Ena taxidi sto Ellada
Translation: A trip to Greece. Andrew and I just returned from a two week vacation in Greece on April 12th. I will try to summarize the highlights of the trip, but for a complete idea of the voyage, look at my photos (www.manderhill.shutterfly.com).
We left for our trip on Wednesday, March 28th. We didn’t fly out until Thursday morning, but we had no way of getting there in time to check in because of train times, so we spent the night at the Brussels Airport. This wasn’t the last night of interesting sleeping accommodations. We arrived in Athens on Thursday afternoon to discover that the hotel we booked for the first night was in a sketchy neighborhood. SO we spent our first day in Athens wandering around Plaka (the neighborhood by the Acropolis) to find a hotel for the next two nights. We were successful in finding a hotel that had an excellent location and an excellent price.
Side note, recommendations for future Greece travelers. (1.) Go during the off season. Everything is CHEAP. (2.) Be prepared to use cash. Many hotels won’t take credit card and many restaurants will tell you that they don’t. (3.) Don’t expect getting around to be easy. (4.) If taking a bus anywhere, be familiar with the Greek alphabet and bring a snack. (5.) Don’t trust bus schedules. Ask. Trust us. (6.) Carry toilet paper with you.
Alright, continuing with the trip. We spent the first full day in Athens studying Classical Greece or as Andrew says seeing a lot of old shit. We went to the Archeology Museum and the Acropolis. The second day we took our first Greek bus ride to Delphi. Andrew hoped to see the oracle so she could tell him how cool he is, but instead we saw more “old shit”. Our last day in Athens, we wandered around the National Gardens and we had the opportunity to see the changing of the Guard.
We then attempted to get to the Peloponnesus Train Station, which no longer exists, to get a train to Nafplion (a place recommended by the STA travel guy). The people working at this “so-called” train station, sent us to the station for Northern Greece where we got some help from a toothless Greek Man who spoke English. We then discovered, there were no trains to the Peloponnesus. We got stuck taking a 10€ cab to the Peloponnesus bus station, where I got the opportunity to pee in a hole in the ground which they called their bathroom. I decided that I prefer the pay toilets in Belgium.
After a two hour bus ride, we made it to Nafplion. This was an extremely photogenic city. My Frommer’s Greece guide describes it as “far and away the most charming town in the Peloponnese.” Here, we climbed about 1000 steps to explore a Venetian fortress; we spent time lounging on the beach; we wandered through the old town. We did take two day trips from Nafplion during our four days there. The first trip was to a place that was about 3 miles outside of town. We decided it was a good idea to rent bikes. Not so much. We are actually amazed that our overpriced bike rentals from a middle school kid made it there and back. Tiryns, where we visited, was described in the Odyssey. This was the first of our Homeric tour. The next day we took a bus ride to Mycenae to see the ruins there. A little history here, the Mycenaeans were the people who fought in the Battle of Troy. The ruins here were very impressive in their mountain side home.
Then it was back to Athens to kill time until our first ferry ride. Our ferry left Pireaus at 9pm. When I say ferry, I mean a full size Cruise ship. We didn’t have seats or a room, so we had the opportunity to sleep in the hallway. This was not the only time we did this.
We arrived in Heraklion on the island of Crete at 6am. We checked into our hotel. Yes, they let us. And we took a nap before starting to see more old stuff. This was the oldest stuff that we saw. We took a city bus to the Palace of Knossos, which is the palace of the Minoan people, who are believed to be the ancestors of the Greeks. Here, Andrew wanted to run through the labyrinth and fight the minotaur, but sadly, it was not the season for the minotaur (aka half man, half bull) and we had a guided tour, so he had to behave.
We didn’t do much else except wander around in Heraklion because the archeology museum is closed for renovations.
The next day we took the scariest bus ride through the mountains (please note: our bus driver passed everyone on that road) to our final destination: Matala. Words cannot describe the greatness of this place, especially during off-season. We checked in to our hotel, which was over booked, so they put us up in another one down the road. This one was run by a very nice, old Greek couple. The woman was extensively impressed with my beginners Greek. She went off about how people come here and don’t know a word of Greek. Overall, very entertaining woman. Matala was spent on the beach, exploring some caves, listening to the sheep, and playing cribbage. The night before Easter was probably the most interesting. We spent part of the day at the beach, but not too long because my hives were getting worse. Yes, that’s right. I’m allergic to Greece. Anyways, the family who owned our hotel was having an Easter celebration where they butchered a sheep in yard. We won’t go into details. Then they’re having a good ole time, and suddenly at 11:55pm, it is dead silent in the hotel. Then at midnight, there were fireworks. We quickly ran to town to see what the commotion was. There was a church service going on in the smallest church either of us had ever seen. There were fireworks going off. And people partying.
Other than that, Matala was low key. We were pretty broke at this time, so we didn’t do anything except what I already listed above. On Tuesday, April 10 we left Matala for the longest return journey ever. We took a bus to Heraklion, where we killed the day carrying our bags and eating gyros. We caught our cruise ship at 9pm where we again “slept” in a hallway, but there was a small Turkish child running around, so sleep was not had. Wednesday, we spent the day in Athens. We wandered around trying to see some of the stuff we hadn’t yet. Then after our last Greek meal (I had fantastic Lamb Souvlaki. YUMMY), we took the metro to the airport. We spent the night in the airport playing cribbage before our flight the following morning.
That sums up the trip. We are back in Mons. Tan. My hives are going away. And that’s where we are now.
