We did a couple of day trips to surrounding coastal areas. On one such day we travelled around to Gythio, which is a quaint little fishing village on the eastern shore of Laconia Bay. We wandered around looking at an old amphitheatre, broken columns and remnants of marble statues. Stopped at one of the taverns for an ouzo and a dish of some fresh sardines marinated in a pool of garlic olive oil. It was superb! It was one of the few days that it rained on our trip but despite that we really enjoyed the short walk around the ancient village with all of its brightly coloured fishing boats bobbing up and down at the quay despite the sullen skies and persistent drizzle.
A bit further around the coast there was a gigantic steel merchant trading ship that had run aground on the beach. Apparently there were two of them stranded there in the same storm, both of them worth many millions of dollars, which gave rise to a theory of insurance fraud. Only one remains as the other vessel was dragged off the beach by the Greek navy shortly afterward, hauled out into the middle of the bay and blown to smithereens for target practice. Nothing is ever wasted here. This took place before the insurance assessors managed to get a look at it. Maybe there’s a Greek admiral with more than a few shares in a local shipping line somewhere and fat insurance policy. Totally bizarre.
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