An unexpected trip

Hello there!

I hope that you are doing well and that you are enjoying spring, wherever you are. For me, what happened last weekend came as a surprise, as my mum and I went to an impromptu trip to Sparta, in Peloponissos. Since it was a long weekend, it was the perfect opportunity to visit this city that I haven't been in a really long time (almost 10 years now) and just relax.

On the first day, we visited Mistras. It is a fortified town and a former municipality in Laconia. Situated on Mt. Taygetos, near ancient Sparta, it served as the capital of the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea in the 14th and 15th centuries, experiencing a period of prosperity and cultural flowering. The site remained inhabited throughout the Ottoman period when it was mistaken by Western travellers for ancient Sparta. In the 1830s, it was abandoned and the new town of Sparta was built, approximately eight kilometres to the east. Since the 2011 local government reform, it is part of the municipality Sparti, of which it is a municipal unit.

It was so beautiful up there, as the sun was shining but it was still a bit chilly, so it was quite comfortable to walk a lot more than usual. After a quick lunch, we went to Sparta to check in and walk around the city a bit. 

In the evening, we had a glass (or two) of wine at the Sparti square, where we snug into a quiet little cafe just talking and making plans for the next few days.