Grecia!!

I’m on the train back to Rome, from what turned out to be a lovely week in Greece! My ferry arrived in Bari this morning at about 9.15, and I took the first train available (not til 1.44, lol). Despite the boredom, I had a fantastic time, and am really happy I changed my plans at the last minute and decided to go.

Originally I had booked a plane ticket for Bari, way back in November, when I was planning to spend a week or so traveling in the south, to see some places that you normally don’t hear about, like Lecce or Taranto. As time went on and I tried to plan the trip, it got shorter and shorter as I did research on locations and found them not worth visiting or without accommodation, or other issues. Then two weeks ago I spend the weekend in Venice (which was gorgeous! I loved it), and met a girl who had been traveling for a while. While I was there, she booked a place and left on a ferry to Greece. My roommate from first semester did the same last summer, and once Bonnie told me her plans, I found myself really, really wanting to take a ferry ride (turns out they’re not that great. Cheap, but that’s about it). So instead of the south, I used my plane ticket to connect with a ferry on Jan. 15, which then placed me in Patras, on the top of the lower peninsula, on Jan. 16. This was actually not the plan, as I had intended to end up in Igoumenitsa, further northwest, and start my trip on Corfu Island. So I spent an extra day getting to the island, but the long bus ride just allowed me to see more of the country. I had a great time, quiet and relaxing, in Corfu. I was there two nights, in a hostel maybe 100 yards away from the beach and with the sea visible from my room. It was much quieter than I had anticipated, since part of the reason I like to stay in hostels is the chance to meet different people, but it was fun to talk to the family who ran the establishment. I also made friends with the Russian/Spanish girl who worked there, and if I can, I might go see her in Barcelona in the spring!

Corfu

After Corfu, I had planned to go to a town called Kalambaka that my roommate had mentioned, where there was a mountain bordering the town, and it was popular for hiking and visits to the monasteries built on the peaks. Traveling is kind of a pain is Greece, however. They don’t have an easy train network like in Italy and elsewhere, that can get you pretty much anywhere in the country easily. There are only a few train lines, and none in the west, where I was. So I had to take different buses all day, from Igoumenitsa to Ioannina to Trikala and finally to Kalambaka, where I stayed in a little B&B at the base of the mountain. The town was really adorable, small, navigable and quiet. Way different from Patras and the other places I’d stopped thus far. The morning after, I took the trail up the mountain. Now, I am not a nature girl. But I had such a wonderful time that day. At first, I thought I was going to die, going up the initial trail. But I reached the part that connected with the natural road going through the mountain, and everything changed. I visited one monastery (where they made me wear a skirt over my jeans), and just spent the entire afternoon walking and thinking and admiring the view. I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, I’m sure, and took a break about every ten minutes to just watch. I’ve been incredibly lucky with the weather, and the only days where it was even questionable, I was on trains or buses. That day and the day I went to the acropolis, especially, were beautiful.




My third and final destination was Athens. I hadn’t intended, at first, to go, since I’ve heard all about how nasty and cliché and so on it is, but I felt it was my duty as a history major, former Latin student, Greek mythology buff and classics enthusiast (so basically, I pretty much had too) to go. I’m glad I went, though getting there was much more difficult than I anticipated. For some reason, the main road into the city was closed that day, and though I was able to get a bus (trains aren’t much better, apparently. I was advised not to take the train), it had to go through alternate routes, adding several hours onto the trip. I finally made it at about 10, and had to take a taxi to my hostel, because of the late hour and distance. So the taxi driver is like, oh, that area, 20 euros! And I was like, you’re kidding, right? But he wasn’t backing down and I needed to get to the hotel, so I agreed to 15. Then I got into the car and realized I was out of money, and only had 8. I told him and he laughed, and took it. But when I got into the hotel and mentioned it, the receptionist told me the fee probably should have been closer to 3 or 5! You see? This is why I hate taxis. Glad I spent all my money ahead of time, though, lol.

I only had one full day in Athens, during which I planned to do all the traditional sightseeing. It worked out perfectly, actually; I left the hotel about 11 and made it back about 5.30, and saw everything I had wanted to, plus some new things, and was able to talk to some people and see what the city was like. The metro system there, apparently redone for the Olympics in 2004, is excellent, and I got around on 2 euros all day. In London, a single trip, one place to another, is 4 pounds! Robbery. I went to the acropolis first, which was gorgeous. The weather was perfect, as I said (I left my coat at home for the first time since October. The locals said it was cold, though, lol), and the monuments looked like they were moving against the sky as the clouds passed. I finally saw the Parthenon, which, despite the scaffolding and damage, is as impressive and powerful as everyone says. The view from the acropolis of the city is amazing. It just keeps going, as far as you can see! I had no idea Athens was so huge. Apparently half of Greece’s population is there, 5 of 10 million. I also went to the agora, and saw a few more famous pieces that have survived. I won’t go too much into detail, since a lot of it I hadn’t even heard of, but I thought one piece was kind of funny. There’s a temple that was begun by King Theseus, but not finished for 6 hundred years, when the Roman emperor Hadrian had dominion over the city. There’s an arch near the temple that says on one side ‘This is Athens, the city of Theseus.’ On the other side, it says ‘This is the city of Hadrian, not Theseus.’ Oh, the Romans…




I left Athens early the next morning for Patras, to catch my ferry back to Bari. I had to suffer through more rain, but I made it on board and was able to upgrade, very cheaply, to a cabin! On the way to Greece I had an airplane style seat, and slept on the floor in the lounge. Believe me. Get the cabin. We arrived this morning in Italy, and here I am, on the train! Taking up all the outlets near my seat as I charge the computer and my phone. Lol. Hope everyone’s doing well! Ciao!

Xmas 2008 (and, you know, Europe)

Hi everybody! I know it’s been a while, I’ve had a lot going on, with a few days of constant sleep thrown in. But I’m actually sitting in Bari right now writing this, getting ready to board a ferry this evening for Greece! Long story, lol.

But I’ve left out a lot over the past month or so, so let me catch up. I finished the semester with IES and said good-bye to everybody the week of Dec. 17, and started getting ready to meet up with my family in London for Christmas. I said good-bye to my roommate Kelsey, which was really sad (and now there’s nobody to shame me into getting up at a decent hour in the morning, among other things), but was excited to get to London and see Mom, Dad, Alissa and Andrew again! I don’t think I did anything that weekend but run around trying to pack ridiculously early, watch online TV (right after exams – I think I deserved it!) and eagerly anticipate Tuesday, December 23, when I could fly to London and meet up with everyone at Gatwick airport. Well, it didn’t exactly go according to plan. I stayed up the entire night with Kelsey before she left early on the 22nd, partly because I wanted to keep her company and partly because I really wanted to watch Heroes, and when I returned from the airport with Ermete after dropping her off I could already sense a cold coming on – headache, sore throat, sinus issues. It sucked. Then, while trying to sleep for roughly 24 hours to fend it off, I got in contact with my parents, on their way from St. Louis to Cincinnati to London to meet me the next day. Over time, their flights became more and more delayed to the point where when I turned off the light for the last time, I knew I would be spending the first night of our vacation in a hostel waiting for them to arrive.

Annoying as it was, I did find a decent hostel and got a good night’s sleep waiting for everyone on the outskirts of London, getting up at the crack of dawn on Christmas Eve to try Airport Meeting Take 2. This worked out, thankfully, and despite the exorbitant amount of luggage we lugged across London (NOT blaming anyone, lol) and the holiday closures (really annoying), we had a really good time. Our Christmas dinner consisted of sandwiches and organic sunflower seeds, but was still silly and fun while we exchanged gifts set below the hand-drawn Christmas tree I’d made in Rome. As I said, a lot of things were closed (including public transportation), but we still did a nice walking tour that included Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, the houses of Parliament (with Big Ben, right, Andy?), the Thames (That’s TEMS, Dad), Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park. I think one of my favorite memories might be Dad walking out into the street while the guards were riding towards us on their horses and getting yelled at. Also Andrew’s very tall hat, ala Joey from Friends. Oh, and Mom accidentally knocking into the open DVD player and breaking it, and upon reporting this problem to the hotel, being told that ‘none of the rooms have DVD players.’ Oh, and I have to mention, for Mom, that we stumbled upon Westminster Cathedral on Christmas day and were able to attend mass there. I know she was really excited about it, and even Dad behaved! Sadly, I don’t have a lot of pictures of London, since I was there a few years ago and took enough pictures for a small army of photographers. I left that to everyone else.

On the 26th we headed from London to Paris, via international train. I don’t mind trains (I actually enjoy the excuse to sleep in the middle of the day), but apparently this wasn’t the best train experience for my travel companions. Something about the air pressure in the tunnel under the English Channel? Perhaps. Lol, but we made it to the station (Oh, also we found the point at King’s Cross between platforms 9 and 10 where Harry Potter boarded the train, Platform 9 ¾. Yes, there’s a sign. Very popular with silly tourists like us, lol), onto the train, and to Paris. I wasn’t really prepared for how large and confusing Paris’s main station would be. It took a while to get out of there, but after about 2 or so hours of again dragging luggage through a major European city, we made it to the hotel, which, despite the slightly annoying receptionist (No one was with me on this, but he drove me crazy!), we all loved and was very nice. It was in a lovely area, within walking distance of the Arc de Triomphe and Concorde Street (the famous one with the trees that is about 2 miles long). I think we all enjoyed Paris the best, at least partially because there were buses and trams to take and things were open!

Once I found my bearings and a map of the city, Paris was easy. All the main sites are in the same area (generally the case, which is why London was doable without transportation), and in one day we found the Louvre (the building! The Louvre deserved an entire day), the Tuileries gardens, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the Seine, and really fun Eiffel tower key-chains. We had a bus tour that took us to some lesser known, more difficult to find monuments, but I think it worked out perfectly, with our wandering first and seeing what we liked and having it reinforced afterwards. On our second day (we had two and a half days, not counting the day we arrived), we took a train out to visit Versailles, the old palatial home of France’s royalty. Marie Antoinette ruled from here with her husband, and it was from here that she and her family were captured and taken to Paris as prisoners until her execution. It was a lovely day (though cold. France is very cold.), and we were able to see the exquisite apartments of the royal family and the extensive gardens. The following day, the day of our evening departure for Rome aboard an overnight train, we spent at the Louvre. Pretty self-explanatory, I’m sure, but it was excellent. I couldn’t believe the amount of pieces I had studied in school, without even realizing their location. It was well worth the cost and time required, and everyone enjoyed it. Even Dad and Andrew, who took quite a few photos of the weapons, armor and the like on display. We saw the Mona Lisa! And were smashed into the railing with the hundreds of other people attempting to photograph it with their phones and such. After the Louvre, we found our way (again, with the luggage. It was such a remarkable accomplishment, I feel, carrying everything across Europe, that it merits repeated mentioning) to the station once again, and departed Paris at about 7 pm for Rome!

Little boy running at the pigeons outside Notre Dame. I think the extremely old cathedral adds to the effect. Don't you?

The Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Among other things, this was the location of Marie Antoinette's wedding.

I really feel the overnight train is such an experience to deserve at least a mention, so here goes. It was kind of fun, like camping, but I would much rather be camping (and that’s saying something)! The cabin, when we found it, appeared to be too small for three people, let alone six, and once all the beds were pulled out I felt like I was in prison. But once we were asleep the ride went pretty quickly, so I guess for what it is, it’s fine. It was pretty funny, though, watching everyone try to climb into bed and get ready to sleep (since most of the bathrooms on board were, for most of the night, locked. Turned out that was a blessing in disguise. I still shudder to think of those bathrooms!). In comparison with a day trip (13 hour day trip), this was much preferable, considering the reduced cost and inevitable boredom.

So finally, we made it to Rome. After the train, it took a while to recoup, but overall in Rome we covered a lot of ground. Since I know where I’m going pretty well, I think we saw pretty much every one of the main sights, plus a few things that I’ve grown to like while I’m here. We did the Vatican of course (well, St. Peter’s Square. Long lines.), the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, some very famous churches, and more I can’t even think of. We actually covered all the monuments listed in Angels and Demons (prequel to The Da Vinci Code) by Dan Brown, if anyone’s familiar. It was really nice to be back where I was comfortable and knew what I was doing, and could speak the language. We also were able to spend time with my host family as well! They had a party for New Year’s and we attended. It was pretty hilarious, and strange watching Mom and Dad especially try to eat the unknown food, all the while being polite (I have that problem a lot. Sabrina and Arturo, the parents, like to experiment with cooking). But we all danced and had a fantastic New Year’s Eve.

The Friday we were in Rome, two days before everyone left, we took a day and went to Florence and Pisa. Now, this is difficult, since there are three different train speeds you can take to get to Florence: slow, medium and fast. However, the price rises about 12 euro with each speed. In order to make it affordable with five people, we woke up at 5 to make a slower train that would still arrive fairly early in the city. It worked out, and we all spent time sleeping on yet another train. Florence, despite our limited time there – roughly three hours – was lovely. I absolutely loved it the last time I was there, and I was happy to have an excuse to go back. We did a quick sightseeing tour – the duomo, the Arno River, the Courtyard of the Uffizi – and arrived in San Lorenzo market, where we all had a great time looking around the stalls (I also greatly enjoyed this shopping portion on my last trip to Florence. Who wouldn’t?). At about 1.30 we tore ourselves away from the market and caught a train for Pisa. Now, there’s not much in Pisa (No one listened to me when I told them this beforehand. Apparently the Leaning Tower is up there on tourist lists, with the pyramids or something. Completely trumps the colosseum, lol.). I was kind of skeptical about going, but I was majorly overruled, and I must say, while I still don’t quite get it (They could fix it! But they would lose money), it is a lovely building. It’s in a field called the Campo dei Miracoli (the field of Miracles), and there’s also a church and, I believe, a baptistery. Like the duomo, they are all, even the tower, beautifully decorated and lovely to behold. So I enjoyed myself. I think even if they hadn’t screwed up building the tower, the field would have been somewhat famous, since it really was lovely. So go see it! Lol.

There it is. Leaning. Like it's trying to creep around and get in the front of the picture.

Overall, I think everyone enjoyed the food in Italy the most. The pizza is amazing, and I think we had it at least once a day (we went to one restaurant twice, because Mom and Dad really liked it. They remembered us. It was really embarrassing.). Oh, and I think for the first time I witnessed Mom eat ice cream. Or gelato, actually. I guess Italian gelato is just superior! Haha.

I’m typing this in Bari waiting for my ferry to leave for Greece, and it’s about 2000 words, so I’m going to wind it up. I hope everyone had a great holiday season! Happy New Year! Ciao!