Europe Day 18: All-day drive to Athens

Close to the end
Well – we’re basically on the last leg of the trip now. Apparently we have an entire day of driving – literally. I think Leona said our plan was to have breaks every 2.5 hours – but they seriously will simply be breaks and not really any “stops” to see or do anything. I kind of expected it when I was checking out maps of Greece before we left and was trying to think of how we were going to get from Corfu to Athens – however, even I thought we were going to be taking a more direct route. Instead – I think we’re going in some roundabout way on the outer rim…crazy long.

On the Ferry again
Well – we have to hop on the ferry again to get to the mainland, but at least this ride is only 30 minutes. We’re all feeling the affects of the sun today after our tryst in Corfu – and yet we all opted to hang out on the top deck to watch the ride. I believe we are all crazy – especially H-Rabbit and Caitlyn M. since they are already fairly sunburned.

Last glimpse of the water up close
It is definitely sad to know we won’t be getting this close to the ocean again on the trip. A lot of the other group members have booked additional side trips after our tour ends to go to the Greek islands of Mykonos and Santorini. We just didn’t have the time to do it since we have to get back for Meghan’s wedding. It’s disappointing – since Santorini is where the world’s idea of the look of Greece comes from. Apparently there isn’t anywhere else in Greece that truly looks like Santorini, and yet, that island has become what people associate as the “look” of Greece the world over. Oh well – I guess that just means we need to definitely come back.

Snagged the front
When we landed, I decided that for once – I was getting the front seat. I truly didn’t mind for pretty much the whole tour – but I got a chance to look at some of the scenery bus pictures I’ve been taking and they simply aren’t coming out as great as I had hoped. I figured then that the only way to get a few better shots is to grab a seat where I can shoot out the front window. Some of the front “regulars” probably weren’t too happy with me – but seriously, playing those kind of school-age bus games doesn’t really matter to me.

Breaks and a bridge
We made a quick stop for bathrooms and snacks early on in the trip – nothing much to report. But on the second leg we came upon the Rio-Antirrio Bridge that links from the ridge islands to the mainland of Greece. Leona said that we were crossing the Gulf of Corinth near Patras, and that the bridge was originally thought of and planned ages ago – however the technology needed to build it didn’t exist. Finally it was built in the 1990s. Let me just say – it’s a huge bridge, and a little crazy to cross since it’s only about 4 lanes wide.

Gyros for Lunch
I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the town we’re stopping in – Leona keeps saying it but I either keep missing it or am not hearing her right at all. Anyhow – apparently we’re stopping at a place expecting us and Leona can put in our order for now. We’re going to a Gyro place and we can order however much we want of chicken or beef or pork gyros. They’re only 2 euros each and are fairly huge. Most people are ordering two but driving on this bus for so long has made me lethargic and I’m not up to eating so very much.

Canadians in the bathroom
Funny enough – as we stopped for lunch – and also used the restaurant stop for a bathroom break – Heather and I ran into another Canadian in the washroom with her kids. She had married a Greek man as was now living in Greece with her family – but all she wanted to talk to us about was how she wanted to go back to Canada so badly – she wished she could convince her husband to go back. Strange encounter indeed.

Sorry, but there ARE gyros in Toronto
Leona was telling everyone on the bus how they have to get Gyros cause they don’t have them (good gyros) anywhere else but here in Greece – and I kind of sat there dumbfounded. She most definitely has never been to Toronto. What I do admit is that our Greek restaurants do have the Gyros meal style many times more than in wraps – whereas I only ever saw Gyros sandwiches while in Greece – the fact remains that the rest of the world has indeed been introduced to the gyro. Lately – I have realized that I am extremely bugged by other’s ignorance of the world at large – I need to figure out a way to not let that bug me so much so I’m not angry at people all the time – cause ignorance of this kind seems to be a fairly rampant thing.


Too hot to handle
So – what I’ve forgotten to mention was that now that we were traveling along on the mainland – the awesome, sea-faring weather we experienced in the islands is simply non-existent inland. There are no cool breezes, no windswept updrafts, nor the fresh smell of the sea. Instead – it is hot, hot, hot! 40 degrees Celsius hot! And so yeah – me and my asthma ain’t so happy.

The Corinth Canal
We made our second stop before the last leg of the trip to Athens at a rest stop situated beside the Corinth Canal. It was really neat to see the enormity of the man-made break between the Peloponnesian peninsula and Greece’s mainland. We walked out onto a pretty thin 2-lane bridge that crossed it to take a look right down into it – pretty thrilling to say the least. I didn’t spend too much time taking a look as the heat and being in the dusty outdoors did a huge number on my breathing – but I was glad I took the initiative to go out and see it anyway instead of staying in the rest stop. I’m hoping my breathing doesn’t ruin my time in Athens.

Arriving in Athens
Driving through Athens was definitely a trip, and it was neat to seem surrounded by “mounts” of purpose. What I am most surprised about though is the… filth, I guess. We’re staying pretty much right downtown in Athens – not far at all from the Plaka area and the Acropolis – and while there is a ton of awesome culture and history evident here – it is also highly disappointing in how modernity has brought the filth, crime and disintegration of urban sprawl to the city as well. Our hotel is okay – but the rooms aren’t awesome – however the rooftop pool and bar more than make up for it.
Our last night together
While we have a few more days here in Athens – this is actually out last night together as a tour group. We’re going to be breaking ranks tomorrow at noon after our Athens tour, so we’re all heading out for a huge Grecian meal in the Plaka area.

Another dinner for the record books
The romance, fun and “life” of the Plaka area are absolutely enthralling. Our dinner was amazing, once again stuffing us to the brim with a ton of food and many, many courses. We all went picture happy trying to capture the end of our trip with one another. As a closing night dinner, it was pretty satisfying and it will definitely be sad to leave the group we’ve come to enjoy spending so much time with. We were treated to a bit more traditional Greek dancing as well through the night, and managed to wrap up while some of the stalls in the Plaka were still open. Some of the girls made plans to return tomorrow and we promised ourselves we would definitely be back to experience the Plaka on our own terms during our extra time here.

Nighttime over the rooftops of Athens
When we returned from dinner we joined everyone upstairs at the pool and bar on the roof of the hotel for a last drink together. The view up there was beyond amazing. You can look upon many of the historical ruins aloft on their mountaintops from where we are. I hope the pictures turn out – I also hope one day to have the same experience again. I firmly believe now that you haven’t experience a city until you experience it at night – daytime just doesn’t have the same aura and electricity.



Crazy tour in the hot, hot sun tomorrow
Title says it all – need some sleep ASAP – plus, we need to prepare to switch to our second hotel in Athens since we opted to stay elsewhere during our own time here. Need to get packing again… and sleep!

Europe Day 10: Venezia

Train-ing in
Today was a normal day. Yay for not having to get up in time for a bus! We walked for a little bit to the local train station in our area so that we could train-in to the Venice islands. It was actually a pretty far ride – we have GOT to make sure not the miss the last train back or it’s going to cost us a fortune – and several headaches – trying to get back on our.

Raining Ferries
Just as we boarded our Ferry, once again the plague of rain that has been the norm on this trip started again. The Venice ferries really aren’t ferries at all so much as little tour boats that fit about 50 odd people or so – so the rain that was pelting the area definitely gave us an adventurous ride being so close to the surface of the water. Thankfully, upon landing the rain disappeared as quickly as it came, and it looked like maybe we’d be okay for the day (or at least most of it).

Piazza San Marco
From the docks, we walked quite a bit around the edge of the island, past four waterway bridges, to the Piazza San Marco. This is where a lot of the main tourist “attractions” are actually centred in the city, and where we would be seeing the two demonstrations that would begin our day.


Murano Glass
Our first stop was to a Murano Glass maker’s demonstration. To be honest – I actually found this demonstration absolutely amazing. The artisan made a vase and a horse sculpture right in front of our eyes in less than 5 minutes. The glass house does both blown glass pieces as well as shaped. It was wild to see how malleable the glass was – it looked like pulling taffy. Both H-Rabbit and I would have loved to pick out an heirloom or keepsake piece, but the prices were severely out of our reach. The smaller pieces in our price range just weren’t big enough to really represent a unique Venetian piece, and looked like stuff we could even get back home – so while we sighed and lamented, we were really good about not picking anything up that we really just couldn’t afford. (Though even now I am still despairing over passing up the gold inlaid purple shot glass and decanter set I saw – it was to die for!)

Covered in Lace
From the glass demonstration and gallery, we then went to a lace demonstration at the last lace school in Venice that focuses on the local art of handmade lace. The place was covered in beautiful examples of the craft – it’s hardly believable that it was all done by hand. While it is inspiring to think of the time and craftsmanship required to create such pieces – lace isn’t really my thing – however, because the prices weren’t bad – I picked up a tiny keepsake and a present for someone back home who would love it more than me.


Getting Lost in Venice
Leona’s one main piece of advice for Venice was to get lost in it – so that is exactly what H-Rabbit and I did. To be more honest – we really didn’t have a choice. For every city so far through our trip, Leona had been able to give us pretty awesome maps that were clear and easy to follow – however for some reason her Contiki package from head office forgot to include the Venice maps. So here we were trying to follow a very rough photocopied version, and well – we gave up after about 10 minutes. With the rain, the traveling and the putting things in our backpacks and pulling things out constantly (to save them from the rain) – the map was a bit of a disaster. So – simply trying to keep track of north, east, west and south – we decided just to wander enjoy the wondrous views and picturesque alleyways.


The most amazing pizza ever!
Heading into the maze of streets, we realized we hadn’t eaten in forever and found the most amazing pizza place ever. It was a small tucked away place in the middle of God knows where (we were “lost” remember – can’t even give you one iota of where the place was). Instead of selling their pizza by the slice – they sell it by the weight – so basically you can pick and choose however much you want, from whichever pizzas you want (mix and match even), and they then weight it all and you get your price to pay. I absolutely adored what I got – though H-Rabbit wasn’t extremely impressed by hers. There was nowhere to sit to eat so we eventually made our way down a dead-ended alley (dead-ended by water) and took some time to devour the slices, while simultaneously keeping them away from droves of pigeons.

Rialto Bridge
As we wandered, we eventually found ourselves at the Rialto Bridge. We walked through and along the market passageways, which were filled with a ton of artisans. Here was yet another example of flea market wonderfulness that Toronto severely lacks. As you walked further and further away from the bridge, the prices got better and better so eventually I found a large masquerade mask for our wall. I didn’t go all out and get a ceramic version, but the one I got was still fairly delicate. I hope it makes it home all right.


Basilica di San Marco
Magically, we seemed to make our way back to Piazza di San Marco and decided to line up to see the Basilica di San Marco. While the church was very quaint and nice, it actually wasn’t all that impressive. What I did end up being impressed with was a small girls youth choir from Texas that came into the church and sang while we were there. They sounded magnificent, with perfect pitch resonating through the always-amazing acoustics of a cathedral style church.


The Doge’s Palace
After the church, we went to see The Doge’s Palace, and were expecting a line-up from what we heard from other people – however when we got there we almost thought that it was closed – there was no line! This aspect of our day actually turned into a pretty amazing visit. The entire palace is covered in beautiful and intricate carvings, frescos, paintings, woodwork, tapestries… you name it, this place had it. The collections throughout the rooms were breathtaking – not to mention the architecture and structure of the palace itself.

Our goal, of course, for the palace was to get to the “Bridge of Sighs” that was used to move prisoners from the courts built right into the palace to the prison next door. This was the last chance prisoners had to look out onto the outside world before being locked up. We took a few pictures from within to match up to our pictures of the bridge from the outside so we could get a feeling from “both sides of the fence.”

Downpour
As we were finishing up in the palace – we got hit with yet another downpour. Thankfully we were able to wait it out perfectly dry within the palace walls. It was actually neat to see the play of dark, light and water within the palace walls, as the entire inner core of the palace is an open-air courtyard. Without moving we could tell when the rain stopped and we could move on. Just in time to meet the rest of the group too for our collective Gondola ride.

Disappointment
However – we were to miss out on the one and only thing I had ever wanted to do in Venice. Our gondola rides were cancelled at the absolute last minute because the company feared it would start raining again as hard as before – and all the Gondola’s are stopped in such weather. There was nothing to be done and the group dispersed as a bunch of the people was to go to dinner as a group (we skipped out) in about an hour – so even if the Gondola’s became free again – the group as a whole couldn’t go. Some people managed to get a Gondola ride on their own – as other companies were still riding their gondolas out despite the rain – however H-Rabbit and I weren’t that lucky. I was really disappointed and must admit it’s a sore spot on the trip for me.

Hail in Venice
While the company was right – it did rain again – it didn’t happen until a few hours later. We would have been gone and back from our rides before it ever began. However, admittedly, it didn’t just simply rain again – it hailed! Hail in Venice! H-Rabbit and I got caught out in the middle of a small piazza right in the middle of it – it was crazy. The power and size of the hailstorm was truly nerve racking. I don’t think Venice sees too much hail as the nearby cafes didn’t even know what to do with their umbrellas and tables – it was funny to watch, as they stood dumbfounded at the falling umbrellas and such.

Quiet Dinner
In the end – the rain and hail didn’t seem to want to let up, so when it got a bit lighter, we trudged on and found a small restaurant to grab a bite. We had a beautiful (and cheap) dinner of spaghetti, caprese salad and bread. Afterwards, we walked around some more. Heather made a stop to do some Puma shopping and then we took our time making it back to the ferry docks for the boat ride back to the train station.

Ish-time is aggravating
Well, Ish-time worked in reverse this time – instead of leaving later, we almost missed the ferry home because the group left earlier than the time we were even asked to gather together. Thankfully – the first boat filled and they needed to call a second so we weren’t left behind. We had a hilarious ferryboat ride home, as the people who went to the group dinner seemed to be just a little bit “tipsy” from all the free wine they got. It was jokes and laughs all the way home. The “party” continued on the train ride home with tons of antics and even an episode with a disgruntled ticket conductor. Yay for our new Italian friend, who got us all out of a jam by interpreting. We finished the day with a nightcap with the group, but then tucked in at a fairly decent time.