Our own reality show

Getting to Arta was a bit more challenging than getting to Delphi....

We were told to take the bus to Nafpaktos and from there we could catch a bus to Arta. No, he did not have a time table for when buses left for Arta, so we decided to take the early (10:15) bus to Nafpaktos just in case. It took 3 hours to go about 60 miles because of the route and the roads we took, but it was breathtaking! We travelled close to the sea most of the way and I'm not sure I've ever seen water so beautiful. See through sea foam green close to shore blended into turqouise, which melted into the deep blue sea....simply mesmerizing.

Upon arriving in Nafpaktos we found the bus station closed and no posting for a bus that might head to Arta. We asked in the cafe around the corner and were told that we needed to go to another station - about 1 kilometer that way. Turns out one of the two guys we were talking to had been to Jersey...seems A LOT of people have been to Jersey, lived in Jersey, or have family in Jersey. It's wild. Anyway, we started walking "that way" and with no station in sight, decided to stop and ask again. We wondered into the right market because we found a very helpful couple. She spoke enough English to help us understand what he was saying (yelling) and he flagged down the bus and told the driver what we needed. All we could do was rely on the kindness of strangers whose language we couldn't speak to find our way....so now were were in the bus driver's hands. He let us off at an intersection about 15 minutes later and told us to walk 1 kilometer (everything is 1 kilometer) to the gas station....so we did....when we asked about the bus to Arta there, we were told to walk 1 km down to the next station. Low and behold, when we arrived and asked about the bus to Arta, we were told it would pass by about 3pm (it was now 2:40). A number of buses came and went, none of them bound for Arta. And then we saw it - APTA! At 4pm we were on another bus...one step closer to the farm.

We arrived without a problem, called the farm, and were told that Giorgos was out on the farm and he wouldn't be back until after 8pm...we should call back. So we left our cell number and went to get a few groceries and look for an internet cafe. We had at least two hours to kill. The bus station is apparently in the older, smaller part of town. We strolled around sticking out like sore thumbs with our packs and sad attempts at the Greek language. The guy in the bakery seemed to take pity on us and in his gruff mannor gave us free sesame sticks (which are actually round). So we bought a couple cookies and moved on to the market. After that we stopped at the old man bar for a beer, and I have to say, I don't know that I've met nicer people anywhere...but it's funny because people seem annoyed or even mad when they're being helpful or really nice. It's a little bizarre. We ended up missing Giorgos because the call wouldn't go through to the cell phone and he came to pick us up when we weren't at the bus station.... When we called back we were told to walk to the old Arta Bridge....again we asked for directions and were told it was about 1 kilometer up the road - straight up the road. After walking a good 2 kms, we asked a couple girls on the street - Arta yefira? Yeah, it was straight up the road, but it was a loooong way... So, 1 km turned into about 5 or 6...we were hot with our packs, but it really wasn't that bad. And we learned that Arta is quite a large town! The bridge was very cool - old, stone, and used only for walking now.

Giorgos picked us up and took us the rest of the way. We stopped at the main house for dinner with him, his girlfriend, Anke - a German horticulturist, and Barbara, another wwoofer from a Germanic part of northern Italy. Cluttered does not begin to describe this house, but everyone was friendly and happy to have us there. We were told that the next morning we could sleep in because they had business to conduct in the morning - we'd begin work about 2pm. Sweet!

Then we walked to the straw-bale house, which is where we're staying. It's a fairly large house with an addition going on the top of it out closer to the fields. We were greeted by two dogs - chained out front the majority of the time - and two cats - near starving it turns out. The place is literally made of straw (big bricks of it) and plaster. There is some metal that lends support and a tin roof, and some wood mostly for the stairs and around the windows. Everything is makeshift and looks in disrepair. The amount of clutter is overwhelming. It's really dirty....but we're already getting used to that. Our room is pretty simple - two cots, a few benches to put our things on, and a window with a screen that wouldn't keep out a pigeon (and doesn't keep out the cats) much less flies. As we were preparing to make the bed, something told me to pick up the mattress (really more of a pad), and there they were - tons and tons of little silver bugs on the mats between the mattress and frame - the kind that make your skin crawl. We folded up the mats and took them downstairs to shake out - yuck and yuck!!! When we went back, we put the mats down, the pad from the other cot, the pad from our cot and a quilt before putting our sheets down - thank you soooo much to my momma for making us sleep sacks that velcro together - we've used them everywhere, but never needed them more than now!!! So far, the creepy crawlers haven't made their way up to us.

All the animals have fleas, and the cats are way too hungry. Giorgos says they don't feed them much because they want them to hunt, but these cats are so hungry that any time we open the fridge, they climb inside, and when we have anything to eat, they are all over us. We ended up giving them some food so they'd leave us alone, and decided to start feeding them at least a little everyday because it's just not right not to - they are sooo skinny....

The first day was pretty chill. They didn't end up getting back until after 4pm so we didn't start working (weeding) until 5pm - we worked until 8:30. I started the day with cereal that turned out to have bugs in it...yum, yum! Now, we check everything! There's a makeshift balcony outside of Barbara's room, so we'll be hanging out there a lot - it's the nicest place in the house ;)

Today we woke up about 6:45 and started weeding at 7:30. We worked until 11am and then came to town. It's too hot to work in the middle of the day, so we'll work another 3 hours this evening when we get back - 6 hours each day is what is expected, and I think that's reasonable. Did you read that? Too hot to work in the middle of the day! :) YAY, Greece!

My time is almost up, so I'm going to have to leave the character development until next time ;p

Love to you all!!!
Lor