Where the Bougainvillea Grows

Segment from Henry Gale’s “Greece for the backpacker” 2008 edition: KATSIMILA: Peloponnese region (Saronic Gulf Coast). Corinth 75km. Population: 950. Small harbour. Shingle beach. A few hotels, bars, tavernas and 2 supermarkets. One rather shabby discotheque. One bus to Athens, daily (change at Ligourio). Two hydrofoil flights to Piraeus (summer only). Fine Byzantine Church. Otherwise unremarkable. Set in 2008, the year before the words Debt and Austerity dominated any conversation about Greece, here is the real Greece and the real Greeks. Based in the village of Katsimilia, on the Saronic Gulf, gently leading you through their stories, to the ultimate dramatic climax, you re-discover the real Greece of local people.