We made it to Olympia!

Time sure flies....
We are already in Olympia, and there is lots to catch up on. We didn't have any internet access in Zakynthos. Lets start from the beginning. The night ferry from Corfu to Patras was a lot nicer than our first night ferry! It was much bigger and there were even escalators on it. We had a decent sleep but it was pretty chilly. We had to put on lots of layers, and Jess is just getting over a cold so there was a lot of sneezing etc. (I am almost 100% better..)

We arrived in Patras really really early, 5:00am. It was still pretty dark and we had to walk around the entire port to find the exit because everything was fenced in. Finally we got out and we roamed the streets for a while asking people where the bus station was. We had been told that we could just take a bus from Patras to Kilini, so being clever Canadians we assumed that there would be a huge bus station where we could buy our tickets.. Apparently they dont do that in Greece. After LITERALLY three hours of walking back and forth down the SAME street asking different people for directions to the bus station, we finally found it. People kept pointing up and down the street, but they all spoke pretty bad english so they weren't able to clarify exactly what the bus station looked like. Turns out it was a really small travel agency with a teeny weeny bus stop sign right in the middle of a huge building on the main street. We must have walked past it at least five times, while carrying our big huge backpacks. It sucked... I'm not gonna lie.

We didn't really like Patras, maybe it was because we were pretty frustrated and tired, and we never really got to explore it except for the port area. But it seemed really dirty nobody was very helpful. Anyways, enough whining. The bus didn't come until 1:00, which means we had to wait around for several hours. We were entertained by the people, there were some guys doing construction on a building right beside us and the old men were really nice. They gave Jess a bucket to sit on because there weren't any benches. We watched them hanging glass doors on really rickety ladders. It was interesting.

We caught the bus and made our way to Kilini where we hopped on another ferry to reach our destination- Zakynthos. This only lasted about two hours, and we arrived at about 3:30pm. Zakynthos is very beautiful when you enter the port, we later found out that it was almost destroyed in an earthquake about sixty years ago so all the buildings are relatively new. When we got there we phoned our hostel and they told us that the only way to reach them was to take a taxi... we were really hesitant becuase we had heard how bad the taxis were in Greece. We were told that the trip should cost 15 euro, and we ended up paying 16, so we were happy.

The taxi drivers in Greece are seriously insane. The streets here are so narrow and windy and they drive really really fast and honk at everyone. We found out later that Greece was in the middle of having a petrol strike, and the truckers were refusing to drive in gas so all the gas stations had been shut down for the past five days. That was bad for us, because it meant that there were fewer busses and ferries running. We found this out when we were in the process of renting a car, which we did anyways, and it turned out to be very useful. We couldn't justify paying 16 euros for taxi rides to and from the main city, and we wanted to do some exploring of our own. We paid 60 euros for two days, which is pretty decent considering this is only two taxi rides to our hostel and back. We got a little green Chevy Matiz five speed, and Sean did a great job navigating the treacherous greek roads!

Anyways, we arrived at our hostel, Kavos Psarou, and were pleasantly surpised. The woman who runs the place, Kiki was very sweet. She invited us into her home and we met her husband and she even gave us chocolate. She was very helpful and helped us to rent a car and everything. She didn't speak much english, but we were able to understand each other. For the few days that we spent in Zakynthos, she definitely made an impression on us. This is something that we have noticed in the past few weeks we have been traveling, often the people you meet have just as great an impact on you as the things that you are seeing.

The first night we went to Karras grill, a small place near our hostel. We ordered tons of food because we were starving! Greek salad, french fries, tzatziki, souvlaki wraps, and bruschetta. MMM. We should mention that the place we are staying is right on the beach and is in the middle of an orchard, with trees everywhere, and lizards too!! We even saw a little snake, but he was harmless. The small town we stayed in, Psarou, was in between several other small towns that we explored, namely Alykes and Alkana (I think). They are very quaint, lots of olive groves and orchards. They all stretch down to the water and there are mini beaches everywhere.

The next day we got our car and cruised around a bit. The weather wasn't the greatest but we managed to avoid rain until later in the evening. We went to the beach for a bit, and did some grocery shopping for the dinner we made that evening! We made tortellini with proscuitto and fromagio (it came in a package)... with tomato sauce. It was really good. We also had bread with tzatziki.. we can't get enough of that stuff. Our room had a small little kitchen in it so we thought we would give cooking a try. It was actually pretty fun and cheap so we did it again the next night.

Then yesterday (our last day in Zakynthos) we took a cruise around the entire island. We got to the cruise place at 9:00am and the guy there told us that we were supposed to pre-book, which we hadn't done. We sweet talked him and he got us on the cruise anyways, we were very thankful! We saw the Blue Caves and Shipwreck Beach, where we got to spend just over an hour on the beach. It was really cool and we have some great photos. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great and we were pretty cold on the boat, but when we got to Shipwreck Beach the sun came out and we were even able to go swimming, which made it even more special.

The cruise lasted a long time, we didn't get back to the island until 6:00pm. We made dinner again and planned our trip to Olympia- where we are now! We also said goodbye to Kiki, the owner of the place we were staying. She was really sweet and gave us a hand-painted stone so that we would never forget our time spent at her place.

This morning we were up bright and early at 6:00am packing up and getting ready to head to the port. Our rental car guy picked us up pretty late (7:30) because we needed to make it to the port for a ferry leaving at 8:00. He didn't seem to think this was a problem and ended up speeding all the way there (it was kind of scary...) We barely made it to the ferry, they were raising the ramps as we were boarding. But we got on!

When we arrived at Kilini we had to take a bus all the way to Olympia, fortunately we found two really nice twins who were from Zakynthos and spoke really good english. They helped us figure out the busses and we arrived safe and sound at about noon. The hotel we are staying at was only steps away from the bus stop, so it was easy to find. We dumped our bags and headed to the archaeolgoical site and museum right away, which was really cool!

We walked across the Stadium where they held the Olympic Games, and we checked out the Temple of Zeus! Olympia is very beautiful and green, with mountains all around it and birds always singing. A really great place. Now we are taking a break in the hotel and writing to all of you, its been a few days.

Siobhan, we got your message about Sean's school- thanks a million!!!

We are halfway through our journey and loving every minute of it. We miss you all, but we are glad that we still have two weeks left of fun! Tomorrow we begin the long journey across the Peloponnese by train from Olympia to Piraeus- where we will catch a ferry to our first island Mykonos. It will be tons of travel time, but worth it because the weather is looking good! We are excited for lots of beaches!! And believe it or not Jess has already developed a slight tan! (slight...)

Lots of Love,

Jess and Sean

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