| GREECE |
| This trip actually starts back in Salzburg, Vienna, and Budapest, but I'm short on time, so let's jump ahead. I went from Budapest to Split in Croatia, and I was there on September 11th when I walked past a news stand and saw the front page of a Croation paper with the World Trade Center in smoke and flames. I ran to an internet cafe and got the whole unbelievable story. I took my shocked mind on a bus to Dubrovnik from there, passing through a small section of Bosnia & Herzegovina where we stopped for a quite serious look at everyones passport. It was an absolutely gorgeous ride along the Croatian coast, with towering cliffs sloping steeply into a deep blue sea. What a contrast to the deeply concerning thoughts in my head about the attack in the U.S. |
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| In Dubrovnik I got a ferry to Bari. What a way to reach Greece! I had planned to go to Greece from Croatia but I soon learned that wasn't going to be easy at all. There are no ferries from Croatia to Greece, and passing through Albania by land would have taken a long time and been fraught with bureaucracy and impending danger, so I figured out I had to get a ferry to Bari in Italy and then another one to Patras the next day. On the ferry out of Dubrovnik I linked up with two Iranian-born Canadians, a German rasta guy named Thomas, and an arrogant French guy who went on and on about all the countries he has visited (I never do that! ha ha) We met other people on the deck of the ship and had a pretty cool night sharing wine and stories (and the French guy told me my wine was no good - merci!) |
| We arrived in Bari in the morning and Thomas and I bought tickets for the "Superfast" ferry leaving in the evening, so we had the day to spend in Bari. Our ferry was huge (174 metres to be exact) and quite uncrowded. We slept on the top deck sheltered from the wind by the ships control room, noting that there was in fact *no one* steering the ship - just a computer. |
| Late afternoon in Bari, waiting for our Superfast ferry to depart for Greece. Thomas is hiding in there somewhere. |
| Excellent morning on the Superfast (gotta love that name) ferry as we entered the first of the Ionian Islands and got excited for our arrival in Patras. It was a 16-hour journey but never a dull moment. |
| Finally in Patras, with a "3 1/2-hour" train ride to Athens ahead. It actually took about six hours, and we arrived at 8PM in Athens with no map, no guide book, and no idea where we were, but we still managed to find a campground on the outskirts of the city, thanks to a helpful bus driver guy. |
| Thomas trying to get the attention of any girl who will talk to him, or is his arm just stuck that way??? How embarrassing! |
| The Acropolis was pretty interesting, but as with many famous things like this, it was a lot smaller than I imagined, and of course it was crawling with other tourists. The best part for me was the views of Athens from there - what a sprawling city! |
| 4.5 million Greeks living out there... |
| But of course there is the classic view of the Parthenon, which was only viewable from one side due to ongoing restoration work, but at least the sky was cooperatively blue. It was also hot - perhaps more than 30 degrees and the warmest I have been since...? |
| Tourists at the Theatre of Herodes Atticus, looking southward toward the sea and Piraeus. |
| Thomas still showing off... poor boy |
| The end of the day seen from the top of Lykavittos Hill, the highest point in Athens. We sat there until it was officially night time, and time for us to get back to "Athens Camping" (was that bus 16B?) |
| Three days in Athens and time to get out to the islands, from the port of Piraeus, where many big ships wait to take people away. We boarded our ship early and spent the afternoon catching up with sleeping and reading and writing. |
| We arrived in Ios at 2AM and there was nothing going on, and the main village was up a steep hill. So we slept on the ground at the entrance to a church, on a small hill looking over the port and harbour. Not a bad place to wake up! |
| Our next "home" was at Mylopotas Beach, at the "Purple Pig" camping ground, which was nestled beneath a grove of eucalyptus trees and only a short walk from the beach. We put up the tent and headed straight for the waves. |
| Just can't take this guy anywhere! |
| The swimming pool at the Purple Pig, with larger more desirable swimming pool in the background. |
| After a cool day in the ocean, we made a hot day for ourselves, climbing to the top of the island (514 metres) for excellent views of Mylopotas Beach and the village of "Hora" and the port. |
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| Happy Attack cloud over Ios on our first morning. |
| At the top of our climb we found this somewhat lonely church. In this heat you can imagine why they paint everything white. It was an excellent place to chill out and look down to the sea. |
| Back down in the village "Hora" this is the main church. |
| From the top of Hora looking down on beautiful scenery. "Hora" just means "main village" and in fact there is a "hora" on many of the Greek islands, just to confuse the tourists. |
| On the boat to Santorini, my last look back at Ios, our "sleeping church" (right), the hills we climbed, and goodbye to Thomas who heads for Samos and Turkey... It was good man. Jah live! |
| Excellent sunset over the village |
| We spent four days on Ios, and I enjoyed it more than I expected, with Ios' reputation as the "party island" of Greece. Being september, it was quite peaceful, still lively enough to have other people around to meet. We did two nights in Hora which were pretty crazy and loud, with all the clubs and restaurants. I can only imagine what a scene it is in July and August. There is always someone (usually an attractive girl) standing in front of the clubs trying to pull you in there with promises of "2 for 1 cocktails" or saying "hey there are a lot of nice girls in there!" and other bullshit. What do you expect for clubs called "Slammer Bar", "Red Bull", and "Club 69"? Ha Ha! Along with the tranquility of the island at other times, Mylopotas Beach was surprisingly very nice, although we found an even better one - Manganaui Beach - on the other end of the island by motorbike. Driving over the very rough stony hills of Ios felt like being on Mars - a comment which I heard a lot from other people. I can't imagine how people survived here all those years with no natural water source and practically unworkable soil. I still don't know where our water came from for showers, etc. |
| The first look at Santorini was pretty impressive. It's inner coastline is made of steep cliffs falling into the sea, with villages encrusted on the clifftops. Santorini is the remains of a huge volcanic erruption - the rim of a giant crater. You can see the road from the port zig-zagging up the steep inner wall of the crater. Thankfully I got a ride - or I could have taken a donkey. Coming off the ferry I met a group of Australians who I ended up hanging out with for the next four days. |
| Here is the gang in the back row (Douglas, Peter, Adam, Linda, and Emma) along with two very friendly Canadian guys (Colin and Steve, near left) and and another Aussie bloke, Chris (right). This was one of several such meals with loads of excellent food and wine. I could stay for a month just for the food here, and the locally produced wines are very nice. |
| We got a couple of rooms near the town of Fira the first night and arranged for a boat tour of the island the next day. We then settled into chairs at a restaurant for sunset watching. |
| Our boat cruise took us all around the "caldera" (same origin as the word "cauldron") which refers to the area inside the old crater, which is formed to the east by the main island of Santorini. Other smaller islands form the western side of the crater. In the centre of the "Caldera Sea" is the remaining volcano, which still spits out steam and ash in small quantities. We were set free for a couple of hours to climb around on this volcano. |
| Our last stop on the boat tour was the beautiful village of Oia (pronounced "ee-ah") in the far northern tip of Santorini. This is where all the "money shots" are, which you see on all the postcard stands. We had to climb up a very steep and long set of steps from the boat up to the village, and at the top I found this nice cat sitting there, just like he owned the place. I gave him a pat and then he turned his head and let out the most morbid and pathetic sounding meow, and revealed a completely destroyed eyeball - bleah! But I watched him for a while, and it was clearly the spot he would hang out all the time. This is of course where every tourist coming by boat must pass on the way up the stairs, and I'm sure handouts are easy to come by. Of course the cats of the Greek Isles are famous, but unlike the many cute and healthy ones which get photographed, there are many more who are diseased and hungry and carrying wounds from battles with other desperate kitties. So it's a problem, and it stems from the fact that most of these cats don't "belong" to anyone, and that the cost of sterilisation is prohibitively high. The government claims to be working to bring the costs down and implement programs to reduce the cat population and improve the health issues, etc. When I came back three days later, this one was still on the same spot. Maybe injured, but not stupid. |
| Did someone mention postcards? They all seemed to contain slightly exaggerated colours, but look what you can do with a computer. Great for making them jealous back home. |
| Somebody's private postcard view of the sea |
| More idyllic scenery in Oia... |
| A great little shop I found in Fira, where I inevitably walked out with another drum for my collection. |
| A nice long shot of Santorini, with Oia in the far back, Fira closer on the right, and Pyrgos in the foreground, with the Caldera Sea to the left. |
| The Aussie Tribe and I shifted to the southeast corner of the island in Perissa, where we got a room - a very big room with many beds to ourselves for about 5USD per person. The swimming pool was a real bonus, and we spent quite a bit of time hanging out there. Understandably, a lot of Greeks think tourists are stupid for swimming in a pool full of chemicals when there is a warm blue sea right at your doorstep. I would tend to agree, but the pool was a nice social environment. |
| Another shot of Pyrgos. It's not high on the list of tourist settings, but I found it to be a particularly charming town - probably because it is not popular with tourists of course. |
| The beach at Perissa is made of black volcanic sand, so it gets very hot. The water is likewise quite warm and welcoming. |
| A nice view I located on a hilltop a few kms back from Perissa. I actually had to climb onto someone's rooftop for this one. The things I do to bring you good photos! |
| I said goodbye to the Aussies after four days together, and got my own posh room at Hotel Dimitri with a view of the sea. I wanted to pamper myself for the last three days in Greece, after sleeping on many trains, boats, hard ground, and sagging squeeking dormitory-style beds. Dimitri's wasn't hard to find. I took my motorbike down to the beach with my backpack on, and it isn't hard to identify someone like this who needs a room. A guy came over to me straight away and told me he had a good room - et voila! It was perfect. Stone and tiled floors, arched ceilings, huge bed, huge bathroom, etc. In July and August this room costs 50USD but being September I got it for $10. |
| The view from my window at Dimitri's |
| Someone else's view at a hotel near Akrotiri |
| Two views of "Red Beach" on the southern end of Santorini |
| And finally time to get out of here, on a flight to Athens and another flight to Zurich. What a change of scene! I really didn't want to leave, but you could always wish for another day and I was really refreshed by the arrival in Switzerland with all those green hills and snowcapped mountains - and trains that are on time and people who actually want to work, ha ha. Cheers! |
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