Our Home in Nafplio
This month we are staying just outside Old Town Nafplio. We’re an easy walk from the pedestrian streets lined with shops and the harbor lined with super-yachts.
Our neighborhood is called Pronia. It’s mainly small apartment buildings, with plenty of restaurants, coffee shops, and stores that cater to locals, not tourists. The Main Street, 25 Martiou, runs alongside Palamidi Hill, with its old Venetian fortress up top.
Our second-floor apartment is not fancy, but it is spacious, with a full kitchen and a nice shower, and very clean. It also has air conditioning, which we are thankful for since it is quite hot outside, nearly 90℉ in the afternoon. I was hoping for cooler temperatures, since we’re at the end of summer and near the water. But Greece recently had a major heat wave, with temperatures reaching 110℉ in July and wildfires breaking out in August. It IS cooler now, and technically I got my wish. I guess I need to be more specific with my wishing.
We have a washing machine, but no dryer - pretty common in much of Europe. There’s a long clothesline on the rear balcony, which is convenient as long as we don’t drop anything (it would fall in the neighbor’s yard). A new laundry challenge was understanding the controls on the washing machine. Thank goodness for the Google Translate app! I just pointed my phone camera at the knob, and then knew what to do.
As an energy-saving feature, when we open any sliding glass door to the balconies, the air conditioners automatically shut off. And at the host’s request, we keep the hot water heater off, turning it on only prior to taking a shower. (This is apparently a safety measure as well as an energy-saving one.) Speaking of showers, the tap water is fine for washing, showering, brushing teeth, etc.. But it tastes salty, so we’re using bottled water for drinking and cooking.
Another new experience in Greece - not just in our apartment, but almost everywhere - is disposing of toilet paper properly. Toilet paper cannot be flushed, due to old sewage systems with narrow pipes. We have learned to fold the paper and put it in a little step can, and to empty the step can every day or two. Probably more than you wanted to know!
