Letter 4

Do you know what I find so wonderful about travel? Falling in love. You’re hopping between different situations where falling in love happens so quickly and easily and you can’t help it. I’m not an emotional person, but I have seen landscapes, heard words and had experiences which have bought tears to my eyes. I fell in love with travel.

I want to properly introduce you to where I first fell in love. Koroni. After only being there for a few days it felt like home. I then had 6 weeks to enjoy it.

I’m going to show you around a bit – I hope you can see the picture. Up in the north west of the town within fields of green is camping Koroni. The best campsite I have ever had the pleasure to stay at, and where we all stayed whilst volunteering. Google it, it’s grand. It’s up a steep(-ish) hill from the main town where we walked every day, but there is also a secret track down to Artaki beach, which I grew very fond of. It’s not quite as picture perfect as the golden sands of Zaga beach on the south, but I spend so many hours and days on this little beach that it really is my favourite. It has a beautiful view towards the pier and the restaurants lining the waterfront and it’s where the locals go – who I also became very fond of. But Zaga is also very special to me because that’s where I met my turtles. We took it in turns to walk the length of the beach every morning at sunrise finding tracks and protecting our nests. Sunrise is my favourite time of day, and this experience only confirmed it. The town was typically Greek and perfect. Everyday we would wander round, be greeted warmly by the locals, see returning tourists and have many ouzos…

From the town we could head up to the beautiful monastery at the top of the hill – the eastern point of the town. It was stunning. We watched sunset over the pier, looked over our turtle’s beach and even climbed down to the secret castle beach at the bottom of the cliff. Now that is special. On the big flat bit of green in the farthest eastern area was where my donkey lived. I used to visit him most days and feed him carrots. His hoof was tied to the ground and he could only walk in a small circle, so I wanted to take care of him. The peace and quiet from up there is like nothing I have ever felt before. I also felt completely safe. At night, without the glaring lights of a city and being surrounded by the sea, this place was spectacular. It’s the only time I’ve ever been able to see the milky way. It really blew my mind and me and my friends would stay up there for hours star gazing. Often in complete silence.

koroni

Falling in love with Koroni taught me something. Travelling is not about seeing as many countries as you can. It’s not about getting photos next to the most famous landmarks in cities of the world. For me, it’s about experiencing everything about a place before moving. When I am eventually able to travel for a long time, I will travel slowly. Fully immerse myself in a culture before moving on.

Koroni is a tiny spec of Greece. Greece is only a tiny part of the world. But I feel I could write pages and pages about it. This is how I want to feel about every place I visit.

I want to fall in love over and over again.

From Lou

About Me

Archelon’s Page

Camping Koroni