ahh Greece
I finally got to Greece (halleluiah!), after some confusion and then a last minute decision made Friday afternoon to leave Saturday morning… and it worked out perfectly….
I traveled with three wonderful people. Two I met playing Ultimate, a German guy working for a privatization organization (who drove us in his company car), and a super cute Spanish girl who volunteers with youth in a small town called Llipjan. The other person was a new American volunteer working with my Spanish friend. None of us knew each other particularly well, but it turned out to be great company.
We left Pristina at 5am, but after making a necessary detour to pick up a passport, arrived at the Macedonian border only at 7:30. But from there, we had three hours of smooth sailing to Thessaloniki (or Thessalonica or Salonika, the largest city in northern Greece) where we picked up a friend of a friend, and then headed to this girl’s family’s summer home on the beach. It was in an area called Chalkidiki, in the village of Pyrgadiki, another few hours drive, and quite picturesque and cute. Our time there consisted of lying on beaches (despite the unbelievable periodic thunder storms and rain!), eating feta cheese and watermelon, and simply breathing in as much ocean as possible in order to save up for another landlocked month in Kosova. My cute Spanish friend summarized best: “¡Que bonito!”
And it was so amazing of this girl from Thessaloniki to open her home to a bunch of people she had never met, and I’m very thankful of the opportunity to travel so inexpensively…
…Because, seriously, Greece is ridiculously expensive, *especially* coming from Kosova! For example, we went to a beach bar on Saturday, and ordered the most expensive drink I’ve probably ever had in my life. The food was delicious (I was in yogurt heaven!), but I almost felt guilty eating, and the shopping would have been fabulous, if I could have remotely afforded to even look.
But I suppose it was well worth the cost. I just wish I could have stayed longer. Much much longer!!
Even though we only arrived Saturday afternoon, we had to leave again by Sunday evening since a few people had to get back to work Monday morning. Luckily my Spanish friend realized that she did not have to rush home, and felt, as I did, that it would be a shame to spend so little time in Greece. She also managed to convince me that we must see Athens. Slightly crazy, but that’s what we did.
Shockingly, the trains to Athens from Thessaloniki were totally booked, so we resorted to buses even though, as many of you know, I’m not a huge fan of driving long distances. After a six hour overnight ride, we arrived in Athens at 6:30am, Monday morning. All we knew was that we wanted to see the Acropolis, and we would have been completely lost if it wasn’t for the generous help of a man on the bus who went out of his way to find us a subway map, to translate the Greek, and then suggest three areas of interest.
With only the subway map as our guide, we wandered off through the city towards to Acropolis…
Athens, first of all, is a massive city with millions and millions of people. Even at 6:30am, the streets were quite alive. But I was in for a surprise. We happened (literally) upon the Acropolis at 8am, right as it was opening. This turned out to be fabulous because, by 10:30 when we left, there were so many people that it would have been impossible to take a single nice photo! Apparently, Athens is only busy and busier in terms of people!
But the Acropolis was definitely something to see once in a lifetime. On the one hand, I can imagine kids asking their desperate parents why they should care about a pile of old rocks. But as soon as you start imagining how they built such a massive structure on the top of a hill, with only the sky as a backdrop, it begins to feel a little more remarkable. And, for no apparent reason, I began to get all teary-eyed once I started narrating the stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey to my friend. Aye. Still cheesy, I guess.
After the Acropolis and a brief tour of the Agora – described to an English-speaking tour group as the place “where Socrates once walked” – we simply spent the rest of the day wandering around town, laying in a park, and finally making one final trip by subway out to see the ocean…
Oh… and worrying about my Visa card, which of course was eaten by the bank machine first thing in the morning before the bank was open! I have other cards, but Kosova is a cash-based society and only that one card is programmed for cash withdrawal. I returned after the Acropolis, prepared to fight with the bank staff, feeling like I would have to battle with the credit card company in North America long distance… but there was no problem! The bank machine had somehow malfunctioned, and had stolen another 15-25 people’s cards before 8am! I can’t express how relieved I was to have it back in my hands.
Anyway, this is the end of my tale. We took a midnight bus back to Thessaloniki, arrived at 6:30am on Tuesday, and left by a fabulous old-fashioned train for Skope that day. It was a brief and generally exhausting trip, but I’m glad to say that I’ve seen Athens. And really, there is nothing there worth seeing there that needs more than a single day. Next time I'm there, I hope to be passing through on my way to the islands.
Anyone for Mykonos or Santorini? Just let me know when!
I traveled with three wonderful people. Two I met playing Ultimate, a German guy working for a privatization organization (who drove us in his company car), and a super cute Spanish girl who volunteers with youth in a small town called Llipjan. The other person was a new American volunteer working with my Spanish friend. None of us knew each other particularly well, but it turned out to be great company.
We left Pristina at 5am, but after making a necessary detour to pick up a passport, arrived at the Macedonian border only at 7:30. But from there, we had three hours of smooth sailing to Thessaloniki (or Thessalonica or Salonika, the largest city in northern Greece) where we picked up a friend of a friend, and then headed to this girl’s family’s summer home on the beach. It was in an area called Chalkidiki, in the village of Pyrgadiki, another few hours drive, and quite picturesque and cute. Our time there consisted of lying on beaches (despite the unbelievable periodic thunder storms and rain!), eating feta cheese and watermelon, and simply breathing in as much ocean as possible in order to save up for another landlocked month in Kosova. My cute Spanish friend summarized best: “¡Que bonito!”
And it was so amazing of this girl from Thessaloniki to open her home to a bunch of people she had never met, and I’m very thankful of the opportunity to travel so inexpensively…
…Because, seriously, Greece is ridiculously expensive, *especially* coming from Kosova! For example, we went to a beach bar on Saturday, and ordered the most expensive drink I’ve probably ever had in my life. The food was delicious (I was in yogurt heaven!), but I almost felt guilty eating, and the shopping would have been fabulous, if I could have remotely afforded to even look.
But I suppose it was well worth the cost. I just wish I could have stayed longer. Much much longer!!
Even though we only arrived Saturday afternoon, we had to leave again by Sunday evening since a few people had to get back to work Monday morning. Luckily my Spanish friend realized that she did not have to rush home, and felt, as I did, that it would be a shame to spend so little time in Greece. She also managed to convince me that we must see Athens. Slightly crazy, but that’s what we did.
Shockingly, the trains to Athens from Thessaloniki were totally booked, so we resorted to buses even though, as many of you know, I’m not a huge fan of driving long distances. After a six hour overnight ride, we arrived in Athens at 6:30am, Monday morning. All we knew was that we wanted to see the Acropolis, and we would have been completely lost if it wasn’t for the generous help of a man on the bus who went out of his way to find us a subway map, to translate the Greek, and then suggest three areas of interest.
With only the subway map as our guide, we wandered off through the city towards to Acropolis…
Athens, first of all, is a massive city with millions and millions of people. Even at 6:30am, the streets were quite alive. But I was in for a surprise. We happened (literally) upon the Acropolis at 8am, right as it was opening. This turned out to be fabulous because, by 10:30 when we left, there were so many people that it would have been impossible to take a single nice photo! Apparently, Athens is only busy and busier in terms of people!
But the Acropolis was definitely something to see once in a lifetime. On the one hand, I can imagine kids asking their desperate parents why they should care about a pile of old rocks. But as soon as you start imagining how they built such a massive structure on the top of a hill, with only the sky as a backdrop, it begins to feel a little more remarkable. And, for no apparent reason, I began to get all teary-eyed once I started narrating the stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey to my friend. Aye. Still cheesy, I guess.
After the Acropolis and a brief tour of the Agora – described to an English-speaking tour group as the place “where Socrates once walked” – we simply spent the rest of the day wandering around town, laying in a park, and finally making one final trip by subway out to see the ocean…
Oh… and worrying about my Visa card, which of course was eaten by the bank machine first thing in the morning before the bank was open! I have other cards, but Kosova is a cash-based society and only that one card is programmed for cash withdrawal. I returned after the Acropolis, prepared to fight with the bank staff, feeling like I would have to battle with the credit card company in North America long distance… but there was no problem! The bank machine had somehow malfunctioned, and had stolen another 15-25 people’s cards before 8am! I can’t express how relieved I was to have it back in my hands.
Anyway, this is the end of my tale. We took a midnight bus back to Thessaloniki, arrived at 6:30am on Tuesday, and left by a fabulous old-fashioned train for Skope that day. It was a brief and generally exhausting trip, but I’m glad to say that I’ve seen Athens. And really, there is nothing there worth seeing there that needs more than a single day. Next time I'm there, I hope to be passing through on my way to the islands.
Anyone for Mykonos or Santorini? Just let me know when!
posted by melissa at 5:58 p.m.
1 Comments:
Do we get pictures? Sounds like a fabulous weekend getaway! Shame you couldn't go to the islands...they are (or at least they used to be) absolutely idylic.....and thank goodness you were able to get your visa card back...can't imagine what you would have done without it!!!!
love mom
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