Europe Day 20: Athens Part Deux

Heat Stroke
So it seems both of us had a worse case of heat stroke than we originally thought. While I was nowhere near the state H-Rabbit was in, I think I was pretty done in as well.

We slept long and late into the morning and missed our free breakfast from the hotel. We also realized we missed the chance to miss the heat. But after slowly making our way up and at-em - we figured we’d already missed out on a night on the town last night and didn’t want to pass up today – so we had to get moving.

Walk About
While there was lots left to see and do in Athens tourist-y wise – we really weren’t too interested in seeing much more than the Plaka at night – so we figured we’d take a chance walking around the upper part of town for a little while until we couldn’t stand the heat. After, we’d then head back to the hotel to get ready for leaving tomorrow, before heading back downtown in the evening.

Athens… the beautiful?
In walking around – we realized we were much further up from the downtown core than we had originally thought. The heat made walking quite a task. We also realized that Athens wasn’t exactly the awesomest city we’d been to so far – and most definitely not the safest.

In passing by the Polytechnic Institute that we were close to – we had to pass by a fleet of winos with their stereotypical alcoholic bottles in brown bags... only to run into two men throwing open needles at each other across the sidewalk. We quickly made our way to the other side of the street and vowed to remember not to walk back that way again.

As we wandered, we noticed that the city was also extremely dusty and dried out – and well – dirty. I was actually quite disappointed and depressed at it all. It wasn’t exactly the European city experience I wanted to remember as my last. There was so much trash lying in the streets, and the buildings were falling down all around us. Grime lay everywhere and everything felt like it was asleep.

Escape the heat with a Gyro
After an hour or so - the heat was just getting too much. We decided to just quickly find the two things we still needed – lunch and another luggage bag for souvenirs – and then it was time to get back to the hotel.

Finding a place that sold bags that were useable as luggage proved a bit difficult – but we finally came across a small store owned by an old gentleman and his wife that sold sports bags. They were very nice and helped us get what we needed. They even helped us with our broken “pleases” and “thank-yous” in Greek (Parakalo and Efarysto)

After that we jumped into the first decent looking place advertising gyros. We grabbed some cold pops, our gyros and sat to relieve our returning heat stroke.

Packing, packing, packing
We’re now back at the hotel. You would think after weeks of packing and unpacking this last pack would be an easy task, but to get everything in where we needed it to be, it required a full overhaul of everything that we had brought and bought.

We ended up leaving a lot of crap we no longer needed behind – hopefully it went to some good use – but I’m sure it just went into the trash.

Now that we were packed and ready – we were finally cooled down enough and relaxed enough and prepared for a nice night on the town.

Plaka! Athens… this time actually beautiful
We managed to figure out how to make our way into the downtown core by bus and arrived early so that we could look around the Plaka area both in the light and in the evening. We weren’t sure how long things were open for – throughout our time here everyone had been giving us different times when things would close down so we wanted to make sure we didn’t miss anything.

We spent most of the night picking up all of our leftover souvenir needs. The Plaka area is absolutely wonderful and beautiful and exciting and energetic and more than made up for my disappointment in the city earlier in the day. It is too bad that the city most clearly only keeps this area in its good standards due to its touristy nature, and doesn’t give the same attention to the rest of the city.

I didn’t notice it yesterday when we were walking around – but the Plaka is directly beside the walkways and entrance to the Acropolis, and while walking we encountered many a remnant of ruins and old historical sites in and amongst the many shops and restaurants. It only enhanced the beauty of the area exponentially.

After walking in circles and circles throughout the area (without actually walking along the same paths more than once because there’s actually that many places to get lost in) – we figured it was time to settle on one of the awesome restaurants for our last monster European meal. The restaurant we picked was small and we actually had our table set up for us in the middle of the road! A cop car even made it’s way through all the tables and past us to get by (thankfully no other types of cars make their way through the area).

Delicious Greek Food – Good for the tummy
The meal we had for dinner was nothing short of spectacular. I absolutely love Greek food and we finally got to enjoy a meal without the hassle of the tour, or the time constraints of needing to be anywhere at any particular time. We got to try a lot of dishes and just relax and spend a nice evening in the atmosphere of a lively Mediterranean evening.



Wish it didn’t have to end
We took our time about getting back to the hotel – and remembered to make our way out back to the main roads to not get ripped off by the Plaka taxi drivers. They charge tourists twice as much as it should really cost to get back to their hotels. The drivers inside the Plaka were quoting us 50 to 80 euros to get back to where we needed to be – but our hotel concierge had told us it shouldn’t be more than 25 euros. So we walked up and right out of the Plaka – took about 15 minutes – and when we hit one of the central squares – without a doubt – the first taxi we hailed quoted us 25 euros. Apparently the druggies and the drunks aren’t the only crooks in the city.

Despite the few bumps though - this was an absolutely wonderful way to end our trip, and made us feel better about having to finish up in Athens. All that’s left is the plane trip back home tomorrow – and then real life will hit us with a bang.

Europe Day 19: Our Last Contiki Day

Early morning, last Contiki hurrah
Well – our last day with our Contiki group started bright and early – not only because we were leaving at a ridiculous early time to visit the Acropolis (trying to avoid the line-ups, crowds and the hot, hot sun of midday Greece) – but also because we had to pack and store our bags (which our friends Chris and Liz graciously allowed us to use their room for). We weren’t staying in the same hotel that night and needed to make our way somewhere further uptown later on.

Athens the dangerous
Well – let’s say I never expected to feel more in the Ghetto somewhere in the Mediterranean than any city I’ve seen in Canada or the United States – but voila – Athens did it. Even staying at our pretty nice hotel didn’t save us from the crime life that seems to exist in that city – and it was evidenced further by the 2-tonne police trailer full of cops that apparently sits just outside the hotel during the day. Too bad they weren’t around the night before to catch all the drug dealers operating out of the phone booths. Seriously.

Sites of Athens
The heat was unbearable even before the sun was high in the sky. Even though the early leave time had already wiped us out, we were still glad we weren’t waiting to do the tour any later. We got a professional guide for this tour of the city and the Acropolis, so she took us around town first to point out all the areas, and then we headed for the big hike up the “mountain” to see the ruins.

Hard walk up
It was a bit of a hard trek up to the Acropolis with the extreme heat and my asthma – but I vowed I’d go the distance. I wasn’t getting all the way to Greece and not seeing the damn thing cause of my asthma. The guide let us stop every now and then, but she also pressed pretty quickly so that we weren’t up at the top in the scorching sun (and in order to get there before the major crowds started arriving). While I’d have loved to be listening to the history she had been telling the group like our other good tour guides – I was too wiped out to care much. I preferred instead to take photographs. My visual pleasure in being there was so much more satisfying than simply standing in the heat to listen. I figured I could catch the history later to match with the photos.


The Acropolis…
… was under construction – or more accurately put – restoration and research. It was a little bit of a let-down, as the historical and stereotypic vision of the Acropolis was un-photographable. Oh well - another picture regret that I’ll have to fulfill sometime in the future.


Modern interpretation
The guide let us know that they are just putting the finishing touches down in the city on the Acropolis museum which she pointed out to us down below. It has been made the exact same size as the Acropolis area and all the artifacts that have been found from it – frecoes, statues, etc. – are being placed down in the museum in the exact place they were found in the actual ruins. It’s quite a cool idea – and would be a neat thing to go see in the future when it’s finally all ready.


My favourite part of the area was the Caryatids statues – even though they are only the replicas. Five of the originals will be in the Acropolis museum, while the sixth is somewhere in Britain – can’t remember where exactly.

Air conditioning relief!
After we had our fill up top – and realized we were being burned alive by the sun – we decided it was definitely time to head back – quickly – to the lovely relief of our air-conditioned bus. Somewhere along the way we lost one of our tour peeps… and we got stuck waiting until one of the guys could find her in the stores.


Olympic Stadium
On our way back to the central square of the city – we stopped off quickly at the Olympic stadium in Athens. Quite large and quite impressive – kind of the atypical stadium you would expect from Athens.

Teary Cheery Goodbye
Our tour ending in the main city square was actually out literal Contiki tour end as well. It was our last stop and we no longer were responsible for staying with the group. There were lots of hugs and kisses all around – but also I’d say some sighs of great relief – it’s hard to spend so much time with the same group of people – especially when there are some members that you don’t necessarily hold in high regard. But – c’est la vie.

First independent decision – McDonalds
Yes – indeed – we are a sad, sad bunch – but as soon as we were released, Chris, Liz, H-Rabbit and myself headed to the one place that felt like “home” – McDonalds! Ha! I think after three weeks of European food and being really good about trying new things – all we wanted to do was sit in great air-conditioning and eat something plain.


High heat, but the Plaka was calling
After quickly running through the Plaka area the night before – we were itching to head back – and even though the day was just getting hotter and hotter – we figured a small walk through the area wouldn’t be too much. We started in earnest our hording of souvenirs – and the area was amazing even during the day. However – the heat wasn’t getting better – only worse – and it was getting to us pretty badly.

Last swim on the roof-top
We head back with Chris and Liz to the hotel. We decided to enjoy the roof-top pool and patio one last time before figuring our way over to our new hotel. It was a joy to just relax with nowhere to be and nothing to do and no responsibilities with time or location. However – after a few hours – the heat was even getting to us up there and we figured we should probably get moving to our new location.

Great Friends
We gave a long and lasting goodbye to our new friends Liz and Chris – they truly were an amazing couple and we can’t wait to find our way over to Australia one day to see them again. Perhaps we’ll even get a glimpse of their newly minted Venetian cat in its new home.

New hotel
The drive to our new hotel wasn’t too bad – and we weren’t much further away from the downtown core either. The new hotel was very clean and simple and our room was pretty huge too. The heat however – had really done us in and H-Rabbit had a pretty bad case of heat stroke. Instead of doing anything else – we figured we’d just hit the sack and get some much needed sleep in a cold, dark room. While it may have felt like wasting a night – we figured it would be better than still feeling crappy for the rest of our stay in Athens and ruining those days as well. Besides – running around Athens in the dark by myself without H-Rabbit wasn’t exactly high on my to-do list with all te crime we had been seeing. Sleep was probably the best decision to be made.

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 16: Corfu Day One

Gravol puts you out!
While last night’s Gravol helped me get a pretty good sleep, it was still a little unnerving to be woken up by the announcements for the ferry’s first port of call. Definitely way too early for our own stop, and ended up being another stop at a port on the mainland of Greece. We still had to head to the islands.

Sunrise missed
Regardless of what I thought was an early call, it still wasn’t early enough to catch the sunrise, which was too bad – it would have been really awesome to watch it rise in a seaside setting on the boat. From that first port it was only another 30-60 minutes to our actual port in Corfu, so we spent our time packing quickly and lining up to disembark. I got “annoyed” by another attack of Little Miss Self-entitled – but I’ve promised myself not to let her ruin anymore of my trip. I really don’t understand how people can actually grow up being that way, but whatever. (For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, you’ll just have to ask me because she’s not even worth me spending time to explain it here.)

Corfu and Anna!
When we got off of the boat, we met our site rep Anna who was all smiles and cheer. She led us to another coach and driver (not permanent), who wasn’t too pleased with the weight of my bag. I just kind of looked at him with a sorry expression – but seriously man – if little ‘ole me was able to lug that up and down the three flights of stairs on the ferry, I don’t think he should have been complaining about one little throw into the luggage compartment.

Corfu-town
Our port was in the town of Kerkyra (Corfu) but our hotel was just outside in the town of Keloni (which is really more like a suburb of Corfu than a separate town). This area is on a huge hill, and while the coach could make it up to the hotel, the driver couldn’t make it up the additional hill-of-a-driveway that the hotel had, and we had to lug our luggage up there ourselves – definitely not a happy task.

Awesome hotel
Despite the huge hill, the hotel was awesome – like a little resort. We were given breakfast first right away – awesome buffet of food. We then checked in, and had some time to get ready, before we had to go into town. We also were going to have a meeting with Anna.

The opinions of others
So at this point – I should fill in some back information. Basically, Leona had told us throughout the whole trip, that we should not take the option to rent our own car and drive around the island. She told us about how the roads were a bit dangerous and the drivers were severely crazy. With this continued reminding throughout the trip – pretty much everyone on the bus was ready to NOT rent a car.

However – what should happen at the meeting with Anna? Renting a car and driving around Corfu was exactly what she suggested was the BEST idea out of the bunch before us (rent a car for the day, go into town by coach, visit the city beach by walking).

Not such a hard choice
It at first seemed like a hard choice before us – but in the end we decided that a trip into town wasn’t so exciting as seeing the island for ourselves, and the only chance for us to see the better beaches on the west side of the island would be to take off on our own. In the end, there were actually a lot of us that decided on the car – but because we were long in making our decision – the only people in our car was H-Rabbit, Caitlyn and myself. Chris and Liz decided to opt out, as they weren’t comfortable with the car issue. In the end – for me – it really wasn’t a big deal. I think maybe for Leona it was a bigger deal since they drive on the other side of the road (in Australia) – however, we drive on the same side as Corfu in Toronto, and the roads weren’t any worse that what I’ve driven on in other island locals, so c’est ca.

Ish-time not always a good thing
ISH time definitely affected our leaving time – there was a long period of waiting around for our car to be delivered by the rental company. In the meantime, Anna showed us where to go, and how to get there, on an island map. Eventually, the car people finally arrived – but with a manual car! So we had to wait some more for an automatic, since I was the only one who was going to drive and I can only drive automatic.

Empty means EMPTY
Finally, we got our car. In handing it over, the rental lady told us the tank was on empty, but it would get us to the closest gas station to fill up. Ha! Yeah, right! After we got in and cruised down to the main road down by the breakwater – the car didn’t even make it past the waterfront! It gave out in the middle of an intersection, and with a little maneuvering and quick gearing into neutral, I managed to coast the car into a parking spot right beside a store beside the intersection.

Yay for helpful locals!
Thankfully, the storeowner helped us call the car people and get them to come help us out. He didn’t speak much English, but with random sign language and sad faces, I think he realized what was wrong with us.

Hilarious live comedy
Thankfully - not too much ISH time in came into play this time around. The car rental people came fairly quickly and said over and over again that they were sorry and embarrassed. It was a hilarious comedy of errors watching them trying to get us on our way, by trying to get gas into tank to take us to the gas station. Basically, they had brought the gas in a plastic vegetable or corn oil jug, and they proceeded to make a funnel out of the map they were going to give us of the area to get the gas in, and then tried to funnel the gas into the tank. There was a mother, daughter and it seems maybe grandfather all in the mix chattering away to each other in Greece cause they just couldn’t get it to work. Finally – with the grandfather holding a pen into the gas tank opening to keep it open, the daughter holding the funnel-made-out-of-map, and the mother slowly pouring the gas in – they managed to get about 1/16 of a tank of gas in. As apologies – they said we could have the car for an hour longer than everyone else that had got a car – which was nice considering we had now spent half a day just trying to get out of the city, let alone To anywhere.

Laughing Gas
As we had a good laugh at the real-life comedy we witnessed – we had another good laugh when we finally got to the closest gas station. It was more than a kilometer away, meaning even if we hadn’t stalled right at the bottom of the hill, we would have stalled sometime after, cause we definitely would never have made it all the way to that first station. Greek people are definitely a gas. Get it? Hahaha.

Most amazing ride
On our way to the western isles, we definitely had one of the most amazing rides ever through countryside. Unlike all the dire warnings, driving was a total breeze. With all the same rules as Canada, the roads proved easy, and once you’re out of the city it’s just plain ‘ole small island driving: no one on the roads and awesome twisting turning pathways that make the ride feel more like an off-road rollercoaster.

Breathing in the beauty
Whether the driving was inland or along the coasts, there were a ton of amazing sights and views to behold. I can’t remember the name of the main western beach we made it to (will have to look that up), but we got there safely and spent a couple hours both sun bathing and have an awesome time in the ocean. While there, we met up with the Texans and Jolene as they had hit the same beach. When we were good and burnt, and after buying some beach gear, Jolene decided to join us in our car and we drove to a few other beaches and areas up the west coast of the island. There were some amazing photo ops and vistas. As our time for car return was nearing, we then headed back to the hotel along another route so we could see some other areas of the island.

Glupas!
Spelling of the above may be wrong – but it should be the name of the restaurant we went to tonight after we returned back from the beach. After such a great day, it was awesome to be treated to such a great night too. We started dinner with all of us having a shot of Ouzo at the entrance, and were then led into a large taverna with dancing all and everything. Dinner was absolutely amazing with tons and tons of courses. After we finished eating, we were then treated to an array of traditional Greek dancing and singing, which of course included many a broken plate as well as lighting the entire dance floor on fire! Everyone knows Greeks know how to party! After that – it was thankfully straight to bed as the day had been hugely filled and tomorrow we’re on the water all day long. It’s going to be one of the best days ever – I can feel it – and I don’t want to miss it.

Pre-Europe #4: One day more...

Gah!!

Today has been crazy - and I'm realizing that I'm already slacking on the up-to-the-minute blogging!! Very sad indeed!!

Anywho - it's 2am - and I wanted to quicky blog and catch the past days up, because well, I'm not that keen on back-date posting (as I've been good to be doing previously) since it would take a gagillion years, AND I'm about to drop dead.

Anywho - since our big weekend shop - the following has happened in life:
shopped some more - went to the Pride Parade - bought more clothes - bought the little things and meat for Canada Day bbq - went to friends for Canada Day bbq - watched fireworks through my bedroom window from Mel Lastman Square - bought a lens holder - bought a 2GB CF card - got my car Drive Clean tested - renewed my car's license for two years - left Wyn-Wyn at her new home for the next three weeks - dropped the car off at my 'rents - packed my suitcase - packed my carry-on - fretted about weight - found out Air Transat flights back from Greece allow you WAY more weight for your luggage than the ones going to England do, even though it's the same bloody carrier.... and done!!

That's everything that's happened since the weekend - and I managed to work two days in there somewhere too.

Now all that's left for tomorrow - Day 1 of our trip - is cleaning the condo for my sister who's going to stay here - buying some in-flight snacks - and then off to the airport.

I can't WAIT!!