The holiday of Epiphany on Friday attached with the weekend could not be left undeveloped, however the weather force us to adjust our expectations in a two days trip because the forecast for Friday was rains in almost all the country during hole the day.
Manolis and Giorgos Z. had visited since Thursday - the weather was still good -Giorgos in his village Kleisoura of Filipiada. The team became bigger when Achilleas arrived from Salonica. I was stayed in Athens on Friday and I was planning to visit my village Varia of Etoloakarnania on Saturday morning if the weather was good enough. All these circumstances led me to propose to Giorgos Z. and Manolis who was available for a tour around me hometown. The guys accept my invitation and we give an appointment in Amfilochia around 1:00pm on Saturday.
In Amfilochia we drink our first coffee, we made some jokes, we said each other our news and we made some plans for our tour to Etoloakarnania.
Our first destination was Vonitsa and its castle. Vonitsa is a beautiful town close to Amvrakikos gulf. In its history was under Venetian occupation during this period was build it castle witch is well preserved. We took some photos from the outer side of the castle because its interior was not open to the public.
Next destination was Paleros, it is a seaside village in the region. Impressive is a stone bridge in a swampy area near the sea on the way from Paleros to Pogonia another seaside small village.
After Pogonia we rout to Mytikas one more seaside village. All the route is along the sea. In the see there are many small and large islands. The largest of these islands is Kalamos. Kalamos is a small settlement and it communicate with Mitika by small boats.
From Mytika the coastal route drive to town of Astakos. The scenery is spectacular with many islands which are called "Astakonysia" . We made several stops along the route in order to take some photos and to enjoy the scenery. We by bus Astakos through the regional road and arrived to the port of the region which is called "Platygiali." The Platygiali is a very large port that seems to have a modern infrastructure, but unfortunately has not ships. The port is remaining undeveloped for many years and it still has not found its role in the region.
After Astakos the daylight start to disappear, so we began to move rapidly to Etoliko. On the way we made a stop to photograph a Byzantine church that stole the attention of Manolis. When we arrived at Etoliko it was almost night, but the little light was enough in order to can sew the stone-built bridges connecting Etoliko with mainland Greece. Although this may seem paradoxical Etoliko is an island in the lagoon of Messolongi.
Then we move to Agrinio the biggest city of the region. We not focus to see the sight sing of the city but we had to found pads for the front brake of Giorgos Z motorcycle. We had seen the problem from Vonitsa and we motivate my cousin George P. who is also fun with motorcycles to help us. He made several phones and finally he managed to find the part although it was Saturday afternoon and all the stores was close.
The final destination was me hometown Varia. When we arrived we changed our clothes and refreshed ourselves, we sat around the fireplace to heat our bodies and then we went to a local tavern to eat local dishes. I felt very responsible in order to order to my friends a nice accommodation as they had offered me a lot of times their hospitality. I hope I did...
