We decided take a road trip to the Peloponnese. This was the area where the forest fires during the summer of 2007, a lot of the mountains were incinerated, instead of the lush green olive trees, what remains of the trunks. I realiszed that driving in the country side of Greece is pretty scary. The roads wind around the mountains, with no barriers stopping cars or people from going over the cliffs. Other than the ticket we got in Sparta, the trip was uneventful. Roads outside the main metropolitain areas usually accommodate one car, Christina overtook a truck that was going [View Full Entry]

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I took a day trip to Sounio where the temple of Poseidon stood. There was a metro strike, so I had to walk all the way to Mavromateon Terminal to catch the bus to Sounio. I have to say, I've traveled extensively and I am not that bad with directions, but I had a hard time finding the bus stop for the Sounio bus. Asking for direction can be quite daunting, as most people don't know what they are talking about. I was turning around the bus terminal, looking around and asking people where the bus stop is. There is not [View Full Entry]

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After five relaxing days on Chios, we are back in Athens. Christina is back at work and I am visiting the Athens by myself. Since it was a bit chilly and rainy, I decided to do the museum thing. I didn't know it, but I really lucked out. I went to the Islamic Art museum and on Wednesday entrance is free. This museum was quite interesting, as it displays different pieces of art, from ceramic to jewelry across the history of the Islamic world. I decided to walk to the Illias Lalaouni Jewelry museum, which was quite a walk, because I [View Full Entry]

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There are many Cretans living in Chios and they have a radio program each week playing Cretan music. Rena's friend works at the station and organized a party to celebrate their 300th programming. Lucky for me, we got invited to the party. I got a little taste of Cretan dancing. Funny is really looks like River Dance. The dance is all leg work and no upper body movement. My friends made fun of me because I was moving my upper body and they told me I dance like a loose girl. Well, few years of Salsa dancing will do that to [View Full Entry]

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The size of Chios is comparable to the island of Montreal. Though we can probably cross the widest area of Montreal in about 3 hours, on Chios, it is a totally different story. The island is mountainous and most of the sites on Chios are on different altitude, thus it is harder to estimate the time from one site to another. We spend an entire day driving around and only covered a small portion of the island. Actually, probably just ten percent of the island. From sea level up to the mountains, the trip was quite an adventure in itself. The [View Full Entry]

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After buying groceries for the next three days, as Sunday all stores are closed everywhere in Greece and Monday being a holiday, we spent the day at Mirmingi village, home village to Christina. It is a small village with about fifty inhabitants, all of whom are over 30 years of age. Most young people have moved out into the cities and only return during holidays. Though there are bigger villages around Chios, Mirmingi has a simple charm. Quiet, quaint, the village is unassuming and is reminiscent of a simpler life before the craziness of modernity. Walking around the winding paths that [View Full Entry]

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Well, here I am finally in Athens. I got in at 1AM this morning, 2 days after my scheduled arrival. Since my last entry, I've had a series of unfortunate events. First, I got to the Pierre-Elliot Trudeau Airport 6:30AM only to find out that my flight was at 8:30PM, the CSR I spoke to gave me the wrong information. Second, my flight was delayed by an hour and a half, so I missed my connection flight to Athens in Amsterdam, just to find out once there that the next available flight was 12 hours away. Thankfully, they had no economy [View Full Entry]

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With the flight cancellation and delays, I was 2 days off schedule. Fortunately, the ferry to Chios was at 4pm, so I could sleep in and recover from the crazy two days of travel. I didn't do much in Athens, we took it slow on Friday morning. Christina's car needed repair, so we took her car to the Suzuki garage and left it there. Funny thing is, the day I arrived in Greece is the day the electric company union decided to go on strike, because all quotes were on the computer the garage could not give us a quote for [View Full Entry]

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Exactly a year after my trip to Asia and here I go again. Same departure date, but different part of the world. I am off to the land of the ancient gods. The weather is still cool, but I am looking forward to weather above zero. According to the weather report, Athens's temperature at this time ranges between 15 and 25 degrees. ******************************************************************************************************* 12 hours later, I am still in Montreal. Why? The flight got canceled. 5 hours at the airport and the flight got canceled due to technical problems!!! Mind you, I am glad they did not put us on [View Full Entry]

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Apologies - currently unable to restore. If you have a backup please edit this entry and save/publish. There is a small possibility that this entry will be restored - only small. [View Full Entry]

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