to stay there. For 20 euros per night you will easily find a place to stay. After some dinner in a local restaurant it was time for us to lie down and have a good night's rest.
Last evening we spotted some nice lines while watching the sunset from the small booth on the top of Parnassos. We went to shoot those, but unluckily there wasn't enough snow to do my line with a big drop, but Blumi went for his. The line was maybe 45 degrees steep with a lot of rocks everywhere. Blumi skied really well if you consider the amount of snow on the face.
After that we went to shoot another line. Ape wanted to ski this one big gully, so me and Blumi went to film it from a hill next to it and Ape started hiking. We got really cold while waiting for him. A storm system was closing in, so it was pushing a lot of air in front of the gully and making really cold high winds. Ape skied really well and we got some nice shots from the run, so the day was a wrap with two sick runs on tape. Later on the evening we went to walk around the Arachova city and just looked what the local people do.
The next day we went up to the mountain just to get some pictures of people and the ski resort itself for the programme. After some nice runs we wanted to go and have a look at Pan's cave. It's a cave on the mountain side, where Pan used to have orgies with a bunch of girls. Not bad for Pan I guess, haha. From the road from Arachova to Parnassos you turn to this really messed up gravel road and from there you'll have to hike for maybe 300 meters vertical to get to the cave. The cave itself is actually really big with a nice small opening, so it really was a great place for Pan to have his orgies. We made a small story about the cave and headed back to our hotel to ask if we could stay for one more night.
The night was the last for us in Greece and we decided to stay at the same hotel and drive to Athens the next day. We had to return our car to the airport, so we had to be there really early. So, on the next morning it was an early start to go to Athens. The first plan was to return the car, leave our luggage to the airport and go see Athens for two days just with the backpacks, but there was a strike. Nothing else than taxis worked, so the plans changed once again. We looked through our footage and decided to head to Romania, our next destination. All though we bought the flights for the same day, we got them really cheap. It seems that it is really cheap to fly around the southern Europe.
What we found from Romania you will hear in my next post. Until then, ski a lot, have fun and take care!
No comments:
Post a Comment