Back at the pyramids... we got out of our cab and into the complex and already had to start refusing camel rides and everything else under the Egyptian sun that could be exchanged for money. There are lots of hawkers inside the pyramid complex that are just incredibly persistent about trying to get into your pockets, by whatever method. As we wandered in we took a cursory look at the Sphinx, which we'd return to later, then Ian took a picture of a guy on a camel. He jumped right off and wanted a tip. We eventually offered him 1 pound to try to get rid of him, which apparently insulted him. He left for 30 seconds, then came back and wanted it. So... that time we refused him. We spent the next several hours going around the outsides of the pyramids and also bought the extra ticket to go up into the largest of the three main pyramids and into a tomb. It was fortunate that we had Takano with us because he decided not to go and we weren't allowed to bring in bags, so we had to leave them with someone trustworthy. He was the perfect solution in a sea of people who constantly referred to us as their "friends." The climb into the tomb was really cool - nice cramped little corridors with steep slopes and stale air, just what you'd expect from an Indiana Jones lifestyle. The tomb wasn't much to look at and didn't have any explanatory signage, so I guess I just blame my own ignorance for that part. We got back out, spent more time refusing all kinds of people (one of which wanted money after Takano used the bathroom, despite the fact that he had nothing to do with the bathroom), then got some cold drinks at a little tourist pavilion. Spent a little more time getting closer to the Sphinx, then eventually headed back to the hotel to get our bags (which were retrieved from a very different spot from the crack den in which we left them, but they were fine so we didn't ask questions), then headed into Cairo by taxi. We were dropped off at a way more central part of Talaat Harb this time and got a cheap room in a hostel very near to the Egyptian Museum. That worked well, since it was our next planned stop. We checked in, dropped the bags, got some food at a little locals restaurant with good grub, then went to the museum. It was a bit like being in the British Museum - lots of really interesting stuff and not nearly enough time to see it all. They have a whole area for King Tut, which includes two of the three coffins he laid in as well as a head dress / mask thing that's in lots of photos all over the world. Really cool to see in person. Takano later decided to check in to stay in our room since we had an extra bed, and to leave the next day, so we went to a travel place with him and worked out tickets for him to fly back and forth to southern Egypt. Somewhere in there we also discovered that the travel places ran trips to the Red Sea for divers. We inquired at one, discovered we'd do best to just buy bus tickets directly from the station, then did that later on the next day. That night we had shokari for dinner (good pasta mix that's incredibly cheap) and wandered the streets a bit before heading back to the pyramids to see this light and laser show that was supposed to be interesting. Takano's guide book said the story was boring but the lights were cool, and that there's no need to pay the $20 a head to see it since you can see into the whole complex from the rooftop terrace at Pizza Hut across the street from the entrance. We went and tested this theory after a very long cab ride (cabbie apparently wasn't aware of a major freeway that we used later). As we pulled up to Pizza Hut I noticed some incredibly bright lights above the entry gate for the pyramids that were pointed towards Pizza Hut. No way... yes, way. They've attempted to blind you with glare so that you can't freeload. But Pizza Hut wouldn't be defeated so easily... In response they stacked old cardboard and tables up to block the lights and provide a few spots where you can still kind of see in. The show turned out to be really boring, so we were all glad that we paid nothing to see it and not sorry at all that we missed the first 15 minutes. If you go, don't bother. After that, we went back to the room and crashed.
Takano left really early the next morning and after checking out and storing the bags, Ian and I went out to get bus tickets. We managed to find the right place with some pages from Takano's Japanese guide book that he left behind for us, so we grabbed those, then got some food. All of a sudden the sidewalks around the city were being plastered with green prayer mats, and we eventually realized that a huge afternoon prayer was part of the preparations for Ramadan. This meant that most businesses closed too, so we found an open cafe, had a drink, and waited things out. The prayer session was really interesting to see - men lined up shoulder to shoulder for many city block lengths all acting in unison to the tune of the broadcast prayer that blares from towers around town. That broadcast happens everyday and multiple times per day, but this was a special session. As hectic as the city is, I always felt that the prayer broadcasts kind of humanized the place. I guess maybe they just make the culture a lot more "visible" when it seems that everyone's main purpose is to shake money out of your pockets.
Eventually that came to an end and decided to use the internet for a while, then headed in a cab to the Citadel to try to finish up our sightseeing in Cairo. Our taxi driver took us all the way there, then told us it was closed. I think he wanted to score an additional ride out of us.. so, we got out. We walked along one side of the complex on the street for a few minutes, then our next best friend arrived and told us over and over that he wanted to practice English and didn't want any money. He was a student of something or other and wanted to show us around his neighborhood... we tried to break off once, then Ian and I hesitated, he latched back on, then insisted upon showing us two mosques that were open, despite the fact that everything else was closed. Somewhat reluctantly, we decided to walk with him... I hate being outwardly rude to / ignoring all these people, but you really have to be on guard in Cairo. You never know who wants to screw you and who doesn't. So, we walked into this neighborhood that can be best described as a sprawling slum and let this guy lead us around in the general direction of the mosques we had pinned on our little tourist map. He talked and talked and pointed out a few things of interest, talked more about the earthquake of 1993 (I think that was the date), about how this mosque is trying to help children who lost their parents, etc. So, this was all well and good because we were seeing a definite slice of local life that we'd never have seen otherwise, but as usual it ended with the money issue. He took us to his local mosque, we shed our shoes, went in to look around, then took us to the old man who runs the place and wanted all kinds of money as a donation to help these children. It seemed legitimate, but Omar said he didn't want any money... He wanted us to donate some each right then, then some more when we went up into the minaret on top of the building to look out over the city. We told him no over and over, and he finally settled for us just paying some amount to get up into the minaret. We gave him something like $10, then went up on our own to look around. Even the seemingly nice guys all suck you in for money... even when it's for a good cause. Christ. Or... someone else. Allah?
After admiring our $10 view, we came down, left discreetly with no further discussion, then wandered through more of the slum area and the locals' bazaar to find our way back to the west and the area we were staying. We saw all kinds of things in the slum / bazaar, including carpets, food, and a million other things for sale, a dead sheep carcass slumped up against a building with some rubbish, and a crazy traffic jam that totally blocked up this really narrow dirt road (great place for an explosion, I thought). We managed to get back out with an alternative route, hailed a cab, then went straight to Cairo Tower to see one more bit of the city. The view from the tower is awesome, as it sits right near the Nile and gives you a top down view of most of the city area in 360 degrees. It's a bit hard to interpret where you are with no maps and the walls of the city constantly rising around you, so this was a good way to figure things out spatially. It was also a good stop for the best strawberry juice we'd ever had (pure fruit) and some really nice waiters who did not want to put us in taxis or hotels. We killed several hours there, then went back to get our bags, then went to catch the overnight bus to Hurghada. The bus wasn't spectacular but it wasn't horrible either. It did break down for a bit in the middle of nowhere (literally couldn't see anything out the windows, because were in the middle of undeveloped desert), but it got us to Hurghada eventually. We checked in to the Sea View Hotel (an okay place with good views of the gargantuan rats that live across the street). Oh, they also came by the room to spray pesticide around our toilet, which kind of poisoned the air in there for the next 10 hours or so. Classy... But we weren't there to lay around the hotel. We got out and started looking for diving advice. A nice guy who runs an equipment shop called a friend and had him come talk to us / take us to his dive shop in a local resort, and at that point we realized we wouldn't be able to make boat dives. We had to leave the next evening (this was kind of an unplanned detour) and that wouldn't necessarily give us enough time for making the bus and almost certainly not enough time before we could fly. So, thus began our long deliberations on what to do. We eventually settled on going the next morning to drive down to a place called Sharm Elnaga with this little dive shop. This place is part of a resort that's around 45 minutes south of Hurghada and it has pretty awesome reef dives that you can do from shore. Our guide came along and met us at the office in Hurghada, loaded the equipment into his tiny car, got us in, then drove us down there. As we suited up we realized the gear was pretty crappy. Nothing was exactly new, my regulator hose was backwards somehow (forcing me to do a little S-curve with it so it wouldn't be upside down and leaking all the time), my depth gauge turned out not to work, and my mask leaked a lot. Nonetheless, the first dive was gorgeous. The sand of the desert goes right up to the sea and looks completely desolate, but this incredibly reef is teeming with life just below the surface. We stayed near 50' on the first dive (being a bit cautious because we had to fly around 18 hours later) and visibility was fantastic. I've never seen so many kinds of coral, or even fish, anywhere. We spotted a ray and Ian saw a lion fish, among many other things of interest. We had a pretty long surface interval since our guide kind of disappeared, then after 1:30 hours or so, got ready to go again. At that point my tank buckle on my BCD broke, and the guide swapped gear with me. He had swapped once already, so I was back to a broken depth gauge. The BCD buckle couldn't be fixed properly, so he bent the metal part into shape, discarded the plastic, and somehow felt comfortable jumping in with totally crap gear. So... whatever. The second dive was very cool as well, but we didn't catch any of the sharks we were hoping to see. We did see a great lion fish though, which was some consolation. The gear continued to be uncomfortable and kind of annoyance throughout the dive, and I think that contributed to me using air uncharacteristically fast. After a little safety stop on our way back in I was down to about 25 bars (half of the absolute minimum you're supposed to surface with). But, I'm still here. After that we drove back to the dive shop in Hurghada, got our stuff, and headed to a place for lunch.
After lunch we went to the bus station and caught our evening bus back to Cairo. This one was a little nicer and a bit more comfortable, but still a very, very long ride. We got in that night around 11:00pm and then headed to the airport to spend a few more hours before we'd take of for Mumbai. By the time we were ready to leave I was wasted and really needed sleep. Ian was about the same. He got to enjoy the business class lounge at the airport (somehow he got a business class ticket cheaply through STA) and I had a Cinnabon while I waited for the flight, then eventually woke up with my head on the Cinnabon table when he returned. We finally got on the plane and I fell asleep instantly, slept through take off, and woke when a flight attendant shook me for breakfast. It was a nice flight (Egypt Air) - another good example of non-American companies that are still treating passengers pretty well. Then, around noon, we landed in Mumbai.
We could see the slums reaching right up to the edges of the airport as we came in - a sight that had become familiar during my brief research on the city for a class back at school. I think the fact that I had previously read a fair amount about the place made me like it before we even touched down, and I've been glad for that ever since. India has been very refreshing after the rudeness of the Greeks and the conniving of the Egyptians. Again, I'm generalizing, but that's what we experienced more often than not.
As we exited the airport we asked about hotels at a little hotel counter, and they set us up with a cheap room in Colaba (the southern most of the original 7 islands that were joined) at a place called the Causeway Hotel. We took an hour long taxi ride there for about $10 and started to realize that Mumbai would still be a bit cheaper than we had previously thought. We checked into the hotel, freshened up, then asked about a good place to eat. The guy at the desk sent us downstairs back onto the street right in front of the hotel to eat at a place called Leopold's. That sounded awfully familiar...
So, we went down, grabbed a table, and I became increasingly convinced that we were sitting in the restaurant described in the book Shantaram. At one point I finally asked our waiter if he knew the book and he confirmed that this was the exact same place. Gregory Roberts (the author) still frequents the place, he said, and last sat at the same table we were dining on. Wow.. I got so excited that I bought a t-shirt. The food was great, neither of us got sick, and it was even pretty cheap. Just awesome... suddenly the town became pretty familar as I continued to spot scenes from the book, which Roberts does a great job of describing. It was almost like I'd been here before.
That afternoon we got online to do some tourism kind of research and got info on the Dharavi slum tour (something I'd found months back and really wanted to do), local monuments, etc. Afterwards we went to the slum tour office (conveniently about 1 minute away), booked the tour for the next morning, then walked over to the Gateway of Indian (big stone monument thing that greets people who arrive in Mumbai by boat). It was... covered in scaffolding. Like many things around here at this time of year. Oh well. So, we did that, then stopped in a little tourist booth thing to ask about tours out to the caves at Ellora and Ajanta. These guys set us up with a tour that included "everyting" (not really). We paid with my visa, which we're still hoping will help us reverse the charge, or at least part of it, and decided we'd leave the next day after the slum tour on an overnight bus, see the Ellora Caves the next day, stay in a "nice hotel," see the Ajanta Caves the day after that, then overnight bus it back to Mumbai. So, that's what we did. The rest of that day we went out to the Haji Ali mosque (one of the dirtiest places I've ever been in my life - kind of deprecated the significance of it), rode to Gandhi's old house (closed for pest control that day), and saw a couple of parks that sit on a hill on the north end of Marine drive, providing good views out over Chowpatty Beach. They were... the something Mehta gardens and... another one. I'll have to edit that in later.
Once we were done at the gardens we got in a cab to head back to our hotel, and it made it half way, then broke down in really heavy traffic. Ian and I jumped out to help push it off the road, much to the amusement of the Indian cab drivers all around us. Our driver didn't ask for anything after we pushed it a couple of blocks, so we took off and were actually close enough to cruise down Chowpatty Beach for a while. It's not anything spectacular, but it is a nice open space that is heavily used by the residents around it. And open space isn't easy to come by, so it's worth a leisurely stroll. Eventually we took a second cab to get the rest of the way back, then dropped our stuff, had dinner at a cool little hummus shop, then went to Leopold's for a night of drinking. We ordered a pitcher of beer, which comes in the shape of a huge cylinder about three feet high. I drank more than one beer for the first time in my life that night. It wasn't easy, but the Bacardi Breezer I used as a chaser helped. We went through a couple of those, then called it a night (they close at midnight anyway). We got a reasonable amount of sleep, then got up and out the next morning for the slum tour. It was a great tour, and I definitely recommend that everyone see it. We began by checking out the open laundry area where a whole laundry operation is regulated (people rent stalls and wash clothes for individuals, businesses, etc.). Pretty fascinating. That was sort of our first glimpse of just how industrious Indian people are as compared with many other nations. The tour continued with some short glimpses of other slums from the road, but the main event, the Dharavi slum, was where we finally got out of the car and onto our feet. The guide led us into the slum through a narrow corridor, where light began fading. The interior of the slum is pretty dark in places, due to the extremely dense building placement. To give some idea of the density, the Dharavi slump apparently houses 18,000 people per acre. I don't see how that's possible, but that's what our guide said, more than once. Maybe he meant 1,800?
The most impressive part of the place is its industrial pursuits. The gross domestic product there is over 500,000 dollars annually. We saw everything from its incredible recycling industry (cardboard, plastics, copper wire, glass, most any kind of rubbish) to its leather production, for which it is famous. We also had glimpses, albeit short ones, of the housing areas. The slum was really where the white person celebrity thing began. We get a lot of stares pretty much everywhere, but there are enough whites wandering around Colaba that it's not that big a deal for the locals. In the slum, however, we enjoyed many curious smiles and waving, and the kids were hilarious. They'd run up to us, want to shake hands, and practice the few English phrases they'd picked up in school. Many times we heard their young voices calling out, "Hello, Sir, how are you.?" If one succeeded in shaking our hand, he'd run off immediately to tell his friends and they'd then chase us down as a group to get a handshake each before laughing and saying goodbye. There are some really cute kids in there. I think their culture really overcomes their circumstances and it hardly feels like a place of deprivation, so long as they have each other and those beaming smiles to keep them going.
After the tour we headed back to Colaba to spend a little more time before we'd catch the overnight bus to Aurangabad for the cave tours. We grabbed some more food (still solid - no diarrhea), got our bags, and made our way to the bus. Then, our next overnight jounrey began. Again, not a great, comfy bus, but it could easily have been worse. Early the next morning we woke up in Aurangabad and got a quick cab to our hotel - Hotel Manor. Sounds impressive, anyway, right? Details to follow...
Trying to catch up once more, this time from the shore of the Red Sea. Okay, so we landed in Cairo and started trying to find our way into town. This was quite difficult. After taking an airport shuttle in a big circle, we got off the second time around at a bus stop and started trying to figure out what to do next. At this point a Japanese guy wandered to the same spot with a guide book. Sweet, sweet Japanese people - this was a fortunate thing. Ian started up with him in Japanese and we were able to put our heads together long enough to figure out that we needed a particular bus number, which we would need to recognize in Arabic. Some local guys told us the same number, then indicated that it was racing through the traffic circle toward us after about 45 minutes of waiting. There's not so much a system of but stopping here as there is bus slowing down and people running and jumping into open doors. Three foreigners with bags couldn't have predicted this, so it ran right by us and left us standing there. So... cabs became an option. We hailed one and had our first cab fare negotiating experience (something we'd become well versed in soon after), got a price and headed for a piece of town that we knew had some hostels in it. Our Japanese companion, Takano, came with us just to get into town. He ended up getting out at our stop too, despite the fact that he already had a hotel reservation across the Nile over in Giza. So, we get out and hit the sidewalk, or what most resembled a sidewalk. The center of Cairo is the most vivid depiction of absolute pandemonium I've ever seen. But I haven't been to India yet.
The scene basically included 4-10 story buildings on all sides, lots and lots of cars, scooters, pedestrians, and incessant honking in the streets, and a surplus of Egyptian people who wanted to talk to us as soon as they saw us in hopes that they could score some kind of dough from us. We didn't really know the scene on the streets of Cairo yet though, so we were really only trying to figure out where to sleep at this point. Enter the first friendly man of Cairo... This guy strides up to us as we're standing on the corner of the road we asked the cabbie for. We're trying to figure out which way to go, and he tells us what direction the address we have is in, but then also wants to know what we're going to do in Cairo. So do all of them... so he proceeds to tell us that we can hire him with a car for a day to go around Giza, Memphis, etc. to see the sights. We'd been told by other people that this was a good way to get around during the day and it could be done pretty cheaply, so we bite to get some information from the guy. His name was Ahmed, by the way. So, he takes us back to his family's shop... just a few doors down. Apparently he hangs out on the corner and waits for people like us to wander by. He wanted to give us a business card that never actually appeared (this happened with more than one person, ultimately), and took us into the shop to tell us all about where he'd take us the next day for 120 Egyptian pounds (about $25). Suspiciously cheap... but we talked on. He was pretty assertive about trying to get us into a hotel just a few doors down, etc. etc. Typical offers that many, many Egyptians have made to try to get commission from us, or something. At any rate, we finally broke off long enough to go check the prices at the hostels and he left us alone. So, bags and all, we walked down this very busy street (Talaat Harb) with pretty much everyone staring at us and talking to us in broken English, found a couple of hostels, checked prices, found them way higher than we thought they'd be, then decided maybe we'd check out Takano's place with him since he was signed up anyway. The city is so chaotic as soon as you land that we just wanted to get off the streets and be free of the tourist costume as soon as possible. But it's not that easy...
So, we go back towards Ahmed, he finds us on the same corner immediately, then after a lot of additional exhausting conversation he says he'll take us over to Giza to Takano's hotel and we can coordinate meeting there in the morning for all three of us to go on this day tour with him. I ask him how much the ride to Giza is and he says "don't worry about it." So, anytime you're in Egypt, just remember, absolutely nothing is free.
So, we do some waiting around as his cousin goes to get their car. For some reason we had to go to another of their "essence" shops (shelves full of perfume and papyrus drawings on the walls..has to be some kind of front, Ian observed), but we finally got to the car, got in, and they drove us over to the hotel in heavy afternoon traffic. Let me just pause for a second to emphasize that the streets of Cairo are absolutely insane. I've never seen such chaos in my life - people (including women and very small children) walking or running across huge streets and making little maneuvers every few feet to narrowly avoid the cars and trucks and buses that are careening past them and honking angrily if they have to slow in the least. Somehow, we have yet to see an accident. But we made it to this place, or perhaps "dump" is a better term, went to the desk, agreed to stay there (partly to separate ourselves from Ahmed, who was inside with us and insisting on arranging this tour for the next day), then got ready to head up to the rooms. Finally Ahmed asks for a deposit for this tour. We say we're going to meet at 5:30am the next morning, which is no problem with him, but he wants a deposit. Ian was the most reluctant at this point, and so Ahmed gave him a whole lecture about trust, etc. Blah, blah, blah... We were light on cash because the hotel's Visa machine was broken, so Takano pays a 50 pound deposit (about $10), which reflects the fact that we suddenly had to pay 30 pounds for the ride from Cairo to the hotel. Hmm... After much discussion, we finally do this, and he leaves us alone and leaves the hotel. We then head up to the rooms, find them to be moderately satisfying after a very superficial glance, then we tell Takano we'll meet him after we freshen up to get some food. A bit later we headed back down to the lobby on our way out and were immediately approached by a tour operator guy who is based in the hotel, and even more aggressive and insistent than Ahmed. He bad mouths Ahmed (whom he doesn't know) all over the place, offers a lower price, and we tell him we'll talk it over during dinner then get out of there. If this were a decent hotel they'd prevent these guys from constantly badgering every tourist who walked in the door, but it's not. It's called Hotel Europa, by the way. Don't stay there.
After wandering unpaved streets that were obviously strictly local haunts for a half hour, we finally found a recognizable restaurant and went in. It was a tiny place and was just big enough to seat the three of us. We ordered some kind of meat stick hot dog thing, which was all they could really explain to us and all we could understand. It turned out to be pretty good, but a bit much for our pal Takano, whose stomach was less accustomed to such heavy meals. He succumbed to the diarrhea monster first, but not until the next day. Ian and I are still going strong, so cross your fingers. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and had to listen to this slime ball talk for another ten minutes as we told him no on the tour, then went to the rooms. We showered at that point and found that the shower was broken, the main room light was broken, and the place was just kind of grimy in general. At that point, however, sleep mattered most, so we cleaned up and went to bed, only to rise about 6 hours later at 4:45am. Takano met us at our door at 5:00am, right on time, and we went down to collect our boxed breakfast since it was too early for the restaurant to serve their included breakfast. Somehow this did not translate and we had no breakfast waiting for us, but they did pull together and get us a few meals to go just in time for us to go meet Ahmed on the curb. Welllll.... 6:00am rolled around and still no Ahmed. The man who appealed to us on a trust ticket somehow failed to keep his word. The more Egyptian men we have approaching us on the streets, the less surprising that is, but we were bummed that we lost out on sleep more than anything (after all, he only really got away with $5 or so). So, we went back into the lobby, ate our meal, and asked about a driver inside again. A new guy, slime ball #2, invites us into his office (a garage sale quality desk from 1964 that sits in an open area off the end of the check in counter) to discuss our needs. He tries to rip us off on the price and we ultimately tell him to take a hike, then decide we're just going to check our bags with the desk and do a one time taxi ride to the pyramids, then one time it back or wherever we'd head next. So we go to the desk to check our bags. A couple of bell hop types tell us to follow them into the elevator to head to the baggage storage area. We all cram into this undersized box, then watch one of the guys run the elevator down a floor, emergency stop it, force the doors open, and gesture for us to follow him through what is essentially an unfinished basement fit for a bunch of crack heads. There's discarded furniture frames, boxes, and other refuse all over its dirt floor, which makes it a bit difficult to navigate. We are taken back a bit, but press on. They eventually open this little cellar door to a locked room, which has no other bags in it whatsoever. Our options aren't great at this point, so we take a leap of faith and leave the bags there, then go back to the lobby and get out of the hotel to get a cab to Giza. At this point it's all of 7:45am or so, thanks to our early rise. Lovely morning. But we eventually get a cab, or should I say guy with car who saw an opportunity to make some dough, then ride to the pyramids for a mere 5 pounds (90 cents or so). That's more like it!
Coming upon the pyramids, which you can see from the edge of Giza as you approach, was really kind of startling. This was one time when something like this was actually bigger than I expected it to be. These things are mammoth - it just boggles the mind.
Posting from Cairo now... it's been an adventurous time getting here, being here, and planning to move on. But back to Greece for the moment. Let's see, I left off arriving in Amorgos. Okay, so according to Lonely Planet Amorgos is considered by some to be the "jewel in the Cycladic crown." (Cycladic refers to the Cyclades, the island group we were visiting). I'm not sure who wrote that, but it was probably someone who enjoyed a lot of hospitality from people that wanted to be included in LP. We landed at the first of two ports, got off the boat, and found everything pretty much full as far as lodging. Not just full, but we were flatly ignored and denied by more of the lovely hostile Greek people that are so easily bothered when you ask them to briefly operate their businesses in the middle of the day. The only bite we had was from a big family that was eating a meal on the patio outside what we think was a guest house. Ian went there and I went elsewhere, but he told me they had a room available. So, we looked around furthyer, came back, and as Grandma was ready to take us in, her daughter (?), who was much less welcoming, told us to hit the road and that someone else had taken the room. In the last 5 minutes. Without them moving. Right... so on we went. We eventually sat down at a cafe right on a tiny beach and pondered sleeping in someone's boat, but instead we caught a bus (after an appropriate amount of struggling, waiting, and interacting with rude Greek bus drivers) to the other port town (Aegiali) and showed up around 2pm. I think it was 2pm - whatever it was, it was during the time that Greece takes a four hour siesta. So we settled in at another cafe to wait for things to open. We got some drinks, waited, then finally re-emerged in the early evening. At that point we were able to get into the town dive shop, sign up for a dive the following morning, then inquire about a room at the only open travel booking place. The only room they had left, they said, was at a nice ass hotel. The Aegialis Hotel. Don't think I'm recommending it, but that's the name. So, we got a quote for 90 euros (way more than we wanted to spend), then deliberated a while, thought about sleeping on the beach or at a local camp site with no gear, then finally decided we needed to get a good night's rest before the dive, so we took it. The lady called a van driver to pick us up because the place is about ten minutes from the main town center. You can see it across the harbor, but it's kind of a long walk. So, eventually this guy shows up, takes us up there, and we leave our bags at the desk while they get our room ready. Our room was the "Pool Room." Everyone else seemed to have a room number. Hmm... So, they show us the spa, whose ground floor facilities are included with the room, and things are looking pretty good. It's actually a really nice facility, just a bit much for the likes of us. We had a look around, got into the room, found it to be a very basic room with a full size bed and small bathroom next to the pool (former chlorine storage space?), then immediately went back to the spa to enjoy it before it closed. They had a weight room too, so we took quick advantage of that to get some honest exercise in. I went to a dry sauna after that and endured ten minutes (according to a cool hourglass that you spin), then rinsed off and went out to the pool. The pool is salt water and has a huge curtain shower thing that you can turn on and off to massage your shoulders, or something like that. That was fun. The hot tub was full of loud Greek men and a bit chilly for a hot tub, so we eventually returned to the pool, sauna, and pool again. At that point they closed up so we went back to the room, changed, and headed back to town for dinner. We were falling asleep at the table by the time we finished the meal (typical service in Greece - I'm pretty sure 20 minutes went by before they even approached us with menus), so it was a brief bite to eat and then we walked back home. We slept pretty solidly that night, got up and got showered up. Showers here are increasingly faucets that stick out of bathroom walls with a floor drain. So it's like you and the toilet are taking a rinse together and it all just happens in that one room. Our drains were pretty clogged (infrequent use of the pool room, methinks), so I showered second and managed to flood the bathroom and most of the room, getting my bag a bit wet and causing red ink from a paper folder to stain all their towels. Oops.
So, we headed for the dive next (on foot - the bastards wouldn't put us in a van down the hill because it was already "full"), got there all nice and sweaty, and spend the next 4 hours doing lots of waiting and a single 45 minute dive. It was a nice site between Amorgos and a smallisland off its north side, and we did a swim into a big cave, touched some coral (surprisingly flexible - we didn't hurt it), saw some ancient amphoras that were nearly covered by sea grass, and those were the main highlights. It was funny watching these guys try to run the dive. We got to the site well before our gear showed up (something about running out of gas), did the dive, then couldn't leave because the van was parked in by a guy who was out on a little boat adventure. Sweet. It was a lot of fun though.
After that we decided we were camping that night to compensate for the previous night, so we had some lunch, then headed to the camp site and checked into a tent. Barely big enough for two of us to lie down inside, but it worked. We ditched our stuff in there, got cleaned up, and went back out to the town for the evening. We found ice cream along the way, which always picks you up, so we wandered the harbor and ate that before settling back in for the night. It's a pretty small town without a whole lot going on, so it's hard to be out for the night. We also had to get the next boat out at 6:50am, so we wanted to sleep.
And sleep we did. The next morning we were up and out and crowded onto a huge ship with lots of other people from various islands (multiple stops), then disembarked in Paros. Paros is cool, I think, but we decided to head to Antiparos as soon as we landed. We did that on a small boat that runs back and forth several times a day, and when we landed on Antiparos we found that it was a much smaller and laid back version of Paros, but not so small as the port towns on Amorgos. That meant it still had enough shops and cafes and stuff to keep us entertained. Again, most places were full, but we were eventually stopped by a guy on a moped who interrupted his cruise along the harbor to try to put us in a room. He led us to a pretty nice little place and we negotiated the price to a reasonable-ish number, then dropped the bags while the cleaning lady finished up inside and headed out to find beverages. Greece and Egypt both have been incredibly hot... we're downing water and Coke like they're going out of style.
We found that the dive shop opened after a siesta or whatever somewhere during this time, so we went in and got details about the Antiparos scene. We signed up for a dive for the next day, then went back to the room. Somewhere in there we discovered that the room was plumbed with salt water, which is not nice for drinking. Weird.
We were sort of realizing at this point that we also had little else to do on these islands besides dive. It's so bloody expensive that we couldn't afford to drink much of anything alcoholic, so we would eat, walk around, eat some more, sleep, and dive. That was pretty much it. Good thing we had diving to keep us entertained.
The next morning we got up and went to the dive shop, which was run by some really cool guys. Mostly English fellows, and entertaining ones at that. We were told that the weather might've been clear enough to dive a sweet reef, which is usually precluded by too much wind, but we crossed our fingers. As we headed out with some other people they told us we were first headed to a wreck dive, that neither instructor had been to before so we had to find it with GPS. That was really cool. We did some circling, but eventually found a spot where we thought it could be. We couldn't see the bottom and we weren't very far off shore, so we knew it was quite deep. Visibility was in the neighborhood of 75-90' probably, so not being able to see the bottom is kind of weird around there. To be sure we had the right spot one instructor went in and dove down a ways solo to mark the wreck, then came back up to us to invite us in. It turned out to be my favorite dive so far. Not to mention my deepest ever. We were down at about 32 meters at the deepest point (more than 100'). You'd never know it if you hadn't descended for so long. The wreck was an old shipping boat of some kind, probably at least 100' long, and pretty degraded. It was swimming with fish and had lots of crusty crap all over it to check out, and it made for a fun start. Originally we had planned to do only one dive, but they eventually said it was too windy for the reef and so the wreck would be first, and a site called "Red Rock" second. They weren't going back to the harbor in between, so we decided to just do the second dive as well. It was a very reasonable price and we were on the boat with the gear anyway, so... what the heck? When am I going to dive in Greece again? The Red Rock site was awesome. Basically a big red rock that sticks up out of the sea and has spots for exploration and swim throughs with about 100' visibility. Just gorgeous. We basically free fell to the bottom, which one of the instructors mentioned as being particularly fun here, then explored the bottom all around the rocky island for the next 45 minutes or so. It was really cool to see these little diver bodies scattered around with the streams of bubbles rising up through so much water to the top. The sun penetrates so far that it's really beautiful to just look around you and see whatever you can when it's cast with this blue, rolling light. Makes me want a waterproof camera. So, we did that one, then surfaced after a lengthy safety stop (these guys were really responsible with that, which was good to see), then headed back to port. They let us store our bags in the dive shop for the rest of the day because we had a boat out that same evening, so we did that and then wandered to some cafes to see soem Olympic broadcast action. The first place we settled into had a nice big screen out on their patio and no one sitting in front of it, so we settled in. Along the way we realized that it was probably empty because of the sewer gas that kept wafting past us. I don't think Greek plumbers know about traps. I've expereicned that in several places now, most of them in Greece. Nasty, nasty, nasty. A second place gave us a better experience, and we got to see some solid track and field time between the two.
Oh, I think it was actually before the Olympics and after the dive when we decided to go up to this cave on the top of the island in its interior. It's full of stalactites and stalagmites and is a pretty standard cave, according to Ian, but it was very deep and fun to explore. It also kept the heat off for a bit. The bus we caught up there was the last for the day, so we were lucky to make that. We took another back afterwards, then settled into the cafes, then caught a boat back to Paros. We planned to stay in Paros that night, but were had to leave the next morning, so we didn't really have time to explore it. A Greek guy took us to his little hotel, where he showed us a room and we proceeded to break his balls by haggling the price down (the first time I felt guilty about this), and we checked in for the night. We went out that night to get some food and check out the port town. The town is actually really nice and I was kind of sorry we didn't have more time to explore that island. It is supposed to have good diving too. It might be one to return to. I kind of wanted to get some more octopus (I had some the previous night on Antiparos), but it's kind of expensive and the portions are small, so we actually ended up with gyros one last time. We were settling in to eat them on a stoop in front of a bank and this old man started chattering away in Greek and insisted that we sit at a cafe table on the sidewalk. Not the same place we bought the gyros, so we didn't want to sit there. After a while it seemed he was trying to tell us that he owned the place and wanted us to sit there while we ate, so we did. A few minutes later a waiter appeared and I tried to explain why we were there. He never looked at the old guy I kept pointing to, but eventually left us alone. Then 5 minutes later (after a team of people inside put together enough English to tell us to get out) he told us just that. Meh... so we finished up while standing on the sidewalk, then went exploring. We found a church that is kind of well known (according to LP) and strolled through it, lighting a couple of candles for our late uncle along the way. It was a nice little place. We browsed through some shops after that, had a lady briefly convinced that we wanted to buy Greek property, saw some good toy stores, drank fluids, watched a Greek soccer game at a nice cafe, then went back home to sleep. The next morning it was up and out again to head back to the mainland. Goodbye, Greek islands. I hope to return one day, but it will be after a lot of other destinations. Maybe Greek people will become polite between now and then.
The boat we booked was a cheap one, and we found that we had "deck seats" as soon as we got on. So did most everyone. So we found some uncomfortable chairs, eventually changed to uncomfortable floor space next to a door that never stopped slamming (windy conditions and unaware people), and spent the ride that left an hour and a half late, took an hour longer than it was supposed to, and arrived 2.5 hours late just waiting for it to end. It did, eventually, back in Piraeus. We took the metro back to Athens, got an internet fix, then checked into a hostel I had stayed in previously. It was cheaper this time, which was nice, and we shared a room with some cool Canadian kids from Vancouver. It was a brief stay and an early night, and we got up early the next morning to catch our flight to Cairo. So we did that, then landed in Cairo that afternoon (2 hour flight but we still got a meal and comfortable seats - it was a non-American airline). And that was the beginning of the Egyptian adventure. We had no guide book, cannot read Arabic, and there is no signage whatsoever in that airport to get English speakers into the city. So... we headed outside. And think I'm going to cut it off there. Too much excitement for one post. Tales from Cairo, up next. Cheers.
I'm always behind... I have 7 minutes to get a little farther. Go!
So, as I was saying last time, I finished up dinner with Ian in the middle of the buildings on the southwest side of Oia, then I headed out to go find this book store. It was a short walk and I found it quickly enough, and inside, there was this girl. Let's call her "Sally." So, I browsed around in there for a bit with her as she finished her conversation with the shop keepers (a pretty young crowd from mixed nations) and she then suggested we head out for a drink. We just wandered towards the sun's most recent position and ended up instead at a spot where you can look down over the harbor at Ammoudi. This was where we went out on the tourist boat to see the volcano island and near where we did the cliff jumping. So Sally and I settled into a little notch in this big rock wall and sat there for the next couple of hours talking about all kinds of terribly important things, ranging from Greek racism to the possibility that alien saviors will rescue a select few people among us once we finally bring on our own apocalypse. Once the town clock struck two we headed back towards the hostel. It was sort of a thing where we each wanted to continue hanging out, but also needed to sleep, and needed to do that in a hostel with rooms organized by gender amongst bunk beds. So, we went back and split up there. The next morning we got up and packed, grabbed breakfast, then bumped into Sally again before it was time to go, so I got her email (and physical address, which she provided for some reason - is that a hint or what?) and got back in touch with her a day or two later. We waited around for a bus that was characteristically late / non-existent and finally decided we needed to use a cab to make our ferry on time. Fortunately a couple of other kids noticed this and decided to do the same and split the cost with us. Coincidentally, they're both students at Columbia, as is Sally as well as my friend Valerie. Small world... And I'm nearly out of time. Okay, well, we made the ferry after the cab driver neglected to give me my towel out of his trunk and several hours later arrived in Amorgos. More soon...
I've been lacking in posts lately... internet time is a little less available on the Greek islands, especially the one I'm on now. So let's see - I killed a couple of days in Athens by reading a lot and checking out the last few things I hadn't seen yet. I hiked up Lycabettus Hill (highest point in the city by far) the last afternoon I had alone there, then hung out around the top waiting for the lights to come up on the Acropolis so I could try shooting it from a different angle at night. That's when the weather got started... a short distance to the north some intense lightning started up and put on quite a show. I got just one photo (mostly by luck) of a sexy bolt that looks like it hit the ground in the picture. After that the rain moved my way and I had to pack up the camera. A lot of people tried to stick through it, but it became a pretty persistent downpour. We were all huddled around a stunted olive tree on top of the highest point around watching lightning surround us. Pretty bright, huh? NPI... We were all fine of course. Sunset was obscured by the clouds but they became thin enough to let an intense pink hue penetrate into the city below, which made for some pretty awesome reflections on all the wet rooftops. I have photos of that too... maybe with time I can get some up. So, that was the last day. The next morning Ian met me on the 11th and we proceeded by running through everything that's worth seeing in Athens in one day (Acropolis, Plaka, a meat market, National Gardens, changing of the guard at the Hellenic Parliament bldg. and another visit to Lycabettus Hill), then catching the metro to the airport to wait for our flight to Santorini. We weren't flying out until 5:30am, so we had a pretty uncomfortable night lying around the airport trying to sleep. Some airport broad (one of many, many rude Greek people we've encountered) came by and woke everyone up who had managed to get just to sleep while lying across a few seats, apparently to make space available for other people to sit down. And those other people... didn't exist and never appeared while we were there. Lovely woman.
Finally we got to the flight, which was as late as everything else here, then sat around the Santorini airport until a bus showed up to get us into town. Once we made it in we had a quick breakfast and took a quick look around for a room. Everything was overpriced in this town (Fira) and not too good-looking either, so we busted out the Lonely Planet and took its advice to head to a youth hostel in Oia. Oia is the town with the classic post card views of blue domed churches and views over the ocean. It's also a major spot for sunset, when lots and lots of people hike up there to watch our star go down below sea level. So, we got up there, found the hostel, and the place was a like a luxury resort, just the kind of resort where 11 people share your room. It even included a decent breakfast. A nice Greek man (the only one, I think) runs the place and maintains a sense of humor even though he seems to work about 18 hours a day. It was a welcome respite after Athens and the struggle to get out there. So, we checked in and took a proper nap. A couple of hours later I got up and tried to roust Ian out but he was still pretty jet lagged, so I went out alone. I intended to go swimming but I went into the town first to see what I could see and ended up spending at least an hour admiring the views, checking out shops, etc. After that I did go down the road to find a swim spot that the hostel dude had described, and took a half hour walk to get to a rocky spot that had some pretty decent cliff jumping. The highest jump was 18-20' off this little island, but it was enough to get some speed and think twice about it before I ever did it. Good times though. A while later I finished up and headed back up to the hostel, got Ian up, and we out to see the town. We grabbed some food at a gyros joint I think and had a pretty low key night. The next morning we got up to do a tour that the hostel kind of organizes and spend the afternoon cruising around on a boat full of tourists to hike up a volcano that is still active just off of Santorini, then went over to a hot springs spot with mineral rich (murky) water that at one point was ninja-turtle green, then hit a little island called Thirissia for a walk up its hundreds of steps to the top of the island (and the town, which was as ghostly silent as unfinished parts of Baja California), had some octopus skewers, then went back down to the beach level where the boat was waiting. We had some time before we had to get back on for the final leg of the trip back to Oia, so we had some killer chocolate (triple) ice cream and then went for another swim. We were diving down to the bottom in about 20' of water admiring the clarity of it all and I decided to continue to try to pull pieces of trash off the bottom, which are sadly common. I could kind of make out a stick-like thing in one spot, so I went down, got my hand on it, and found it to be partly lodged in the bottom. I pulled it up and free and then discovered that it was a boat anchor with four hooks coming up off of it that had apparently been abandoned. It was heavy, but not impossibly heavy. I took a firm grip on it and then swam like the excited 26 year old boy that I am all the way to the surface to show it to Ian. It was tough getting back up there with not a whole lot of air to spare, and as soon as I broke the surface and told him what I had, my new prize started dragging me back down pretty quickly. I had to let it go at that point, so if you consider the anchor a piece of litter, it got away. Next time, anchor.
We went back to Oia afterwards and I showed Ian the first swim spot with the cliff jumping, and we spent time doing more of the same there. Eventually we ended back up at the hostel and booked some diving for the next day. We caught the sunset that night, despite the crowds, and got some decent photos of that. There's such an unobstructed view of the ocean horizon here that I think the sun actually disappears behind haze on the water surface before the water itself. It makes for some interesting colors and kind of builds a red-orange spectrum on the sun itself as it goes down. So, that night we had a fairly quiet evening again. We had dinner then grabbed dessert at this little pastry shop I couldn't resist, then hung out at the hostel with some rum (thank you again, Lacy) and plastic bottles of Coke, then hit the hay. We had originally planned to leave on a ferry after our diving, but couldn't get one out that same day, so we had to stay in the hostel one more night (not exactly punishment) and take off the next day. When we got up I was consolidating my stuff and had a few minutes left before the van would show up for the dive center. At that point I discovered that my wallet was missing. Shit. I only ever put it in one place, and it wasn't there. Everything else was, but no wallet. I dug through everything and had no luck, then started thinking perhaps it had been liberated from my stuff while I was showering or something. Most of our room was still asleep, but I didn't know what else to think. So I ran up to the hostel owner to tell him it was missing in case he happened to come across it, and he told me it was at the pastry shop. Somehow it got out there and stayed there the night before, and luckily, I had a business card for the hostel in it. The owner had called our guy at 3am to tell him, and he passed all this on to me once I told him what was going on. So now I had about ten minutes to recover the wallet and meet the van. Maybe less... I hurried into town and went to the shop, talked to the employees, they discussed things in Greek that I'll never understand, then told me the owner had set it aside because she wanted to get it back to me personally. Perhaps now is a good time to go over the stakes. The wallet contained my driver's license, student ID (pretty handy in museums), diver certification card, my two credit cards, atm card, and about 350 euros in cash. Now... a few minutes in, they call the owner, she tells them something, a guy disappears, and then comes back a few minutes later and hands me my wallet. Lucky... fantastic. So I say thanks very much and run outside to go back towards the van. That's when I opened it. Hmmm.... everything is there except for about 250 missing euros. They didn't take all of it... just most of it. I run back in and tell them there's a lot of money missing and they go into Greek mode again, then call the owner back. I have no idea what they say to one another, but the girl in the shop hands the phone to me and I say, "Hello?" At that point the worst Greek person I've had contact with yet (this is saying something) starts literally screaming at me and telling me that I should say "thank you" and go. She's sleeping now, and I have to leave. I should say thank you. So, I wait for her pause and thank her profusely and tell her I'm not accusing her but wonder if perhaps someone else had a little contact time with the wallet before she found it. And she yells at me some more... then hangs up. If that doesn't reek of guilt I don't know what does. But, I'm out of time and there's nothing I can do anyway. I got all the really critical stuff, so I run out to meet the van. They were waiting for me, but no one seemed to concnerned about it, so I get in and we go.
Bummer morning, but it could've been worse. We eventually get to the dive center with about ten people and find the most efficient dive shop I've seen. All our gear is ready to go and labeled with our names (they got weight, height, etc. ahead of time) and shortly after we head out for the first dive. We took a quick, rough boat ride to the first dive spot with out Norwegian guide, then jumped in. It was great to get a mask on finally... the water is just amazingly clear. We went down and got started with a wall dive, followed by a swim through a small cave area, then slowly went back towards the boat and surfaced. It was about 40 minutes total and very cool. I wasn't totally comfortable with it, however, only becuase it had been a while I think. I used more air than I usually do and found my regulator to be a little sticky, but it was no big deal. We went back to the dock for an hour or so, then went back out for a second dive to a cool reef spot. We did another 40 minutes or so and everything was pretty good but I was getting a headache by the end of it. I don't know what it was, but I just felt off again. Maybe it was bad air or something. So, that was pretty much it for that. I needed to chill out on the surface and let the headache subside, so once we finally got back to the hostel we showered up and then went out for a drink. We were on a little patio with a view out over the ocean but kind of opposite where the tourists go at sunset, so it was a relaxing time. A little of grandpa's medicine got the headache to go away, and we then decided to keep it going. We went back to the hostel and went to their bar, which stops serving liquor at 8pm (huh?), so we had bottled and canned things for a while. We took a table next to a couple of apparently American girls and held separate conversations for a while, but I eventually bridged the gap with a little one liner and we merged conversations. One was from Miami but is currently living in NYC and is the daughter of two Greek islanders. Pretty girl... cool too. Her friend was from Philly. Both are grad students. So we chatted for a while and eventually the friend wanted to basically shower up and head to bed, so she did but the first girl stayed behind to hang out. This is cool, I thought. So we talked a lot more, then Ian headed away to use the facilities and chat with some other hosteler, and this girl and I kept up for a while longer. It was good, honestly entertaining conversation. It didn't hurt that she's pretty attractive, but I was having fun. So eventually Ian comes back and we decide to still grab dinner, so I tell her that I'll look for her in town if she's headed that way. She told me she'd be in a book store I had been planning to check out (which, like most things, was open until at least midnight), so I tell her I'll look for her there. I have to post this now, before I almost lose it again. To be continued...
Damn... one image took a really long time. There's so much to update on that I think I'll have to do it later. More pictures will arrive though. Many more. This is the "agora" in the Olympic Stadium Complex. Very Calatrava! Good golly... time is not enough for the other 900+. A few more.
Trying to add miscellaneous photos... Explanations may follow.
It feels wrong to wish days away when you're on vacation, but that's kind of how I feel about the rest of the time I have in Athens. I'm now staying at a hostel for a couple more nights while I wait for Ian. I decided to head back out to the Olympic stadium complex this morning to see if anything would be different on a Saturday afternoon. Even fewer people this time... other than that, still abandoned. I found an open door that lead into one of the otherwise boarded-up buildings and was thinking about heading in. It was totally quiet inside but there was a little maintenance truck parked next to it and I couldn't tell if anyone was about. I could see lots of cases of chips and Heineken that had obviously failed to sell four years ago. I passed, however, against my better judgment to have a breaking and entering kind of adventure... It still amazes me that now (of all times) with the Olympics going on in Beijing at this very moment that they do nothing with the facilities here. They could just put up a huge screen with live coverage of the Chinese games and make a killing on refreshments... so simple. But, alas, nothing.
That place also seems to curse my new Tamron lens. It decides to stop working every time I go there, which is really starting to upset me. The lens cost as much as the camera... it ought to work. For some reason it stops working with the auto-focus and then won't even allow the shutter release to go because I think it's just not communicating at all with the body. Crikey... it better heal itself.
So I headed back into the city, and now I'm in the new hostel (which has free internet - some consolation for its otherwise crappy facilities). I took a shower basically on my knees this morning because the stall I chose had a sink type faucet at about waist height and nothing else. Whose idea was that? Well... back out to see any other corners I haven't discovered yet. Come on, August 11th.
Oy... Hydra was so pleasant but so expensive. So I'm back in Athens. I'm trying to coordinate my first couch surfing experience but I'm having as much luck with Greek phones as I do with English ones. Which is to say, none at all. I wish I could read. Back in an internet cafe... hopefully this chick will see my latest message with enough time to get back to me and tell me exactly where to go. Otherwise I'll probably end up back in the cheap hotel with another gyro for dinner. I'm definitely looking forward to more island time. The heat is bearable, even enjoyable there, but in the city it's way worse. Especially with a huge pack and no real place to settle down.
I got up this morning relatively early (about 10) and went for one last swim at a little spot that could be accessed by some public steps just about 10 minutes from my room on Hydra. I was again amazed by the clarity of the water and just how far down you can see. The floor dropped off really quickly at this spot and I think I must've been in at least 60 feet of water by the time I was as many off shore. I found a couple of spots where you could climb up some rocks and take a long dive in, which was fun. I also finally figured out how to get decent night time shots with my camera last night, so I played with that for a long time. A few nice ones... I swear I'll try to get them up sometime soon. I think I should do a little research on whatever's north of Athens now. Need a new destination, again.
Athens was growing old, so I decided to head out. I had to go through the port at Piraeus, so I caught the metro there and landed in a smaller, hotter, stinkier version of Athens, in which I had to wait around for a few hours before I could board the Flying Dolphin XVII to head to the island of Hydros. Those three hours sucked... hotter than crap and I finally realized that it's safe to generalize: old Greek women are pushy, selfish, and completely unconcerned with anyone else. Try being packed next to a bunch of them in the hot sun sometime and you'll excuse my remark.
But then I made it to Hydros. An hour and a half on the boat, which was pretty quick, got me there and I was flagged down by a lady who wanted to rent a room. I followed her back to her place to check it out, negotiated the price down to a mere 50 euros (twice what I was paying in Athens), and decided to stay two nights. The town itself is pretty small compared to the total island area (which is huge and full of terrain that prevents more building). Very charming though. And the water.. man alive, the water. It's a gorgeous blue. I walked around and took lots of photos last night, then rose this morning and got on a boat to go to a remote beach on the other side of the island. I spent the day there lying under an umbrella with a bottle of water and a book and took several swims. I found that opening my eyes under the salt water was actually not bad at all, so I did it a lot. I would be floating on the surface and look down and figured the floor was about ten feet down. Then I'd put my head in and see that it was at least 25' - 30' down. The water is soooo clear. So I did a lot of diving without any kind of gear, which is liberating, but I wished I had at least a mask. There will be more islands... Back to town for now and I'll head out sometime tomorrow. Hoping to catch a couch in Athens but if I don't I might just get on a train and go north to anywhere. I'm done with the exceedingly hot cities around there. I really hope the photos make it back home with me. This place is just spectacular.
Labels: Hydros
So, I'm already slipping on the blog action. Internet time isn't free, you know... Let's see, I've been in Athens for 6 days now and I think that's perfectly ample already. I keep talking to people who are stunned by the fact that I planned to be here for ten days and they keep telling me to leave. I think I'm going to take their advice in an hour or so.
The first day I got in around 10:00am, found the train that goes from the airport to the city, asked this dude to confirm that it was headed in the Athens direction (signs in Greek only) and he did just that. He got on with me and we chatted on the way and it turned out he was from Santa Ana (north of San Diego). He was meeting a couple of friends who were coming from Detroit for a trip that would begin in Athens but mostly be in the islands. So, being that we were getting along pretty well and I was planning on wandering aimlessly, I got off at the central metro stop with him and helped him find his hotel (he is a doctor... not really a map reader). The place was way too nice for me so I went off to the wrong side of town to find something cheaper, but arranged to come back to meet him to see the National Archaelogical Museum (which his friends wouldn't want to see, he thought). I found a reasonable little dump and checked in. A local guy I talked to would later tell me that the sort of place I'm in is basically used for one night stands. Otherwise, it's been fine. I mean, there's a bed and a sink... shared crappy bathrooms, but I'm not all that fancy myself. Oh, I did see a guy taking a dump on the sidewalk about half a block from the place last night, but that was the first real "incident."
So anyway, I went back a couple of hours later, picked up Dhani (the American dude), went to the museum, got some cool photos, then we wandered back towards his hotel to see if his friends were in yet. They came separately from Detroit, and we beat them there by a few minutes. They showed up shortly after us and we chatted for a bit - another cool couple of guys, then headed out to grab a meal. Had a pretty tasty bite at some touristy restaurant, then walked around until close to midnight. I somehow managed to sleep for most of the 10 hour flight, so I was just about on Greek time already. I went home to sleep that night and arrange to meet up with them to hit the Acropolis the next day before they would be taking off for the islands. I showed up at 8am (their request) and they had major jet lag problems. Two were out cold and Dhani and I waited around for a bit, then went up to their hotel's awesome free breakfast (bacon included). After that we hit some shops and waited for the guys to get up, then eventually we all went up to the Acropolis. I won't pretend to have new insights about the Acropolis, but hopefully I'll get some photos up before too long. After that we found a cheap gyros place that was serving up the best food I'd had so far, then went back to the hotel to snooze. I passed out in their lobby for an hour, then we went back out for another meal and decided to look for bars afterwards. We found them all right... They stay open until 6am in Athens, at the very least. We went to several of them in this one district that's basically dedicated to them and were even refused entry to a couple of gay bars. Not that we knew, but as soon as we found out that we couldn't get in we had to at least argue with the door man a little. No luck though. So, we stayed out until 4:30 or so, chatted up some of the local Greek women (there's a surplus of really hot looking girls here - not sure why), then headed back towards their hotel again. We got more gyros (the Greek version of late night Mexican food or pizza) on the way, then parted ways at the hotel. They wanted me to go to the islands with them the next day, which would've been great, but I had my project to do and didn't want to go until Ian came in, so I had to pass. So, that night I walked home to my crappy neighborhood at 5am and had no problems at all. What's so bad about Omonia Square anyway? Drug dealers, I'm told... but maybe they were all in bed by then. The next day I was told I had to switch rooms within the hotel for some reason, but that ended up scoring me some A/C. I went back to bed afterwards and rose late, then started my project at Syntagma Square with some drawings and photos and such. More wandering around in the evening, but that was pretty much it. I got some reading in that night, which was awesome. I haven't read for fun for a while now. The Lonely Planet books are rad (thanks, Lacy!). The next day I went to find Dionysiou Aeropagitou, which is a street that connects the major monuments in the city. More photography and stuff.. it was fun. After that I was headed home along a major pedestrian / tourist shop avenue when this old Greek guy started walking with me and chattering away in Greek. He thought I was local... when he realized his mistake he wanted me to take off my sunglasses so he could see my eyes, then started speaking English and telling me all about his kid in Houston and whatever else passed briefly in front of his brain. So all of a sudden he wants to keep talking and have a drink. Strange, I know, but it was broad daylight, he was much smaller than I, and I knew exactly where I was. So, let's see where it goes, I thought. He lead me a few blocks away to a bar and we went in and had a seat at the bar itself (which was pretty tiny). I ordered a rum and coke and he got an ouzo (local drink that tastes like black licorice), and we kept chatting. The two female bartenders appeared and introduced themselves and suddenly wanted to talk to us. The English broad focused on me and asked me if she could have a drink with me. I said 'sure.' So she did... she asked if she could have another about two minutes later. Uhh... sure. And then another. So she's apparently had three in the time that I've had a quarter of mine. Mine was very strong so I was sipping cautiously. Not ten minutes into the whole thing they hand me a bill for 85 euros. That's 10 for my drink and 75 for the three she had. That's about $130 for the readers at home. Uhhh.... no. A big fat bar owner dude moved into position to block my exit as they handed it to me, apparently hoping to secure payment. I stood up, put by day pack back on, and told them there was no way I was paying for the bartender's drink. Fatty got argumentative right away and started patting my shorts looking for money, of which I told him I had none. I showed him a 2 euro coin and said I'd need to go outside to an ATM, but he didn't like that either. So he's poking me hoping to find money and his last poke lands on my stomach, which is tensed at this point and notably more firm than his own. I think he really questioned his chances at that point. I pushed past him and left without giving up a dime. Of all the pathetic tricks... The old Greek guy was in on the whole thing, of course. He got a bill for the same amount, which was designed to make me think these were standards prices. Uhh.... no.
So, first misadventure averted. Good story though, huh? :-)
The next day I went to the Olympic Stadium complex, which was eerily silent. Nice architecture but it's not being used for squat. More photos on that at some point too. I have to figure out how to get one of these cafe machines to download some photos and not all... I have 500 something already. Oops. After that I came back into town and checked email, then met up with a local guy from couch surfing to grab a drink. He turned out to be pretty cool, so we chatted for a while, he showed me a place to get some cheap food, then we parted ways after a couple of hours. He suggested I check out this island called Hydra, which is where I'm going to try to head this afternoon. I think there are only two ferries a day, so I could totally miss it... who knows. If nothing else I'll be in Piraeus, so look for me there if I never post again. Good times... I got out of the dump hotel this morning, had a pastry, and now I'm hitting the internet. Sweet, sweet internet. Until next time... Paul Harvey. Good day.
