Stories from Elea Beach 🇬🇷

November 6, 2022.

Elea Beach - Greece

After nine weeks full of new countries, people, and delicacies, we accidentally ended up in a Greek paradise... Only over time did we find out that the beach is supposed to be one of the most popular worldwide. Here's a little excerpt from the internet that describes it better than I ever could: 'The many kilometers long Elea Beach is covered with soft golden sand and is washed by the clear emerald green water of the sea. Along the beach stretches a dense pine forest, which provides life-saving shade and exudes an intoxicating scent of resin and pine needles' - very poetic 😊

Completely unplanned, we spent TWO months here.

First, we finally met our "just met" friends from the beautiful Lake Constance in Greece. We simply crossed northern Greece for them and went directly to the Peloponnese. The joy of reunion between young and old was great. When children have children, adults also have time for themselves 😊 We women finally started with yoga, enjoyed our "golden latte" (you can fantasize about that or simply "google" it yourself) and cooled off in the crystal clear sea. And the men? They drank beer.

After the "theroamingfoxes" (instagram) moved on, we moved for the first time at the beach.

If you imagine the whole hustle and bustle at the beach like its own little bubble, it goes like this: in the back part, it's rather quiet and each camper is quite far apart from each other. If you wanted contact with others, you had to plan a little walk, but it was also somehow clear that everyone preferred their peace and quiet there. Towards the "center of the village" there was the place where the retirees gathered. They could observe and comment on the colorful hustle and bustle of the neighborhood from a safe distance, but didn't have to be part of it. Then there was the center. Families gathered there, and there was always a lot of activity. In order to cautiously survey the situation, we positioned ourselves between young and old. This way we could get to know everyone we wanted and keep everyone away who we didn't want to interact with. Oh, and then there were the loners, who of course weren't loners for long. You could find them between the bushes and under the trees, as they mostly traveled with small vehicles, bicycles, and tents. We had lovingly given them the nickname "bushmen" at some point.

The larger the vehicles, the more sun was needed for the solar-powered roofs. And the more minimalist the traveler was, the more protected the spot had to be from wind and weather for the tent and its inhabitant among the many pine trees.

Over time, we discovered that the beach actually has everything in terms of "infrastructure" that you need. There were 3 fresh water stations, one of which was nicely paved and included a shower under the tree. At this central point, a sparsely built small shelf was set up as a "giving away place" where books and all sorts of things found new owners time and again. Large garbage bins made sure that the campers could more or less manage the waste issue at the beginning and end of the beach. Unfortunately, there are pigs everywhere in the world. And cats too!

From the locals, we learned to create a small hole in the ground as compost, so that even the amount of garbage in the bin was reduced.

In the mornings, a delivery service from the nearby Greek bakery drove by honking at the campers. We quickly had to get used to resisting the smell of the still warm sweet pastries wafting towards us from the loading area of the small delivery van. The children loved the bakery service because the driver always handed out candies. One spot further, where he couldn't count the children anymore to distribute his candies in their little hands, he regularly threw them into the crowd like "candies at carnival". Much to the delight of the children and much to the annoyance of the mothers, who often didn't just want to eat vegetarian or even vegan. No. Sugar-free and gluten-free were in vogue!!! One can only imagine what would have happened if the bakery service had also thrown out warm wheat pretzels full of gluten and fresh sausages from real animals. Hihihi... Okay, okay. I also cursed the candies ^^ By the way, they can be found all over Greece. Candies at every gas station, at every checkout, and at the market... I still haven't figured out what it's all about.

There was even a pickup service from the nearby laundry, where you could also have packages delivered. Then there were several harvested fields around us with lots of fresh vegetables lying around. An isolated orange tree, on which the best oranges were already lying in the grass, was gradually relieved of its load by the children and me. At an adjacent greenhouse, you could get a whole backpack full of cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers for a few euros, and a fresh coffee could also be had at the mini-market in the neighboring village.

Various services were also offered by different campers. For example, there was a camper for hairdressing services, various massages, a hypnotist, a voyeur, two tattoo artists, a solar expert, and of course, at least while we were there, our "first aid mobile". At least those were the ones we knew of 😊 Over time, Basti had himself tattooed after a hypnosis session, and Felix treated himself to a sound bowl massage after a children's course in macrame. I at least attended the Pilates class and shopped for homemade soaps... And Leonie. She always entertained the rest of us as usual.

So now to OUR stories from the dream beach.

I'm not sure what to tell exactly... It was such a special time, considering that we only planned to stay for 1-2 weeks and ended up staying for 2 months. We met so many amazing people, including some from our hometown at Lake Constance with their camper, the Buckelwaalfloß. When Felix starts school after the summer, he will already know his first classmate from the Greek beach, if fate does its proper work... The world is so small 

Maybe just 2 stories that will forever stay in my memory:

New boundaries.

Once upon a time, we had a day at the sea when we had some "almost-family-by-marriage" visiting. The cousin of our brother-in-law came by for a night. And if she's at the beach in Greece in December, of course, she also wanted to swim in the sea. As a "water child," I was immediately on board. Out of sheer excitement, we didn't pay attention to the fact that it was actually quite stormy, so we took off our clothes and jumped into the cool water. Fighting our way forward, we thought that once we were beyond the waves, it would be calmer and we could just drift. Anyone can probably guess that this was a big mistake. Once we arrived behind the waves, we realized what was about to happen and panic set in... How in the world would we be able to make it back to the shore in this storm? My gaze rushed over the beach and my thoughts raced. Two walkers. That's a good start. If we couldn't make it back to shore anymore, we could stay behind the waves and scream for help. What else do I see? My 5-year-old daughter. Playing in the sand with a bucket and a shovel. Peacefully absorbed in her game. A few minutes later, she became my motivation not to give up... We would have to accept that some of the 2-3 meter high waves would crash over us. I refused to believe that it was impossible to resurface if you just stayed clear-headed. So let's go! We fought towards the shore. I've always loved being under the water more than above it and can hold my breath for a relatively long time. Maybe that was my luck. But I had never experienced such panic before. After pulling each other up again after the first wave, my "cousin" stared at me coughing with wide open eyes full of adrenaline. In the same instant, I saw the next wave right behind us and my daughter playing far in front of us. While we fought against the force of the water, I knew in that moment that I would not allow her mom to not come out of the sea here and now!!! When my cousin, who is quite a bit taller than me, finally felt the sand under her feet again, I knew we made it. After a few meters with solid ground under our feet, we hugged each other in relief. Naked as we were, I told her how close that was. And what does she say with her "youthful recklessness" in her early twenties "...but somehow cool"! WHAT???!!! How far away can reality awareness be sometimes. Pretty crazy... After a quick shower, we made ourselves a 'golden latte' and sat tired and chilled by the fire.

Even now, as I go through everything again in great detail, tears come to my eyes at the thought of what could have happened. It will probably take quite a while before I can laugh about it. I have definitely set new boundaries for myself.

But now let's move on to a slightly nicer story...

For example, Christmas.

As a child, I remember always having beautiful Christmases. In our self-renovated farmhouse, there was always an impressive Christmas tree with real candles and many colorful gifts underneath after church as if by magic. First, potato salad with sausages was eaten in no time, while the beautiful gifts from the Christ Child beckoned in the background. With 5 kids, it was quite a big pile. Then we children, including the dog, reenacted the Christmas story. I was always a sheep as the youngest. There were no ear-deafening concerts with all kinds of recorder professionals or beginner pianists. At least not as far as I can remember. Well, and as adults with our own children, I always had some kind of stress because I wanted it to be just as beautiful for our children. Then in-laws here, mother there, father elsewhere... Where do we celebrate? Whom do we invite? When can we "accommodate" whom? Whom do we give what, or where do you start, and where do you stop? I was always relieved when it was all over. Somehow stupid... And here. In Greece. The pre-Christmas time passed quickly for us. Sun, beach, and sea don't really evoke many wintry feelings. We discussed with our friends that everyone would simply make their traditional dishes and everything would be placed on one table. Gifts for each child, a maximum of 4, and the adults would do a secret Santa. Done. Relaxed... Even though I missed the Christmas markets and the atmosphere, it was the most relaxed Christmas in a long time. We all dressed up as nicely as the camper wardrobe allows. The oleander in the middle of our camp became adorned with everything we found and crafted, and the Christmas goose simmered in the homemade clay oven. Since we couldn't feed the animals in the forest here in winter, we did a trash collection on the way there and a wood collecting walk on the way back. After that, magically, the Christ Child had come, and under the radiant oleander, there were lots of gifts. When all the children lay happily in their bunks in the evening, the adults distributed the secret Santa gifts by the campfire and laughed heartily over mulled wine and ouzo. Among the homemade presents were things like: a beautifully carved stick with everyone's names, which served as a fire poker, homemade speculoos liqueur, crocheted pot holders, decorations made of driftwood or similar. After a traditional Greek dance, the adults happily crawled into their campers.

Not for the first time since being in Greece, between Christmas and New Year's Eve, we realized that we hadn't seen anything of the country where we had been the longest so far, except for this beach and the cities to the left and right of it. Slowly, the travel bug seized us again, and we became more and more restless. But since we were still waiting for a package from Germany, we also spent New Year's Eve at Elea Beach until we finally managed to break free in early January.

So far, this was the most difficult goodbye since the beginning of our journey. As you can imagine, all long-term travelers or permanent adventurers are wired similarly, and you share so many common interests and opinions that you establish deep conversations and connections much faster than in the tightly scheduled, fully packed everyday life in Germany. The children also had a very intense time here with their new friends. Felix experienced his first fight with his best friend, which only brought them closer together, and Leonie learned so much from young and old that her first wobbly tooth showed up afterwards...

Who knows, maybe we'll come back here someday. And if it's on the retirement site and we can hopefully take the grandchildren along every now and then :-) We will never forget this time.

But now it's time for some sightseeing in the Peloponnese...