Heipei

Our next stop after Katakolo was Kalamata, the second most populous city of the Peloponnese. We hadn’t been able to find a hotel quite as nice as in the other cities, but at least it was right at the long waterfront promenade.

We noticed that Kalamata is probably not a prime destination for international tourists right when we arrived. We parked our car in front of the hotel. The building next to it was unfinished concrete, like one is used to seeing in certain parts of Greece. The hotel itself was OK, but a little dated. At the least we had a grand view from our balcony, see the photo below.

On day one, we walked into the center of Kalamata by way of a small footpath along a park which had been created in place of the old rail lines. The park, like the hotel, was OK, but neglected, and that was a feeling we had repeatedly in the small streets of Kalamata. Again, this is only the tourist in me speaking as I’m sure that Kalamata is a happening place to be for Greeks, not just because of the nightlife and beaches.

Near the center of Kalamata, we went up to Kalamata Castle, located on a steep hill and overlooking both city and bay in all directions. The view was nice, but we had the strange feeling of being the only tourists in the whole city on that day. I took a lot of photos of derelict buildings which looked like they had seen better times. We also found a sublime place to eat on that first night, dining at a small Greek restaurant without a written menu in one of the roads branching of from the beach promenade. There is not terribly much else to say about Kalamata, so I’ll leave it at that. The next day we went on a tour which was pretty much the highlight of our whole vacation, which is why I’m dedicating a separate post to that.