Following from the last entry, I still had a few days left to spend in Athens before heading back to London after the guys headed out. As one last hurrah with them, we all made our way to the Archeological Museum in Athens because our guide books said it was one of the top European museums. Personally, I disagreed. Maybe it was due to my general lack of interest towards a museum that solely focused on Ancient Greece or that we had been to so many museums at this point that I no longer had the patience. Although you may not believe it, spending an afternoon in a Museum can be one of the most exhausting things you can do. I don’t know if it is the walking, reading or attempted learning but it really just takes it out of you. Fortunately for me, the rest of the guys shared the same sentiments and we only spent about an hour in the museum before we all decided to call it a day. I wished them farewell, grabbed my camera and headed off towards the Acropolis for a day of sightseeing.
It isn’t entirely clear or well marked how to get up to the Acropolis from the ground so I just sort of headed up the plateau via the less strenuous routes and, before I knew it, I was looking out over Athens from a rocky outcropping. I didn’t really understand how big Athens was until I got above it. As I made my way from one hill to another, and finally up to the Acropolis, I realized that I couldn’t see a city limit in any direction except for the Mediterranean to the south. I won’t attempt to test my literary skill by describing how stunningly gorgeous the view was because I took enough pictures for any 3 people so check out Facebook instead! The beauty of the views, however, shouldn’t take anything away from how cool the remains of the Ancient Greek Acropolis are. Considering that those structures date from more than 2000 years ago it is kind of ridiculous that they are still standing, especially given how massive they are. From the top of the Acropolis I spotted a cool old amphitheater, the original Olympic Stadium and busy public square that I wanted to check so I made my way down there after exhausting all there was to do at the Acropolis. A few hours of walking around and exploring later, I was absolutely starving and needed a meal so I made my way back to my token gyro stand. Before I headed back to the hostel I made sure to check out the “Athens Flea Market.” In all honesty, it’s more of a collection of posh shops than a flea market but, like usual, it’s always fun to browse at things. Also, for the record, the part about Europe having cooler shoes than us still held true in Athens.
When I got back to the hostel I found a new guy who had inadvertently took my bed so, naturally we got to talking. Turns out he is an architecture student from Illinois studying in Versailles for the year and was on a trip to Athens and then some Greek Islands to do some sketching. Sounded like a hell of an academic trip to me. We talked for a bit, introduced ourselves (he was Phil) and he invited me to a hostel a little closer to downtown where his friend was staying. Apparently it had a miraculous rooftop bar and a great happy hour so I couldn’t resist. Turns out his friend, Jeff, was actually a 45 year old, married man with a wife and kids who had decided to head back to school to get his architecture degree and took on the tremendous undertaking of spending a year abroad. I can’t image how hard that would be with a wife and two young kids at home. Anyways, the happy hour turned out to be spectacular so we all enjoyed our fair share of beers and conversed about everything and nothing for a few hours. When we headed back to the hostel, I had planned on going to bed but, like usual, there was something going on that I couldn’t resist joining. Maxi and a few new hostel arrivals were on the roof so I headed up there and enjoyed the rest of the evening with them.
The following morning (well, late morning) Maxi and I headed down to the main square to meet up with some girls he had met while travelling in Eastern Europe. We did introductions and then headed to catch the tram down to the beach. The 45 minute ride to the water wasn’t ideal although finally getting to the beach made it all worth it! The four of us literally did ABSOLUTELY nothing all day and it was marvelous. We just hung out, listened to music (one of the girls ended up being a country fan which was great because I hadn’t listened to it for ages!) and soaked up the sun for hours. It saddened me that my flight back to London was the next night at 6pm because I had been having such a great time. That all changed when I got back to the hostel that night and started hearing about all of the flights being cancelled thanks to Iceland’s lovely volcano. According to the news that day, airspace might be reopened by Saturday afternoon so there was a small chance my flight me still be on. Knowing my luck though, I figured it would be best if I went to the airport in the morning to see the status of everything. I tried to keep an open mind about whatever might happen that day because in all reality, how bad could it possibly be to be “stranded” in such a wonderful place? Positive vibes of course! I finally managed to get to bed decently early after a wonderful conversation about Pikies (like those in Snatch) with the resident bartender – turns out that the movie’s depictions are pretty close to real, not just a Hollywood fabrication.
I got up in the morning, gathered my things and headed to catch a bus to Athens International Airport. All I wanted to do was check with Olympic Air to see what the status of my flight was and either get a new flight or hang out all day until my flight took off. Consistent with my luck, the Olympic Air queue when I got there was about 2 hours long and at least double any other line. So there I sat, neither the clock or the line seeming to move. When I finally found that my flight for the night was definitely cancelled, I obviously figured I’d be able to get something in the next few days but it turns out that, due to the cancellations, all flights were backlogged until a week later! My heart suddenly dropped and my optimism faded. I really didn’t have the money to hang out in Greece for another week despite how much fun it may have been and I also had to get to London by Friday to get some things from the guys house that I had planned on picking up. There was also the issue of the paper I had due the following Tuesday which I had budgeted myself a week to work on before this had happened. I checked with other airlines and the story was much of the same. Suddenly, I had no idea what to do and started searching for creative ways to get back to this lovely little island. Step 1 was to call the hostel and let them know that I would for sure be spending another night there…..
The journey will continue shortly for those who are interested! It’s quite the epic tale I assure you.
Cheers until then,
Patrick
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Greece, Part One - Possibly the Most Beautiful Place on Earth!
Hello all my faithful readers (mainly relatives I presume haha) and those of you who just check this out randomly!
There has been a bit of a hiatus since my last post despite my intentions of having this one done a week ago but I have gotten so caught up in relaxing that I just couldnt seem to find any free time to write! Anyways, here is a bit about my lovely stay in Greece before Iceland tried to keep me there :)
After a long night on a ferry and a day filled with poorly scheduled and bumpy trains, arriving to Hostel Zeus in Athens and reuniting with the gang from Rome was a big relief. I lugged my stuff up the 75 stairs to my room – a climb that would get rather annoying after 5 days – and looked forward to meeting fellow travelers. I was kindly greeted by an Aussie dressed in full beach attire and listening to some hip-hop who I came to know as Maxi. We did the general introductions, realized we got along pretty well and then did the usual “what are you doing here” conversation that never ceases to be interesting with kids from all over the world. As for Maxi, he had been working construction for the last 6 or 7 years, decided he was sick of it and wanted to use some of the money he had saved up to explore Europe for about 6 weeks and then go look for something a little less labor intensive back home. A half hour or so later I was informed by some Wisco folk that the gyro stands closed at 20:00 so I had to hurry down the street to the nearest stand to get a pair of kebobs. Admittedly, I had never really ventured into Greek food so I didn’t know what to expect. Oh was I pleasantly surprised! In a nutshell, the kebabs consisted of a grilled pita filled with a meat of your choice, cucumber sauce, fries and whatever other vegetables you wanted to put in there. And for less than 2 euro a piece, it’s safe to say that I ate 2 for every non-breakfast meal for the duration of my stay in Greece!
When I got back to the hostel, the manager was in the middle of telling the people in the lobby that the bar was about to open and he would give free shots to the first 10 people up there so, naturally, I raced up the stairs to solidify my spot in the free booze line. Unfortunately, the favorite liquor of the Greeks is Uzzo, a black licorice flavored vodka type thing. Didn’t care for it much but as long as I didnt pay for it would just be silly to turn it down! Interestingly enough, the hostel manager was a British guy who had left the motherland just to see something different. Kind of a quirky guy although he did tell a good story and did a good job of keeping us entertained if necessary: would learn quite a bit about the Greek people, Athens and Britain through conversations with him over the next few days. The guys had an epic adventure planned for the next day so I just grabbed a beer with no intention of staying up too late. In retrospect, I feel like I knew that that was just an optimistic intention. Maxi and I got to talking with a few others and 1 beer turned into more than 1 beer and a few games of King’s Cup. Then the barman brought out a hookah to bring a relaxing cap to the evening.
The plan for the next day was to get up early, head to Piraeus (Athens’ port) and catch a ferry to the Greek Island of Aegina. Compared to the party paradises of Santorini and Mykonos, Aegina is just a small laid back area without all of the tourist attractions but that didn’t bother us a bit. It was only 45 minutes and 9 Euro away by ferry and gave us a chance to spend almost an entire day on the beech relaxing. Considering I passed out almost immediately on the ferry, it felt like we were there in essentially no time and greeted by a cloudless day. We quickly scoped out the parts of the island we could see and then moved to the first obvious order of business: ATV rental. Originally Stallsmith and I didn’t partake in the rental and set off down the coastline to find a favorable beach. After about 45 minutes of picturesque scenery we came across a completely deserted sandy beach outfitted with umbrellas and lounge chairs. I can’t even explain how wonderful it was to just lay out in the sun for the first time in 7 or 8 months and welcome the sunburn that would soon follow. Eventually the ATV gang came roaring down the road and joined us on the beach with some music and a frisbee. The hours rolled by as we all soaked up the sun, enjoying life, Greece, Europe and vacation.
Every once so often, different people would grab the ATVs and go for a cruise along the coast. One after another people came back with their hair windblown and smiles on their faces until Julian and Abby returned with somber looks. They had been gone an awfully long time so, naturally, we made a barrage of bad jokes when they returned but once they got close enough we all noticed blood on both of their legs. Immediately we broke out into laughter and asked them what had happened. Apparently while attempting to do some donuts with the less than powerful ATVs, they had flipped it! Then, instead of coming back, they figured it would be best to head to the medical center in the town center which they had passed early. In a wonderful story that juxtaposes Europe against American, Julian reached for his wallet after they received treatment before being told “You don’t pay nothing, this is Greece not America!” Something like that says a lot about the differences between the fast capitalist lifestyle we have all gotten so used to and the laid back, relationship focused ideals that represent a lot of European cultures. Admittedly such ideals don’t help much for the debt crisis but they sure do make you feel welcome.
When the story was told and everyone got their laughs in, we all doubled up on the 4 ATVs we had and headed off for the opposite side of the island! The scenery as we made our way up the narrow winding roads from the coast up into the mountains was breathtaking. Not to sound like too much of a nerd but a lot it reminded me of the opening scene in Jurassic Park where the helicopter flies over the island...I digress haha. Our ATVs weren’t exactly high quality so they didnt really fly up the hills, especially Jon and Mikey’s which didn’t downshift into first gear so it often stalled on big climbs so they had to get off and push it up hills. Originally we didn’t know this and just figured they got behind a bit so we headed on forward. Once we hadn’t seen them for a while we figured it was probably best to stop and wait for them to make sure everything alright. We all completely died laughing when we saw Mikey pushing Jon on the ATV because they couldnt make it up the hilly section of road we just got done with. We all knew it wouldve been the right thing to do to go down there and help them but it was just far too funny to interrupt! Twenty minutes later when our stomachs hurt from laughter and they were sweaty and tired we were all together again to proceed downhill for the beach that was our final destination when we left the other side of the island 45 minutes before – we definitely took the long way! Due to our fiasco on the way over, we only had about an hour on the beach before we had to head back to catch our 8pm ferry to Athens. We got some gyros for fuel and revved up the ATVs again for the ride back. This time we pledged to not let Mikey and Jon fall so far behind. To make matters worse for them, their gas tank lid happed to wriggle itself free and fall down the mountain. One pleasure cruise later we arrived back at the port just in time.
Despite Julian’s attempts to shield the fact that he flipped the ATV, the rental folks were not at all happy about the scratches and damage to the ATV and ended up charging him a 70 Euro fine. As for the gas tank lid, who knew a little piece of plastic was worth 25 Euro?! The bad news put a little damper on a perfect day but eventually the anger turned into laugher over the entire scenario.
The guys were scheduled to leave the next day, giving me a few relaxing days to check out the Acropolis and relax on the beaches of Athens. We all enjoyed a few beers around the bar that evenings, marveled at our sunburn and reminisced on how great the last 3 weeks had been. There is no doubt that someday I will make sure to return to the Greek Islands! In the interest of length, I will cut this off here and leave the rest of my adventures in Athens for a later post...stay tuned because it will probably be coming up soon.
I trust everyone had a spectacular time at Mifflin and I’m real sorry I couldn’t be there! Good luck with finals and make sure to check out the pictures I’ve put up lately! Due to the length of this I have failed to re-read it for spelling and grammar so my sincerest apologies haha.
Cheers,
Patrick
There has been a bit of a hiatus since my last post despite my intentions of having this one done a week ago but I have gotten so caught up in relaxing that I just couldnt seem to find any free time to write! Anyways, here is a bit about my lovely stay in Greece before Iceland tried to keep me there :)
After a long night on a ferry and a day filled with poorly scheduled and bumpy trains, arriving to Hostel Zeus in Athens and reuniting with the gang from Rome was a big relief. I lugged my stuff up the 75 stairs to my room – a climb that would get rather annoying after 5 days – and looked forward to meeting fellow travelers. I was kindly greeted by an Aussie dressed in full beach attire and listening to some hip-hop who I came to know as Maxi. We did the general introductions, realized we got along pretty well and then did the usual “what are you doing here” conversation that never ceases to be interesting with kids from all over the world. As for Maxi, he had been working construction for the last 6 or 7 years, decided he was sick of it and wanted to use some of the money he had saved up to explore Europe for about 6 weeks and then go look for something a little less labor intensive back home. A half hour or so later I was informed by some Wisco folk that the gyro stands closed at 20:00 so I had to hurry down the street to the nearest stand to get a pair of kebobs. Admittedly, I had never really ventured into Greek food so I didn’t know what to expect. Oh was I pleasantly surprised! In a nutshell, the kebabs consisted of a grilled pita filled with a meat of your choice, cucumber sauce, fries and whatever other vegetables you wanted to put in there. And for less than 2 euro a piece, it’s safe to say that I ate 2 for every non-breakfast meal for the duration of my stay in Greece!
When I got back to the hostel, the manager was in the middle of telling the people in the lobby that the bar was about to open and he would give free shots to the first 10 people up there so, naturally, I raced up the stairs to solidify my spot in the free booze line. Unfortunately, the favorite liquor of the Greeks is Uzzo, a black licorice flavored vodka type thing. Didn’t care for it much but as long as I didnt pay for it would just be silly to turn it down! Interestingly enough, the hostel manager was a British guy who had left the motherland just to see something different. Kind of a quirky guy although he did tell a good story and did a good job of keeping us entertained if necessary: would learn quite a bit about the Greek people, Athens and Britain through conversations with him over the next few days. The guys had an epic adventure planned for the next day so I just grabbed a beer with no intention of staying up too late. In retrospect, I feel like I knew that that was just an optimistic intention. Maxi and I got to talking with a few others and 1 beer turned into more than 1 beer and a few games of King’s Cup. Then the barman brought out a hookah to bring a relaxing cap to the evening.
The plan for the next day was to get up early, head to Piraeus (Athens’ port) and catch a ferry to the Greek Island of Aegina. Compared to the party paradises of Santorini and Mykonos, Aegina is just a small laid back area without all of the tourist attractions but that didn’t bother us a bit. It was only 45 minutes and 9 Euro away by ferry and gave us a chance to spend almost an entire day on the beech relaxing. Considering I passed out almost immediately on the ferry, it felt like we were there in essentially no time and greeted by a cloudless day. We quickly scoped out the parts of the island we could see and then moved to the first obvious order of business: ATV rental. Originally Stallsmith and I didn’t partake in the rental and set off down the coastline to find a favorable beach. After about 45 minutes of picturesque scenery we came across a completely deserted sandy beach outfitted with umbrellas and lounge chairs. I can’t even explain how wonderful it was to just lay out in the sun for the first time in 7 or 8 months and welcome the sunburn that would soon follow. Eventually the ATV gang came roaring down the road and joined us on the beach with some music and a frisbee. The hours rolled by as we all soaked up the sun, enjoying life, Greece, Europe and vacation.
Every once so often, different people would grab the ATVs and go for a cruise along the coast. One after another people came back with their hair windblown and smiles on their faces until Julian and Abby returned with somber looks. They had been gone an awfully long time so, naturally, we made a barrage of bad jokes when they returned but once they got close enough we all noticed blood on both of their legs. Immediately we broke out into laughter and asked them what had happened. Apparently while attempting to do some donuts with the less than powerful ATVs, they had flipped it! Then, instead of coming back, they figured it would be best to head to the medical center in the town center which they had passed early. In a wonderful story that juxtaposes Europe against American, Julian reached for his wallet after they received treatment before being told “You don’t pay nothing, this is Greece not America!” Something like that says a lot about the differences between the fast capitalist lifestyle we have all gotten so used to and the laid back, relationship focused ideals that represent a lot of European cultures. Admittedly such ideals don’t help much for the debt crisis but they sure do make you feel welcome.
When the story was told and everyone got their laughs in, we all doubled up on the 4 ATVs we had and headed off for the opposite side of the island! The scenery as we made our way up the narrow winding roads from the coast up into the mountains was breathtaking. Not to sound like too much of a nerd but a lot it reminded me of the opening scene in Jurassic Park where the helicopter flies over the island...I digress haha. Our ATVs weren’t exactly high quality so they didnt really fly up the hills, especially Jon and Mikey’s which didn’t downshift into first gear so it often stalled on big climbs so they had to get off and push it up hills. Originally we didn’t know this and just figured they got behind a bit so we headed on forward. Once we hadn’t seen them for a while we figured it was probably best to stop and wait for them to make sure everything alright. We all completely died laughing when we saw Mikey pushing Jon on the ATV because they couldnt make it up the hilly section of road we just got done with. We all knew it wouldve been the right thing to do to go down there and help them but it was just far too funny to interrupt! Twenty minutes later when our stomachs hurt from laughter and they were sweaty and tired we were all together again to proceed downhill for the beach that was our final destination when we left the other side of the island 45 minutes before – we definitely took the long way! Due to our fiasco on the way over, we only had about an hour on the beach before we had to head back to catch our 8pm ferry to Athens. We got some gyros for fuel and revved up the ATVs again for the ride back. This time we pledged to not let Mikey and Jon fall so far behind. To make matters worse for them, their gas tank lid happed to wriggle itself free and fall down the mountain. One pleasure cruise later we arrived back at the port just in time.
Despite Julian’s attempts to shield the fact that he flipped the ATV, the rental folks were not at all happy about the scratches and damage to the ATV and ended up charging him a 70 Euro fine. As for the gas tank lid, who knew a little piece of plastic was worth 25 Euro?! The bad news put a little damper on a perfect day but eventually the anger turned into laugher over the entire scenario.
The guys were scheduled to leave the next day, giving me a few relaxing days to check out the Acropolis and relax on the beaches of Athens. We all enjoyed a few beers around the bar that evenings, marveled at our sunburn and reminisced on how great the last 3 weeks had been. There is no doubt that someday I will make sure to return to the Greek Islands! In the interest of length, I will cut this off here and leave the rest of my adventures in Athens for a later post...stay tuned because it will probably be coming up soon.
I trust everyone had a spectacular time at Mifflin and I’m real sorry I couldn’t be there! Good luck with finals and make sure to check out the pictures I’ve put up lately! Due to the length of this I have failed to re-read it for spelling and grammar so my sincerest apologies haha.
Cheers,
Patrick
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