Patras Day Three

 For my adventure today I decided to go to a winery. Achaia Clauss is well regarded in the area. Broadly, this region does semi-sweet whites which have all been lovely. Typically I stick to dry wines but I’ve been wasting a lot of local food. If it grows together it goes together.

I walked to a taxi rank and hailed a cab. On the way over he was excited to tell me all about the winery. It seems to be a point of local pride. Less prideful was the traffic. The farmers are protesting a lack of government assistance by blocking the intercity highways. That does not bode well for tomorrow’s bus ride. 

The taxi wound through the hills up to the winery. Tall pines lined the road and we came to a stop in front of a beautiful castle. The driver excitedly dropped me off and bid me farewell. I walked through the castle walls to the estate’s testing room. I was greeted by a sheet of paper bearing bad news. The winery is closed today and I need to call a phone number to buy bottles. Hoping for the best, I called the phone number which rang out until the call dropped. Damn.

At least the view was nice

Now I’m stuck at the top of a hill outside of town with no cab. Cool. The bus wasn’t going to come to the stop at the bottom of the hill for over a half hour so I fired up the ChevroLegs and started walking. I figured I could walk to a more frequent bus stop or at least hail a cab on the street. I did manage to find one and in broken English he attempted to explain to me why he could not take me as a fare. For me, knowing he was unable was enough. I walked to a power center where a bus would take me into the city.

It is so odd seeing big box retail outside of the US. The parking lots always feel weird, the spots are too small and close together. I went into an electronics store that seemed to be a Greek version of Best Buy. Since my last power bank decided to do its best impression of a balloon, I ditched it and it had been on my mind to find another. I think the most interesting thing I saw was in the appliance section. Electric Greek coffee pots. Very simple and very specific. 

The bus downtown was uneventful as was my walk back to my apartment. I’d burned through much of the day on my misadventure and so I took a nap and watched a documentary. Gonzo journalism is a favorite of mine and Channel Five by Andrew Callaghan is doing some of the best reporting I’ve seen for some time. I watched his series on San Francisco, shot in 2023 and focusing on retail crime, fentanyl, and gentrification. Long Beach isn’t so different. Beautiful, culturally rich, murdery, and expensive. Coming to Greece and seeing people living in an urban environment with little crime, little police, and lots of trust made me wonder why they can have this and we can’t. Inequality is often cited as a reason for the discontent and hopelessness. I feel like that’s a bit of a vague non-answer. Ordinary people here are given a reasonable opportunity to live a life with dignity within the confines of the law. Many Californians are not afforded that chance. Why do we think it’s sane to have teachers and janitors live over an hour from where they work? People should not have to travel so far for dignity. Working theory subject to change.

For dinner I took my book to a small plates restaurant for some roasted eggplant and white wine. The new read is a Dean Koontz compilation of short stories. Spooky stuff. Tales of the undead go well it eggplant. I called it a night.