Discovering Kavala

        Well, certainly Halkidiki has been an exciting experience, but there were some minor inconveniences too. The road, although perfect for driving was a long way for us and we felt tired in both directions. Furthermore two days of our vocation have been lost in traveling. Southern Greece and the islands there were even further away and usually destination for the richer who we were not. For the same reason we avoided Athens at the time, it was planned for the future. Mentioning planning I have never seriously planned anything in my life, or to be precise whenever I tried to plan anything, all my plans failed after all. It doesn't mean that I didn't apply enough efforts and energy in fulfilling my dreams, efforts and energy I allways have in abundance. I think it is an inherited feature from my grandfather. He was an wise man and allways used to say "Work in vane, don't stay idle!", he ment that one day your efforts wold be repaid. My English teacher calls that "The law of encreased returns" and it roughly means the same thing, only he adds that that law is older then the history of human existence and even a small amount of energy spared today would return to you times in results in the future. To be honest for me it comes somehow easy, I mean I am restless by nature and wasting efforts and energy just corresponds to my character. My grandmother who was also wise woman used to put it differently, she used to tell me " You have gipsy ashes in your bottom", she ment that I coldn't stay calm for two minutes. Ah, sorry I am digressing, I was talking about planning or why I usually avoided it. Simply because my experience often proved wrong any plans, I often "catch the last train" usually unplanned. I hope you got my idea, so ahead to Greece again!

         The following year we were looking for a place somewhere near to Sofia, with less hours spent  on the road and Northern Greece seemed the perfect location. So how we "discovered" Kavala, by accident again, or should I say by chance, beacause as usual I have called the last moment our travel agency and they advised us the nearest city on the sea was Kavala. We've had some hesitations  should we go by car or by motor bike (my son prefered bike riding and I liked better driving the old "Ford") and finally we decided to go by bus, which even changed our final destination to a place I had never heard before - Keramoti, but which has become our favourite for the next ten years.
                                                                                                                   

       About Keramoti I would tell you next time, now we decided that we can catch the bus to Kavala, stay there as long as we wished and then continue further East. So we did. Well, there was another concideration either - Kavala wasn't the image of summer resort I had in my mind for a vocation. It is a big city, the second largest city in Northern Greece and its trafic and season crowds might come a bit more than we expected from a holiday. When I saw Kavala for the first time I immediately envied the Greek architects /present and ancient/ for the magnificient location this city had. They just had all the natural prerequisites to build an extremely charming city - amphitheatrical land overlooking the lit up by the sun deep blue sea, Byzantine castle at the top, picturesque harbor down, cosy little parks and gardens, 16th century aqueduct flying over the steep meandering streets. I wouldn't like to repeat some more talanted descriptions about Kavala, I better add some of our pictures from it which may give you some idea.

                                              

     Kavala has enchanted us, it is a kind of a city one would only dream to be born in. I would, and I think my ancestors have missed their chances to settle down there in their times. History anals reveal that Kavala was twice ocupied by bulgarians in its modern history, I wouldn't like to refer to the ancient one. So why many bulgarians live or work there at present. (Sigh) with a bit of luck ... who knows.

To be continued