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Published: June 29th 2012
Levadia train station
An absolute ghost town. Another wild and slightly insane day of travel. The only bus I took today was in the morning, and of course it was late. There's a saying in Greece that to show up on time is "to act English." So when a bus says it'll be at a certain place at 9, it really means 9:15. But the drive out of Delphi was beautiful. Went through a genuine Greek ski town, Arahova, right on the slopes of Mt. Parnassos. Thought I was back in Colorado for a second. Then finally made my way down to Levadia, and caught a taxi to the train station from there.
A quick word about the train in Greece. I loved it because I was done with the bus, but the stations are dilapidated, worn out looking places on the edges of towns, and have absolutely no services to offer, except a random ticket desk with a person that looks angry that they actually have to be there. This is truly where Greece is different from heartland European countries. In Germany, if a train is late by even ten minutes the conductor is probably fired. And stations are like malls. But in Greece all of
the clocks don't work at the stations, and the screens that should tell which trains are arriving have long since been shut off. I saw the plug hanging out of the wall to one of the screens, and thought maybe it had just come out. But I decided against putting it back in - it's almost strange to know where you're going in Greece, and actually have times where trains are supposed to show up.
From Levadia I went North, past Lamia, and then the train just randomly stopped and people got out to smoke for ten minutes. I'm still not sure, but I guess it was just the mandatory smoke break, and the train had to stop. Then made it to a town called Paleofarsos by around 2ish. Please try to find out where this place is, because honestly, I'm still not exactly sure. Somewhere in Thessaly I think. Sat at the train station for 4 hours and watched a lot of strange things happen. I honestly think the town exists because of the station. Finally caught the 6:31 train (that actually showed up at 7) to Kalambaka, and hopped a taxi to Kastraki from there, a quick
Paleofalsos
Is this the town? ten minute drive.
Travel in Greece is very, very funny, and honestly I think just watching Greek people is almost more interesting than going to all of the sites. They are so calm, and assume that everything will not happen when it is scheduled to. Takes getting used to, especially coming from our by-the-clock world back in the States. You know things are different when the clocks don't work at a train station!
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