Blogs from Greece, Europe - page 517

Oh yes, it has been all of 12 years since I made that memorable 38 day trip to Europe visiting Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Egypt and Israel. I found my 1996 journal, so that helps. But memories started flooding my mind of a time when I snagged my longest-ever leave of absence from work, risked losing my job in the bank, or at very least fall out of favor from the bank's owners. None of that happened. Now living a semi-retired life, I plan to break up this long journey into several blogs to chronicle how much fun one can get in their early 40's! Athens First off, GREECE. We left Manila for Athens with a single stopover in Singapore. It was a long wait for our connecting flight, but Changi Airport is one airport worth ... read more

Oct 3, 1993 *City official name :Corfu *Founded date : *Location :Kerkyra Prefecture *Elavation :? ft (? m) *Area :Approximately ? square miles (? km²). *Facts :Corfu (Greek: Κέρκυρα - Kérkyra) is a city in north-western Greece. It is the capital and main town of the island and prefecture of Corfu. According to the local tradition Corcyra (Κόρκυρα) was the Homeric island of Scheria (Σχερία), and its earliest inhabitants the Phaeacians (Φαίακες). At a date no doubt previous to the foundation of Syracuse it was peopled by settlers from Corinth, but it appears to have previously received a stream of emigrants from Eretria. The splendid commercial position of Corcyra on the highway between Greece and the West favoured its rapid growth and, influe... read more

"Where the hell is Alexandroupoli?" I hear you ask, "and why would anyone want to go there?" I haven't got a clue and they wouldn't, but we had to change trains there. Of course our train was late arriving. Our connecting train had, presumably, also been late, but would have made sure that it had left before we arrived, so we had to spend a day in this armpit of a place. We went for something to eat. The prices advertised were not what we were charged and we had to get in a huge argument with the guy in charge who, like everyone, hated tourists. We couldn't fault the quality of his food however. We found the sea, planning on a swim, but with all the pollution floating in the water, a swim was out ... read more

The port was a lot further than I had remembered it in the taxi. Not only that, but all the signs were in the cryptic Greek giberish and I was never entirely sure whether I was going in the right direction. It wasn't long, however, until some Greek blokes on mopeds took pity on me and gave me a lift. My backpack made it very unsteady, but any worry about that was more than made up for by gratitude for the lift. Not that it mattered any more, but I was on the right road. I should have had more faith in my natural sense of direction, although it has let me down frequently and it was probably more luck than judgement. The port was lined with sleeping back-packers, so I find a space and joined ... read more

Geo: 37.9792, 23.7166... read more