I’ve been pretty hit-or-miss with the travel blogging these days, but life has gotten very stressful and it makes me feel a little better to look at pretty pictures. So today, I’m Travel Blogging a teeny tiny little Greek village called Legrena. The word “town” is almost certainly too generous for this place — there isn’t so much as a grocery store. I lived there for a summer when I was working at a Greek legal organization — an organization that was, inexplicably, located in Legrena as well as Athens (although it is Greece, so perhaps that’s explanation enough). Legrena is about an hour outside of Athens (two hours if you always had to take the bus, like I did), and about 5k away from the Temple of Poseidon. It consisted of the legal office I worked at, a little bakery we called the fornaio (I worked with a lot of Italians), two restaurants owned by brothers (the Meat Restaurant and the Seafood Restaurant), a catch-all little shop that sold stuff like magazines and ice cream, a lovely little church, a graveyard, and a beach.
I lived alone, and everyone else commuted to work from Athens or a more populous suburb, so I spent a lot of time alone that summer. I had a TV, but it only had three channels — all in Greek — and I didn’t have internet in my little apartment. I got a lot of reading done (including The Satanic Verses three times), went on a lot of runs once the sun went down, and spent a lot of time at the beach. At first it was depressing, but after about a month, I really started to love all the alone time. I kept up a pretty good journal, learned a lot, ended an unhealthy relationship, and generally got myself to a pretty good mental place. That summer was also the first time I traveled extensively by myself. Despite the, uh, eccentricities of the Greek public transportation systems (and, to be honest, most Greek systems), I adored Greece — and Legrena in particular — and was incredibly sad to have to leave.
Coming back to New York was a real culture shock, and I found myself immediately overwhelmed with school, a series of family crises, a new (even worse) relationship, finding a new apartment, law firm interviews, and Real Life in general. It was a pretty awful four months, at least in part because the three months before had been so relaxing and centering and wonderful.
So this is Legrena. Most Greeks haven’t even heard of it, and I doubt it’s on any major maps. But it’s a place I really grew to love and, in a short period of time, to know quite well. I really hope I can return some day. More photos are below the fold, and the entire set can be found here. All of my Greece pictures are here. Enjoy:
My beach:
Not technically Legrena, but out the window of the bus on my way to Athens:
The view from my room:
More beach:
Again, not technically Legrena, but 5k away — the Temple of Poseidon:
More of Legrena here. And if you want to see all the Greece pictures (of which there are many), see here.