August 12: Took this picture during a rare moment of sun. It’s been raining most of the afternoon and evening, so I have little to report — only that it’s nice to sit, read a book, and watch the rain fall.

Dinner in at the hotel:  dakos (tomatoes and feta on stale bread — much better than it might sound); a fabulous leek pie; and a simple, unadorned trout purportedly from Taygetus.  Someone really knows how to cook here.  Dessert was a tiny poached pear — it was simply perfect.  Now I’m sitting in a room that feels like someone put a small restaurant and bar in a cozy living room (this place is really more of an inn than a hotel).  I’m drinking “mountain tea” (also known as ironwort) with honey and cognac, a lovely end to the day.

Something the US needs:  mountain tea with honey and cognac

Something Greece needs:  smoking bans in restaurants (and everywhere else)

__

Well, I thought that was going to end the day, but as I was leaving to go to my room, the two hotel owners and the waiter called me over and asked me to sit with them (kidnapping happens everywhere!).  They told me that an all-village party in the square was going to be starting soon — mind you, it was midnight at this point — and they invited me to come along.  On the theory that one should explore everything in Greece, sleep be damned, I went down with them.

The party was much more fun than I’d expected — lots of dancing to electronic music, people of all ages hanging out.  The dancing and music reminded me of what I heard and saw at the clubs in Berlin in 1990; Europeans dance largely with their upper bodies and listen to a lot of electronica.