Ancient Olympia, Mercouri Vineyard & the Coffee Cup That Almost Put Me In Prison

Katakolon, Greece, is a port that not many people have heard of because it is a small, quiet fishing village with little to offer aside from shops peddling local Greek treasures and trinkets and a strip of cafes and restaurants with Greek fare and a long list of seafood varieties. I have been here many times over the last few years, but never ventured outside of the small port area. With this new job, I have to go out on the tours and excursions that we have to offer so that I have a full understanding of what these places are. Like I mentioned before, Katakolon doesn't have a huge assortment of places to go out and explore, but it is known for one thing – Ancient Olympia.

I’ll be completely honest – with all the ruins in Europe, they are all starting to look the same with similar stories for each, but you only live once, right? Might as well go!

After arriving at Ancient Olympia, we went through the iron gates and back thousands of years to explore where many traditions began with the Olympics that we know today. My favorite part was seeing a group of archaeologists working on excavating even more of Olympia to understand more of the culture and the area of that time period. We ventured through and made our way to the location where the Olympic torch has been lit from for each game since the tradition was reintroduced in 1928 (see below photo). In the back area, we entered through a stone archway and saw the area where the field used to sit. It truly is just a dirt field now, but it becomes more when you picture what they lived like in those days and how they practiced daily for the Olympic games – both men and women alike, although the women were clothed in dresses versus men in their natural glory.

The guide had given everybody a bit of free time to wander out to the field area and gave us a meeting time and location to meet 15 minutes later. I went to the field and took a few photos on the winner’s podium (a pipe dream, I know) and came back fairly quickly. In my purse, I had my cup from my morning coffee that my Sorority sister and former roommate, Amanda, had given me. I thought it’d be fun to take a photo of the cup in Olympia just to send her a photo and say “hey…look where the Naked Grape cup has traveled!” I took a photo of it on two separate stones and thought nothing of it.

A few minutes later, one of the women who worked inside of the park came and told me that I had to delete the pictures I took of the cup. I asked her why and she just kept repeating for me to delete them. I told her to give me a reason and she said nothing new, so I just started to walk away and she threatened to call the police on me. Me, being the smartass that I am, told her to go ahead – I’d love to explain that I had the police called on me for taking a photo of my own cup. I could understand if I put it on one of the stones that was roped off – but I didn’t. People were leaning on the stones and taking photos all over the place! So – Amanda, if you’re reading this – I almost got arrested for a photo of the Naked Grape cup!

Needless to say, I was very ready to get out of Olympia and head to our next destination – the Mercouri Estate Winery and Vineyard for a tour and wine sampling. The property was absolutely beautiful with loads of flowers and greenery growing all over the rustic buildings. We walked all over the property and I took a ton of photos. At the conclusion of the tour, they took us to an open grassy area at the back where the vineyard sits. There were tables and chairs sitting under the trees providing a cooling shade and gentle breeze. Looking through the vineyard, we could see the rows of grapes and the sea right behind it – it was the perfect place to put up a hammock and relax for the remainder of the afternoon. I had absolutely no desire to leave there! At each table, we had a bottle of red, a bottle of their white, olive oil made from their olives and homemade cheeses, tomatoes, meats and cucumbers to rest beautifully upon freshly baked bread.

While at the vineyard, I managed to slip off and take a few photos of the grapes and even a photo of the Naked Grape cup in the Mercouri vineyards…I was looking over my shoulders for police, in case that was against the rules too!