So over Greece...

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After another long ferry ride we were back in Athens. Ready to organise a Visa for Turkey. We were pretty sure we could get it at the border, but the info we found on the net was a bit misleading so we decided it was best to just get it then and there in Athens.

We locked up our bags at the main train station and headed for the city. Unfortunately both of us had forgot to bring passport photos so we had to look for a place to get some, which proved difficult. While the photos were being developed we had some breakfast..... "Hmmmmm the only thing around is Maccas'". We gave it a shot and ordered what we thought to be a simple order. Sausage and egg Mc Muffin and a Sausage McMuffin, with hashbrowns and Ice Tea's (Yeah they have Peach Ice Tea at Maccas, Gold!). After waiting at least 8min i was getting fed up with the fat, slow, incompetent woman who took our order. Glaring at her, i watched her try and shove the hashbrowns into their containers, though they wern't normal hashbrown containers they were like an apple pie box. This took a further 3 minutes. She finally got her act together and put our order on the tray. To me, it looked like (from the packaging), that we had a bacon and egg, and a sausage and egg mcmuffin.... NOT what we ordered (see above)! I decided to stay calm, go outside, sit down (in some shade) and check....... Yes, she gave us the wrong muffin. I went back inside and saw our Sausage McMuffin being served to the next customer, fed up from the heat, the ferry, and then the wait, i yelled, HEY thats our Sausage McMuffin!!! (hilarious now that i think about it haha) The staff looked at me worried and confused and said i will have to wait 5min for another one! You can imagine what i said back. At this stage the next customer got the picture and ran off with our Mc Muffin, before i could liberate it. The saga continued, we waited and waited, to pass the time we ate our hash browns, though they were not what they seemed. The "hash browns" were actually chicken. Maccas chicken, desguised as an odd looking hash brown. Kell couldn't eat hers and started to lose it. She went inside to enquire about our Mc Muffin, nothing. More waiting. She went in again and came out with 2 Mc Muffins. So we had 4 Mc Muffins. I had 2 and Kell had a couple of bites before gagging and throwing it on the tray. We left McDonalds angry and un satisfied.

We got our photos from the place, really attractive, after overnight ferry photos. We didnt care really, we had the photos and were on our way to the embassy. Luckily it wasnt to far, and after being pointed in the right direction a couple of times, we were there. I rang the bell and waited for an answer. The lady said something in Greek, or Turkish and i tried to explain i wanted a Visa. I got in trouble for pressing the intercom button too many times and she finally came and opened the door, hastily handing us a business card size, piece of paper with the address and phone number of the Consulate General. If we wanted a Visa, we had to go there. Fine, we thought. Go to this stupid place and get our Visa's and leave Greece once and for all.

A few unhelpful directions later we discoverd that the Consulate Generals was on the other side of the city, "That far from here", one lady said. Great, ok, fine, it's ok. We went to the information office in the nearest metro station. The guy there was helpful and told us we needed to take the Red Line to (insert name here) and then you can take a bus. So we took the Red Line to x and looked for the bus. Naturally the bus time table was of no use and no one around could tell us when the bus was meant to come. We found a shop owner who told us the direction to go and pretty much where the Consulate Generals was. We started walking in the midday heat, eventually deciding that a cab would be worth the money. It was. We were there for the minimum charge of €3. Finally. We rang the bell as the cab drove off. Waiting... A man came to the gate and we told him we wanted visa's.. "Come back, 7 o' clock", he said. Excuse me, what? "Come back tomorrow morning, we closed". After another few minutes of useless conversation he said "Ring phone number, they speak English". 'Right, so can i use your phone?' "No". Complete demoralization! Back to square one. No where to stay in Athens, and no where to go. So i found a pay phone, rang the number and found out for sure that yes, we could get our visa's at the border. Wow, why why why didn't we ring that phone number at the start? SO, with no cabs in the area because it was a complete hole, we started walking. The only bus that serviced the area was the one that didnt have a time table, and from what we had been told was unreliable. We walked to the main road, got a bus, got a metro, and were back at the main train station.

Though completely over the thought of going to Turkey we checked the train schedule and found that we couldnt actually go there today. No trains from Athens go to Turkey. The closest we could get was Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece, in the north of the country. "Take me anywhere, get me out of this stupid country", said Kell. So we looked for a train to anywhere, anything international. The options wern't great, so with no Turkey and no access to internet anywhere in the vicinity of the MAIN TRAIN STATION of Athens we decided that if we were in Thessaloniki, it was at least closer to neighbouring countries, and we knew we could get a train out the next day. I went to organise a seat/ticket for the train north, and showed the clerk our Eurail Passes which entitles us to travel on most of the railways of Europe. "Free free!", the man said. "Um don't you have to validate the ticket for us?", i asked. "Free free", he replied. Ok weird, whatever. After i told Kell what happened we decided i should ask someone else. I went to the information office and showed him my unvalidated tickets, "free free, just get on", he said. Riiiight. Ok fine! So we waited, and we had a seedy lunch at the only place you could get food near the station.

The train finally arrived and we pushed our way on, competing with the filth around us for a seat. We got a seat, everything was fine, 7 hours to go, but everything was fine. 5 minutes later, once everyone was settled and the train about to leave, i felt a tap on the shoulder. BLA BLA BLA BLA BLA, a woman said in Greek. What? We were in her seats. Seats? What seats? She had booked seats on the train, the train we were told to just jump on, free free. Great. We left our main luggage, and walked through the crowded isles looking for a seat. We ended up a few carriages down, standing. 7 hours to go. We were cursing Greece, everything Greek, and the woman who had booked seats, as the train departed. Obviously we wern't the only ones without a seat, so we made the most of the situation, sitting on the floor when possible. After an hour or two passed, the train started to make stops. People started to get off. Eventually we had one seat, then not much longer later 2. 4 hours to go, we prayed that no one would get on the train with tickets for our seats. There were English backpackers in the seats infront of us. They were quite entertaining and took our minds off the long train ride. One foolishly communicated with a 5 year old, Greek girl in a seat across the isle, the girl was fascinated and kept at him the whole train ride. Fantastic for the rest of us, but i dont think he realised what he had started at the time.

2 hours to go and the train came to a stop at an unknown, small, country station. After being stopped for a few minutes people started to notice that there were 3 cop cars lazily parked out the front of the station. Then there were 4, 5, 6 police cars, sirens, flashing lights. A Canadian friend of the backpackers started getting nervous even though he knew he had done nothing wrong. We had been stopped for about 15min when another cop car came screeming into the station, this one had passengers. A man and his girlfriend were being led to the train. The man, looked about 27 and had a cut eye. Something had definately gone down on the train. Policemen walked through our carriage, the beat up 27 year old followed. The whole carriage was quite. A minute later we saw a young guy, probably 20, with a mow hawk being dragged towards the police vehicles. Then another, this one about 25, a tall lanky guy. Both dressed in sorta punk/goth attire. Soon after 2 girls came racing out, one obviously upset that her boyfriend was being taken away. Both the girls went for the police, trying to free the man. The police just pushed them away, yelling something in Greek. Though this didn't deter them. They wouldnt stop, they were grabbing the policemen, screaming at them. One Police Officer had had enough and gave one of the girls a good hard push. She didnt fall but dropped her bag, the Policeman then kicked the bag, launching it over her and towards the tracks. This, however hilarious to watch, bought them enough time to get the man in custody towards the car. The man didnt like the fact that his women were being abused though and started to kick the Policemen. Biff! After a few short jabs by a Police Officer he was in the car. This drama was all well and good but alot of people had connecting trains to catch. The train still wasnt moving and it was obvious that we were waiting for the girls to get back on. One old greek man didnt see why we should wait for these criminals, yelling out loud something in Greek. He then took it one step further and walked to the train door to yell at the Police. I asked a woman nearby what he had said. Something along the lines of, 'get this f****** train going, why are we waiting for these stupid women!!!'. The girls got on and started hurling abuse from the carriage behind us to the old man. Jerry, Jerry, the chant went out! No, no it didnt but the American and I started talking about it. The old man ignored the psycho and the train started moving.

Along the way i got to know the American, Jamie. He planned on staying the night in Thessaloniki also, and we were both looking through Loney Planet for somewhere to stay. Once at the station i made a few calls and found a place, a little expensive, but there was nothing else. Jamie came along and later that night we went out for some Gyros and beer.

We planned to be up the next morning around 9 to head to the station and "book" a seat for Budapest. We had decided that all signs were pointing to NOT going to Turkey, so we followed our instincts and settled on Budapest and then Austria. Like i said, 9 o clock start. We woke at midday. Fair enough we thought, we had been travelling since the day before yesterday. After getting an extension on our check out time, lucky, we headed back to the train station.

Simple ill go up, demand that we get seats for the train to Budapest, validate our tickets and we will be on our way. That didnt go down so well with the guy at the "Internation Ticket Booth", the booth with a huge "Eurail" sticker on the window. It seemed we were just meant to "get on, free free". I wasnt in the mood for anymore free free crap, and tried to explain our ploblem with 'free free' the day before. He didn't get it, or didn't care and i got more and more frustrated. I went and told Kell the problem, who was minding our bags in the shade out the front of the station. She demanded that we have seats booked for this train, "i'm sorry but im not bloody standing all the way to Budapest, I WANT A SEAT!" I went back and tried again. The guy just didnt get it and started talking Greek to another man, presumably saying, 'This guy wont piss off, keeps asking for a seat, what should i do?' Ask him if he has visa's for all the country's he's travelling through, and if he doesn't, tell him he needs them.' This is my best assumption of what the reply would have been because the next thing the man said to me was "you have visas?" "Visas for what", i replied. "You Australian yeah?" "Yeah." "You need visa for F.Y.R.O.M, Serbia and Hungary." "Where am i meant to get them?" "At the Embassy, but they closed now. Tomorrow morning, first thing."

I could feel my whole body filling with rage and despair. I tried to find information from the "information office" but all i got was "I donno, i donno," with a wave of a hand, guestering for me to go away. I found myself in the police office trying to get info from them, they were slightly helpful and gave me some addresses of embassy's but couldnt tell me for sure if i did or did not need visas for those countries. I know, i thought. It's not to late to call dad, he'll know. I rang about 5 times. No answer. No answer on a Sunday night at 8:30? What? We were screwed. We sure as hell didn't want to stay in Thessaloniki but we didnt know if we were going to be turned away at the Macedonian border. We would have called dad's mobile but we had tried to call Kells, mothers, mobile previously in Greece with no luck, so assumed it was impossible. I remembered i had a few other landline numbers in my bag. I called my brother Ben and got him to call dad for us. Dad was out and didnt have access to the visa info, and couldnt tell us for sure one way or the other. So after numerous phone calls to Ben and eventually getting Dad on his mobile we still didnt have a definate answer. We could either stay in Thessaloniki and wait for Dad to get to a computer, in the mean time missing the train, or we could get on the train and see what happened. We were stumped i stood infront of Kell, explaining the situation to her. A guy about my age came and stood next to me, kind of eaves dropping. After exlpaining to Kell i turned to him and he said he had overhead me talking with the Police. His name was Dejan, and we was Serbian and had travelled to Greece with Australians and they didnt have any visas. We started chatting with him and made friends. He told us how he had been working in Greece for two months and hated the place. He had made €3000 and had lost it all at the train station that morning. Pickpocketed. He had just enough money in his bag for a train ticket home. A wasted 2 months in terrible working and living conditions.

We took the risk and got on the train to Budapest with our new found friend, Dejan, who shared the same disgust for Greece as we did at the time.

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Photos

Kell
Unhappy with her lunch, a toasted ham and cheese sandwhich, at Athens Train Station.

Action, in the Middle of Nowhere
Police on the scene. Waiting for the arrival of the victim.

Suspect #1
Getting dragged across the tracks.

Fired Up!
The women get involved.

Comments

[margie masson]

my daily fix!
keep up the really good "blogging" - am getting addicted to it! but also it makes you and Kells seem a lot closer! margie xx

[Kathy]

OK you guys is it time yet to turn around and come home. Doesn't sound like you are having much luck at the moment. Hope things improve a little for you. Austria is great - great mine tour from Salzburg. Wa in German when we went but the underground mine itself was fantastice regardless of understanding the guide. Great underground lake, fantastic slides to get from one level to another and you get to dress up like the KKK. Take care Kath

[bangers]

Its all good.
Ha this blog is a little behind the times.... things get better in the future but not without incident lol. We didnt do the Mine Tour.... I would have loved to but after forking out €33 each, for the Sound of Music we were a little short on funds! Salzburg is so nice though! We had rain which was the first since arriving in Cape Town in the pouring rain, so it was nice.