Advertisement
Published: December 22nd 2007
Olympic track?
must be in Greece...Well, I finally get to click on a different country for this blog. I left late wedesday night, more like early early thursday morning (345am) for Athens., Greece. I was so so so tired so the first thing I did was try to find a hostel to check into. After a 30 Euro cab ride (wow sooooo overpriced) I found a great hostel for 14 euro/night!!! I checked in and quickly checked out...face down on the bed I slept for a couple hours, before getting up and starting my day at the more normal hour of 10am.
My first impressions of Athens were so much better than I had expected! THe streets are spotless compared to Cairo, there are only a few stray dogs, almost NO catcalls or stares from the men or women and the shopkeepers are friendly but in a mind your own buisness kind of way.
The great thing about the sights in Athens is that they are all within walking distance of each other. I could see the acropolis from the street that my hostel was on, so it was pretty easy to find my way. The climb up to the top was beautiful and the
buildings were breathtaking. A full 360 view of Athens! There were some tourists around, but nothing compared to what it must be like in the summer. After wandering the Agora gardens, I stumbled upon the Athens Flea Market, which looks just like khana khalili in Cairo, with all sorts of touristy goodies and clothing strung up outside of the stores, and an employees standing outside trying to get you to come inside. However, I am realizing quickly that compared to Cairo....well NOTHING compares to Cairo! The people here try to tempt you into their stores, but thats about it, they really could care less if you enter or not. If you do enter, you find the shops are fairly standard type stores, almost what you would find in a mall. To my surprise many of the clothes shops sold all the popular skate brands from home: Fox, Forum, Quicksilver, Volcom even!!! Too bad the prices were in euros, especially since living in Cairo, paying 80 euro for a shirt is just not likely for me.
As I exited the market, I stumbled upon downtown and all of its shopping splendour! WOW!!! The shopping was incredible...I did a pretty good
job at restraining myself, but it was tough...to see all the familiar stores from home and more was a real treat. It was freakin cold outside, so I made sure to go into every 3rd or 4th store !! heheh
luckily for my wallet, I only managed to buy a few things and mostly things for other people. I got totally totally lost because the stores were tall enough that i couldnt see any of the surrounding hills. I decided to sit down at a Taverna for a bite to eat. From what I could tell the place was called Cafe Restaurant..um ya not so orignal, but yummy yummy food. I ordered what I thought was salad but turned out to be bread and dips...I should of known this from Cairo that Salad does not mean leafy greens... anyway, I had the best tzadziki ever and some unreal eggplant, baba ganoush concoction!
That night I wandered around somemore (wearing tights under my jeans because it was so cold) and saw a beautiful light display and large christmas treea at Syntagma square in front of the parliament building. There was a cover band playing random english songs and I got to
view from above
the first climb up the acropolis..the view is amazing see the changing of the guards (pretty standard) Afterward, I ended up going to a nice greek restaurant with my book! The best greek salad ever!!! The waiter turned out to be half-canadian, half-greek so we had some good conversations. I was treated to a glass of wine on the house, and then before i had finished, the waiter brought over another one and informed me that it was from the gentleman across the room!! hahaha wow! I did the awkward wave and mumbled something like thankyou...but I didnt drink the glass because I was already feeling a little tipsy from the first one due to my lack of sleep.
The next day I decided that I was going to stay another night in Athens before heading to the islands..after all whats the rush?! First thing I headed to the Olympic Stadium! It was one of my favorite things to see. Its just so massive and really easy to imagine the games begin held there with all the crazy fans. It is the sight of the first modern olympic games as well. After the stadium, I checked out the national gardens where I saw the classic scene of some
old, greek men playing chess in the park. Then I wandered around and "accidentally" ended up back at the shopping district!!! I sat outside in a lovely cafe under the sun and even had a man come play a song on his violin for me. So far I have used quite a few of my cairo skills in Athens. I did not feel even the slightest bit of guilt at not paying this man any of my euros for his violin efforts...this is a new thing for me as I have always felt guilty even passing the bum on the street playing the spoons without droppin a few coins. The traffic here is a bit faster than cairo but not as crazy, so crossin the streets here has been a breeze!!
I took the 725am ferry to Paros today and arrived 3 hours later. The ferries are very beautiful, i was in first class because that was the only kind of ticket left (30 euros) It was like an upper class version of a BC ferry...with cafe style service. I am not sure where all of these people went, some to villas perhaps and most on to another island...regardless, they
look up...waaay up!
just when you think your up top and the view of the city is in front of you, you turn around and there it is... DID NOT get off at Paros and stay here becuase I am the ONLY tourist on the whole island. Its like those creepy horror movies where everything is closed and you go to find somewhere to sleep and your the only person in the hotel!!!!! I did manage to find one of the places listed in the lonely planet called MIkes rooms. Its a cute little apartment for only 20 euros a night! its about 70 euros in the summer! At first I tried the entrance door, which was locked and was about to walk away when I hear..HELLO! it was "Mike's" son! haha anyway he walked me over to the other apratments because these ones were closed for the winter. He showed me around and I took the place, I have a beauty view of the med sea and my own little kitchenette..which i might need if all the restaurants are gonna close down. I emailed Paul and Sarah today to see if they want to relocate our christmas plans to Santorini, a slightly bigger island, with possibly more tourists on it. As for tomorrow, I am going to go for a nice long jog..this is the best location
amphitheater
on your way to the top is the amphitheater.. Ive seen since Canada to get some good running in. There are a few churches and museums that I will also try to check out.
stay tuned, I have lots of free time, so the blog will be updated a little more often than usual! pics wont come till after I return to Cairo though.
Ok so much for the frequent blog updates. I ended up spending too much time vacationing and not enough time letting everyone know what Im doing.
So the next few days on Paros were the ultimate in relaxation. I jogged, I walked, I read, and I ate. Thats about it. It was fantastic!! I was the ONLY person to check out the small museum and I hiked for hours in the hills of Paros with only roaming sheep as companions. I did run into one classic, old greek man who possibly tried to tell me to watch out for the sheep because they might eat me. Not sure if this is Greek humour, if I misunderstood him..or if in fact I luckily escaped being eaten by man-eating sheep. Anyway, Paul and Sarah showed up a few days later and things defintely got a little
temple of Nike
under total reconstruction...so not really much to see here more interesting from here on in.
Paul had booked a triple room at a different hotel, but they were not arriving until late at night, so I kept my room for one more night and just checked out of my place on christmas morning (and by checked out, I mean handed over the cash to Mike himself and waved goodbye!) I walked down the road to join Paul and Sarah for christmas morning. They had had some flight issues and were in Ireland before Greece, so they were unable to bring the gifts that they had intended to bring, so I really felt like santa clause. I had bought a bunch of goodies for xmas morning and some scarves for Paul and Sarah. We decided that being in the greek islands, winter or not, we needed to "swim" in the mediterranean. So after breakfast, we went down to the hotel lobby to see if we could brew some coffee. The lobby as you can sort of see from the picks was a wooden, Greek wonderland. White Greek stautues complimented the crystal chandeliers and the wooden panelling walls. The woman who ran the joint (who had appeared in her nightie and
curlers the night before) let sarah into her kitchen to brew the coffee and paul broke out the Baileys! After a few cups of coffee and baileys we were ready for our icy cold dip. Manos, the son of Mike from Mike's rooms, joined up with us..although not in the water..he opted to be the photographer instead. We had a couple other spectators who guessed right away that we were from North America! hahah As you can see from the pics, it was a little chilly!!! but what a way to spend christmas '07!
After freezing our butts off, it was time for some nice warm showers and then it was already dinner time! Courtesy of our Greek tour guide, Manos, we got to eat at a FANTASTIC greek restaurant. It was classic, he ordered a bunch of food for us and we just pigged out on delicious seafood and way too much greek wine. There was even a small band playing greek music! After dinner, we wandered around naming all the stray dogs..there was scraggylopolis, fattyopolis, preopolis...thats all I can remember now, but it was quite funny at the time..riiight.
Feeling a little rough, the next day we packed
up and took the afternoon ferry on to Santorini. Manos hooked us up with a hotel and someone to come pick us up at the port in Santorini. The ferry ride was about 4 hours, again on one of these super ferries. We mostly read and slept. The view sailing into the port was pretty amazing. The island goes from sea level to high mountain tops almost instantly. YOu can see the road zigzagging up the steep cliffs. All of the buildings are high atop these mountains all along the edges. Definitely like nothing I have ever seen before. While we were piling off the ferry I noticed a guy with a canada flag on his backpack. Although I must admit that being abroad has made me much more likely to strike up conversation with random people, I was feeling a little groggy from my nap and didn't pursue conversation. So we found the man that was waiting to pick us up without delay and he loaded us into his van and left to find more people. He waved his sign around and guess who he picked up..the two canadian guys. So there we are on another mostly deserted island
in a van with 2 other canadians..both taking a vacation from their schooling in Ottawa.
We drove along the zigzag roads that were pretty unreal...So far Santorini was definitely living up to its reputation as the most beautiful of the islands...BUT! as soon as we crossed the initial crest of the mountain top, it becomes apparently how large the island actually is...and we continue driving along flat land that is littered with broken down buildings, ugly industrial type buildings and farmland. I think we were all staring out the window wondering where beautiful Santorini was. The grey, cold weather definitely wasnt helping either. We weaved through this wasteland for about 15 minutes and then pulled up to the cutest little villa type hotel ever. We checked in with the man's wife, who was the sweetest lady ever! While we were checking in, I look out the window and see the canadian guy that I had seen in one of the hotels in Paros!! He had mentioned that him, his girlfriend and another couple were going to Santorini because Paros was dead...and here they were in the same hotel! 8 canadians all ending up in the same place..what are the odds!
it started when??
if u can read it...started in 1982!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We dropped our bags and decided to go exploring. We were anticipating Santorini to be a little busier than Paros since it is a bigger, more populated island. However, EVERYTHING was closed! We were able to find one restaurant that was open, and luckily it was pretty tasty!
The next day we rented a car and Paul drove us around to all the beaches of the island. We saw Red, White and Black beach..along with a few others. Im sure they are fantastic in the summer, we however were the only visitors to most of these places today. We layed down on one beach and pretended to suntan...but this didn't last too long...it was too cold 😞
That night we drove to Oia because it had been recommended as the spot on Santorini with the best sunsets. However, it turned out to be the biggest ghost town of them all. There was actually not a single store open!!!! We finally asked one lady and she laughed at us and said there was one mediocre restaurant that locals go to but she wouldnt recommend it. So we drove back and found a small spot to have a glass of wine... we
had plans to move on to the place we were the other night until we saw the price of wine on the menu....4 euros for a litre!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sarah was feeling sick, but Paul and I took full advantage of the terrible wine and we snacked on bread and dip until we felt too full to even eat dinner. Later on back at the hotel, Paul and I decided that we wanted to get a little more wine, so we went for a walk back to the grocery store. However, it was just closing...so we thought..hey were not in Canada so we might as well try the restaurant!!! We asked our waitress if we could buy some of the wine to take back to our hotel. She says..oh sorry I only have this..she pulls out a 1.5 litre water bottle filled with homebrew wine!!! 4 euros!!!! WOOHOO! When we had ordered the wine before it was in this cool coloured tin pitcher that I loved. I tried to buy that as well, but they wouldnt sell it too me 😞 Anyway we enjoyed some chocolate and wine back at the hotel. Luckily Paul can handle alot more than I because I
had one glass and then fell asleep still in my clothes and glasses on. Sarah tucked me into bed and that was the end of our wild night!
The next day we had to check out in the morning, but the ferry back to the mainland didn't leave until later on, so we left our bags and wandered back into the deserted town area. I managed to find a cheezy tourist shop to grab a few souvenirs, we had coffee and all shared one large treat at an expensive cafe overlooking the water and the volcanao and then we had lunch at the only open restaurant. We grabbed a bunch of snacks and stuff to eat in prep for our 8 hour ferry ride back to Athens, which came in handy later on when we broke out a full on picnic on the floor in the aisle of the seats on the ferry!
We arrived very late in Athens and passed out. The next day we spent shopping, shopping, shopping..much to Pauls dismay! That night we hung out in a coffee shop until I had to catch the metro out to the airport and then fly home.
In case I
had forgotten what a gong show Cairo is...I was reminded before I even got on the plane to go home. Lined up to check in for the flight, egyptians everywhere..staring of course.. and all seem to be carrying large quilts and comforters in clear plastic bags. These things are pretty cheap in egypt, so not sure why the mass importation was going on...anyway...I get on the plane and my seat is in the middle of a large asian tour group and I am seated beside a young girl who is as white as a ghost and looks like shes ready to show me her lunch! After 25 minutes, the plane still has not left (its now 3am!) A few minutes later, in walk the egyptian men WITH THE BLANKETS! apparently these huge blankets are carry on luggage???? I had to throw out my water bottle due to the liquid restrictions..but these guys have no limit to the size of their carry on. and get to arrive whenever they feel like it..ok. After 10 minutes of painfull attempts to load these blankets into the overhead and more confusion with seats and all that..we finally take off. Luckily uneventful after that. Of
course this group turned out to be the slowest human beings on the planet to leave the plane and then the egyptian customs lineup is a chaotic yet slower than dirt mess of veiled women, army personel and tourists... Finally, home at 5am!!!
Stay tuned for the next installment of my vacation!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.08s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 8; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0501s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
nicole
non-member comment
merry christmas Leah
Merry christmas Leah! hope you are finding time to relax. it must be different not spending christmas in the snow, going boarding everyday. but maybe you'll get to smash some plates a swing back some ouzo...ha! typical stereotype. anyhow, miss you lots lady, have good time in Greece. love fern