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Published: December 27th 2004
CORFU
(Oct 4)
We docked in Corfu around 5 am with no accommodations booked. Most young travelers go to the party resort called the Pink Palace. It caters to booze guzzling twenty something travelers looking to party and perhaps share a little love. We wanted nothing to do with the place. However, by the time the ferry hit the unwelcoming port, the man standing at the port with a minivan and “PINK PALACE” sign somehow became very appealing. Next thing we knew, we walked onto the bus like zombies. As it turned out, the Pink Palace was not that bad, and relatively quiet; there was 300 people staying there as opposed to the regular 800 to 1000! We had to do a shot of pink Sambucca upon arrival at 6am and then slept for the majority of the day.
Corfu is a beautiful island with sharp mountains, crisp blue waters and exotic forests with lemon, olive and pomegranate trees and the most beautiful sunsets we had ever seen . Unfortunately, we left our camera charger in Lake Como, so only got one shot (the view from our patio) before the battery died. We highly recommend it.
Meals at
the Pink Palace were served at a complex on the beach that doubled as a disco by night. They also had a massive TV that played movies all day. We spent our three day stay on the island hanging out with other travelers, partying at the disco (trying to keep up with the 23 year olds), exploring the beach and town, and watching movies. With the exception of the rude, chauvinistic owner “Dr. George”, who is reason enough to avoid the place, the Pink Palace turned out to be all right.
ATHENS
(Oct 8)
We left the Pink Palace en route to Athens with a busload of other travelers. If you go to Greece, do not get a Eurail pass, as it is useless in the country. The bus station in Corfu was mayhem with loud Greek men sending the group of us in every direction. There was a great deal of confusion, but we found the bus, piled on and headed for Athens (late of course). The driver was nuts! He refused to open the bathroom, drove like he just robbed a bank and kept screaming in Greek to the local passengers asking which way to go
Smoggy Monument
A view of the Acropolis from high up in The Hilton. Not as nice as the night view when you can't see the smog.at forks in the road. Then he rushed us off the bus at 5 am in Athens like there was a bomb onboard. We were greeted at the terminal station by the armada of taxi drivers yelling for our business. They wanted double the cost of the taxi to the hostel (we called the hostel in advance to confirm the price). When Tracey outright stood up to their screaming and told them what we would pay, they walked away and told us we were making a mistake. Sure enough, 10 minutes later, they reappearred with heavily slashed prices. We checked into our hostel at 5:30am (the biggest dive yet) and checked out at noon with a fifty percent discount claiming a family emergency.
After checking into the second hostel, we met up with Tracey's parents as they arrived at their hotel from the airport. With our Eurail passes, we were able to get a great discount for them at the newly refurbished Hilton (at least it was good for something in Greece). This is where our experience with Greek food began. Everything we ate in Greece was amazing. The first night we went to Daphnie's; a beautifully cavern-like restaurant
A closer view
Imagine the poor buggers hoisting those marble pillars up! with a garden terrace and live music and then back to the Galaxy Bar, on the top floor of the Hilton, for nightcaps. The Galaxi Bar has glass walls with a view of the well-lit Acropolis. The floor is also glass with illuminated beach rocks 10 inches below (very bizarre to walk on). The place was cool, but packed with Armani and Gucci clad young business type folk. We definitely did not blend in with our traveling wares! We still don't know how Mr. Dobbin managed to get a corner table with the nice plush seats. We enjoyed our drinks in Victory Square, and then made our way back to the hostel.
Waking late the next morning, we literally ran to the Hilton with the hopes of free food; Tracey's parents had access to the member's lounge, with the Eurail discount, which served complimentary breakfasts. We made it just under the wire and seriously enjoyed a familiar morning meal with all the trimmings, our first since leaving home. We even dressed in our 'travelling best' to avoid being detected. After breakfast, we made our way to the Acropolis and got a tour from Greek woman named Penelope (of all
names). If you haven't read any Greek Mythology, Penelope was Odysseus's wife; the most famous mortal woman next to Helen of Troy. The tour was very informative, as we were provided with the factual and mythological history of the city, and the structures were amazing. You can imagine the events that took place on the site, including the number of people who worked to the bone or death to build these structures.
After the tour, we had dinner in a quaint cafe on a busy pedestrian filled street in Plaka where we enjoyed people watching as much as the meal. Once again, amazing food! Following a second trip to the Galaxy Bar, we caught a cab to the hostel. The ride took 25 minutes when it should have taken 5 as the police had blocked off the roads explaining that "hooligans have closed down the street!"?? Damn those Hooligans. We spent the next day just cruising around the various areas of Athens before flying to the Greek Islands for a few days. We definitely chose the right time to visit Athens; the entire city has received a facelift (and apparently full blown surgery in some cases) for the Olympics.
Eternal Guarding Ladies
They have been restoring these lovely ladies one by one. It is a careful process. They guard a tomb that has never been excavated and only looked at with sonar and the likes. No one really knows what is in there. Despite what anyone may tell you, Athens is a great city with delicious food and very vibrant, friendly people. However, even with the improvements to the infrastructure of the city, the traffic is still horrendous.
SANTORINI
(Oct 10)
The flight to Santorini was only forty minutes long and then another 10 minutes by taxi to the main town of Fira. The taxi drops you off at the top of the town since most of the buildings are only accessible by steep footpaths as the town was built on the side of a cliff. The tourist port is located below the town and is accessible by a winding footpath, which can be traveled by foot, donkey, or funicular (cable car).
We arrived at our hotel to learn that there had been confusion in our booking and there was only one room available. So after 45 minutes of wandering up and down the footpaths along the cliffs of Fira with luggage for four, we found a place that could accommodate us. Like most of the accommodations in the area, our rooms had a beautiful view of the Aegean Ocean, the steep cliffs of Santorini, and the volcano island about
a kilometer off shore. We quickly cleaned up and ate dinner in an open-air restaurant overlooking the same view as our guest house and enjoyed a spectacular sunset. Following dinner, we found a cool little jazz bar, recommended in our guide book, for some Santorini red wine and great tunes.
During the next three days, we wandered through the narrow footpaths of the town poking into the cool little shops (for those interested in jewelry, there is more gold in Santorini than there is in Vatican City), meeting the invariably friendly keepers and enjoyed many helpings of Greek Cuisine. We also took two boat tours of the area (by scam, the trips were almost identical!). Both trips brought us to the volcano where we hiked to the top and then sailed to the hot springs (actually, just warm springs). The second trip included a sail to the northern end of the island.
Overall, the Santorini is beautiful island with a calm, romantic vibe. Although very touristed, it has managed to maintain a certain old fashioned charm with donkeys and narrow footpaths. It is a very relaxing place and we highly recommend it.
SYROS and MYKONOS
(Oct 13)
The Running Man
Part of the olympic facelift for Athens. Can't wait until one of the insane traffic jams cause someone to send this puppy shattering across the intersection it is oddly placed right in the middle of. The trip to Mykonos didn't begin smoothly. We were told to take the cable car down to the port and catch our ferry at 7:30am. We were doing OK with time until the cable car operator informed us that we were at the wrong port and that our ferry left from the other side of the island (we bought the tickets from the same travel agent who sold us the boat tickets). Full Scale Panic. We quickly lugged our stuff through the town to the main road to catch a taxi to the industrial port. The streets were dead. We ended up in the back of a pick-up truck with a man who couldn't speak a word of English, but understood that we had to get somewhere fast with our luggage. He drove us directly to the bus station which luckily was close to the taxi stand. The taxi ride was like the Indy 500 as we sped along the winding roads. The driver certainly earned his money! Amazingly, we were at the ferry terminal 5 minutes before departure, only to discover that in the mayhem we lost out tickets and had to buy them again.
The ferry
Navigating Santorini
The hotel search through the winding streets. wasn't much different then any small Canadian ferry. We were scheduled to stop at one of the small islands to change boats. When we arrived, we were told that the other boat wouldn't be making it until the next day due to high winds and we would have to spend the night on the small industrial island. A herd of confused tourists started asking around and a massive line soon formed at one of the ticket agencies who were reportedly selling tickets for Mykonos that night. We managed to get tickets and left the island in less than an hour enroute to Syros, the ‘stop-over’ island, where we would spend the day. We stored our luggage at a local hotel and decided to make the best of it (in other words, we decided to sample the food and beer of the island). The island was nice but nine hours was a long enough visit.
We caught our ferry to Mykonos at 9 that night. It was mayhem getting off the boat and even crazier trying to get a taxi from the port; we had to split up and share taxis with strangers, to the hotel. Thankfully we made the
Breakfast in the sun
That is the volcano on the right. hotel reservations from Syros and we all made it there in one piece. The hotel was awesome with a very cool pool and deck and a poolside restaurant and bar. We relaxed and sipped some beers before crashing for a well anticipated sleep. During our stay, we enjoyed delicious poolside breakfasts, explored the island by foot, and of course sampled more Greek food at various open terrace styled restaurants. The island, known by travelers as a party island, has a little faster pace and a more lively night life than Santorini, but has a less dramatic landscape. It is actually quite rocky and flat. Overall, Mykonos is a very cool place with many interesting sights, great restaurants and bars. We would definitely recommend that it be included in any tour of the Greek Islands.
ATHENS
(Oct 16)
We headed back to Athens to say goodbye to Tracey’s parents and meet up with two friends from Dalhousie, Kyle and Mark (a.k.a. Super) for a night (they were on route to Egypt). Our hostel was located in Plaka, below the Acropolis, and had a rooftop patio that overlooked the monument. We began our night on the patio until
Atop the Volcano
After the dusty hike. we were politely asked to leave; apparently we shared our stories a little too enthusiastically. So, booted from the patio, we headed out to the streets of Plaka with some interesting characters we met at the hostel, including one especially interesting fellow named Francois who took a particular 'liking' to Super! We roamed the streets, sampled the restaurants, explored the park and just enjoyed the company of our friends. During the night, we endured Super's world record snoring and then feeling a little 'under the weather' toured around Athens the following day with some local street dogs we befriended along the way. There are stray dogs everywhere in the city. Both Super and the dogs marked a few historical monuments throughout the day. Before we knew it, Kyle and Super were on their way to Egypt and we had a day left to prepare for Africa.
A day of banking, research, emails and a new haircut for Jay (by Tracey with a pair of old scissors from the front desk) and just like that, we were in the airport waiting for our flight to Nairobi. Europe ended in great style with family, friends and many great and memorable times.
It is amazing how quickly 2 months can pass and seem like so long at the same time. The adventures continue on the Dark Continent.
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FRED LEVERENZ
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ERECTHEON
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN THE CARYTIDS ARE REPLICAS, THE ORIGINALS ARE IN THE MUSEUM, AND ONE OF THEM IS IN THE MUSEUM, KNOWN AS PART THE ELGIN MARBLES.