The flight was long, but smooth. There was very little turbulence and the plane was about 1/3 full so nobody was next to me :oP I got into Amsterdam about half an hour early, so I had nearly two hours to wait. This turned out to be a good thing since I had to walk the entire length of the airport to get to my connecting flight (the amsterdam airport is HUGE, btw). The flight to Rome was delayed about half an hour because an arabic dude checked a bag and then didn't get on the plane -- security gets twitchy about that sort of thing I guess ;o) That flight had a tail wind so I arrived in Italy (near Rome) right on time 2:00pm Italy time on wednesday -- bout 5am PST. I then took a train to Rome which took about 30 mins. From there I set off to find lodging. I found the tourist info place which was of no help. I walked about half an hour and found a place I had read about on the web called Fawlty Towers (a hostel) -- they were booked full but referred me to another hostel only about a mile away, which is where I am staying at least for tonight. It's dorm style so I'm sharing a room with a canadian guy and some other guy -- costs nearly US$20 per night.The canadian guy has been here before so I followed him to the Colleseum and St. Peter's Cathedral. Long walk, big old buildings. Amazing stuff! I'm very sore from walking and extremely jet lagged (compounded by no friggin sleep and way too much stress prior to leaving). I slept soundly from 9pm to 6:30am -- not too bad considering the time change. Today we hooked up with three girls (also canadian) that Ryan (the canadian guy) was travelling with and then walked all over Rome again (sheesh again!). We saw the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, St. Peter's Cathedral again (it was closing as we got there last night so we just walked in and then back out), and went by the Vatican which was closed. I'll have to go there between 8:45 and 12:45. My friggin feet hurt, but it's cool here. I may end up buying a eurorail pass, or just a pass for italy since that's what I'm interested in seeing right now.
Italy looks more impoverished than I expected. The majority of the buildings are either under construction or in some stage of decay. Lots of trash about too. One thing that I noticed on the train into Rome was the incredible number of TV antennas on top of the buidlings, there's tons of 'em! I happened to arrive on a holiday, I believe it was a celebration of the day that jesus was conceived.
The most amazing thing I have seen to date was the Alps as I flew from Amsterdam to Rome. Dear god they
are expansive! There was a point in the flight where all I could see was alps -- and there were no clouds.
The buildings I've seen aren't so amazing in themselves, aside from the size of them and the fact that they were built so long ago. It's hard to imagine them erecting such things with the tools they had available at the time.I've been told of these gypsy women and their children that come up to you and put paper in your face while the kids rifle through your pockets -- well that happened to me today. I saww them coming so they didn't get anything off me, but it was an experience. Wow, all this and only my second day!
I met a couple more people today at the hostel, I'm really likin it :o) I was laying in bed last night thinking I should move on since I'd seen everything... then I saw more today. The dang place just keeps on surprising me (ok, I should give it more than a couple days). I went with the two new people I met back to the Colloseum (last night I just walked around the outside in the dark) and then we went down to the Forum and walked on the same rocks that Caesar walked on. I saw the temple where the Vestal (sp?) Virgins kept the fire going and Calligula wrecked lives at. Amazing stuff. We got in on a couple free tours which totally rocked. Plan to hit up the Vatican and hang with the pope tomorrow -- ok, maybe he won't be available to hang, but still...Time difference is +9 hours here. That means noon to you is 9pm (same day) to me.
The language is coming slowly as many of the italians speak english better than I speak italian. Ever try to get your hair cut with a communication gap? It turned out cool but not how I intended :oP
Well, I still intend on setting up that web site [got it!]. No, really. I'll think of you at your jobs while I'm touring the planet ;o) I am thinking I'll head off to Assisi next. It's in Umbria (a section of italy I think south of here about 2 hour train ride). It's mideival and full of monestaries and stuff. Should be pretty cool.
Tirami Su, in a word: YUM!
Last night I went on a "Pub Crawl" -- a guided tour of 5 pubs. I met some new people and had a great time. It was interesting to be in Rome at an irish pub listening to american techno with brits and aussies. I drank enough but not too much. Got back to the hostel around 4:30am (the pubs stay open later here it seems). I woke up this morning feeling less than rested at 9am (I don't get hungover, *sigh* :oP). A few of us went to breakfast where I had spaghetti with eggs and ham, which I thought was very novel. We then went to see an exhibit for Salvadore Dali which was quite cool, and then walked around a bit just soaking more of Rome in. A bunch of people from last night are leaving tomorrow so we're trying to get something going for tonight. In fact I should be going now...There's a parade or something going on outside right now, some dude spewing italian on a blow horn and someone else doing some drumming anyway. Better go check that out too. Turns out it was a protest. Lots of cops with machine guns keeping things in order. I guess that works better than the crack police tactics in Seattle. One thing that was particularly disturbing was that the only word I could read on any of the signs, or understand of all the things being shouted over the bull horn and chanted by the throngs of people marching down the street was "Seattle" -- made me kinda nervous. I guess one of the things they were protesting was the Seattle sessions of the WTO.
Went back out with the group I met at the pub crawl. Nobody seemed much interested in getting pissed (aussie for "drunk"). Man, if you want to have a good time then hang with some brits and aussies on holiday -- woohoo! We got in early last night, around 1:30pm or so as they are all leaving today. I switched hostels to Fawlty Towers. I've been trying for a couple days to get a bed there, I hear it's much nicer, but I'm still getting a dorm bed for £30.000/night. Pizza for breakfast today. It's not as strange as it sounds, they eat pizza all hours here. It's pretty healthy too. The crust is more of a cracker, and the variety I get has no cheese and lots of veggies. The best I've had to date was this morning: black olive, green tomato, and tuna (I think it was tuna anyway...).It's been getting cold here, about +10 degrees celsius, and raining. Although no rain today :o) Well, it's noon. I think I'll wander around some more and possibly check out the two museums up on the hill. If I go there then I can be more specific when I write again.
I keep meaning to mention the streets. They are all made of rocks not asphalt. And they aren't like the cobblestone streets I've seen in the states, these are flat and seem fine to drive on (not bumpy or noisy). Seems that it would take forever to make one though. My time is running down. gotta upload then go. ciao!
Last night I went on a tour of the Trastevere (the jewish ghetto). It was definately a good thing to have a tour of. If I had just walked the district and looked at the buildings I would have missed alot. We saw the Largo di torre Argentina, which is this area that has the building where Julius Caesar was killed. It's now been changed into a cat sanctuary with upwards of 350 cats living there and people whose job is to feed and water them (go figure). We also stopped at this roman jewish bakery and had some awesome bread with nuts and fruit in it -- sorry I don't know the name. What else... oh yeah, we went to this island that is the center for medical services in the area. The reason for that is that when there was a plague here the romans tried everything to cure it and came to the conclusion that they didn't have a temple to the god of medicine. So they went down to greece where the cult for that god was headquartered, got some official temple gear and floated it back up to rome. Right as they got to this island a snake crawled across the boat and onto the island. The romans took this as a sign and made the temple there (on the island). That's also why the medical symbol has a spike and a snake in it. Cool, aye?Today I went to the Vatican and checked out the Sistine Chapel, pretty cool. I didn't expect the paintings to be so vivid. Some look down right 3D. The pope was busy or something so we didn't hang out today, maybe later... I then took a self guided tour of much of rome that wasn't on my map. Some would say they were lost, but since I had nowhere to get to at any specific time then I'm choosing to call it a tour. The weather was perfect and I saw alot of places that I wouldn't normally see, so it was a good thing.
Well, on to assisi tomorrow most likely -- unless I can't get on the train for some reason. More later...
Last night I went and met one of my roommates and a guy from the ghetto tour (Howard -- "hi Henry!") and two of his roommates down town in a pub. The cool thing is that something as simple as getting from my hostel to a pub becomes an adventure. I got on the bus and sat in an empty seat. Next to me was an italian guy and facing him was a large middle aged italian woman with utterly wild hair (they do that here I guess). Man, as much as italian men are suave and even a bit slimy, older italian women are downright intimidating. She said something in italian that made me wonder if I had somehow insulted her by sitting in that seat. I tried to say a couple different phrases that seemed utterly appropriate for the situation but she'd have none of it. The italian guy that was with her (sitting next to me) assured me with gestures that it was no problem whatsoever. I sat queitly and practiced perspiring. Got to the pub, which was louder than I would have liked for conversation, and enjoyed a guiness or two (it's so hard to tell at this point). One of the girls Howard brought decided to be the drunk one and proceeded to be ill throughout the pub, at which point we decided to call it a night. At this point I'd like to note that I specifically made no generalization about australians and drinking, but she was the only aussie with us and also the only one just flat pissed (that's "drunk" in aussie).Right, so, next morning I woke up by 9am (really, it's true, I've been getting up between 8 and 9 every day since getting here -- jet lag rocks!) headed out to the train station and stowed my bags in a locker. I bought the ticket to assisi for a train leaving at 12:40. Tons of time. I had gotten directions to a nice travel bookstore where I could buy a lonely planet guide to Italy (pitched that Frommes guide, take this as a lesson). I found the store after a while, bought the book, had some breakfast (pizza I think), and headed back to the train station... it was raining. For those of you keeping score at home, it took me about 3 hours to make a walk that should have been only around 20 mins -- a last self guided tour :o)
The train was cool. I really need to learn this friggin language, it makes conversation a possibility. I had to transfer trains in Foligno, completely uneventful. Got the train to Assisi just fine, arrived at a small station in BFE (hiyas Mike, thanx for the term :oP). It's raining in Assis when I get there. There's no tourist office, just a tobacchi shop (tobacco shop, they sell smokes there and is a source for everything useful, like bus tickets and stamps). I go into the tobacchi shop and ask the italian dude if he "parlare l'inglese". He says no. So I say "hmmm, ok, I need a bus ticket to Assisi, but from the sign outside it says I'm in Assisi" to which he responds, "just one?" -- bastard. The bus takes me up to the small mideival town of Assisi. Very cool town, still raining. I got off at the first stop I saw, thinking it would be near the tourist office, I was wrong. It's raining harder, I need to pee. Standing in a parking lot looking up a very cool street (narrow, winding, brick, up hill, cool lookin). *sigh* I shoulder my bags and head up the hill. Still no tourist office. I go up the next quaint little street (same as before, another hill). Really need to pee now, nothing is open, still no tourist office. [repeat the last series a couple times] I finally found a cafe that is open, step in and order "un cafè americano", sweating and dripping rain and glance around nonchalantly (I really tried not to look worried and frenzied) in search of a toilet or some similar apparatus. The guy must have noticed or something and motioned at a table saying I can put my stuff down and have a seat while waiting for the coffee. I drop my stuff and stroll casually to the water closet (the can, john, head, toilet, tolette... a place to pee). The coffee was awesome, and it turns out I was about 50 meters from the tourist office. It's dark now, still raining. Turns out the youth hostel is 2km away -- after I exit Assisi proper (ie: go back where the bus dropped me and then walk 2km). Fine, so I stayed in a cheap hotel, only cost me £40.000, which is about US$20 or so. Turned out to be a very nice place. I paid too much for dinner, had a non-conversation with two italian guys that were working there in assisi laying brick, and then went for a walk (it's pouring nicely now).
I woke up in Assisi to the sound of rain. Last night on my unguided tour I found a shop and bought some bread and meat from a guy that enjoyed very much trying to speak english to me -- that was breakfast. I went and saw the Basillica de San Franchesco (St. Francis Cathedral). It was pretty cool, it's actually two churches on top of eachother because they couldn't agree on which one they wanted to build. I saw a bit more of the town and made for the bus around noonish (another 1km or so in the rain, nice size drops, but it's warm so it's no big deal). My assessment of Assisi is that it's awesome as a town. Small, kept up very well. Definately angled at tourism. Saw a bunch of monks, which was cool. I'm not that impressed by churches, but the streets of Assisi are well worth a stay over. If you're looking for night life don't go here. The whole friggin town shuts down at 6pm.I was wet by the time I got to the train station. Sure I have rain gear and was even wearing it, but it's water resistant and I was practically swimming for hours -- not to mention the perspiration. I think I had like 2 1/2 hours wait, which I did most of in the cafe. The prices in that place were insane, so I didn't eat for entertainment (I wasn't hungry yet). The trains here only stop briefly, like 2 mins or so. So you need to be out there when it pulls up ready to get on. The train was like 20 mins late so I ended up standing outside in the breeze being pretty wet and getting colder and colder. I should have changed out of my wet stuff as I waited but I didn't want to get another set of clothes wet. As soon as the train pulled in I was inside and swapping clothes -- ahhh, warmer :o) The train ride was uneventful, about 2 hours, and I arrived in Florence fine. It's a big city so there's a tourist office in the train station. Everything went well and I had a bed in no time at the Ostello Archi Rossi for only £26.000 per night (bout US$13). Colder, not raining. Had dinner at the hostel with my roommate. Food wasn't that bad, company was great.
Good morning Florence. Dear god it's cold! I met a couple sisters from Australia (Queensland near Brisbane -- apologize if I've mangled the spelling) and hung with them. We went and saw three main things: the Duomo (means big ass cathedral), Galleria degli Uffizi (the Uffizi Gallery), and the Galleria dell'Accademia (another gallery, don't know the translation sorry).The Duomo rocked. It has the best floor and by far the best ceiling I've seen thus far. Granted I've only been a few places at this point, but it beats the Vatican (Sistine Chapel) and St. Francis Cathedral hands down. The ceiling is so vivid and looks completely 3D. The floor has an interesting optical illusion goin on. Basically it was cool. The outside of it looks like a Puzz3D (a 3D puzzle), I shit you not. I had to walk up to it and touch it to make sure it wasn't block cardboard.
The Galleria degli Uffizi was ok. Lots of the same thing over and over again. It's weird that all these pictures that have the madonna and baby and everyone is melancholy. Aren't they supposed to be happy for christ's sake?!? (heh, that's punny) I was't overly impressed with this place and it cost £12.000. Was good to see, it will give me greater appreciation of other galleries later on.
The Galleria dell'Accademia rocked. It had these sculptures done by Michealangelo, the most impressive was David. Being naiive I didn't know that this David was the David from David and Goliath. Sheesh, who left that detail out of my education?? He also did these sculptures of people trapped in stone called the prisoners. At first they just look like unfinished sculptures, then you can see that the person sculpted is actually fighting the rock to get out. Way cool.
Happy Birthday Jill!Still cold, but not as cold as yesterday. That may well be because it's sunny today, or that I dressed more appropriately, or that I'm just getting used to it. At any rate, I've found an internet cafe with decent prices (£6.000/hour, about US$3.00/hour) and a keyboard that I can use, so I'm finally updating the site and answering e-mail (this could take a few hours).
I went to a pharmacy today in search of a skin cream (this cold weather is brutal if you spend much time in it). I was able to communcate what I wanted to the chick behind the counter. That's the way they do it over here, you tell them what you want and they get it for you. That worked best for me anyway since all of the packaging is in italian. I can mostly tell what's in something, but can't understand much of the usage and junk like that. After that I went to a watch shop to have the condensation removed from the lens and have a new seal installed. The guy that did the work was great, and we had a wonderful conversation, neither of us understanding what the other was saying, but both of us talking much and gesturing wildly :oP I then went back by the Duomo, that place is pretty cool. I took my first pictures in europe today (I'll try to do better) -- all of them of the Duomo. Because the sun was out to cut the cold I took this afternoon to do another self guided tour. I highly recommend these to the curious traveller. If you are encumbered by an uncanny sense of direction you should be able to find someone to follow that will give you a completely random heading. I'm able to find parts of the city that are completely off the tourist track, an invaluable experience if you are trying to truly see what a given city is like. I ended up at this internet cafe where I can catch up on my journaling.ù
That brings up another good point. I have a very nice journal, but I think I'm going to buy a cheap pad of paper (small spiral notebook comes to mind). That way I can take notes of things I'm seeing for reference here, and have a temporary journal of sorts when I can't get to the web.
Well, I'm doing this backwards, so I have to go back and try to fill in 14, 15, and 16. I hope that once I begin writing it will come back to me... And it did! Time is almost out. Took 3 hours today (sheesh!). It's dark, cold and I have a fair walk back so I'd better get to it. I wonder what adventure awaits me tonight. More later, and thanx for reading :o) ciao!
Happy Birthday To Me!My roommate Kyle and I walked to Michaelangelo's Tower. It was closed by a couple scum sucking Italian dudes -- literally. They had a large vacuum truck and were cleaning the goo from the bottom of a fountain next to the tower. We saw the outside of it and it wasn't that impressive. Ok, so it was tall and I'm sure there was a spectacular view, but still. The day was lovely, the sun was out but not too intense. We had a great walk and on the way back stopped to watch a large group of kids play some relay competition (the green team won!).
By the time we got back to the hostel it was around 4pm, I should have taken a nap but decided to sit in the common room of the hostel to be sociable -- big mistake. A couple of american girrls were watching Midnight Cowboy and had started drinking beer around 2pm. One would hope that we could keep our white trash at home in the trailor park where it belongs, but no -- *sigh*. For some unknown reason I was unable to pry myself away from the spectacle. The up side (I think) is that I got to watch Midnight Cowboy, and it only took me about an hour to shake off the dreadful mood these pillars of society had set upon me. I just re-read what I wrote and decided that instead of editing I would confirm that I do know plenty of fine people that live in trailor parks, and although they are from North Carolina I'm sure there are many fine people from that state of our wonderful country. They, specifically, were embarassing and annoying to say the least.
Had dinner in the hostel this night, nothing wonderful, but it was cheap. The movie selection of the evening was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. A pretty good one so I decided to stay and watch. The climax of the movie occurs in Petra, which is located in Jordan. We thought it was pretty cool and I could find no reason not to go there -- since it would be warmer than Florence. My roommate Kyle was also watching and thought it was a great idea. We're going to do some research and probably leave the day after tomorrow. Rock on!
I met some more Americans this morning and followed them around town today. The weather was less than great, but not horrific. They were three girls and two guys, some of which were just on holiday from the states, the others were studying in england or france (what, too gritty with details??). We began the day by walking through the markets again. Those are always interesting to see. They ended up buying things, which is always interesting. One girl bought a small leather jacket for her two year old nephew. I believe the original price was £180.000 but we got him down to £100.000 (about US$50 -- not too bad). We then went back to the Galleria dell'Accademia -- always worth a second look, and was still very impressive (they hadn't seen it before and I hadn't found another group to stalk yet...). After leaving there we passed Palazo Diu Pucci, just a palace type place wich had a really cool courtyard with orange trees in it -- thought it was worth noting. Our last stop was at St. Lorenzo's Basilica, which we thought was closed. One of the guys in the group is studying architecture and DaVinci's library is adjacent (ok, I think it's DaVinci's library, but I'm sure that it's a famous dude's library and that it's adjacent to this basilica). That library has this famous staircase that would have been cool to see, but we couldn't get into that. We did, however, catch most of a children's choir while in the basilica -- was cool when they sang Silent Night in english.We went back to the hostel around 6pm-ish and ate, talked, rested. There we met another american, a southern baptist this time. He was about to get engaged, and his girlfriend financed the trip as her father is quite wealthy. This was my first encounter with a southern baptist and I'm sorry to say that I was not impressed. The poor fella hadn't gotten laid in three days and desperately needed to find some before going home to get hitched. I don't want to judge him, but I do want to smack him upside the head (hmmm, guess that means I judged him??). Anyway, on with the night. This drunk southern baptist convinced me, Kyle (my roommate), and Serge (the gay french guy that worked for the hostel and speaks english with a german accent -- this annoys him greatly) to play poker with him. The southern baptist was cleaned out, Kyle lost about £20, I won around £28, and Serge won more than me.
Some of the people from the group I hung out with that day, a japanese girl that just arrived, the southern baptist, Serge, Kyle, and I sat up talking really late that night -- was quite fun. I think we only had about 7 bottles of really inexpensive wine, which is excellent by american standards. I think I got to sleep between 4:30 and 7:00 -- depending on who you ask. Pretty fun night.
Happy Birthday Mike!The weather has gone to shit. Windy, cold, raining mostly but changing to sleet/snow. In a word, gak! It's monday so everything is closed until around 3pm (go figure). We had seen most of the cool stuff in town and the weather did not lend itself to a self guided tour, so I did laundry. After that I had dinner at the hostel (again, cheap but you can live off it) and then ran around looking for an internet cafe. We finally found one and were very short on time, at which point I sent the following e-mail:
Very short on time, so please read quickly ;o)That's the plan anyway, we made it to the train heading for Brindisi via Bologna (from Florence aka Firenze). We saw about a foot of snow on our way to Bologna -- definately time to head south, wayyyy south! I left Florence with Kyle and Adelle as travelling partners on our way to Isreal. Kyle is 18 from New Jersey, kinda reminds me of a combination of my brother Mike and my cousin Andrew. Adelle is in her 20's from New Zealand and doesn't remind me of anyone. The train to Bologna was pleasant enough, which is not representative of the rest of our treck. We got into Bologna around 11pm and hung around waiting for the train to take us to Brindisi, our spirits are high! Keep reading...I was watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with my roommate (Kyle) and a bunch of others at the hostel. I got the idea that it would be cool to go to Petra -- so we are. Our train leaves in half an hour (night train). We go to Brindisi, catch a ferry to greece, then off to israel. Target is Bethlehem for christmas. What else? Oh, because I have no time I'll update my web site later.
Ciao, etc
cl
The train ride from hell: Midnight - 8:30am £78.500 (US$40)We were thinking it would be hard to sleep in a train seat on this all night train ride. If only it were that good. We tried to get into the first car we came to but were unable. I don't mean that there were no seats available, I mean that we couldn't cram our bodies into the train car. So we moved on to the next, and the next, and the next. Finally we could get into the last car, whew! After much shuffling around I found that I could manage to sit on my pack and put my feet down the hole where the steps out were. Not so bad, we just have to wait for some people to get off. Next stop some folks got on (?!?). To make it interesting people would try to pass through the hall to get to the toilette. Sure, no problem. I met an extremely nice fellow named Alessio (ciao Alessio!) who helped me pass the time and retain my sanity. I can remember enjoying the few minutes it took to get acrossed to me that what I thought was a button of some sort was actually just a light (you can't just go pushing things that you think are buttons on a moving train, so trial and error would not suffice). I think he's studying architecture and was travelling home for the holidays -- as was everyone else in italy! Ah, but I digress. We slept (kinda) in the hall of the train (metal floor) with periodic pee-break and smoke-break interruptions. Needless to say I got very little sleep, but it's one of those things that's kinda cool to survive. I must note that I did get a seat for the last hour of the trip as most of the train got off at Bari. Sadly, the trip is not over once we reach Brindisi. Keep reading...
We got to Brindisi relatively intact. There was no place to stow our packs so we just walked the town with them on our backs. We had really no idea where we were going, but Brindisi isn't that big. We had one goal and that was to get a ferry to Greece, should be easy since that's what everyone wants to do in Brindisi -- it's definately not a tourist attraction in itself. Did I mention it was cold (not as cold as florence, so call it warm), rainy (not as rainy as Assisi), and windy (ok, it was pretty damned windy)? Pretty much a given at this point. We found the docks at the other end of town from the train (it would make too much sense to have these things close together), and bought out ticket to Petras, Greece -- the little boat leaves at 4:30 which will take us to the big ship which will leave at 7pm (in theory). Kyle and Adelle decided to hit McDonalds to save a buck, I wanted more of a sit down type place and got some more of that spaghetti with eggs and ham at around 10am. The guy that ran the pasterria was quite nice and we chatted 'til around noon, at which time other folks started coming in. Cool, only 4 1/2 hours to go. I wandered around looking for an internet cafe, but the one I found was too expensive, so I just wandered some more and headed down to the docks. I had to check in with the local police to get my boarding pass stamped so I could get on the boat. That took a bit to find so I arrived at the boat waiting area around 1:30-ish. There was an albanian guy named Veto at the waiting area that I had seen on the train (he remembered me). We chatted as much as two folks who don't share a language can speak (sadly our common language was italian, which neither of us really spoke). His friend came along that spoke pretty good english so things picked up from there. The waiting area was cold, not so bad at first, but it got worse as time went on. I got a little nervous when I realized that everyone in the room was albanian, but there were no problems at all. The high point came when the police came around to pull out one of the drunk albanians, I still don't know exactly what he did that bothered the police, but everyone considered it pretty routine.
Continuing on 22 Dec for continuity sake... On to Greece!
The boat from hell: 9pm - 6pm £88.000 (US$44.00)Again, I digress, right, the boat. 4:30 came and we went to get on the little boat -- which was bobbing wildly as the wind had really picked up. I figured it would be bad to fall into the chop so I got on the little boat without that experience. The weather was bad enough that the captain had to take two shots at docking and settled for nose in with the engines revved as we leapt off. The ferry we got on was, ummm, not up to the standards I'm used to with the Washington State Ferry System. I opted for the cabin instead of either deck (yes, that's outside) or chairs (inside, but no bed). Turns out I should have just gotten chairs as the weather kept tossing me out of bed (annoying at best). I still don't know if I get seasick as my diet consisted largely of Dramamine. If I closed the door to my cabin the temperature would rocket into unbreathable ranges, but if I left the door open I couldn't relax enough to sleep soundly (until being tossed to the floor of course). *sigh* definately an experience. Turns out our 16 hour trip took 21 hours due to a storm, and we left after 9pm instead of 7pm as anticipated. Kyle chatted with the captain at one point and found that 5 hours of the trip was us going full steam into the storm and not making any headway at all. The upside is that there was a lovely lightning storm and the waves crashing over the upperdeck can be quite beautiful (if you think about it just right). Ok, we survived to land in Petras at 6pm on 22 Dec (doh! next day!!)
Corinth is also called Korinthos. +1 hour time change for me. Seattle is now only -8 (noon PST is 8pm Greece).
As I said on yesterday's posting, we got off the boat from hell at 6pm in Petras. Because we were exhausted and road weary we of course decided not to stay in Petras, but instead to travel to Olympia. Right. There is no train to Olympia tonight, so we decide to go to Corinth instead. No problem, except that that put us into Corinth at 11pm. At least we got to sit on this train, and that ticked only cost 1000 drakma (US$3.00). Corinth had the best wind thus far. I don't know what it was gusting at but there were points where it completely stopped my forward progress. At least it was warm and dry :o)
Oh, a point about Greece: EVERYTHING IS IN GREEK!!
The first hotel we got to had one room left: two twin beds and the window was stuck wide open, but it was only 7000 drakma (about $21 split three ways -- very cheap) -- we passed on this one. Next hotel had a room with 4 twin beds (we only needed three), heat, TV, hot shower, towels, and was only 12000 drakma (about $36 three ways, not too bad) -- we took it: Hotel Korinthos. We slept like the dead for the first time in days, only got about 11 hours sleep, but it's a good start.
Corinth is also called Korinthos, Athens is also called Athena.Woke at 11:45 being told we had to vacate at noon *yawn*. Feeling human again. Weather is cold by local standards, but I'm calling it a beautiful day. It's about 55 and overcast. We're right on the coast and have a picture postcard view. I tried a panorama but the battery is going out on my danged camera (can't be from overuse, I'm still on my first roll!). We lost Adelle (she was up and gave us the 11:45 warning), so Kyle and I went and ate an awesome omlette in a greek restaurant (what other type restaurant did you expect in Greece??), this particular one having a nice owner and a fire pit :o) Our hotel let us stow our bags there so we are walking free handed and expecting greatness. After breakfast we went and found a travel agent to arrange passage to Israel. While waiting we were given a free (!!) cup of the best french roast coffee (not cafe americana, actual coffee). Yum! Bought the round trip ticket to Israel (open return date) for 59000 drakmas (US$180). Wandered around a bit and caught a train at 4:30 headed to Athens for 750 drakmas (US$2.50).
The train ride to Athens took 2 1/2 hours, again we had no seats. There was tension on this train that we handn't felt before. I'm not sure if I felt it because Kyle believed he felt it or if I felt it on my own. The Greeks seemed less than friendly in any case. It would help if we spoke the language. We arrived safe and sound in Athens at 7pm. Tried to ask directions from a couple cops who didn't speak english so we went to find a map. We found the name of the street we needed and copied the greek name for it onto a piece of paper, which we took to the cops who made noises like they knew where we needed to go. Through many gestures we found that the hostel was only blocks away and an easy walk, which we took. This hostel is dirt cheap, only 1500 drakma per night, that's about US$5.00 -- rock on! I got settled and met some nice guys from pretty much everywhere. Definately more of an oriental mix here in greece than in Italy, hmmm... Got to bed around 2am after playing spades with some americans, gotta love european travel ;o)
Today is Christmas Eve. We did not make it to Bethlehem as there was only one flight available and it was expensive. Instead we are holding here in Athens over Christmas and will leave by boat for Haifa Isreal aboard Poseidon Lines (I'm sure it will be an adventure, pun intended ;o).I woke sometime after noon today, the sleep felt great. I set out in search of the Acropolis, which I found no problem -- but it was closed. I got close and had a wonderful view of athens -- but I'm outta film (my first roll!). Saw some other stuff: tomb of the unknown soldier, theatre of dionysus, stuff like that. What most impressed me was the trash and pollution of Greece. I thought it was just Petras and Corinth, being small towns, but Athens is worse. I'm not liking Greece thus far, but I'll give it some more time. I have until monday and then I return to Athens, so perhaps it will strike me differently then.
Well, it took me a couple hours to find this internet cafe (yes, another of my famed self-guided tours). It's dark now so I'm hoping that the return trip will be more direct. I think I should find food as well, as I have only eaten once today, but what I ate rocked! It was a gyro like thing with shredded meat but was in a toasted french roll with tomatoes and onions. Yum! Wonder what's on the menu tonight, I'm thinkin greek...
On my way to the internet cafe I saw, I shit you not, a guy slip on a banana peel! I almost laughed out loud, and he almost fell on his ass, but caught himself on a window ledge. Definately a noteworthy sighting :oP
The walk back to the hostel was nice. I was just in a dirty part of Athens before. So all said, it's just a huge city. I don't hate it, but Rome is still my favorite by far. I met some more americans at dinner, had this great tuna spaghetti, and a nasty shrimp salad -- it was simply swimming in mayonaise, gak! The dude running the small restaurant attached to the hostel is the owner's son, Spiros. He's pretty funny, and knows how to make 51 different shots. He brought us banana, strawberry, watermelon, tequila, and orange shots to try. What a nice guy :oP
We stayed up all night talking and waiting for dawn. I met a very interesting german guy named Ralf. He and his friend are also going to Israel on the ferry. That should make the trip a bit more bearable. I played my first game of chess in about 20 years against Ralf -- it was pretty fun, I'll have to play more.
Merry Christmas!As I mentioned before, we stayed up until dawn this morning. We left for The Areios Pagos (Hill of Ares) at 6:30am -- dawn is at 7:39am. Originally we thought that dawn was closer to 5am, which is why we stayed up. Someone had the grand idea to ask when dawn was around 3am, which was then too late to go to bed and get up early. The Areios Pagos is where Paul spoke to the greeks, and is right next to the Acropolis. We got up there at about 7:20am just before false dawn. It was amazing to say the least, and the weather was perfect. What a great thing to do for christmas morning.
We got back to the hostel around 9am, ate some eggs, bacon, tomatoes, and bread (the greeks have tomatoes with damned near everything), then crashed. I woke up around 2pm (a sensible hour when you consider that I went to bed around 10am) and walked down to Areos Park. I thought it would be a nice park with grass, trees, bushes, stuff like that, but no. It turns out it was a maze of merchants selling anything you could think of. If you forgot that it was christmas you could come here and get everything you might possibly need, from decorations to gifts for that relative you've never met.
We got back to the hostel around 6:30pm and had dinner. This time I told Spiros to put a teaspoon of mayo on the shrimp salad, which turned out to be a nice 1/4" layer over the whole thing. I gave it back and had him try again. I settled for the large lump in the center -- these guys really love their sauces. I also got another type of spaghetti that was hotter than hell, but still good. A group of us then decided to head down to Sindagma Square, where we had heard that a program of sorts was going on. Turns out it was decorated nicely, lots of merchant types and families and a fairly good looking woman dressed up as Santa (thought that was noteworthy ;oP), but no program going on. After getting back we were told that customarily people will take a nap and a program such as that would start around 11pm -- my kinda town! Alas, we didn't go back.
Oliver, Ralf's friend, the other german that is going to Israel and Egypt, taught Kyle and me how to play skat -- a very complex german card game. It's got trump and you try to take tricks, but the bidding and scoring and heirarchy of the cards is interesting. We'll undoubtedly be playing more of that on our forthcoming long ass ferry ride.
Last full day in Athens.One would think that on my last full day in Athens I'd wake a bit early to see all the sites, but no. I woke at the crack of 3pm. But all was not lost. I walked down and saw The National Garden, The Panathenian Stadium, The Temple of the Olympian Zeus, a very big church (much more ornate than those in Italy), and had quite the long self guided tour. The National Garden was built in the early 1800s and is a zoo of sorts. There are lots of birds, ducks, geese, chickens, pigeons (of course), turtles, gold fish in the ponds, cats (of course), and much more that I didn't get to see. Good weather, only wearing a flanel today, great for a walk.
Well, Spiros was talking of going out tonight to show me some of the famous Athenian night life. He doesn't get off work until after midnight, but he says that things don't really get going until then anyway. I'm off to find something grand to do on my last night before the boat ride. This hostel is quite large so I can easily find someone that is doing something interesting.
Right, so Spiros has to work and will be going out with some folks from the hostel tomorrow night, not really a possibility for me. So a group of us (probably 10, mostly canadians) headed out with instructions from Spiros. We found one club that was ok (very small, kinda spendy, weak, yellow beer), but everything was far and nobody had a clue how to get anywhere. I headed back after the first club with a couple of guys (an aussie and a canadian) and just hung out at the hostel.
God's truth is that I didn't write anything down in my note pad about this evening and I'm keying it in at 9pm on 2 Jan 2000 -- I'm at a bit of a loss. Must not have been anything important, I know I went back to the hostel earlier than most (midnight-ish) and had a couple cans of weak beer. That's gotta be the whole story, and it's the one I'm sticking with :oP
Today I got up around noon and wandered about town. We have to head for the ferry to Haife, Israel at 4pm (it leaves at 7pm). Got some fruit, bread, jam, carrots (raw), can of spam-like substance, can of corned beef, and some nutella wannabe spread. I'm set!Kyle, Oliver, Ralf and I set out for the ferry at 4pm. We took the metro down to the end of the line where the ferries wait for their next victims... er, passengers. Turns out the docks in Athens are quite lengthy and the train dropped us at the opposite end for our ferry (Poseidon Lines, Sea Harmony II). Fine, the four of us got a cab to the ferry, no problem. Customs went smoothly and we all got to the ferry with plenty of time to spare. The weather is nice and the sea is calm as we head into the night.
So as not to bore you with the gorey details I played a game of chess with Ralf, some hearts with all four of us, and then a new card game called "asshole" with the four of us and a greek guy named Samuel who got off at Cyprus the day before we got to Israel.
This first night I merely slept in the chair, not bothering to get out my sleeping bag and hit the floor between the rows of chairs like everyone else. It worked out ok.
I became fully concious at around 1:30pm. Not that it matters much, we're just waiting for time to pass. *yawn*We stopped in at Rhodes (a Greek Island) from 4:30pm to 8:30pm. It's a little Mideival town with this sweet castle. No, no pictures here either, so sue me. Outside of the old town is a very upscale tourist town and a beach. Samuel had been here before so was acting as somewhat of a guide for us. The Greek islands are definately nice, I highly recommend them ;oP
Ok, back to the boat. Ralf and I went up on deck for a while after leaving to enjoy the force of the wind and watch the waves, that was pretty cool. Thinking back, I should have spent some time up there during the day. Good thing I have a return ticket :o)
Caught a nice shower. This boat is much more passenger friendly than the ferry from Bindisi. The bathrooms and showers (ok, they're the same friggin place) are clean and relatively stink free. I Couldn't get to sleep tonight for some reason -- everyone else was out a few hours before me. Gave me time to begin reading a book that a friend gave me before leaving.
Woke later today again, about 1pm, just as we're docking in Cyprus. Gotta rush around to get ready so I can go into town. We have 6 hours in Cyprus today, That's really cool, makes the ferry ride much more bearable. The weather is warm (a bit too warm for me, but everyone else is carrying a jacket and talking about maybe wearing it -- sheesh!My goal today is a haircut and a minidisc player. I went the wrong direction from the docks (shut up) and had a wonderful self tour of some parts of town a tourist should never go. The upside is that I got a haircut :o) For those of you savvy that would be a clipper #1 on the side and #3 on top -- next time I'll go shorter.
After 3 hours of walking I found the tourist area, which was quite nice. Sadly there are no minidisc players to be found (at least not by me), maybe in Israel.
Got back on the boat with about a half our to spare (was quite excited that I found the danged dock -- I rock!). Samuel got off the boat at this port and from the looks of it a bunch of new folks got on. Oh, I forgot to mention my first Israeli that I've met. General concensus is that this dude is a bit insane, I hope they aren't all like that. He is going to start a revolutions ("make many revolution") with his guitar (clearly an artist). Leather pants, net shirt, leather coat, long flowing black curls -- wow. According to him the world is full of evil and everyone is bad. Poor guy :o(
This truly sucks, can't get to sleep, it's too warm on the ship and the air is not moving on the chunk of floor I'm calling home tonight. I think I got to sleep around 4:30am.
I was woken at 6am as we were docking. We weren't supposed to get in for another hour. Sheesh! I'm tired. We were off the boat by 6:45am. Oliver, Ralf and I are headed for Egypt, and Kyle is headed over to the Sea of Galilee to look for some work. The sunrise is amazing, a large orange ball of fire rising out of the ocean. Haife is clean and seems quite nice. About 1 in every 5 people I see are in uniform, and I can safely say I've seen the most beautiful soldier I will ever see -- with a nice M-16 machine gun slung across her shoulder -- thought that was noteworthy ;o)We got a train from Haife to Tel Aviv. It was very nice, and the countryside is simply amazing. Very clean, and I would have to say "tidy". Israel is very beautiful (so far). After de-training at 9am we head down to the central bus terminal in search of transport to Cairo, Egypt. I figure I can get a visa at the border. Ok, 10am at the central bus station I find an old man in an information office (this bus station is the most confusing building I've ever been in in my life). He tells me that a bus to Cairo left at 9am and the next one leaves on sunday. Damn. He also says I can't get a visa at the border. Damn, damn. He does point me at the Egyptian embassy (back across town) and a tour agency that has a night bus to Cairo every night -- rock on! We (Oliver, Ralf and I) head over to the tour agency and the Egyptian Embassy, arriving there at 10:56 -- Egyptian embassy closes at 11am (no, I didn't know that). I was able to get the form for the visa, but wouldn't be able to get it processed until sunday. Damn again. I return dejected to the tour office and tell my tale of woe (complete with train from hell and ferry from hell, and long ass ferry ride stories) to one of the women at the tour office. She takes my completed form, passport, fee, and an additional "fee" (of course) and gets my visa for me by 3pm (total for visa 180 sheckels, about US$35, total for bus to Cairo 351 sheckels, about US$85 -- half of which was exit from Israel and entrance tax to Egypt). I'm goin to Egypt baby!
Plug: Mazada Tours in Tel Aviv -- they get you where you want to be!
To burn some time we three head for the beach (about a mile walk). The day is warm, but not too warm, and the sand is warm. We found where Israel keeps its fat people (speedos are a privelege, not a right!). On the upside I saw my first topless sunbather, and she was the perfect picture of health, but as everyone said it was no big deal (a notable experience tho :oP). I spilled some grape juice on my shirt, but hey, it's a grape colored shirt! Woohoo, my luck is lookin up!
We pulled out of Tel Aviv at 8:30pm, our hopes high. We got a pee break at 9:30 and hit the Israeli border at 10:45pm. After a brief check at the border we pulled out at 12:45, how friggin tedious.
The fog is rollin in thick now...
Still on the Mazada Tours bus to Cairo, we left the Israeli border check point at 12:30am, drove 50 meters and hit the Egyptian border checkpoint. Got done with that at 1:45 and sat down in the Egyptian bus (we took our luggage off the Israeli bus, had it inspected by the Egyptian customs officials (they didn't open mine) and then loaded it on the Egyptian bus, which was nicer). We sat in the bus for an hour or two because of some military blockade up the road. Whatever...The fog is now as thick as I've ever seen it. We almost had a head-on collision with a truck, so we pulled over for a bit. It's 8am, we're supposed to be in Cairo by now, 400km to go and we're only goin about 30km/h *sigh* We get to the Suez Canal at 8:30am, a 5 minute crossing, and can't see anything. By 9:15 the fog had cleared enough for the ferry to start back up and we're back in business.
Moving out at full steam we hit Cairo, Egypt, home to 18 million people (officially, I've heard 29 million unofficially), second largest city in the world at 11:30am. Tons of time. I'm dead tired since I got no sleep on the bus. I had a window seat all staked out so I could sleep but a guy and his son were travelling together and I was asked to trade seats so they could sit together -- what can ya do. *yawn* By 1pm we get to our destination of the Hotel Sheraton, Cairo, a truly impressive building (only US$200 per night - yikes!).
A canadian guy I met on the bus named Robert, an american guy I met on the bus named Bill, a south african (white) guy I met on the bus named Edward and I head out walkin to find a cheap hotel named "The Rose" -- supposedly 10 egyptian Lire per night (about US$3.00 -- can't beat that with a stick). Couple hours later we caught a cab who drove us right to it -- damned confusing city.
We were told it was 13 per person for double rooms instead of 10 as we thought. No big deal, we're in. Up to the rooms to clean up, stow our bags and head out to the pyramids. We came down around 5:30 to find that it was US$13 instead of 13 egyptian Lire as we'd been told (difference of about US$9.00). Damn, too much to worry about now, no problem we pay it.
Our cab driver from before came back to get us (dear god we got ripped off tonight by this guy -- they don't use guns, and are sooo nice about it). We paid about 20-25 egyptian each for this guy to get us out to the bus to take us to the pyramids. That should have been more like 5 egyptian each. C'est la vie, live and learn.
The pyramids were lit up green and as we came through the ticket gates there was a line of guards on camels with the pyramids in the background -- woohoo, welcome to Egypt!
HAPPY FRIGGIN NEW YEAR!!!
I must say, the celebration at the pyramids fully rocked! The bus ride was interminable (bout 2 1/2 hours), the seating was horrid (dirty, sitting on slats that formed an amphitheater in front of a massive stage), and the fog rolled in to make everything wet and somewhat cold (not really cold though). But again, I must say, it was awesome! Truly a world party. My ticket only cost me 50 egyptian (about US$15). The "nice" seats cost US$400 and were so far back they missed the end of the show due to fog -- bwahahahaha!!
(just ordered some turkish coffee... where was I...)
I'm sure you've all had ample opportunity to see clips from the show. The theme was The 12 Dreams of the Sun put together by Jean-Michele Jarre. Lasers, strobes, spotlights, pyrotechnics, fireworks, dancers, singers, music, pyramids in the background, images on the pyramids themselves, you name it we saw it. And the sound system! My god! Outside in the desert and still I've never heard such good sound. Anyway, the dreams. A statement of the dream would be made in many languages, then a couple pieces would be done with that theme. My favorite was the first:
- The sun dreamt of time and gave us the rock.
- The sun dreamt of wisdom and gave us the tree.
- The sun dreamt of eternity and gave us the boat.
- The sun dreamt of fidelity and gave us flesh.
- The sun dreamt of memory and gave us voice.
- The sun dreamt of space and gave us the sky.
- The sun dreamt of celebration and gave us the bell.
- The sun dreamt of purity and gave us snow.
- The sun dreamt of courage and gave us blood.
- The sun dreamt of freedom and gave us the gate.
All I can say is wow! The show itself lasted until about 1:30 am. An Egyptian opera singer came on around 11:30 (I wasn't impressed, I mean she was good, but it was odd), Jean Michele cranked us through the new year and on til about 1:30. There was a massive climax at midnight with fireworks that actually spelled out "2000" (very cool). Anyway, there was a program that went 'til dawn, but Robert and I were pretty danged tired from the bus the night before so we headed back around 2am.
The breaker had kicked on our hot water heater so I couldn't have my much anticipated bath when we got back at 4am (showers are one thing, but a bath would be sooooo nice lately). I washed off in the sink and hit the hay. An excellent day -- Egypt baby!!
- Jean-Michele Jarre, the dude that did the music for the new year's celebration at the pyramids here in egypt, wrote the music that you hear when you're trying to get an operator and all the lines are tied up.
- There were 1.5 million at the pyramids for new year's eve this year.