 Our trip to Greece was meant to be a nice relaxing time to just sit on the beach and do nothing. Most of the time we did not do much more than that, but some parts of the trip were anything but relaxing. Our major mistake was to take a package deal for a 7 day holiday. We thought this would make things nice and easy because we would then not have to worry about booking tickets and arranging transfers. Whilst this was pretty much true, it did mean that we travelled at times we would not have chosen ourselves (and with an aeroplane company we would not recommend). For instance we left on Friday at 8pm and did not arrive at our accommodation until 7am Saturday morning. We were told when we booked that we would fly to Athens and be taken to a hotel there until our ferry departure the next morning. However this was definitely not the case. They meant that we would be taken to a bar in a hotel at 4am until 5am when the ferry was to take us to our little Greek Island where we were staying. We were SO tired after a busy week of work and we were not prepared to travel all night. It seemed like we would never reach our hotel. It was an endless combination of planes, buses and ferries. When we finally arrived we slept until about midday. We were expecting Greece to be hot, but the week we went it was as hot as Australia and a lot more humid. Our room was not air conditioned and so we had trouble sleeping some nights, but in general we coped OK. It did not take us long to explore some of the shops around the village. There we bought an inflatable mattress to lie on in the water. So you can imagine what Gosia liked to do most days. I was surprised that she often wore suncream since the sun was so hot. So by the end of the week we were about the least sunburnt tourists on the island. I had to be a bit more careful with the sun and so I usually only relaxed on the mattress for extended periods around sunset. Gosia doesn't like being in the ocean for more than 15 minutes in Adelaide because the water is so cold. However the Mediterranean was beautiful and warm and so we could swim all day. The water was extremely clear and it was quite easy to see small fish swimming around. There was very little tidal movement or wind and as a result garbage seemed to build up in the water close to the shore. Some days it looked terrible to see so much plastic floating around on top of the crystal clear water. I think all the English tourists had something to do with that. But the other factor was that the bins were never emptied during the time we were there. This meant that the bins overflowed and people ended up putting the garbage next to the bin. When any wind came along the rubbish invariably ended up being swept into the ocean. On Wednesday we just happened to be having an early lunch in a cafe/restaurant. Everyone's attention seemed to be on the TV in the corner of the room. So we looked across and saw that the total solar eclipse was being televised live. It was very good timing - only by luck. When we returned to England we heard that the eclipse in England (Cornwall) was not very spectacular as the sun was blocked by clouds anyway. We had been considering going to Cornwall before we booked this holiday, but as it turned out I think we made the better choice. Apparently the eclipse in Turkey was the most spectacular because it was a sunny day there. There was only one long beach near our resort and it was totally packed with tourists such as ourselves. After one day at that beach, we decided to explore a bit of the island and find somewhere quieter to swim. We found a nice area off the rocks. All week the water was practically glassy and so we did not have to worry about waves washing us off the rocks! - although Jon was a bit worried about soliton waves from the fast hydrofoil ferries. There were a few people swimming nearby, but not too many, so it was more like the relaxing holiday we wanted. To make things even better there was a pine forest which started only 20 metres or so from the shoreline. So during the heat of the day we spent many hours lying in the forest reading our books. The forest had a carpet of pine needles which Gosia said smelt very therapeutic! Lying there for hours on end reading books etc seemed very indulgent! When we became a bit warm we would jump back into the ocean to cool down. The only disadvantage to the remote place we went everyday was that it was about a 10minute walk back to our apartments. After that walk we were rather hot again - the trials of life :-). It was just as well we were hot because the shower we had upon our return to the apartment was only capable of outputting cold or luke warm water. Perhaps the favourite part of the day was around dinner time when we would walk up and down the main street trying to decide what to eat for dinner. We enjoyed the Greek cuisine very much, but I am not sure we would have liked it for very much longer. We tried Mousaka, various types of Souvlaki kebabs, lots of nice fish, and even shredded wheat wrapped in vine leaves. It seemed our staple food was Greek salad which always came with a chunk of fetta cheese on top, and the whole salad was soaked in olive oil. It was delicious but after a few days we felt as if we had overdosed on fetta cheese. We also enjoyed the tzatziki dip and taromasalata. Perhaps it was not the healthiest food to eat. It was made even unhealthy in some restaurants which cater for the English - all their meals came with a serving of chips. How English is that?! At least they did not serve fluorescent green mushy peas (English joke). A couple of the restaurants had chess boards which you could borrow and play at your table. It was great fun. We were both very competitive and so we spent about 5 minutes pouring over the board and sipping cocktails before making each move. We also took a travel scrabble set with us which we played over and over. I was thinking about taking our laptop with us. However I think it was just as well I did not because it probably would have melted in our rooms during the day! About half way through our holiday we decided to take a trip to Athens and see the Acropolis. This time we caught the hydrofoil which was incredibly quick across the flat waters. After a quick bus trip we were in the centre of town where we started a walking tour guided by our book. The town reminded us of Rome with ancient ruins dotted around the place. We walked around a steep hill which turned out to be the Acropolis. On the sides of the hill there were typical white Greek houses, which once used to be the servants quarters. and after a bit of searching found the entrance. Unfortunately the ticket office there would not accept any plastic money and we found that we did not have any Greek money on us. This meant we had to walk all the way down the hill again into town to take out some money. All that in 40 degree heat! The Acropolis was great. I always find it hard to imagine how ancient civilisations could have built such great structures. But I suppose there were many smart people back then - and a bit of slave labour. The Acropolis afforded us a great view of Athens and its many hills. The city continued in every direction - an urban sprawl. At the end of the week we were not looking forward to the trip home. I was definitely ready for being back in London and experiencing some cool weather, but after the terrible trip on the way to Greece we thought the same might be true on the way home. We were not wrong. The Athens airport is a single room! About a thousand people were trying to crowd into the room and check into their flights at 9pm. The whole place was chaos. There was a poor woman who had to look at the xray screen of everyone's bags being scanned. Her seat was in the middle of the room and she was surrounded by tourists smoking, talking loudly and bumping into each other. It would have been a horrible job. Finally (about an hour later) we got through the queue to check in and made our way through to the departure lounge (on the other side of a barrier in the room). We sat there waiting for our plane. Finally they said that the flight has been delayed due to a technical problem and they would update the situation in one hour. About 3 hours later we were able to board the plane. Very cunningly they only told us once they had closed the aeroplane hatches that they originally thought there was an oil leak from the rear engine. However later they discovered it was only from the climate control system for the cabin - they thought! It was not the most reassuring message (it will be the last time we fly Caledonian airways I think). We then had to wait for traffic control to give us clearance to take off. This took a long time because there is only one runway shared by both tiny local planes and huge jumbos. Of course the traffic control let all the small planes go first before letting us go. It was just as well I was reading a good book! Gosia decided that the airport has not been expanded because it is only busy during summer when all the tourists come for island holidays. For the rest of the year it would be much quieter (and less chaotic I hope). We did not get to meet many Greek people during our stay since the island was full of tourists. Our only impressions of Greece therefore were the hot weather, nice food, basic living conditions, and disorganised airports. It is not the sort of place I would want to go every year, but it was good to see once. Catching some rays on the hotel room balcony. |
