The museum in Ancient Olympia is most likely my favorite museum in Greece. This beautiful modern museum is packed with an enormous collection of terra cotta, glass and bronze artifacts as well as many partial and almost complete marble statues. We saw everything from jewelry and pottery to ornately painted cornices and punched metal details. The artistry of every object was astounding.



I love that her belly was a thing of beauty...

We have been to quite a few regions of Greece over the years and seen many of the most famous ruins... But we had not yet been to Ancient Olympia and what better time to visit than during the 2012 Summer Games...

I hadn't done a lot of research before our arrival, so was surprised at the great expanse of these ruins. This is especially notable since Ancient Olympia was not a city but built with the sole purpose of the Olympic Games. This modern town is now completely tourist driven with shops and tavernas resembling a smaller scale of what you will find in the Plaka in Athens. However, the ruins and museum set you in another time and it is incredible to feel the history under your feet as you explore the ancient site.






Entrance to the Stadium...


My feet on the marble starting blocks...


Kolya crossing the finish line ...

Jason's much anticipated arrival finally came after 5 weeks apart. This separation is the most difficult part of our adventures in Greece. Believe me, I have many moments before and during our trips abroad where I think I must be certifiably insane to be packing up and setting up temporary residence in a small village in Greece. But there is an undefinable pull here for me as well as a fulfillment for our desire to raise Kolya in a global experience. We want him to view the world and its people with a wide angled lens and to grasp any opportunities that come with that view. We have also fallen in love with our new family here and treasure our time with them. We are so incredibly blessed.

Kalamata Airport in Messini,
Greece ...




The excitement of Papa's arrival was palpable...




Finally reunited!

After an extensive search of just about every modern furniture store in and around Kalamata, I found the perfect sofa for our little living space. I wanted something with a modern look as well as a sofa that would convert to extra sleeping space for guests. I fell in love with this piece immediately but needed to run the color by my better half in the States. It is quite the bright modern green but somehow it spoke to me. I got the thumbs up and headed back the next day to purchase it. It's arrival in the village was highly anticipated as Kolya and I have been sitting on a blanket on the living room floor to watch the Olympic Games. But our former sofa was not invited back inside after the new floors were installed. It did however find a nice new home up in the mountains at a neighbor's cabin.

A little side note on that old sofa ... It holds a lot of memories for me. Whenever I would visit my Aunts, they would feed us a monumentally huge meal and then set us up in the living room for nap time on that sofa that had been laid open for sleeping. The rough hewn wooden door would be latched for our privacy and the shutters pinned open for whatever breeze we could feel ... As well as a good view of the neighbor's donkey lest we forget where we were when we awoke. The sofa was hard as cement and barely wide enough for two as we clung to each other to stay atop. Its a wonder we ever slept at all!

Back to the present... I could never quite understand the sofa design either. You had to gingerly take a seat so that the front legs wouldn't slide forward and send you straight to nap time. It wasn't until when we were moving the sofa that I was told that Aunt Voula had added the legs at one point ... Converting a sofa with under storage into extra sleeping space. Bravo for ingenuity ... Not so much for execution...






Before ...


After...

Happy 8th Birthday to an INCREDIBLE son! We finished designing and coloring Kolya's birthday party invitations this morning ... Birthday Party for Nikola... Sunday 5th of August 2012 at 8pm ... At the home of Nikola and Karen

Anticipating his birthday present brought over from the States...



Just what he wanted!


All built...

On Saturday evenings, we trek through the olive groves to the cemetery behind the main church in Arfara. We light the lanterns and incense at Martha and Voula's graves and light candles for Irene and Theodora in the ossuary. On this trip we also lit a candle for my dear Gram.

Kolya headed to the church to decorate Martha's grave...





Kolya crossing himself in the Ossuary with Irene ...



Stavroula D. Kapralos ... Age 87 ... Death January 15, 2010


Voula's grave ...



Martha D. Kapralos ... Age 91 ... Death February 12, 2008



Martha's grave...

As I mentioned before, I had to tear down much of my existing courtyard wall. These walls were built in the late 1800s and decades of decay and earthquakes had taken their toll. So now I've been sitting looking at my rubble of a yard and wondering what type of wall to build. I met with a wall builder who is now waiting to hear from a civil engineer regarding the new wall height limits. ( I'm guessing it was a bit more of a free-for-all in the 1890s. ) So, in the meantime I've been walking around the village snapping photographs of different wall and gate designs. The original wall was stone, hay and mud. My wall demo guy was able to neatly salvage a pile of these stones. However, rebuilding a stone wall is very time intensive and also requires much more space due to its thickness ... therefore making our courtyard smaller. So, we will build a concrete wall instead. The second to last photo is how my wall will be built. It will then be masked in concrete and painted white. I'm also keen on roof tiles as in the final image. Work will hopefully begin in another week!