Delphi and Greek Driving

Today we'd booked a rental car and the plan was to drive to Delphi, the site of ruins of the Temple of Apollo and surrounding ruins that once was host to the cult of Apollo and the priests who every centuries doled out prophecies for those that pilgrimaged there.

We picked up our white manual Citroen.  Driving in Athens was interesting.  Motorcycles drive quickly between cars and lanes.  Blinkers arent used, just drive around pedestrians who are crossing on reds, drive fast through all yellows.  Outside of Athens pass anytime forming a 3rd middle lane.  Drivers in the oncoming lane dont want to hit you so its ok, theyll move over.  Sometimes you can pass another car passing thus forming 4 lanes if that car isnt passing fast enough.  These are the lessons I learned.  It went fine.

At any rate, driving was a lot of fun once out if the city.  It was mountainous, flat, and hilly.  One very cute town in the mountains before Delphi.

We got there around noon, about a 2hr 35 minute drive.  Delphi is a beautiful place in the mountains.  The hill upward is pretty steep and a lot of the ruins you have to learn what it was from info and renderings and fill in the gaps with your imagination.  There was a treasury that is the most well preserved building there where city states in Greece would fill with nice things as offerings.  Seemed like it was a bit if a competition to have the coolest treasuries.  

During the walk theres a lot of cats that live there.  They look pretty well fed and we confirmed that when we stopped by the museum.  There's a coffee shop and a number of cats were lounging, one kitten trotting along with a piece of bread in his mouth.  Spent a decent amount of time petting cats.

One site we did miss was the ancient stadium.  You have to climb about double what we did to get there, and it was a bit toasty in the sun.  Its an arena where the Pythean games were held.  This was similar to the Olympics (held every 2 years after the Olympics) and were dedicated to Apollo.  But we saw everything else, very cool.

Museum was great had a lot if the architecture and artifacts that they were keeping out of the elements.  

The drive back was solid, I slammed through a red light, honked my horn at people, and passed several cars by making a 3rd lane.  Traffic was terrible and added an extra 45 minutes.  The light for tire pressur came on and I checked but no flat so hoofed it back to the car rental and it was fine.

After walkimg back from there we returned to the pita place down from our hotel for gyros and fried zuchinni.  We also stopped for lukmades (dough balls with honey and cinnamon) and Masika ice cream.  Whoever mentioned Mastika is the comments last time fyi :)  We were actually happy that the lukmades we just ok, we have a place in St Louis Park that makes fantastic ones, and the place we went today is like the well known touristy one here.  Happy we have the good stuff back home.  The mastika ice cream was ok.  Im much more looking forward to the drink now, but I think the ice cream has too much of a medicine quality to it.

 

Ancient Athens + A Hobo Peed on Me

Today was a full day of walking.  We woke up at around 5am.  I think yesterday we crashed for 4 hours, woke up a 6pm and went and got food, then slept another solid 10 hours.

After trying to sleep more and slowly getting ready we got out at 8:30ish and stopped for greek coffee, a bougatsa (feta pie), and a freddo creme royale.  Dont know what the creme royale was really but it was strong.  Greek coffee is the same as Turkish coffee.  Its poured on grounds in a metal cup heated by hot sand.  It was alright kind of earthy and strong.

After that we headed towards the Acropolis.  Its a short walk to the hill to get there, but its a pretty hefty vertical climb.  Lots of stray cats, cute alleys, and ruins surrounding it like the Roman Agora.

Got there around 9am and beat the rush and the heat.  Its been in the 70s so far and its supposed to hold that way while we're in Athens.  Views were great, very cool to see the Parthenon (temple of Athena Nike) and Erechthion which if I'mrecalling correctly was both a temple, monument and tomb.  Lots of the standing structures in Athens survived various era by being converted to Churches or Mosques depending on who ruled at the time.  On the south side of the Acropolis was the Roman Theater or Odeon of Herodeus something.  Very cool, still in use.

Afterwards we went to the acropolis museum for a little bit.  We covered 2 floors of artifacts and preserved pieces of the Acropolis where replicas are instead put in place for the restoration efforts.  Had a tasty lunch at the museum. A bagel stuffed with a type of goat cheese, tomatoes and pesto.  Break tray with olive oil, butter, olives.

We had scheduled a free tour that works of tips.  We headed over to where it started at 2.  The tour guide Evan was great.  It took about 3 hours but hit up a lot of the big sites in town and he did a fantastic job with the historical background.  

The hobo pee isnt as big a deal but it did happen.  We were walking to find dinner after the tour and Sarahs like "Alex step back!" and grabs me, but it was too late.  Some homeless dude had started peeing on a wall (on a main street really against a column) and i had stepped into the ground stream.  Luckily I dont *think* any splattered on my foot as I was in sandals.  

Are feet were really sore.  Somehow Sarah survived going up lots and lots of steps.  We found a place to eat that was pretty good.  One order was wrong which was fine.  We recieved fried egg with staka, and the things we actually ordered was a pork roll which turned out to be kind of like porketta and Dakos with Feta which ive made before.  Rolled pork with herbs that was cut into slices with mustard sauce.  Also tried Ouzo for the first time.  For the life of me it tastes extremely close to absinthe.  Its 80 proof where Absinrhe is 90 though.

Finally got back around 7:30.  Sarah is knocked out and I'll probably be the same in a moment.  Tomorrow we have a car rental and I hope I can get out of the city ok and then also not get lost and also not drive off a cliff as roads are narrow from what the Alex who runs our hotel says.

In general other takeaways so far: restaraunt service is a mixed bag, theres lots of cute stray cats no stray dogs, orthodox priests have cool uniforms, backstreets are everywhere and very cute.  Good amount of panhandling, some Jamaican dude "gave" me a bracelet for free and is like "Is dat your queen over there!?" gesturing to Sarah and im like "Yup she is".  So we both got free bracelets and he said we'd be together forever and also if we had any change that would be cool.  I had 20 cents on me.

While we were eating a greek unknown gendered person spoke a lot of greek to us and shoved a rose at me.  I know how to say no thanks in greek and i said it a bunch.  Theyre like 2 euro 2 euro.  And i gave them 1 euro and the flower back.  Then they said 2 euro! And i said no thanks.  Then he asked sarah 2 euro something something.  No thanks.  2 euro.  No thanks and they left. And a clarinet guy stopped by too.  Thats our stories.

The wokavator.  Its very tiny, but seems reliable.

Greek coffee

Feta pie was very tasty

Plakos area on the way to Acropolis

Roman Agora. Basically merchant area built during Roman rule.

I killed Sarahs feet/knees/legs, she a trooper.

Temple of Hephaestus and cat

Parthenon

Erectheion.  Marks the mythological site where Poseidon's trident made a salt water spring when competing with Athena for control of the city.

More Parthenon

Acropilis NE view

Acropolis museum (I dont thin we were supposed to take pictures in this section.  Whoops)

A motor vehicle

The sandwich was pretty amazing.  This was in the museum restaraunt.

View from Anafotika neighborhood.  Very odd place where the houses are shavks and it looks like greek island streets.  Apparently they cant sell the properties because its historical area, its on the side of the acropolis.  Very weird.

Segues.  We may look and act like tourists but at least we're not on segues.

Dinner.  We need to learn to just order 2 things.  Foods been filling

Arrived, pigeons, trains, sleepy

Thisll be a short post as we just got to our hotel.  I managed to get about 5 hours sleep, Sarah got maybe 1 hour.  The planes had some turbulence so that was less than nice to our stomachs.

Ate some airplane food, landed in Athens at 10 am local, or 2am CT.  After going through customs we started looking for the train into town.  We had to transfery at Syntygma Square.  There was some music and dance and motorcycle thing happening there and I got a free Heineken.  Sarah was worse for the wear at this point.  The motion of the train didnt help and first time in another country is a lot of stress.

Got on the next train and walked about 10 minutes to get to the hotel.  The guy running it is super nice, gave us the wifi info and chatted for a bit.  He showed us their elevator which is a lot like the willy wonka room where they get stuck in it.  It is very small, we managed to squeeze in with our bags, and theres not really a door for the elevator.  Like u can touch the wall if u want to lose a finger while its moving.  Then when we got to the 4th floor the door didnt open, no knob.  Very confused.  Pushed the button to go down to 3, same result so this time i pushed on the door harder, and that worked.

Room has a very nice view, good wifi, working shower and ac so very pleased.  Gonna sleep now and wake up for food before sleeping more.

Leaving tomorrow, packed uuuuup!

Its 9pm now and we leave here at 6:30 am tomorrow, we'll see how much sleep we get.  Sarah's purse and my fanny pack.  So we have all our gear stuffed pretty well into 2 carry-on bags, and 2 "accessory" bags.  Lots of stuff this time around, but that's what happens when you travel with someone vs yourself is you have more motivation to smell nice and wear fresh clothes.  

Unpictured is some shoes, and a cool little neck air fan that I got for Sarah in preperation from the trip.  She doesn't care for the heat and it'll help.  On the subject the weather looks great this coming week.  Were a bit nervous as Greece is the hottest European capitol (and very close to being the hottest European city), but it looks like it will be highs in the upper 70s while we're in Athens.  Nice!

Here's the gear:

The monay we're splitting.  Loads of dosh.  2k Euro split between us that'll be the money for pretty much everything on the trip (food, gas, entrance fees, etc)

Alex's in flight and fanny pack stuff.  I really like the Halloween Dots.  They're the exact same as regular dots but you dont know what flavor you're about to eat.  Wireless earbuds, charger, sunscreen, deodorant, germ kililng wipes, cajun trail mix, and mint gum to fix my breath after eating the cajun trail mix.  The pouch Sarah got for me loops onto the belt and has my passport and Covid Vaccine doc and such.

Shorts, 2x non-cotton convertible pants, Swimsuit.  2 cotton/linen button downs, 2 other button downs, 3 t-shirts, 2 undershirts.

Underwear, socks, and facemask.

2x Home Covid Tests and a wall socket converter.  We need to pass a covid test to get back into the U.S. so this is backup #1.  We have a scheduled appointment 2 days before we leave, and then also scheduled these at home ones that are proctored for the same day.

Sarah's Sandals, we're each doing 1 pair of Sandals, 1 pair of Shoes

Extra Covid test (they sent us a 3rd one for free), some soaps, sun screen, laundry sink detergent if we need to wash something.  Toothpaste

Sarah's Day Pack for holding water and stuff.  As the picture below shows it folds up into a tiny little carry bag.

Folded up pack

Sarahs' Backpack

Sarah's Clothes

Undies!

Toiletries, sink stopper, and a folder with copies of our passport, itinerary, tickets, etc.

The Makeups

Sarah's extra carry-on/purse

Pretty products

All the medicine, masks, bandaids, and 2 mask spacers for comfort

I swear I didn't say I wanted a selfie stick, but Sarah says I did and so she bought one.  I'm sure we'll get creative with it though. Ear plugs, puke bag, she-wees: things that should tell you that Sarah doesn't have high faith that plane rides will go smoothly.

Trip #2 Post Number #1, Greece plans!

It's been a couple years since I posted.  Not much travel during the big Covid, but I did do a backcountry camping trip to Yellowstone in 2020 with some buddies that was great, and I didn't really have the internet availability to blog each night.  Each entry would have just been "Feet & legs hurt, didn't get eaten by bears and didn't fall in sulfur".  At some point I'll try and get the pics uploaded and link them from here.  

This trip out to Greece was originally going to be with my girlfriend Sarah and my parents, but the parents bailed based on uncertainty of travel or most likely because of being worried about their dog :)

Why Greece?

I've personally always wanted to go to Greece since I was a kid and loved Greek mythology and read the Odyssey and slogged through the Illiad.  Its always held interest to me from a historical standpoint.  I think its cool that it goes back thousands of years, and that there's still a lot of unknowns to uncover and speculate on.  Looking forward to seeing some of the Minoan ruins and the Heraklion museum in particular.  Sarah's looking forward to some food and sea views, and I'm definitely not opposed to those too :)

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At any rate Sarah and I decided to keep our plans and tried to book everything with full refundability should it be needed.  This is Sarah's first time out of the country other than Canada, and just my second so not like I'm some pro at it, and it should be lots of fun.

We have all flights, accommodation, ferries, tours, and car rentals booked, so most of the budget and itinerary I can lay out now.  We also got the physical Euros from the bank.  

Other random things we had to track/do/follow:

-Got TSA Global Entry & PreCheck

-International Driver's Permit

-Covid Vaccine certs

-Greek Embassy Passenger Locator Form (still have to fill this out)

------------------ITINERARY October 2 - October 15--------------------

Flight from MPLS -> Atlanta, GA -> Athens, Greece

Leave: Oct 2, 10:24am,  Arrive: Oct 3, 10:00am

Round trip flight was right around 1450 each (where you can pick your seats and refund if needed)

10/3:  Get to the hotel via train from the airport and then eat food, chill out, and sleep.

10/4:  Athens

10/5:  Day-tripping to Delphi possibly Thermopylae

10/6:  Athens

10/7-8: Ferry -> Santorini

10/9-13:  Ferry -> Crete

10/14:  Flight -> Athens

Flight from Athens, Greece -> Atlanta, GA -> MPLS

Leave: Oct 15, 12:35pm,  Arrive: Oct 15, 11:59pm

While we have things we're doing somewhat planned out, I'll leave the deets out so its more fun for people reading.  Crete is probably the least planned as it will mostly be a road trip and we'll be stopping wherever we feel like, but have some cool things planned there too.

A little disappointed we won't have time to see Meteora, Mycenae, and Delos, but maybe a trip in the future can cover those.

---------------BUDGET ---------------

Round Trip Flights:  $2,939.38

Hotels: $1,508.09
(12 nights, avg 125.6/night.  This would actually be a lot lower but we have a 2 night splurge at a fancy place, like half of this is 2 nights at one hotel)

Car Rental: $197.21
(4 days, avg  49.30/day)

Travel Insurance: - 
(covered by travel credit card)

Food/Fees/Gas/Souvenirs/Misc: $2359.59
(2000 euros, this is like $85/person/day for 12 days)

Total: $7,004.27
($3,502.14/person)

So that's pretty much it.  Next post will probably be our bags.  Excited that its close, thanks for checkin it out!