Day Three in Plepi, Greece

from the notebooks, July 2020

The following is excerpted from a notebook I kept while we were visiting the southern Peloponnese in July of 2020. We happened to be there when the newly discovered comet Neowise, “the brightest comet in the northern hemisphere since Comet Hale–Bopp in 1997,” was visible to the naked eye. This was in the summer of 2020 after the first Covid spring. Although the EU travel ban had lifted, Greece was still closed to visitors from outside of the EU. Eager to escape the city, we had flown into Athens, rented a car, and driven three hours over winding mountain roads to an airbnb on the remote Argolid Peninsula.

That night, while we were outside searching for Neowise, a family arrived at the house next door. Their pool lights flared on. They sat on the porch talking, and I felt keenly the loss of quiet and privacy. Their dog began barking and didn’t stop for three hours. The next morning, when I went onto the balcony to write, they were already out there, cleaning the pool, playing the radio, talking. I was annoyed with myself for not getting up earlier, for surrendering the best, most private part of the day to sleep. The dog began barking again. From my perch I saw the top of the man’s white hat moving around his pool.