"Akrata and Krathio: a great experience" Prefecture of Achaia by Aitana

Long time ago I had the opportunity to stay in Greece for six months.
It was 1992, the year of the Universal Exposition of Seville and the Olympic Games of Barcelona. I stayed in Akrata, a village in the prefecture of Achaia, as part of the European program Comett (later, Leonardo da Vinci). A fellow student also came within the same program and we enjoyed a great experience.

Demos Akratas
The municipality of Akrata is in the northeast of the prefecture of Achaia and includes several municipal districts: Akrata (administrative centre of the municipality), Agia Barbara, Ambelos, Kalamias, Krathio (Paralia Akratas), Mesorougi, Peristera, Platanos, Paralia Platanou, Porovitsa, Sylivaina, Valimi, Voutsimos and Zarouhla.
We were lent an apartment in Krathio, that is, Akrata beach. The house was in front of the sea, in fact only a narrow road and a line of tamarisks separated my balcony from the beach. We were working in a project for the municipality of Akrata and we used to go everyday to the Town Hall that was on the road from Krathio to Akrata, so we used to go up and down by walking. A good exercise!

Snow in Krathio

As we arrived in January and stay up to July, we enjoyed three seasons: winter, spring and summer. During the winter Krathio was too quiet. It had this air of many touristic places that seem sad when people have left when the summer is over. Anyway, I enjoyed very much staying there. I could walk along the seashore, except for the days that the wind made it impossible. After a few very windy days, I had taken a bath in the sea in a really sunny and warm day of late January. Two days later, when I woke up it was snowing. It was a fantastic experience for me to see the snow so close to the sea!
In Easter, Krathio suddenly filled up with people, coming to celebrate Pascha with their families or just to spend a short holyday. When the summer arrived we moved to Akrata with a couple of friends as “our” apartment was to be rented for summer season. The population of Krathio folded and there were always many people in the streets, in the beach, in the seafront restaurants…
Akrata and Krathio were the places we stayed most time, but we also used to go often to Sylivaina and Porovitsa, as they are along the coast and the walk was pleasant in spring and summer. We also visited Zarouhla, in Helmos Mountain, where the Krathis River begins (Krathis flows into the Gulf of Corinth near Porovitsa).

From Akrata, we often visited Patras, the capital of the prefecture. We used to go every week to Aigio, a city of around 30,000 inhabitants, midway between Akrata and Patras.
We also made several trips, specially around the Peloponnese: Corinth, Kalavrita, Mycenae, Epidaurus, Nafplio, Olympia, Zakynthos, Meteora and Delphi.

We met very good people in Akrata and I keep nice memories of all of them. I am still in touch with some of them and I have visited them when I have recently been to the Peloponnese. One of them is my Greek teacher. During the time we were living in Akrata, she taught us the Greek language and indeed she did a good work. It was incredible how much we learnt in so short time. In my case, I’ve been studying later in Spain and not only haven’t I forgotten the language but also have I improved quite a lot, having passed the examinations for the Certificate of Attainment in Greek.