Patras, Greece Day 1, a 10km Run Across the Rio-Antirrio Bridge, a Grecian Farm Tour, and Beach Time

Thursday July 3rd 

Our first day full day in Patras! I was eyeing up the Rio–Antirrio Bridge bridge yesterday and thought that running across it would be a cool activity to do while in Patras. This bridge is one of the world’s longest cable bridges, stretching almost 3 kilometers across the sea. It was completed in 2004, just before the Athens Olympic Games, and it connects the Peloponnese peninsula at Rio with mainland Greece at Antirrio. If you want to drive across the bridge, be prepared to pay 30 euros in tolls, but, if you cross it on feet, you can enjoy it for free. I asked Sofia about running across it, and when she mentioned it was her mom's favorite running path and it's only about 6 miles in total (1.5 miles to the bridge, 3 miles while on the bridge, and 1.5 miles to get back to the hotel). I thought that was completely doable (I had only ever ran 6 miles once and that was a month ago, so successful is a stretch, but doable for sure).

I woke up at 7:30am so that I could get it in before it got too hot out. I put on my training outfit and went out for the run. I opted, hesitantly, to run on the beach because it looked like it would be a bit shorter than the road and was more scenic. It was definitely much harder trudging through sand. I tried to run along the harder stones, but there was only so much I could do. My mile time was embarrassing because of the sand, plus I was stopping for photos, videos, all things. I feared this run was going to take me a while. 

The sand turned into a road thankfully, although there was some construction going on, but I was grateful for some pavement to run on. I was nervous about finding the stairway up to the bridge, but by pure luck there was one right along my trail. I walked up the stairs and now was at the main event of my run. I was so excited to run along this bridge. I was 1.5 miles into my run, I was already a bit tired but I wanted to keep going as it felt like that was the warm up and the actual run was starting now. There were only a few people walking along the bridge otherwise I pretty much had it to myself. 

It was a bit of a struggle the first half of the run. I would walk when the sand got challenging or when I wanted to be cautious around the construction workers, and I also had to walk for part of the bridge. I was wondering if I was out of shape, or the heat was getting to me, but I was only 2 miles in and really struggling. I was walking and my heart rate never fell below 140... which is literally my zone 2 cardio target heart rate. But, then thought I’d never get back for my 8:30am sauna appointment if I keep walking so I started back up running about halfway across the bridge (I still missed the appointment).

I was thinking I caught a second wind or was experiencing runners high because it got much easier and I didn’t change much in my run. It was neither haha. It was actually the slope of the bridge that was helping me out as the first half was an incline and the second half was more downhill. It was crazy how much the slight incline and decline helped or challenged my running. I was cruising now, but debating if I should turn back to return in case we left for an activity or just so I wasn’t gone too long. But I couldn’t. I wanted to run across the entire bridge and I didn’t want to tell people that I only made it halfway, I wanted to say that I ran down and back, so I did just that. I made the decision and went for it and I’m glad that I did. It got more beautiful as I got closer to the other side of the bridge. 

When I reached the other side, I kid you not, I threw my arms up in victory, happy that I accomplished my goal... but then I soon realized that this meant I was only halfway. Still, the fact that I had the grit to not turn around when it got hard and instead keep going to achieve my goal, made me proud of myself. The rest would be sheer perseverance in order to finish off the run and get back to the hotel. The hard part was done, the mental tackle. And now I was well aware of the course terrain, knowing the first half of the bridge back would be difficult but the second half would be a breeze. And then at that point it's just the beach back which will feel like I’m almost there. This was what I was telling myself at least, and I really wish it had been that simple. The bridge back went well, although I was walking more often than I'd prefer, but did try to run as long as I could on the decline. But the beach section was rough. I walked a good amount of that portion because it felt impossible to get any traction on the sand and make progress without my heart beating out of my chest. 

Despite the last part of the run on the beach feeling eternal and nearly impossible, I’m really happy that I went on that run. I felt like I checked off so many things by doing that. I saw a main attraction in the area, I got in a workout, I saw the mountains and water up close, and I explored beyond the hotel. It was challenging but I felt great afterward. I sat down for breakfast, it taking me about 5 glasses of water and a solid 5-10 minutes to regulate my heartbeat. But, the view of the sea and the air slowly warming up from the sun, brought an overwhelming feeling of relaxation. I stayed planted far longer than it took for me to complete my breakfast. I ate plate after plate of fruit and peanut butter toast. We were eventually joined by Karen and Wendy. We talked there for a while, making plans to see the Sofia's family farm, which I was really excited to do. Wendy texted Colton and just an hour later, he picked us up and brought us to the farm for a tour.

The farm was super cool. It was close to our hotel, hidden in a more industrial area of the town. We pulled onto a dirt road driveway up to a cute Grecian home. It had trees surrounding, with one of the flowering purple ones. It was a moment of realization for me. Again, how lucky am I. Never would I have imagined this for myself, touring a greek estate. We also got to see the interior of the farm home, a very simple layout, two story home shaped in a perfect equal block with four rooms on the ground floor - two living rooms, the kitchen, and an office, and then four rooms upstairs. We then walked outside and got to see all the different fruit frees growing on the property. There were olive, grapefruit, orange, lemon, grapes, fig trees, and more. We were outside walking around and talking a lot and hearing the stories of the farm's history. Colton explained that this was once a working farm, they had two employees, one housemaid and one groundsman. However, as of late it's been more a hobby farm, gifting the goods to friends and family in form of jams, oils, wine, etc.

Yolani the housemaid got in around the time that we were on our way out, but before doing so, she found and picked us fresh figs from the tree to eat. I got my own and it was so delicious. That was the first time trying a fig, and the fact it was from a tree grown on a hobby farm in a small town in Greece, how cool.

We didn’t want to take too much of Colton's time so we wrapped it up and headed back to the hotel. We were probably there for almost an hour, so a good chunk of time, enough to get a proper tour of the farm. When we got back to the hotel, we divided and conquered, getting on our swimsuits and planning to meet up at the beach.

We didn’t get to the beach until about 1:30pm and I was nervous about taken chairs but we scrounged together six that we lined up in a chatting circle. I put on my music and pulled out my laptop for journalling. The water was the most beautiful and crystal clear blue that it was the perfect backdrop to getting some writing done. Oh, how I could do this every day. How I want to do it every day, be in close proximity to the ocean that I can come here to find peace. Hopefully soon.

We chilled at the beach for a while. I journaled and therefore didn’t want to get wet until my writing was in a good spot. Mom and Wendy took the first shift dipping their toes in the water. They were planning on going farther but the water was much cooler than expected. For how hot the weather was, it didn’t transfer into the water. They came back after their got their fair share of the sun, and then went to the beach bar and grabbed drinks. Mom got me a fresh squeezed orange juice and it was super refreshing. It came with a nut snack mix and that tied me over as well. After a few hours of journalling and a near dead laptop, I finally went in the water. It was chilly, but once I finally dived in, it was incredibly refreshing. I love just swimming in the water, feeling the dream wrap around me. Also, I had just spent the last two hours staring at it so it was nice to be in it. I tried swimming out farther to see if I could get a better view of the bridge and mountains, but it was just about the same. I was out there alone for a while so I took the moment to reflect on my life, feeling immense gratitude for where I exactly was. 

When I was swimming into shore, Karen made her way to take a dip in the water, so I stayed in the sea a bit longer, absolutely no complaints, and we chatted out there for a while. After about 15 minutes, we got out and spent the rest of our afternoon on the beach. As much as I love swimming in the water, I think I love staring at it even more. I got out of the water, read a little bit, auxed some tunes, and enjoyed the beach day to the fullest.

We planned on eating near the hotel before the rehearsal dinner, which was also very close to the hotel. So, we all got ready for the party and headed to Rattan, the restaurant next door to our hotel, and they had incredible food. I got this green goddess salad, the flavors paired so well together and it was surprisingly very filing. After dinner, we made our way to the rehearsal at Tulum, two buildings down from Rattan, I could not believe how close in proximity everything was.

I was excited to talk to and meet people at the party! I got to chat with so many different and fun people, also try some of the appetizers they had, and watch the sun set over the water. It was a fun night and truly felt like a party I got to join in on. Patras was shaping up to be one of my favorite stops, filled with unique experiences that would be marked in my memory forever as the time and place I got to go to a Greek wedding.