okay, so I'm going to try and sum up 9 days of Greece into a paragraph or two...
We got to Athens last Friday on November 5, and discovered the men of Athens have no fear when it comes to gawking at women. It was quite creepy. They just stare right at you, even straight at your face, and just continue to look at whatever they want. So nasty. We were so worried that Kefalonia, the supposedly magical island we were heading to the next day, was just like Athens. The next morning we gathered all of our stuff and began our 7 hour journey to what we hoped would be an amazing and tropical week of paradise.
After our 3 hour bus ride, and 3 hour ferry ride we arrived at the port of the island. The ocean was clear turquoise blue, and the houses of Sami (the town of the port) were painted bright colors, and had a mountain of bright green trees and grass behind them. This place couldn't possibly have a gross place, it just couldn't! We hopped back on our bus and got taken to Argistole, the bus depot. This place was also along the water, the road lined with palm trees. We realized that we had totally forgotten to write down the address to our hotel that we were staying at, we just had the name of it and the beach it was near. We asked the bus driver how to get there and he laughed, telling us that we had to taxi, the island was pretty much shut down and there was no more public transportation. We were stunned. He told us to wait 5 minutes, so we did, and then he came back and told us to hop on his bus he would take us near there because he had to fill up with oil. We drove for about ten minutes, him showing us the orange tress, olive vineyards, and the beaches that had the best swimming. The bus finally dropped us off on a dirt road, with directions to follow the road and head right, our hotel should be over there somewhere, so we started walking. We turned the first corner and saw the sun setting on the open ocean. It was incredible. I think we both danced a little bit. It was so beautiful! The road continued along the cliffs by the ocean and we saw a sign for Ammes, where we were staying. We saw the familiar image of the yellow building with blue windows And a blue roof, we found our place. Isabella the owner came out to us saying they'd been siting for us, turns out we were the only ones staying there. She showed us our room, which was huge, and opened our doors onto our private balcony with an amazing ocean view. She then left us to get settled in. We danced again! This was the tropical get away we had wanted.
For the next week we enjoyed going to Myrtos Beach, which you should google and drool over, lying in the sun while enjoying the fact that there was practically nobody else on the beach, and that you couldn't hear constant people sounds, just the waves. Oh and the sound of bells! There are hundreds of free range Billy goats all throughout the island, and one of their favorite spots to hang out is on the hills by the beach. We went swimming and ate a healthy lunch of a bag of chips and small Greek cupcakes for lunch everyday. We would come home around 4, shower, and then either make dinner in our apartment that had its own kitchen, or treated ourselves to a dinner made by Isabella, either pizza or a sandwich. Every evening was spent down at her little bar having drinks with a group of retired couples that had moved to the island from england. We all had a great time sitting around talking about traveling stories, music, and at some point in the night soccer, or football as they call it. One of the couples even had us stay with them for two nights so we wouldn't have to go back to athens as soon as we were. It was super sweet of them. The one and only downside to our trip to the island is that Graeme's wedding ring got eaten by the waves of the beach. All we can think of is that since the waves were really strong that day, and maybe the super salty water had a part in it, the pull just sucked the ring off. So Graeme is ringless, we're hoping to find him another ring maybe in portugal or Spain? They seem like countries that have lots of jewelry.
We've now arrived back in Athens, which isn't so bad now. There's like a mass rally going on for communism at the moment, it's pretty crazy. Thousands of people marching through the streets chanting something in Greek, with commy flags, and police and military soldiers keeping everything in check. Grae feels Ike we're witnessing history, but all i can think of is the seinfeld episode of where Elaine's communist boyfriend tries to convert Kramer.
Next time you hear from us we'll be in Portugal! Finally get to see this part of my heritage, i am so excited! Hope everyone is doing well back at home, love and miss you all!
g&k
Monday, November 15, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Italy part dos
It's been about a week since we last updated you on what's been going on, so I'll try to do so to the best of my memory. Although those of you who know me, know that this is not my strong suit so the details may be a little foggy.
After we left Florence, which was simply amazing, we were left with a random day in between places where we did not know what to do. We were leaving on a Sunday and every place in Rome was fairly cheap from monday on so we had a random night in which we were a little unsure of what to do. With all of my stupidity, i suggested Naples as it was pretty much the only other place in italy that i had heard of before and so basically made the assumption that it must be magical like the rest of italy. What a mistake. If we had taken one second out of our time to do a simple search of Naples on the google machine we would have been bombarded with information of a city that was going through a crisis of all crisis'. Basically one of the worst garbage strikes in recent history. As soon as we arrived we were overwhelmed by a terrible putrid smell, followed by sights of garbage piles that made raccoons feel like kings. As kalia put it we should be giving the downtown east side homeless medals for their cleanliness. Not only was the city a disaster, but our hotel was a mess. The man working there put no effort to helping us out in anyway, and when you have cobwebs hanging off every possible corner you know you've given up. After a delicious mcdonalds meal, which was probably the brightest part of the night, we went for a walk around the citys waterfront which was not awful considering. Upon reaching the beach however and seeing endless piles of broken bottles, corn on the cob, and other strewn garbage we decided to call it a night.
Quick point on the mcdonalds meal, it contains a burger called the crispy mcbacon which is the best burger I have ever tasted from the franchise and am hoping it has already made it's way to Canada.
Oh ya one more side note, apparently the cinque terra is amazing, and choosing naples over it might go down as the worst call I have ever made. Still kicking myself.
The next day we left literally as early as the train schedule would allow us. We both weren't too sure what to expect from Rome but straight up, it is an awesome city. Once you were there, you were there. We would catch a quick bus every morning into the city realms and from there all the major stops were easily walkable distance away or if you were tired there was a subway station on literally every block it felt like. There were some lousy parts of the trip of course such as the thunderstorm the first night, but after that it was on. Three straight days of Italian leather, Italian pizza, and structures that canadians cant even comprehend. Straight up Nick, everything your firm designs should be made of marble. I'm not sure what my favorite sight was as of quite yet, but all i know is that I have never said the three words "this is goon!" as much as I did over those three days. How people put those things together way back, boggles my mind. I just keep picturing world's strongest men type people picking up giant blocks and carrying them up to the top of the colloseum without any equipment or anything. I don't think it was like this but every statue we saw of naked dudes, and there were a lot, they were all jacked out of there mind. Like they came out of the movie 300 or something.
Anyways, that's basically been rome, shortened down significantly of course. Were in greece right now, and its epic, I won't leak any info though. You'll have to wait until the next update.
Love you all,
g&k
Ps we hear its about to snow down there. Too bad. It's about 20 degrees over here.
After we left Florence, which was simply amazing, we were left with a random day in between places where we did not know what to do. We were leaving on a Sunday and every place in Rome was fairly cheap from monday on so we had a random night in which we were a little unsure of what to do. With all of my stupidity, i suggested Naples as it was pretty much the only other place in italy that i had heard of before and so basically made the assumption that it must be magical like the rest of italy. What a mistake. If we had taken one second out of our time to do a simple search of Naples on the google machine we would have been bombarded with information of a city that was going through a crisis of all crisis'. Basically one of the worst garbage strikes in recent history. As soon as we arrived we were overwhelmed by a terrible putrid smell, followed by sights of garbage piles that made raccoons feel like kings. As kalia put it we should be giving the downtown east side homeless medals for their cleanliness. Not only was the city a disaster, but our hotel was a mess. The man working there put no effort to helping us out in anyway, and when you have cobwebs hanging off every possible corner you know you've given up. After a delicious mcdonalds meal, which was probably the brightest part of the night, we went for a walk around the citys waterfront which was not awful considering. Upon reaching the beach however and seeing endless piles of broken bottles, corn on the cob, and other strewn garbage we decided to call it a night.
Quick point on the mcdonalds meal, it contains a burger called the crispy mcbacon which is the best burger I have ever tasted from the franchise and am hoping it has already made it's way to Canada.
Oh ya one more side note, apparently the cinque terra is amazing, and choosing naples over it might go down as the worst call I have ever made. Still kicking myself.
The next day we left literally as early as the train schedule would allow us. We both weren't too sure what to expect from Rome but straight up, it is an awesome city. Once you were there, you were there. We would catch a quick bus every morning into the city realms and from there all the major stops were easily walkable distance away or if you were tired there was a subway station on literally every block it felt like. There were some lousy parts of the trip of course such as the thunderstorm the first night, but after that it was on. Three straight days of Italian leather, Italian pizza, and structures that canadians cant even comprehend. Straight up Nick, everything your firm designs should be made of marble. I'm not sure what my favorite sight was as of quite yet, but all i know is that I have never said the three words "this is goon!" as much as I did over those three days. How people put those things together way back, boggles my mind. I just keep picturing world's strongest men type people picking up giant blocks and carrying them up to the top of the colloseum without any equipment or anything. I don't think it was like this but every statue we saw of naked dudes, and there were a lot, they were all jacked out of there mind. Like they came out of the movie 300 or something.
Anyways, that's basically been rome, shortened down significantly of course. Were in greece right now, and its epic, I won't leak any info though. You'll have to wait until the next update.
Love you all,
g&k
Ps we hear its about to snow down there. Too bad. It's about 20 degrees over here.
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