Greece part 1: Koita

It has been quiet here in the blog for the last week or so. That's because we are enjoying our holiday. Last week we spent in Greece and thus we had the change to escape the cold weather in Switzerland. Well, it wasn't hot in Greece either but definitive better than back home :) In the next posts I'll write about our experience. Maybe somebody else is planning a holiday in Greece as well?

We spent all the eight nights in the Peloponnese in three different hotels in Koita, Olympia and Nafplio. Car and the hotels I had booked advanced but otherwise we hadn't made any big plans what to visit but rather let the days take their own course.

We flew direct from Zürich to Athens with Swiss. Return tickets for two cost about 410 euros altogether. There would have been also cheaper flights availabe but they were all indirect and we didn't feel like flying to north (Amsterdam, Frankfurt or München) first and heading back to south ;D Car we rented from Europcar with costed 310 euros/9 days. It might have been cheaper to take it from some other company but I have Europcar privilege card and it's a kind of a habit that every time we rent a car we use Europcar. By the way, my Greek friend told me beforehand that driving in Greece is quite okay but in the bigger cites it can be pretty chaotic. The main important thing according to him was that one should always rent the car from a reputable, preferably international car renting company and so if somethimg happens you are more or less secured. And he was right about driving in the city :D

Our first destination was Koita in the Mani peninsula. The drive down to the "middle finger" of the Peloponnese from the Athens airport would have taken us about 4 hours but we did a short stop on the way to check out the Corinth kanal and so it took us a bit longer. Our first hotel was Citta dei Nicliani. This hotel is absolutely lovely. It's a small (only six rooms) family run hotel and the people really did their best to guarantee us a great stay. The hotel is in a old, stylishly renovated typical Manian building. The view from the hotel's terrace is absolutely fantastic. The room prices differ depending on the season and the room size. We paid 72 euros/night but we were actually upgraded to a bigger room because there was only one of the other rooms reserved at the time.

The entrance of Citta dei Nicliani

Our room

The bath

If you are a party person, Koita might not be the best choice for you. The village itself is very small and the next bigger town Areopoli, the capital of Mani Peninsula, is about 20 minutes drive away. The hotel was not right on the main road and because it was already dark we needed a short moment to locate it. We were warmly welcomed by a father and a son. Because it was already dark and we had a long travel behind us we decided to have our dinner at the hotel. The son gave us some suggestion what they could prepare for us. We opted for orange salad and beef with pastarice (kritharáki/orzo/risoni) and it all tasted good. 

And when in Greece we wanted to have some Greek wine. This hotel is a good place for a wine lover. They have a very extensive wine cellar...I think they mentioned they have over hundred different wines in stock and this is all due to the wine hobby of the son. He was able to recommend us some good wines and he was also able to tell a lot about the Greek wines in geneal.

Orange salad

Beef with pastarice and cheese

The hotel terrace

The view from the hotel terrace

Breakfast was included to the room price and it was really delicious: coffee, fresh orange juice, fried pita, omelette, pork, homemade marmelade, goat cream cheese, yoghurt with honey and feta. Some of the components like the marmelade varied every morning. The first mornining after the breakfast our host sat down with us to look through a map and give us some suggestions what to visit and where to eat. We also visited and olive oil press with him and I think I will make a one post only about that.

Breakfast

Fried pita

One of the hotel's cats

The same cat again

Another of the hotel's cats

Church of the Panayia Agitria which you can only reach by foot. To visit the church was suggested from our host because the place where it is is really beautiful.

The coast of Mani

Gerolimenas a small fishing village with couple of tavernas and hotels

Small lunch in Gerolimenas. Can't remember the name of the place.

A mountain village

Up in the mountains

A fig tree

Because the first evening we had dinner at the hotel for the remaining two evenings we drove to Areopoli to eat there. On our holidays we usually always prefer to eat in different places to see and taste as much as possible. Our host had suggested us some places for good dining and also for some coffee or drinks. Unfortunately his suggestion Bukka cafe/bar was closed so we went to Aula cafe/bar instead. The place is nicely decorated and it has a nice atmosphere but the cocktails had a bit too much alcohol for our taste. This was, by the way, pretty much the case everywhere in Greece where we ordered cocktails. Yeah, I know, now most of the Finns will shake their heads and wonder how can one complain about getting too much alcohol :D Well, when I order a cocktail I want it to taste good and alcohol shouldn't stand out too much. Otherwise I could just buy me a shot. The normal cocktails were priced somewhere between 7 and 10 euros.

First evening we had dinner at the Barba-Petros taverna. It was also recommended by our host. We were happy with the place. The food tasted good and the service was smiling which was not the case in all the places we ate. A little bit after us a small group of Dutch arrived into the restaurant and they wanted to have four greek salads as a starter. But they got told that four salads for four people would be too much. I think that that is a good sign as well. They could have just sold "those stupid tourists" four salads and the guest would have found out by themselves that it's too much but they didn't. All in all in Greece the portions were pretty big. In many places we would have liked to taste more different things but due to the big portions and because we were only two people could not do that. We were told that when Greeks eat out, they eat with a bigger group and so they can order many things which they share with each other.

The second evening we had some pita willed with kebab and pork. It was a small take away place in Areopoli which wasn't recommended by anybody but we saw lots of locals buying there so we thoght it has to be good. One filled pita costed 2 euros and they had a real charcoal grill where they prepared it. That seemed to be a normal pactice in most of the take away places which we of course found great.

Areopoli: those flowers are just to love

Areopoli

Bukka cafe/bar was recommended for us but unfortunately it was closed.

Instead of Bukka we had drinks at Aula cafe/bar.

Bildunterschrift hinzufügen

Tzatziki. We actually managed to throw away all our receipts so I can't check the exact prices but I think it cost 2,5 euros

Lamb in lemon sauce and rice. Something around 9 euros like the pork portion as well.

Pork in plum sauce and rice

Pigs walking around along the street

All in all our stay in Koita was great. The landscape is beautiful and quite different and to explore it one definitive needs a car down there. We were satisfied with the hotel and would for sure stay there again would we one day head back to that area.

Village of Vathia

The beautiful landscape in Mani