Every trip starts, usually, with a phone call but this one started with a toast. We just raised our glasses and we all said "To Parnonas" and we drunk the beers to its honor. We already knew where we gonna go.
Me, Sakis, Maria and Peter were driving up the road to Parnonas Mountain headed to "Profitis Elias" upland, 1770 meters high.
Just before getting into the dirt roads we stopped at "Agios Petros" (Saint Peter) for something cold to drink and for last minute supply. Among all 5 cafes around we choose the most oldfashion-ready to fall down-authentic-traditional-no facilities-ancient one. A cafe with too much "couleur locale" (local color) as French used to say. It had a lot of local color but no toilet so Maria had to go to the next door cafe instead. The funny thing is that we payed only 2 euros for our 4 drinks and coffees . Half a euro each. Amazing huh? The old lady who owned the cafe was just counting heads. 1 head-half euro, 4 heads-2 euros. I suddenly felt like a zillionaire i could buy everything around but soon i realized i was just a ...head.So we took our heads and hit the road.
I didn't begin life hating arsonists but after all these late devastating fires around the Greece i start hating them. And guess what? A few kilometers away we saw heavy smoke coming up from the woods. We went closer and we found out that the forest was on fire and we were in the middle. We turn back and went to a safer place where i called to the Fire Department. "There is a huge fire in here. Do you want the coordinates from my GPS?" i said. "No thank you!!!" was the answer. "We are gonna send a vehicle just to check the area out". As a member of an Emergency Team i knew what we had to do. Safety first. So we started stopping the cars, telling drivers that there was a big fire ahead. We didn't even try to pulling the fire out because it was out of control. 15 minutes later a fire department car with two uniforms crew reached the area. Then they ask me for coordinates . Then a bigger fire track came and start setting the fire hoses. We gave them a helping hand, then we left and left them to hosed the fire down the way they knew.
An hour later we had reached our destination. In front of us it was the magnificent upland of "Profitis Elias". So flat, so big, so green, so beautiful. Around the upland there were a few hills. If you live in Netherlands you could call them mountain as well. Even if we were in the middle of the summer the temperature was quite low.That made us put some extra clothes at the first place.
We pitched the tents around a pine tree, set the table and the chairs and we started checking the area out. The place was full of wild mountain tea and tiny grasshoppers.The fresh air was passing through our nostrils made our lungs happy and all of us hungry.
So we lit a fire for two reasons. To grilled our steaks and 'souvlakia" and to kept us warm enough.We ate like kings and a queen. With a beer in our hand we were all gazing at stars. We could see every single star from up there.We talk about everything and then everyone stepped in his-her tent. Then "the Wind" came.I knew that Chicago Illinois nickname is "The Windy City" but that night, that place was about to win the "Windy" nickname from the official owner, Chicago. My dome-tent was not like turtle-shape anymore. It was like a turtle crushed twice by an 18 wheller overloaded semi-truck. It was a flat-shape tent or like a no-shape tent. I tried to fix the bending poles problem with some ropes but with no luck. With the poles down on my face all night long i tried to fall asleep. Poles were hitting my nose and made me think stupid things like "am i a big noser?" "Do i look like Steve Martin in Roxanne?" "Do i have a nose or a snout?" etc. Then i made "the pillow trick". Usually we used the pillow to place our head on it. I used the pillow to set my head under it. Now the tent poles were hitting the pillow not my nice nose. But i was still thinking stupid things. "Am i the only person in the world who put his pillow over his head?" "Are there any overpillowers like me?" And then the Morpheus (sandman) the ancient Greek god of sleep took me to his hands.
Normal people count sheep when they are going to bed in order to sleep. Nah-ha. I found myself counting sheep when i woke up. Is that normal or what?It was around 7 o clock in the morning when i got awakened by a bell symphony .I stuck my head out of the tent only to see we were surrounded by sheep. Hundreds of sheep each one with its own little bell tinkling. A "master dog" guided them through the fields. I name it "master dog" because he was the master of the flock. Like a real border collie guided the flock of sheep using "The Eye technique" He direct stared at sheep and intimidated them. That was great. No need for a shepherd ...just a good dog, a master dog. But even a master dog could be a hungry dog. He just ate every little left-over from our last night grand meal.
After he cleaned everything up , took his flock and went away.I stepped out of my tent, climbed up on the hills, fixed the tent's poles and i was waiting the rest of the company to woke up.
Then we were hanging around the upland trying to found places that none step a foot before and a better place for ...number two.
Later we lit a fire, eat again, drinking beers, enjoying the silence, took some pictures and finally fell asleep. I did the pillow trick again...just in case. Next morning found me counting sheep again but i slept well. I caught myself counting sheep heads.
I think head-counting it's something like a local tradition. I count our heads once more before we left the upland. I found us four. OK. Then we drove back to Athens. I was sleeping almost for the entire trip but you know something? I saw no head in my sleep. I was cured.
See you later overpillowers.
kostas.
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