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Published: June 19th 2008
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Greetings!
Mark and I are currently in Meteora waiting for a train back to Athens. After leaving Corfu we headed to Nafplio, a port city on the mainland of Greece, a base to which we would day trip to Mycenae to see the "ruins"...or as I like to call them...foundations and a couple of rocks. Admittedly Nafplio was a bit of a touristy town and we left as soon as we were able.
In Athens we got two bunks in the "Dungeon" at Students and Travelers Inn...it was an airless, windowless room with 5 bunkbeds and lots of stinky shoes...but for 12 Euro per person we were lucky to have anything since the whole place was sold out. Later I saw a girl sleeping in the hallway on a fold out bed...I wanted to tell her how lucky she was she had fresh air! We stumbled around Athens and made it back to the Dungeon...climbed up on the top bunks and tried to sleep. I should add that though I have stayed in hostels A LOT...my attempts at staying in shared rooms with bunks have never worked out well. Once while in London I woke up and realized I
had disrobed in the middle of the night due to the heat...this thought kept me awake most of the night in Athens and I got little sleep. The snoring...the lack of air...the thought that I'm 37 years old and should be able to afford a decent hotel kept creeping in. Luckily Mark agreed and the next day we set off to find a budget hotel near Plaka. Scoring a 10 out of 10 we found a double bed with airconditioning for 55 Euro. Expensive for our budget...yes....but I cannot explain the euphoria experienced as Mark turned the air on. Ahhhh!!! Loving the airconditioner...I even got cold at one point.
This is called flashpacking.
Mark and I headed up to the Acropolis and though there are actually buildings there (not just foundations of buildings) the main sights have much scaffolding....oh and the Athena Nike temple is dismanteled. Still...it's a good site...glad I saw it...now onto the Hardrock Cafe Athens..I've done the historical stuff.
In Nafplio I dreamed I was eating bbq babyback ribs....the goodness of beef and bbq sauce...the dream was incredibly vivid...I smacked down on the ribs...and my licked my fingers. I woke up, had yet to
Mycenae
Grand Ruins in Mycenae...or...just a bunch of rocks open my eyes, and heard myself sleepily telling Mark I dreamed about bbq ribs. He groaned. Well, I was a woman possessed! When you're stuck eating pizza or gyros for 2 months (not including the bread and cheese in London and Paris) the idea of an American style hamburger or ribs is like the holy grail! Hardrock is the best at giving you exactly what you need when you need it. I've been to many around the world...they're like little happy embassies. In Beirut I was alone and lost on a minivan in the middle of an unfamiliar bombed out city - the driver spoke no english...but then I saw Hard Rock Cafe Beirut! I jumped out of the van grabbed my pack and threw it on my back and hustled in. They let me use their phone, helped me decipher the directions to my hostel and fed me. Hell...I even bought a t-shirt! Now...we had been to Hardrock Rome and Mark was starting to come around...he made it a rule to stay away from them when he traveled. "I don't eat American when I'm on vacation." Yes darling...but that's a two week vacation...this is six months of hard travel....don't
Parthenon
Athens, Greece you want a burger or nachos? By Rome he had given in. At the end of our Hardrock Rome meal of cheese burgers and nachos he had become a convert.
We showered off the dust from the Acropolis and made our way to the Hardrock Athens. We shared bbq babyback ribs, a hamburger and a giant brownie and vanilla icecream sunday. It was heaven! 44 Euro later our flashpacking buts were back on the streets of Athens happy as can be.
Our goal in Athens - besides seeing scaffolding - is to mail our third bag home to the states. Since we camped Rome, Florence and some of Corfu it has become really too hot to camp anymore and we've found that you can reserve tents or bungalows for just a few euro more at campsites...Mark is very tired of carrying the 15 kilos of our tent, sleeping bags and thermarests...not including butane and a burner...a pan for cooking, etc. So we have tried to ship it home three times...once in Nafplio and twice in Athens. Not as easy as it sounds...first in Nafplio they had no boxes...in Athens we went to the designated postoffice recommended in the
Lonely Planet but it was the wrong postoffice...no packages over 2 kilos....then there was a greek holy spirit day...then the postoffice got the next day off as well. So we have carted this luggage and boxes to the postoffice a few times...hopefully tomorrow we will be rid of the third bag because the 350 Euro option of shipping with DHL is not really an option at all.
So we are now in Meteora, a beautiful town north of Athens with monasteries built high atop these amazing rock formations. They're like little fairy castles! We've only stopped here for two nights but it really has been wonderful to see a bit more of the mainland. Today we head back to Athens, tomorrow the post office and then we leave for Mykonos. Back to the islands!!!! Love it!
xoxo
Andrea
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McDonald's
I'm not ashamed that I have been known to eat McDonald's on occasion when I'm away for long periods of time. Plus - foreign McDonald's use better quality products! So thank god for Mickey D's and Hard Rock's when you need 'em! xoxo