The Peloponnese

This is the bus stop at Isthmos, near Loutraki in Corinth. This is a very important place to know if you are heading into the Peloponnese. Loutraki is the port area and is also where the Corinth canal is. The Peloponnese is actually a peninsula but the Corinth canal now cuts it off from the mainland. The canal is very short and narrow and all transportation on the ground passes over it. We arrived in Athens airport late in the afternoon. We took the suburban railway between the airport and Corinth and by the time we reached Corinth, it was dark and we couldn't see anything. We arrived at Korinthos and the station was in the middle of nowhere. There was a bus waiting and we asked (by way of hand signs) for a place to sleep (a hotel), the driver beckoned us to get on board. We had no clue where we were going and where the hotels were. Apparently, it wasn't apparent to us when we first arrived, they do have a town center. My first thought was, 'oh my god, this is going to be one big adventure.' There was this guy sitting next to us. I asked, 'do you speak English?' He did and he led us to a hotel and to the bus stop (next to the hotel) where we can take the bus to Loutraki to catch the long distance buses.
So the bus stop at Isthmos is very important, all buses from the Peloponnese passes through here to go to Athens. Similarly all buses from Athens goes through here to go to the various towns in the Peloponnese. One can also take a taxi to get here, which was what we did one morning because the bus to Loutraki wasn't forthcoming. There was this crazy local woman who shared the taxi with us. Taxis are much cheaper here than in other European cities. The names Corinth and Korinthos are synonymous. Just as we call Sparta, the locals call it by the Greek name, Sparti. Before long we were using the Greek names ourselves. Then there is the Greek writing for these names, forget about that, they were indecipherable to us. We spent 3 days in Sparti and we could then recognize its Greek writing for it and also for Athens. I need to learn the Greek alphabet before my next trip.