Misadventures continued

Day 6 - Athens

We’d managed to stay misadventure free for a few days, but no longer!

This was one of the days that we were touring around with our class. We spent the morning all together, then took a break for lunch. We were supposed to meet up with the group at the Archaeological Museum at 2. We finished lunch early and decided to invite everyone up to the rooftop patio of our hotel while we finished our ice cream to waste the rest of the time before the museum.

As we walk into the hotel, I grab the key for our room so I can go to the bathroom. The woman at the desk looks at me and the key, then at the group of 6 people behind me.

“You are all in one room?” she asks, clearly distressed.

“Um, no. We were just going to go up to the roof.” I say.

“Only people who stay in the hotel can go on roof!” she says. We grumble a bit and then turn to leave. Finally, she concedes and says we can go up for a little while.

We chat on the roof top, looking out at the Acropolis, for a while. Suddenly, we realize that it’s 1:30. We were planning to take the Metro, but we’re still pushing it to get there on time. We get up and leave quickly, heading to the Metro station.

Turns out that the Metro is packed at that time of day. It’s hot and sticky and everyone is packed together tightly. The train seems to be going impossibly slow, and just stops completely several times between stations.

Across from me, Chandra is starting to look very uncomfortable. Her face is turning red, and she’s shifting nervously. We all look at her strangely, wondering what’s wrong. It’s Jennifer who realizes it first, looking past Chandra to the man behind her.

“Back up, please!” Jennifer snaps at the man, who grins and pretends he doesn’t understand. Jenn pulls Chandra closer to her and the guy finally steps back. Turns out he decided it was a good opportunity to grope poor Chandra’s ass. We got off at the next stop. Chandra was a bit shaken up, but Jenn was our new hero.

We were severely late for the museum. When we arrived, our professor and the rest of the group were waiting. We started our tour, but for the next hour or so our professor pointedly emphasized the importance of punctuality at every possible opportunity.

Day 7 - Athens

We got severely lost on our way to the train station, heading from Athens to Delphi. We ended up in some random neighbourhood, but according to our sources there was a bus station there. We had all but given up hope, until I noticed that there were an awful lot of buses driving by us. My solution? Follow the buses! They must be going to the bus station. This theory proved extremely useful for the rest of the trip as well. Greece has a great bus service - providing you can locate the bus station (which is sometimes just a random unmarked corner.)

As we walked out of the bus station with our tickets in hand, we noticed that the buses looked very nice. They were shiny and new and had lots of space. Until we got to our platform. There was a really old looking bus parked nearby. I turned to Chandra and said “Watch that be our bus.” We laughed and were sure it wouldn’t be, when every other bus was so nice and new.

It was, of course.

Day 8 - Delphi

We woke up bright and early in the beautiful city of Delphi and headed out to see the ruins. We started walking uphill. We climbed the longest staircase ever. When finally got to the top of the hill, I was definitely sweaty. We walked towards the site, not sure how to get in but following what seemed like a path.

We ended up at a locked gate.

We turned around and went the other way.

Another locked gate. But there was a woman standing there. We asked her how we were supposed to get in. She said that it was an employee’s entrance and we had to go in the public way. We asked her where it was.

Apparently the entrance to the site was down the hill. About five minutes from our hotel. NOT up a giant hill.

That afternoon we took the bus back to Athens on our way to Corinth. We took the Metro to the stop where we had to catch the suburban rail service. As we were trying to buy our tickets, a huge gust of wind blew by and both Chandra and I exposed ourselves to everyone in line. Classy.

We got on the train. We went a few stops. Everyone got off, except us. The train then started going backwards instead of forwards. Apparently we were on the wrong train? Lucky us, we got to ride it twice!

When we finally did get on the train, there were no seats to be had. I was exhausted with all the dashing from station to station and taking many trains, so I decided it would be a good idea to sit on top of my big suitcase.

My suitcase has wheels. A thought which didn’t even cross my mind until the train jerked and the suitcase rolled out from under me and we both hit the ground with a loud crash - breaking the absolute silence of the train. I turned bright red and, of course, said “Sorry,” even though I was in Greece.

Still a few more for tomorrow!

Misadventures are still adventures

I still exist. I promise. It’s just that I’ve got this little thing called a dissertation going on. And a little addiction to bad vampire novels and the show Lie to Me. But I’ve got some posts I want to make. So, here’s one!

The best part of travelling is not necessarily the places you see - the monuments, churches or other wonders. It’s the stories you come back with.

When I got back from Ireland, people used to say “Tell me everything about your trip!” And I would blink a few times and mumble, “Um, it was really great. It rains a lot in Ireland. I drank a lot of beer. I spent a lot of money. I, um, kissed the Blarney Stone.”

Because I had been there for four months. I had lived there. You can’t just suddenly remember all of the details from any trip, let alone a long one like that, on command. So I told barely any stories in that first month I was back from Ireland. But I sure as hell have been telling them in the three years since.

Little things remind me of a funny time in Galway. A custom from home reminds me that they did things differently in Ireland. I don’t think I’ve shut up about Ireland since I left. I’m sure my nearest and dearest are more than tired of hearing about it by now. Look, I’m even posting about it again when this post isn’t even about Ireland.

This is about Greece. Specifically, the things that went less than smoothly on our trip last month. But it’s also about stories and adventures - well, misadventures, really.

Luckily for me, Chandra faithfully keeps a dairy, everyday. So she wrote me a list of our best stories and I intend to share them with you!

Day 2 - Heraklion, Crete

We stumbled out of bed far too early for a run.

“How can you be so talkative and cheerful in the morning?” Chandra asked me. If only she had known what was about to happen.

We got some odd looks from the staff, their expressions wondering what we were doing awake so early and why were dressed so strangely.

We left the hotel and ran down the road towards the beach. Our ten minute set was going well, but I was quiet. It was hot and having trained during the English winter, I’m not used to running in heat of any sort. Chandra, being her usual bouncy self, was really excited as we ran.

“Ooh, look! Mountains! Ohh! Ocean!” she said. I said nothing, trying to regulate my breathing and get through the set.

“Ooh, garbage!” Chandra said, as I ran around the garbage on the sidewalk. I turned and looked at her.

“I don’t see how that could possibly be exciting.” I said, my voice flat. So much for me being talkative and cheerful in the morning. That was the moment Chandra learned that when I’m annoyed, I use adverbs. She thought it was hilarious.

Day 3 - Athens

We Google Mapped our hotel in Athens so that we could get there from the airport. We were already late because our flight from Heraklion to Athens was delayed. We took the metro into the city and got off at the stop that was near our hotel, according to the map.

We get off with our bags and walk out into the Athens’ night. On to a street that seems less than safe at first glance and down right sketchy after further exploration. We quickly follow the map to find our hotel.

We arrive at the supposed address of our hotel only to find that our hotel is not there. Or anywhere nearby. It’s late, we haven’t eaten since lunch and we’re hot, lost and confused. Chandra goes into a nearby hotel to ask for directions. I wait outside with our suitcases.

“So, it turns out that our hotel isn’t anywhere near here,” she says as she comes back out. “It’s in the opposite end of town.” Google Map fail.

The hotel staff had Googled it for her, and found the same address as we had. But they knew it was wrong. They suggested we take a taxi to Plaka, where our hotel really was. A nice Greek man wandered by and helped us get a cab, and explained to the driver in Greek where we were going. We get into the taxi. I get a text from our friend who are staying in the same hotel asking if we wanted to grab dinner with them. I texted back yes, and that we’d be there in about ten minutes.

Thirty minutes later, we’re still in the taxi. The driver is going in circles and stopping to ask everyone on the street if they know where our hotel is. He speaks no English. We speak no Greek. We finally show him the number for the hotel and he calls it. They speak in Greek for a while.

Forty five minutes after we were supposed to be at our hotel, the taxi driver basically tells us we have to get out and walk because he doesn’t know where our hotel is. But, of course, we have to pay for the time it took him to not find our hotel. I shove the money at him, grab my suitcase and march away.

Chandra manages to find our hotel on a map and we head in that direction. Uphill. Rolling suitcases over cobblestones and through crowds of the slowest, oldest tourists I’ve ever seen. About twenty minutes later we finally spot the sign for our hotel in the distance.

“Hey!!” someone suddenly calls out. My eyes were fixed ahead and I had to look around for a bit before I spotted some people from our class wandering through the shops. They smiled and waved at us. I can only imagine the look I gave them as I said, “That’s our hotel. I’m not stopping!” and plowed past them.

I apologized the next day, after I had been fed, watered and slept enough to shake off my annoyance of wandering lost through a foreign city at night.

More misadventures to come tomorrow!

Olympia

The last stop on our Greek odyssey was the birthplace of the Olympic games - the fair city of Olympia.

Olympia is on exactly the other side of the Peloponnese from Corinth, so our bus journey from Corinth to Pyrgos (from which we transferred to Olympia) was a scenic one. The bus stuck mainly to the coast and out our window we got to watch the Peloponnesian countryside go by.

There isn’t really a modern city next to ancient Olympia. Instead, there’s a little tourist town built up by the Olympics in Athens in 2004. They held the opening ceremonies in Olympia, and they light all of the Olympic torches in the Temple of Hera.

The site is quite beautiful. Like many of the ancient Greek sites, it’s in the wilderness (sort of). There are lots of trees and lots of lizards and snakes. It definitely adds atmosphere to the photos.

I have a theory that they strategically place trees and bushes to make for better shots for the tourists.

Olympia was also the site of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the statue of Zeus at Olympia. That makes it the third site of the Wonders that I’ve seen!

The museum at Olympia is so amazing, they have molds used to make the colossal statue of Zeus.

And of course, there’s the Olympic stadium:

But it’s a bit anti-climactic.

Korinthos

Our destination after Delphi was the city of Corinth, called Korinthos in modern Greek.

Modern and ancient Korinthos shared the same prime geographical location - the Isthmus of Corinth is the narrowest stretch of land on the Peloponnese, the shortest passage between the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf - from the Ionian Sea to the Aegean Sea.

It’s largely because of the Isthmus that Corinth became an important Greek city. In fact, it was one of the most important city states in Classical Greece. And it was the capital of the Roman Province of Greece during the Empire.

The modern city of Korinthos is largely an industrial hub, shaped by the Corinth Canal, which was cut across the Isthmus in 1881. But the idea of the Corinth Canal originated much earlier, with Nero. He ordered the building of a canal across the Isthmus in 67 CE, but died soon after and his plans were scrapped by Galba.

We stayed in the modern city of Korinthos, unfortunately. It wasn’t a terribly nice place and there didn’t seem to be anywhere at all to eat. I’m also fairly sure we were the only people staying in our giant hotel. There were tons of stray dogs, and if you were nice to them they followed you around.

We escaped to the ancient city as soon as possible in the morning. It turned out to be a much nicer place.

What remains of Ancient Corinth is mostly Roman. We didn’t see much of the Greek city. It was heavily redeveloped as the Roman capital of Greece, and therefore boasts of Roman style forum and some really great plumbing.

It’s amazing how much of the city still remains. There was so much to see. I hadn’t been to an archaeological site this big since I was in Pompeii and Ostia.

It was an incredibly rainy day - which really threw us off after nearly a week of intense heat - but it was a great site to visit. I think next time, though, I’d stay in Ancient Corinth instead.

The sacred mountains

After our class tour of Athens, complete with presentations, long walks uphill and a few failed dinner plans, Chandra and I headed to Delphi.

Once we finally found the bus station, we boarded the sketchiest bus ever. On the way to the bus station I practiced saying Delphi in Greek. It’s pronounced “thel-fon,” like saying “cell phone” with a lisp. Luckily, I never had to embarrass myself because it only takes one bus to get to Delphi and it’s all quite straight forward (we began to appreciate this more once we tried to get to Corinth and Olympia… more on this later!)

We arrived in Delphi as the sun was beginning to set. Over the mountains. It was, from the first moment, one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

We checked into our hotel, then spent the next hour or so chasing the sunset. I wanted to get the perfect picture, and we were willing to risk asp-filled fields to get it! How many times will you get a chance to take a photo of Delphi at sunset?

I was waiting for the sun to disappear behind the mountain… Finally, it did.

As I stood, awed and amazed, I realized that I had never really been to place with mountains like these. They made the most beautiful shades of blues I have ever seen.

We ate dinner at a restaurant overlooking the sunset. It was perfect. We stayed in the best hotel of the trip. And the next morning we found out that it’s just as beautiful during the day.

We went to the archaeological site for the day. Delphi was the most important Panhellenic (which means that Greeks from all city states could worship there) sanctuary in Classical Greece. It was a sacred oracle dedicated to Apollo. If you had an question about your future, you could ask the Pythia, beautiful young priestesses who would tell you the word of Apollo. Of course, like most oracles, it’s all about interpretation.

It’s not hard to understand why the Greeks would find this site sacred.

Because of Delphi’s status - both as an important sanctuary and as neutral ground for all Greeks - it eventually became a very important place to control. The Athenians used it as their main treasury when they formed the Delian League (a united Greece under the rule of Athens), and many city states built treasuries or dedications on the site to show their wealth or power.

Delphi really was one of the most stunning places I’ve ever visited, historically and geographically - though I’d argue that, like much of the ancient world, Delphi’s importance is undeniably linked to its geography.