Olympia

This morning we skipped the hotel breakfast to get an early start on our day. Olympia is a 3-hr drive away and we wanted to be there as early as possible to avoid the crowds.

It was so early when we started driving that it was still dark. To go to Olympia we had to pass through Tripoli. Being a relatively big city, we had no problem finding it. We arrived there after 8am, encountering some pretty crazy traffic in rush hour. As the lady at the rental warned us, getting out of the city could pose some difficulties, and it did. We approached the city from the east and we knew we had to get out of it heading north, so once in the heart of the city, I made an arbitrary right turn. Luckily we did eventually see a big sign with 15 destinations marked on it, some of which were towns that should be on our way. So away we went.

The drive from this point on should have been easy, and it was. We never got lost. Except that we were running dangerously low on gas, to the point where I tried to coast on neutral as much as possible. I was now regretting not getting gas when Chris pointed out a gas station to me earlier. That gas station was on the left side, plus we did see plenty of them along the way, so I thought we could wait. But now we were on a rather small local road, and gas stations were hard to come by. We were heading towards a major highway and I was constantly checking the map to see how far away we were. This was a total deja vu for me as I was in the exact same situation when I drove my Miata to the east coast 8 years ago. I was prepared for the worst and was imagining what we would do if we became stranded. Chris was praying the whole time, which must have felt like eternity.

We did eventually see a sign pointing to a gas station, but the stress had not ended yet as we could not see it anywhere on the road! We made a turn and stopped by a bakery to ask. It turned out that the gas station was only a little bit further down the road. I guess our anxiety had made us impatient.

We were overcome by a great feeling of relief after we filled up the tank. We could now at last enjoy some pretty rare sights (at least to us) on the local highway, which included... a guy who slowed down traffic to tell the drivers to stay on the right side of the road. "Hmm... why would I need a guy to tell me that?" I wondered, until I saw further down the road a slow moving truck approaching us in the opposite direction that was painting the lane dividing markers. I guess on these winding and twisting roads, one could easily cross the center and mess up their paint job, especially on many of the hairpin turns. Later on, we caught a glimpse of an old lady by the side of the road holding out a basket of fruits to cars that were whipping by her! I'm assuming that she was trying to sell her fruits, and not expecting us to stick out our hands and grab one of them on our way :) And on multiple occurrences we saw shepherds herding sheeps right in the middle of the road.

It was almost noon by the time we arrived at Olympia. After lunch we entered the ancient site to see it already crowded with tourists. We visited the museum first and tried to listen in on many of the guided tours inside. The ancient site was quite a walk away from the museum, and was equally crowded. At the far end of the site was the barren looking stadium for foot races, complete with the original starting line marker stones. We found a quiet a spot on the small grassy hill to relax. Entertainment was provided by a group of students who decided to have a mock race. Another race followed shortly by two guys who did it au naturel - ie. with bare feet, not naked like the ancient athletes :)

By the time we left the site, the scene had become even more chaotic with tourist groups. We could barely find the space to squeeze through them to exit the site! We walked along the main street in the town to arrive at a hill where the Museum of the History of the Olympic Games in Antiquity was located. Surprisingly, the museum was almost completely empty. We were the only visitors during our half-hour visit. The small museum was informative and much more enjoyable to visit due to the lack of crowds.

Our drive back to Nafplio was smooth and uneventful, especially compared to this morning's drive. We made a short stop at Langadia to take some photos, and were greeted by a carpenter named Ignatio who invited us to his workshop and of course, eventually tried to sell us some of his crafts, which consist mostly of walking canes.

Back at Nafplio, we ended our night with a fast dinner that included an order of "fried onions". We were unfortunately wrong to assume that they meant onion rings, because they were literally just plain fried onions :)

Scare of the day: almost running out of gas in the middle of nowhere

Mycenae & Epidavros

This morning we started our day with a critical decision - should we rent a car for our 2-day stay in Nafplio. This decision would affect our itinerary greatly. Based in Nafplio, we planned to visit Mycenae and Epidavros for sure, and possibly Olympia, all in two days. This would be nearly impossible to do without a car because of the sparse public transportation available. Olympia, although only about 150km away, is actually a 3-hour drive due to the mountainous routes, and even longer via public transportation as there is no direct bus. So this by itself would take one full day. Mycenae and Epidavros are very close to Nafplio in contrast, but because of the sparse schedules, would take 2 days to visit without a car.

So our first task at hand this morning was to find a rental car. We found an Avis and another local rental car company, both of which did not have a car available for today. I was ready to give up visiting Olympia, since I really like Nafplio anyway so wouldn't mind spending more time here. So we could just take it easy and visit Mycenae and Epidavros in 2 days. As we headed back to our hotel, we passed by a sign pointing to another local car rental company. We walked into the narrow alley and proceeded to read the prices posted on the window. A lady was on the phone but quickly came out to help us. Compared to the guy at Avis, this lady was very friendly. We were happy to learn that they did have a car available for today and tomorrow. This did open up our options but I was still undecided on whether I want to drive ourselves. The lady reassured me that it wouldn't be hard. She pulled out a map and highlighted the routes for me, telling me what signs to look for. She did warn us however, that on our way to Olympia, we'd have to pass by Tripoli, a rather big city, and getting out of it might pose some difficulties.

At 40 euros a day this was considerably more expensive than Santorini. It was a 50-50 decision but we did finally decide to go with the rental.

Our first destination was Mycenae. The lady instructed us to make a right turn after a certain sign, after which it would be a simple straight drive. Well, right off the bat we must have made the wrong turn as it didn't look like we were going the right way weaving through some very narrow streets in some little town. We decided to make a U-turn and followed a sign pointing towards Athens, at least to get out of the little town. By chance we were able to get on a major road and even found a sign pointing to Mycenae. It was smooth sailing thereafter.

After Knossos in Crete, Mycenae is probably the most documented archaeological site mentioned in any Greek history textbooks. Visiting these two sites in person was the highlight for me, at least as far as sightseeing goes. I must admit, however, that visiting the ancient theatre at Epidavros was more fun. During our visit a couple of visitors demonstrated the exceptional acoustics of the theatre, one by singing, the other by dropping a coin, from the centre of the stage.

Considering how we started our day with much uncertainty this morning, we were very happy with how our day went (except for the rather heavy pouring rain at the end of our visit in Epidavros). We ended our day with a dinner back in Nafplio, followed by a leisurely stroll around the Plateia Filellinon area.

Lost & found: we left both our guidebooks at 2 different car rental companies. Right before we drove out from Nafplio, the lady from whom we rented the car chased us down to give us one of our books. We had no idea where we left the other. At the end of the day after we drove back to Nafplio, we tried our luck by visiting one of the other local car rental companies and did actually find the book!

Ferry, Bus, Walk, Bus, Bus

Today marked the midpoint of our trip, where we left our island vacation for mainland Greece. Like the day when we arrived in the islands, this was a long day of traveling.

Our hotel provided us with a shuttle bus ride to Mykonos Town's port, where we boarded a ferry to Athens' Rafina port. We arrived in the afternoon, and boarded a packed bus to downtown Athens. When we arrived at the Mavromateon station, we knew we had to head towards Omonia, but had no idea which direction to go. A lady who was going to visit the National Archeological Museum pointed us to the way. She mentioned that the museum was actually free today, the last Sunday of the month. Unfortunately, we had no time to spare as our long day of traveling was only about half done.

When we found the bus stop near Omonia, we understood our guidebook's cautionary advice. There were some shady characters all around the neighbourhood. We quickly boarded the bus heading to Athens' coach Terminal A, where the next long leg of our journey began. We had some time to take a break and relax while waiting for our long distance coach to Nafplio. I tried to stay awake after boarding the bus in order not to miss the narrow Corinth canal - both our guidebooks advise us to get seats on the left side of the bus, as well as get ready for the canal as it would pass by very quickly. I followed both pieces of advice and was able to snap a few good photos of it from my seat!

As the bus approached Nafplio, I tried to made as many mental notes on the passing landmarks as possible, as we may possibly have to drive by these places if we decide to rent a car tomorrow. Driving in the Peloponnese would be quite different from driving in the small island of Santorini where it was difficult to get lost in the one or two main arteries on the island. I feel a little apprehensive about having to drive and read road signs in Greek at the same time :(

It was dark when we arrived at Nafplio at around 8pm. But even in the dark we already took a liking to it as we looked for our hotel through the streets of this pretty town. Our hotel is ranked #1 on tripadvisor, but it's still a far cry from those that we stayed in on the islands. Located at a quiet but convenient square, it's very nicely decorated and one can see that the washroom has been recently renovated.

Of all the days planned for this trip, I was most concerned about today as it is logistically the most difficult day with one ferry ride followed by 3 different bus rides. I am happy and relieved that everything went smoothly.

Delos

After having breakfast at our hotel this morning, we began our leisurely walk down towards the port to catch our ferry ride to Delos. As we approached the town, however, the walk quickly turned into a frantic run as it was fast approaching the 9am departure time. We successfully made it out of the labyrinth-like streets of the town and caught the ferry by minutes.

The boat ride to Delos was rough to say the least. At times the little boat was tilted so severely that I thought it was going to tip over. Chris was becoming sick and went downstairs to the lower deck inside, and I followed soon after.

We arrived at the island at 10am when the site opened. For some reason admission was free today and the attendant at the gate just waved us in. The site looked huge at first glance. We followed the route as suggested by our guidebooks. Most of the ruins are so "ruined" that it takes great imagination to visualize how everything would look more than 2 thousand years ago.

After a brief visit to the on-site museum, we continued on to the Sanctuaries of the Foreign Gods, at the foot of Mount Kynthos. Chris originally wanted to just sit and wait while I climb up the hill, but as I started the climb it didn't look that high to me so I got her to climb with me. I hope she agrees that the view up there was worth the climb :)

We'd originally planned to take an early afternoon boat back to Mykonos, but at the end, we took the last boat back at 3pm. When we got back to Mykonos we tried to find "Petros" the pelican again, hoping to catch it when it wasn't sleeping like yesterday. Unfortunately it was nowhere to be seen.

Mykonos

We checked out of our villa soon after 9am this morning, and almost left with our room keys! We drove down to Fira town to search for the famous blue dome church of Agiou Mina, only to find it painted white! After breakfast, we headed down to the new port to return the rental car before 11am. Although our FlyingCat speedboat came late while we waited in the packed waiting area, the boarding process was relatively quick, and we were out of the port in no time.

The arrival scene at Mykonos was just as hectic. We were quickly directed towards our hotel's shuttle bus which had only 2 empty seats left just for us. I had no idea where we were going as the bus wound through the streets of Mykonos and uphill towards our hotel. I was a little worried that the remote location would mean inconvenience for us to go to and from downtown.

When we finally arrived at our room, we looked out the balcony and saw the famous windmills. They looked far. So it was quite a pleasant surprise when the concierge told us that it was only a 10-minute walk away.

Our boat ride to Mykonos began around noon. It was now after 4pm and we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. After visiting the windmills we stopped by a gyros place to have a pre-dinner snack before continuing our sight-seeing, which included finding the town's mascot pelican, and enjoying the sunset from Little Venice.

For dinner, we searched for this restaurant with very unique dishes. It probably would've been easier to find if it wasn't already dark at around 7:30pm, but we managed to find it tucked away in some side street. The restaurant was very nicely decorated, situated right beside a lit outdoor pool. As we entered, the owners were still setting up the table. We were at first very happy finding this nice restaurant and having it all to ourselves. But it slowly turned into a not-so-pleasant experience. First, we discovered that the special menu was only available if we ordered wine, so we were forced to order the dishes that we liked at much higher prices. By the time we ordered it was after 8pm as we had to wait for them to finish setting the tables. This was not so bad compared to how long we had to wait for our meals to come. We didn't start eating until 9:45pm, a nearly 2-hour wait! The only consolation was that the meals were as good as they were unique. Chris tried a smoked eel while I had a duck in chocolate sauce. We probably would have been in much better moods to enjoy it if it'd come "on time" though.

Lowlight/Highlight of the day: unique-tasting meal after an excessively long wait

S.O.S.

We began our second day in Santorini with a morning stroll through the busy touristy streets of Fira. I was looking forward more to see Oia, expecting it to be less crowded due to its more remote location on the island. Well I was half right - it is less crowded, but still pretty touristy. I probably would’ve enjoyed the town a lot more if it wasn’t so soaking hot. I did not bring sunglasses with me and my eyes were really hurting from the bright sun. It didn’t help that all the houses are painted bright white. But the town was extremely photogenic. If we hadn’t already made plans for the late afternoon, we would probably have stayed a little longer.

Before we left for the trip, we had booked a sunset cruise in Santorini with our friends CC and Ian who are staying in Santorini for a few days during their European vacation. The cruise starts at 3pm so we headed back to Fira soon after lunch in Oia. To go to the old port from Fira we decided to walk down the stairs down the steep hill. Not only was the walk longer than I expected (1+ hour), it was quite difficult as all the steps slant downwards, which prevented us from speeding up.

After visiting the Nea Kameni volcano as the first stop of the cruise, our boat anchored about 50m from a hot spring. A number of us decided to jump in and swim for the hot spring. The water was cold and I hesitated to continue. In hindsight I probably should’ve turned back seeing that I’m not a particularly good swimmer. When I reached the hot spring the water was far from hot. It was luke warm at best. Soon after I started the swim back my foot cramped up. Although I didn’t feel like it at the time, I was probably physically spent after the long walk from Fira, the hike to the top of the volcano and finally the 50m swim through cold water. I yelled out to Chris who stayed on the boat. She got a staff to throw down a donut and come rescue me.

Chris was of course concerned about how I was doing, but she quickly found out that I was completely fine when our boat sailed to Oia for the sunset. While most couples sat together to watch the sunset, I spent most of the time taking photos. Sorry honey :-( In my defense I did sit with you to watch the sunset, albeit for only a few minutes :)

Embarrassment of the day: being rescued in front of a whole boat of people.

Old Blog

I've been unable to log into my friendster blog for a while so I've finally decided to abandon it. This is now the new home of my blogs. My old entries can be found here.