We awoke bright and early to be sure to catch our 6 am bus to the Gorge. It was about a 1 hour bus ride to the Gorge, with a stop for breakfast along the way. Our 40 person bus drove on a twisty-curvy-road that was about a wide as a small alley in some places. I don’t know how that guy makes his turns, it’s pretty amazing. Most people slept. I had some coffee so I was good to go.
I suppose I should point out that we opted for the all day trip. Let’s let that sink in. I am going to hike, all day, in nature. There was not a café, starbucks, peets, or any other coffee shop along the way for me to re-hydrate. And, I am going to be doing this for an entire day. I can’t do anything for over an hour, much less hike in nature for a day. What am I going to go when I get bored about an hour into the hike? These are the thoughts that are going through my head as we head up the cliff. Fortunately, my mind is off this when we arrived. The view was pretty amazing. Then we start the hike.
The way the hike works is
1. You start at the top, hike down on a steep path that has steps in some parts. This is when the knees and ankles get their workout. Constant turning on slippery rocks. You sort of lose sight of the top of the Gorge, because there are lots of trees.
2. then walk along for a while at sort of a mid level for about hour. But you walk up and down hills. Lots of up and down. At this point a group of French teenagers literally sprints past us. I felt it unnecessary for them to flaunt their age so blatantly.
3. I think at this point you reach alittle village where people actually lived. Not sure what you’re supposed to do here. I guess you sit and rest. I don’t know. It’s a blur. I do remember that there were goats there. I wasn’t amused. I did take a scary picture of a goat.
4. After the village, you are effectively on the bottom. You walk in the middle of the gorge for a long while. On lots of rocks. You also start crossing a creek, that apparently sprouts up out of nowhere. NOTE TO STARBUCKS: lots of great opportunities for a café here. There is lots of space, you have a captured audience (literally – there is no place for them to go). It’s a nice scene and I am sure you can get squatters rights on the land. Or, buy it from the people that used to live in the village. Either way, great place for a starbucks. I took video footage of some key starbucks locations.
5. You get to another resting point. My initial understanding was there was supposed to be food here. I was wrong. No food. You just sort of sit and drink your bottled water. Some people were going up to a fountain getting water. I am certainly not going to drink water from a fountain in the middle of nature. That’s a bit disgusting.
6.Finally you get to the Gorge. I was told that you could touch both sides of the Gorge if you stand in the middle. You can’t. Partially because I am short, but I think Michael Jordan would struggle. Also, there are tons of people there, some walking, some taking pictures, some just hanging out. It was actually pretty cool…with the exception of all the people there. Where did all these people come from? Well, they took the short route; a bus drops you off right outside the cool part, you walk through and walk back to your bus. At the point I get angry. Not only are all those people upsetting this pretty cool experience, especially for Nature, but they don’t deserve. The did not go through steps 1-5 to get there.
7. After the Gorge ending you can stop at a place to get food and water and orange juice. We did. It wasn’t good. I was ready to move on.
8. You have to walk about 5 miles to the Sea. We don’t know what Sea it was, but I think you could see Lybia. I decided to call it the Sea of John, but Lybia might object.
9. You are supposed to swim in the sea. There are a number of problems: 1. there isn’t a place to change, 2. it’s a rocky, pebble beach, 3. the rocks were hot. So here’s what happens:
1. We change in the back of the beach somewhere. Lots of people saw me naked. I lost my boxer briefs.
2. We burned our feed getting into the water
3. It hurt while in the water, because it was all rocks and pebbles
10. You take a 2 hour bus ride home. A kid booted on the way. It was awesome.
We had dinner at a cool place called Eli. It was authentic. They had people playing guitar, the food was good.
We wake up tomorrow for a relaxing drive back to the airport and then a massive travel situation. Chania-Heriklion-Athens-Istanbul-Kayeri
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Day 15 Traveling to Hania (Chania) – or driving the minivan through crete
On the drive to Chania
The beach town
Chania Harbor
Joanna and I shooting the horrible tasting post-dinner drinkWe got on the road rather early to head to Chania. A cool town on the other side of Crete. We got lost trying to get out of Heriklion (see above for reasons why). We finally got on the right track when we stopped at a gas station and were told that we need to go, “500 miles, then turn left.” “500…miles?” “yes, miles.” Given that 500 meters equals 3.75 miles, we decided that 500 miles = .75 kilometers. Once on our way, we had absolutely gorgeous views along the mountains and sea. Even if the town isn’t that great, the drive there was pretty much worth it. We stopped in a crazy town along the way, “rath…something” it was a nice enough beach town and we bought some beach clothes and had some dinner. Mostly just a bunch of touristy stuff.
Once in Chania, we drove around about 2 hours trying to get to our hotel. Our hotel (the Palazzo) was nice enough and had air-conditioning. The girls decide they want to check out a beach about 45 minutes away. I wasn’t as interested in beaches, so Joanna and I went to explore the town. While we were exploring the town we started to think about our plans to go visit the Samaria Gorge. The front desk clerk told us in broken English that we just needed to go to the bus station and catch a bus and everything would be fine. Our guide book had a different story. They suggested we go through a tourist agency. We opted for the tour agency. The tour agency told us we needed to be back at 6. That’s early.
Joanna and I grabbed dinner on our own. It took us a while to find the restaurant (Antigone) because a) it was wasn’t where it was supposed to be. And b) There was a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in its place and the owner tried to convince us to go there. He tried a three pronged approach to persuading us. 1. He charged the same amount in the winter and summer, 2. his dad started the restaurant and its been in the family for a while, 3. he would give us our food for free if we didn’t like it. All very tempting; except it smelled really badly there. So, we kept searching. After a while we found our place. It looked ok. The waiter/owner told us the freshest fish was swordfish. It didn’t matter because it didn’t taste very good. We were saved by the fact that we had to do about 4 shots of the crappy after dinner drink that tastes similar to the home-made spirits in Hvar town. Off to bed to prepare for a day of nature and hiking.
Once in Chania, we drove around about 2 hours trying to get to our hotel. Our hotel (the Palazzo) was nice enough and had air-conditioning. The girls decide they want to check out a beach about 45 minutes away. I wasn’t as interested in beaches, so Joanna and I went to explore the town. While we were exploring the town we started to think about our plans to go visit the Samaria Gorge. The front desk clerk told us in broken English that we just needed to go to the bus station and catch a bus and everything would be fine. Our guide book had a different story. They suggested we go through a tourist agency. We opted for the tour agency. The tour agency told us we needed to be back at 6. That’s early.
Joanna and I grabbed dinner on our own. It took us a while to find the restaurant (Antigone) because a) it was wasn’t where it was supposed to be. And b) There was a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in its place and the owner tried to convince us to go there. He tried a three pronged approach to persuading us. 1. He charged the same amount in the winter and summer, 2. his dad started the restaurant and its been in the family for a while, 3. he would give us our food for free if we didn’t like it. All very tempting; except it smelled really badly there. So, we kept searching. After a while we found our place. It looked ok. The waiter/owner told us the freshest fish was swordfish. It didn’t matter because it didn’t taste very good. We were saved by the fact that we had to do about 4 shots of the crappy after dinner drink that tastes similar to the home-made spirits in Hvar town. Off to bed to prepare for a day of nature and hiking.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Day 14 Hirkilion (Iriklion) – or – “they respected the nature…AND!!! the womans”
A Minoan house in Konosis
Joanna and I on the edge of the cool valley
Another pic of the cool scene when we got lostMost of our next day in Heriklion was spent figuring out how to get off the island and where to stay. It looks like the best option was to fly from Heriklion – Shanghai – New York – Moscow – Brussles – Istanbul – Bodrum and then a 14 hour bus ride from Bodrum to Kayseri, ending with a Camel ride from Kayseri to Urgup. We chose the next best option which was Heriklion – Athens – Istanbul – Kayseri (overnight there) – bus to Urgup.
After spending the day coming up with these fantastic flight options, we headed to the palace of Konosis. The guide book suggested we get a guide – which isn’t hard because at almost any site you visit there are 50 guides asking if you want a guided tour.* There were two guides at the door, one didn’t seem to speak English and seemed barely legitimate, the other (a women) seemed to speak English well. She said that if we waited 35 minutes we could go with her. That was fine with us. While we were waiting we watched the guy who didn’t speak English well hussle everyone that came through the door and then went into the palace to hussle more folks. Our woman stood there and did nothing. We liked our choice. About 45 minutes into our wait, we watched the woman go off with a small German family – for a personal tour. The other guy who was hussling generously offered to show us around, but he wanted us to wait until he found more people. After about an hour, we finally started our tour.
The tour was actually pretty interesting. The Palace was base of the Minoan civilization. Its pretty old (over 3500 years), but its still pretty decently preserved and you could still see the labyrinth of the city. It didn’t take too much imagination to see how they lived. We lucked out with our tour guide – in terms of the unintentional comedy that he brought about. He started off by saying two things:
“You see, they had no protection, this means they didn’t fear the peoples and the peoples were welcome, this means two things, they didn’t have wars and they didn’t fear the peoples and the peoples were welcome.”
“This is important, they respected the natures….AND!!!! the womans (with emphasis and a huge smile on his face.”
The tour could have stopped there, because it pretty much consisted of him repeating one of those two phrases…as if he had never mentioned them before. Towards the end, “respecting the natures AND!!!! The womans” ended up winning for most times repeated, with greater emphasis each time.
After the palace visit we decided to visit a small town just outside of Konosis. We of course got lost along the way because there are again, no street/road/direction signs. While getting lost, we happened upon an amazing valley full of vineyards, olive trees and general picturesque views. Once in the town, we found a surprisingly untouched place where all the locals seemed to know each other, everyone seemed to hang out at some sort of café and was deep in conversation. There were small shops all over the place and everything seemed to be very nice. I am convinced that we walked into some sort of movie set, because nothing can be that clean and nice without a) industry or b) tourism. Someone is paying these people to just hangout. We had a dinner in the main square and a crepe in one of the shops.
* except the Acropolis when its closed
After spending the day coming up with these fantastic flight options, we headed to the palace of Konosis. The guide book suggested we get a guide – which isn’t hard because at almost any site you visit there are 50 guides asking if you want a guided tour.* There were two guides at the door, one didn’t seem to speak English and seemed barely legitimate, the other (a women) seemed to speak English well. She said that if we waited 35 minutes we could go with her. That was fine with us. While we were waiting we watched the guy who didn’t speak English well hussle everyone that came through the door and then went into the palace to hussle more folks. Our woman stood there and did nothing. We liked our choice. About 45 minutes into our wait, we watched the woman go off with a small German family – for a personal tour. The other guy who was hussling generously offered to show us around, but he wanted us to wait until he found more people. After about an hour, we finally started our tour.
The tour was actually pretty interesting. The Palace was base of the Minoan civilization. Its pretty old (over 3500 years), but its still pretty decently preserved and you could still see the labyrinth of the city. It didn’t take too much imagination to see how they lived. We lucked out with our tour guide – in terms of the unintentional comedy that he brought about. He started off by saying two things:
“You see, they had no protection, this means they didn’t fear the peoples and the peoples were welcome, this means two things, they didn’t have wars and they didn’t fear the peoples and the peoples were welcome.”
“This is important, they respected the natures….AND!!!! the womans (with emphasis and a huge smile on his face.”
The tour could have stopped there, because it pretty much consisted of him repeating one of those two phrases…as if he had never mentioned them before. Towards the end, “respecting the natures AND!!!! The womans” ended up winning for most times repeated, with greater emphasis each time.
After the palace visit we decided to visit a small town just outside of Konosis. We of course got lost along the way because there are again, no street/road/direction signs. While getting lost, we happened upon an amazing valley full of vineyards, olive trees and general picturesque views. Once in the town, we found a surprisingly untouched place where all the locals seemed to know each other, everyone seemed to hang out at some sort of café and was deep in conversation. There were small shops all over the place and everything seemed to be very nice. I am convinced that we walked into some sort of movie set, because nothing can be that clean and nice without a) industry or b) tourism. Someone is paying these people to just hangout. We had a dinner in the main square and a crepe in one of the shops.
* except the Acropolis when its closed
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Days 13 Heriklion (Iriklion) - or - renting the mini-bus
Once we landed in Heriklion we had two immediate orders of business: 1. get a rental car and 2. find out how to get off of Crete (to Turkey, Mykonos, Santorini, Croatia, Egypt, Libya). After some fairly extensive flirting, Mer was able to get a rental car or van or bus from a random guy at the airport. Somehow, she got him to call around to some ferry terminals and find some ferry times. While Mer was securing a car and a date to the prom, the rest of us were at the tourist information counter trying to figure out how we were getting off the island. There was a small problem, no one was there. Fortunately, we ended up talking to a nice local, who was somehow connected to tourism in Greece. After a lot of talking she basically said that we needed to go the ferry terminal.
But, now we had a rental bus. It was pretty clear I wasn’t happy with Mer’s car choice – but who would? It was a huge minivan with a 0.5 Liter engine. So, it had the pick up of a…John Hamilton sprinting in 8th grade.*
So – it was a big ugly not fun to drive, van. Let’s move on.
We spend about 5 hours driving around in said minivan looking for our accommodations for the night. I think I might stop mentioning that we drive around for a long time looking for accommodation. It should just be a given that we spend forever looking for our place to stay. Sure, part of it is our fault, but a big part of it is:
1. There are few, if any road signs
2. It doesn’t matter if there were, because a) no one uses them and b) the road name changes about every ¾ of a block.
3. Its never very clear what is a one-way, two-way, no-way. Because there aren’t signs and when there are signs, they aren’t clear
4. The guidebooks maps leave a lot to be desired and don’t indicate one-ways, etc.
Our accommodations are great. And there is a parking spot that will fit our school bus – the handicapped parking space. I don’t ask any questions.
Frommers had provided a couple of great places we were excited to try for dinner. We must have walked up and down the street for the first place about 5 times. We found the street, we were looking for number 12. we found 10,11, 13,14,15,16…no 12. I asked a local, they had never heard of the restaurant and pointed out that my book was printed in 2006, so it was waaaay out of date. We decided to find the next one. Initially we couldn’t find the street because the map in Frommers was wrong. Once we find the place that Frommers had raved about as an amazing experience, we quickly decided there must have been a mistake. The food was old and disgusting and it just didn’t look good. We finally settled on a restaurant that was near (if not in) the location of the first place (across from a place called Koukolos). It was ok.
For drinks we walked through a magical door in Koukolos and onto a seemingly hidden street that was full of music, bars, people and fun. It was ridiculous. It was similar to Lan Qui Fong (I am sure I butchered that) in Hong Kong, just wall to wall bars and people. We found a great place sitting out side at the Orient and ordered drinks. It was a fantastic end to the night.
* Most of you weren’t there, but I can assure you that it was awfully slow, not much fun to drive, nor much fun to watch. On top of my general out-of-shape-ness, I was also sporting hair down the back of my neck and hadn’t quite figured out how to wear baseball caps. I was also listening to a lot of Poison and Metallica and Skid Row (I loved skid row). It wasn’t a great period for me. Incidentally, my overall lack of writing skills can be attributed to my horrendous 8th grade English teacher – Mrs. Beam. I learned literally nothing from her. It’s a shame if she’s still teaching. She has single-handedly ruined the writing skills of an entire class of kids from Marion, Ia.
But, now we had a rental bus. It was pretty clear I wasn’t happy with Mer’s car choice – but who would? It was a huge minivan with a 0.5 Liter engine. So, it had the pick up of a…John Hamilton sprinting in 8th grade.*
So – it was a big ugly not fun to drive, van. Let’s move on.
We spend about 5 hours driving around in said minivan looking for our accommodations for the night. I think I might stop mentioning that we drive around for a long time looking for accommodation. It should just be a given that we spend forever looking for our place to stay. Sure, part of it is our fault, but a big part of it is:
1. There are few, if any road signs
2. It doesn’t matter if there were, because a) no one uses them and b) the road name changes about every ¾ of a block.
3. Its never very clear what is a one-way, two-way, no-way. Because there aren’t signs and when there are signs, they aren’t clear
4. The guidebooks maps leave a lot to be desired and don’t indicate one-ways, etc.
Our accommodations are great. And there is a parking spot that will fit our school bus – the handicapped parking space. I don’t ask any questions.
Frommers had provided a couple of great places we were excited to try for dinner. We must have walked up and down the street for the first place about 5 times. We found the street, we were looking for number 12. we found 10,11, 13,14,15,16…no 12. I asked a local, they had never heard of the restaurant and pointed out that my book was printed in 2006, so it was waaaay out of date. We decided to find the next one. Initially we couldn’t find the street because the map in Frommers was wrong. Once we find the place that Frommers had raved about as an amazing experience, we quickly decided there must have been a mistake. The food was old and disgusting and it just didn’t look good. We finally settled on a restaurant that was near (if not in) the location of the first place (across from a place called Koukolos). It was ok.
For drinks we walked through a magical door in Koukolos and onto a seemingly hidden street that was full of music, bars, people and fun. It was ridiculous. It was similar to Lan Qui Fong (I am sure I butchered that) in Hong Kong, just wall to wall bars and people. We found a great place sitting out side at the Orient and ordered drinks. It was a fantastic end to the night.
* Most of you weren’t there, but I can assure you that it was awfully slow, not much fun to drive, nor much fun to watch. On top of my general out-of-shape-ness, I was also sporting hair down the back of my neck and hadn’t quite figured out how to wear baseball caps. I was also listening to a lot of Poison and Metallica and Skid Row (I loved skid row). It wasn’t a great period for me. Incidentally, my overall lack of writing skills can be attributed to my horrendous 8th grade English teacher – Mrs. Beam. I learned literally nothing from her. It’s a shame if she’s still teaching. She has single-handedly ruined the writing skills of an entire class of kids from Marion, Ia.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Some videos
Here are some videos we've uploaded to youtube.
Sorry, they are so late, it takes about 45 mins per video:
Split at night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6uls8GIzXE
Plitvice waterfalls:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1460sG0luA
Sea organ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RXyrM220XI
Sorry, they are so late, it takes about 45 mins per video:
Split at night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6uls8GIzXE
Plitvice waterfalls:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1460sG0luA
Sea organ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RXyrM220XI
Sunday, July 22, 2007
This is a Hijacking! Take this Blog to Dallas!
So I think it's only fair to point out that I am no longer on the trip and am writing this from the comfort of home. I, like many, am a little confused by the incongrous nature of the blog and will not add to the confusion by posting details from two weeks ago now that the group has moved onto Greece (actually, they're now in Turkey, so they've been holding out on you, dear readers). Rather, I will focus my attention on some highlights from Day 2 through...well, whatever.
1. I've already warned everyone not to give Hamilton your cell phone number in a foreign country. Any thought pops into his head, he's dialing and you're getting the roaming charge shaft. But there are times when it is important to take his calls - like when he wants you to buy ferry tickets while he and Joanna return the rental car at the airport. I got the message and bought the tickets, but my cell phone battery was wearing thin. I told Joanna and John to hurry to make the 5:00 ferry, reminding them that the boat actually leaves at 5:00. Those of you familiar with the concept of Hamilton time will appreciate the necessity of pointing that out. Meredith and Heather boarded the boat at about 4:40 to save some seats while I waited on the docks for Joanna and John, since I was holding their tickets. I watched the boat quickly fill up, anxious to spot Joanna and John's taxi. Finally, at 4:54, I got a call from John. He said they were there at the ferry terminal and I spotted him waving about 100 yards away. I calmly and politely suggested he hang up, retrieve his bags, pay the driver and board the ferry.
2. Family restaurants are overrated. Just because some people open their home and put up a sign claiming to serve authentic native cuisine doesn't guarantee a good meal. I mean, if my family opened their kitchen to tourists and served beef jerky and bathtub gin, it would suck.
3. The only thing John likes more than Euros in man-pris dancing in uns-uns clubs are Euros in man-pris singing nationalistic songs in the square after midnight.
4. For the love of God, if anyone ever mentions Ned and Ed, just let it go. You'll thank me later. And I will have no pity on you if you do not heed my advice. Curious? Forget it.
5. I'm going on record as saying I really enjoyed the concert at the cloister. I really enjoy a good cloister anyway. The general sentiment beforehand was to "not not go to that." After showing up late, we paid half price and were treated to a half hour of beautiful music that probably meant something to someone at some point and may not have suicidal undertones, but is still culturally relevant.
6. Be prepared for boats in Croatia to be "broken." Plan accordingly.
7. Foreigners hate John Hamilton. It's hard to put your finger on exactly why, but it seems like every time he opens his mouth, they start ripping on him. The woman at the Korcula tourist office and the waitress that night immediately spring to mind. Word has it that John's stint in green spandex is all the rage on Croatian YouTube.
1. I've already warned everyone not to give Hamilton your cell phone number in a foreign country. Any thought pops into his head, he's dialing and you're getting the roaming charge shaft. But there are times when it is important to take his calls - like when he wants you to buy ferry tickets while he and Joanna return the rental car at the airport. I got the message and bought the tickets, but my cell phone battery was wearing thin. I told Joanna and John to hurry to make the 5:00 ferry, reminding them that the boat actually leaves at 5:00. Those of you familiar with the concept of Hamilton time will appreciate the necessity of pointing that out. Meredith and Heather boarded the boat at about 4:40 to save some seats while I waited on the docks for Joanna and John, since I was holding their tickets. I watched the boat quickly fill up, anxious to spot Joanna and John's taxi. Finally, at 4:54, I got a call from John. He said they were there at the ferry terminal and I spotted him waving about 100 yards away. I calmly and politely suggested he hang up, retrieve his bags, pay the driver and board the ferry.
2. Family restaurants are overrated. Just because some people open their home and put up a sign claiming to serve authentic native cuisine doesn't guarantee a good meal. I mean, if my family opened their kitchen to tourists and served beef jerky and bathtub gin, it would suck.
3. The only thing John likes more than Euros in man-pris dancing in uns-uns clubs are Euros in man-pris singing nationalistic songs in the square after midnight.
4. For the love of God, if anyone ever mentions Ned and Ed, just let it go. You'll thank me later. And I will have no pity on you if you do not heed my advice. Curious? Forget it.
5. I'm going on record as saying I really enjoyed the concert at the cloister. I really enjoy a good cloister anyway. The general sentiment beforehand was to "not not go to that." After showing up late, we paid half price and were treated to a half hour of beautiful music that probably meant something to someone at some point and may not have suicidal undertones, but is still culturally relevant.
6. Be prepared for boats in Croatia to be "broken." Plan accordingly.
7. Foreigners hate John Hamilton. It's hard to put your finger on exactly why, but it seems like every time he opens his mouth, they start ripping on him. The woman at the Korcula tourist office and the waitress that night immediately spring to mind. Word has it that John's stint in green spandex is all the rage on Croatian YouTube.
Days 11-13 Athens, or: Athens is closed for the summer, come back when we’re not on strike
this is as close as we got to the Acropolis
Joanna and I in front of a Zues monument
the girls in front of a Zues monument...with the Acropolis in the background
all of us at our fantastic lunch
Me with two cooks from lunch - they were rolling the grape leavesOh Athens. According to my good friend Jason Miller, Athens should fit me perfectly: a café culture that spends their days sipping coffee and meanly (hopefully angrily) making fun of the passersby, begin dinner at 10 pm and all throughout they are eating and drinking. That is unless they are on strike…But, first lets back up.
We had to fly from Dubrovnik to Athens via a 4 hour layover in Rome. The Rome airport was fantastic…or at least the food in the Rome airport was. We had a great mid-afternoon meal at Ciao! of wine (how often to do you get ridiculously good wine at an airport café), caprice salad, and pasta, topped off with some sort of chocolate concoction with an espresso and cappuccino. At this point I start thinking to myself that I should just forget it all and move to a Mediterranean country for the food, wine, coffee, hours of operation and lifestyle.
Then we get to Greece and everything changes. They lost one of our bags. Its had most of joanna’s clothes, our toiletries, some of my clothes, etc. It was never very clear where anyone was supposed to go to find their luggage. We finally found a luggage counter. Because we are in Greece, there was no sense of a line that existed. So, Joanna goes in the line to wait…and wait…and wait. When she finally gets there, they don’t quite confirm that the luggage is missing, but tell her to fill out a form with the address of where we are located in Athens in case it is actually missing and if they happen to find it. We are feeling extremely confident that things will end well. Fortunately our philosophy while traveling is, “whatever you are missing you can always buy.”And speaking of that attitude…while Joanna was waiting two college girls come up to ask if there is any vacancy at the hotel in which we’re staying. Why? Because they don’t have a hotel, nor do they have a guidebook, nor anything that will help them book a hotel. We show surprise that they don’t have any of the above mentioned trip resources, they claim they haven’t needed it yet and that they have spent a number of nights in airports. We soon learn that they are in their 2nd or 3rd year of school at some private school that starts with an “H” in Pa…and that they are roughing. They said all this with a straight face as she held her real deal Fendi bag. Yep, that’s right, rich kids, rebelling against their life of privilege, by sleeping in airports. Nice.
After an eventful cab ride, which included a ride through Athens red light district and talk of mafia from the cab driver (he seemed to think it was because of the mafia that he had to take a convoluted route to the hotel), we check in and get excited for an exciting day seeing historic Greece….
Well, we were wrong. The Acropolis was closed…because of a strike. We did see some Zeus ruins and got some good pictures of the Acropolis and Pantheon from the Zeus stuff, but it really wasn’t the same. We were able to walk around some theater area, which did have some old stuff and up to the gate to the Acropolis. Once at the gate, we ran into a heated discussion between the strikers who were guarding the area and some disgruntled customers. I figured that this was my opportunity to finally cause some sort of international incident. I just wanted to ask some questions: why are you striking? Why do you do it inconsistently (just today and tomorrow, not for 2 or 3 weeks straight)? What do you hope to gain out of this? Don’t you think it’s stupid? Don’t you realize that you are not winning anyone over to your cause by doing this? Will you take a $100 to let me and my friends through? It was about my turn to argue, when the girls made me leave. They got concerned because a few people tried to break through and the strikers sent their muscle over to the gate. So, unfortunately for our readership, there was no international incident. Maybe another time.
Instead of seeing old stuff, we went to lunch. We had a great lunch at Kouklis Ouzeri. It was in the plaka, but away from the mass of unimpressive, undistinguishable tourist restaurants. We did a bit of extra walking, but found a charming restaurant which had a sign in garbled English said something like, “the only authentic Greek restaurant in the Plaka.” Authentic or not the experience almost immediately changed our mood. The owner/waiter said that he could feed 4 of us including water and wine for a cheap price – maybe 12 euro/person. We chose 10 small dishes off of his tray that included some fantastic meatballs and lamb as well as some apparently good eggplant (I don’t know, I don’t dig on eggplant). The homemade wine was fantastic as well. It was a perfect lunch. We were feeling good about Greece…
Then we spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out how to leave Athens….Bodrum, Rhodes, Santorini, Crete, Mikynos, Paros…There were a number of problems with this:
1. It is high season in Greece. I have to imagine the highest of high season in Greece is the week we are here. Awesome
2. No one knows anything about anything. Worse yet, they think they do. So, you have to try to figure out what is real and what isn’t
3. You have to go to the ferry terminals to actually figure things out. The ferry terminal is about a half hour away and a ridiculous mess. Its filled with five types of people:
1. People that don’t know anything, but think they do
2. People seeking any sort of reliable information
3. Travel agents. They have accurate information for about 10% of what is actually going on but insist they have 100% of the information
4. People that are traveling that have no idea where they are supposed to go
5. People that know stuff
After about 3 hours of walking back and forth and around and around and back and forth, we determine that we will likely not take a ferry and will fly. Its not much more and it seems like ferries aren’t super reliable…oh and they actually have availability. We finally book some flights to crete (with no idea of how we’ll actually leave crete) and head out for a late dinner. Lonely planet suggested a restaurant that didn’t exist in a touristy area (but, with a great view of a lit up Parthenon). So, we walked around for a while and found a super charming place (for those who care, we think it was called: Kalipartia? On 8 Astiggos - not in guide book, found it off the main strip). The food was again fantastic. We ended the evening at a bar around the corner which didn’t have much in the way of English menus – so that was good (Inoteka on Avissynias Road - in a back alley somewhere)
Our next day in Greece was spent trying to leave Athens. We did spend some time at the archeological museum…they had a bunch of artifacts – but that’s all it was. No story, no structure, it wasn’t awesome.
Getting our tickets was sort of a debacle. We waited in the line for our tickets/boarding passes…just like we normally do…as it turns out, the tickets we bought on-line, were not e-tickets. So, we had to go wait in line to get the tickets. The woman at the boarding pass counter said that we could wait off to the side so we wouldn’t have wait in line again. We later learned that this actually didn’t matter because they routinely call folks up for flights that are about to depart if you haven’t yet checked-in. So, it doesn’t matter if you get there on time. If you come on time, everyone still gets to go ahead of you; if you come late, you get to go ahead of everyone else as it gets closer to flight time.
While Joanna and Heather stay in boarding pass line, while Mer and I head over to the ticket line. It takes FOREVER. There were two reasons for this: 1. The Greeks seem to either not care for or have no sense of a line or what it is for. They just walk up to the person – even if they are helping someone else and begin asking their questions. The key is that that person behind the desk will then help the line-cutter immediately. 2. The process to get your tickets appears to require a lot of typing, printing on a dot-matrix printer and going behind a window to do something else. The entire process takes about 5 hours per person. We finally get our tickets and rush to our gate because it is in final boarding…or not. They hadn’t even started boarding yet. I then realize that there is very little similarity between what is on the boards/screens in the airport and what is actually going on. After about 20 minutes we board our plane. Off to Crete and happy to leave Athens.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Guest Blogger Addendum: Leaving Orebic for Dubrovnik and Cruising with Josep
We woke up on our last morning in Orebic and realized the only two things we had to do that day were to go to the beach and get to Dubrovnik. We sat by the pool, got some sun and waited for our cab while reading on the deck. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon. Rather than take a three-hour bus trip to Dubrovnik, we hired a local cab driver named Josep to drive us since he was heading that way anyway (as John already mentioned). There are a few key highlights from the journey that merit mention.
1. The roads were ridiculously curvy. In fact, we made a short stop to the side fo the road at one point in the journey to leave a gift for the patron saint of travelers in a road-side mini-church / box. Apparently this is a tradition Josep does every trip, but we were especially relieved when we saw how perilous the journey was.
2. The scenery was incredibly beautiful. Mountains, water, foliage... you get the idea. For those of you who've done the drive down PCH, this was better.
Because of #1 and #2, we were too distracted to befriend Josep until half-way through the journey. [Good thing Meredith is an excellent navigator, otherwise that left turn could have been detrimental to our journey]. Meanwhile, Josep began to tell us a story from his recent visit to Hungary where he was delivering furniture. This story is too good not to share:
Josep was standing idly on the roadside at the Hungarian border while others were unloading the furniture delivery. In his bored state, he began to pick up some small stones and throw them into the cornfield below. After throwing a few stones, a man suddenly yelps out from below! His head pokes up above the corn stalks and he begins yelling at Josep in Hungarian! Josep apologizes profusely, having had no intention of hitting anyone, when the man switches to English and Josep begins to understand what he is saying... the man had been "taking a shit" in the middle of the cornfield and thought Josep had seen him there and that was why he threw a rock at him!
We passed a town named Ston that has a huge fortress and wall built around it. Josep tells us this is 2nd in line after China as the longest wall in the world. Pretty impressive.
Finally, we made it to Dubrovnik. The bar John mentioned deserves to be be mentioned again. It was so breathtaking to be enjoying drinks outside the fortress wall, up against the water.
Onward to Greece...
1. The roads were ridiculously curvy. In fact, we made a short stop to the side fo the road at one point in the journey to leave a gift for the patron saint of travelers in a road-side mini-church / box. Apparently this is a tradition Josep does every trip, but we were especially relieved when we saw how perilous the journey was.
2. The scenery was incredibly beautiful. Mountains, water, foliage... you get the idea. For those of you who've done the drive down PCH, this was better.
Because of #1 and #2, we were too distracted to befriend Josep until half-way through the journey. [Good thing Meredith is an excellent navigator, otherwise that left turn could have been detrimental to our journey]. Meanwhile, Josep began to tell us a story from his recent visit to Hungary where he was delivering furniture. This story is too good not to share:
Josep was standing idly on the roadside at the Hungarian border while others were unloading the furniture delivery. In his bored state, he began to pick up some small stones and throw them into the cornfield below. After throwing a few stones, a man suddenly yelps out from below! His head pokes up above the corn stalks and he begins yelling at Josep in Hungarian! Josep apologizes profusely, having had no intention of hitting anyone, when the man switches to English and Josep begins to understand what he is saying... the man had been "taking a shit" in the middle of the cornfield and thought Josep had seen him there and that was why he threw a rock at him!
We passed a town named Ston that has a huge fortress and wall built around it. Josep tells us this is 2nd in line after China as the longest wall in the world. Pretty impressive.
Finally, we made it to Dubrovnik. The bar John mentioned deserves to be be mentioned again. It was so breathtaking to be enjoying drinks outside the fortress wall, up against the water.
Onward to Greece...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
