So Long, Romania. I Doubt If I'll Ever Return

       It's strange to think that I've been gone for a full month now. I have definitely covered a lot of ground, and still have a whole lot more to see.
       I got to Sibiu on Saturday around 4 pm. The hostel was very close to the train station and easy to find. I spent the evening wandering around the old town of Sibiu. There are many churches and lots of medieval architecture to check out. I happened to stumble upon what I believe was a very beautiful Evangelical church just as they were beginning some sort of Saturday evening mass. As I walked into the courtyard of the church I saw a young priest holding a board and hitting it, in rhythm, with a wooden mallet. While doing this he walked the full circumference of the church until he reached a small structure on the left hand side of the front of the church where the rhythm became faster and more complicated. Tourists gathered around with their cameras to watch this ceremony as locals began to arrive from all directions and funnel into the church. The rhythm continued getting faster and more intense until, abruptly, it stopped. A fraction of a second after it stopped, the church bells began ringing. The young priest slowly walked away, grinning with satisfaction. I walked into the church. It did not have pews up and down the center as I expected it would. It was very large and open inside, like a gym, with a few wooden seats along the edges. Visitors walked around to effigies of different saints cast in gold and silver, touched them, kissed them, and made the sign of the cross on their own chests. I, along with many others stood around the edges of a central large, circular area and observed as a priest gave a sermon in Romanian. I wish I could understand all of the sermons I have heard in churches so far, but alas, I am from the US and can only speak English.
       The next day I just wandered the town some more. I went into a Roman Catholic church and saw part of their mass, climbed a tower in the center of old town, and tried to find some craft beers. Unfortunately the term "pub" in Romania doesn't necessarily mean that the establishment has any kind of selection of beer. Trying to find a pub that did turned into an adventure of its own, but in the end my craving was not satisfied. I went back to the hostel and took a nap after having three different very light and cheap European beers. I spent the rest of the evening doing a little planning for the next few days.
       On Monday I took a day trip to Sighisoara. Sighisoara was really nice and had a very well preserved medieval center. I spent a few hours there and had some lunch before returning to Sibiu for the night.
       The next day I ended up carpooling with a Romanian and two other Americans to see the Corvin Castle in Hunedoara and the citadel in Alba Lulia. Both were very cool. I especially enjoyed the medieval feel of the Corvin Castle. They ended up dropping me off at the train station in Alba Lulia so I could be on my way. That was not the best train station to be at as a lone English speaking backpacker, but everything turned out alright. I took a train to Cluj for the night, just as a pit stop before heading west, out of Romania and into Hungary.

I'll post some pictures when I get a chance.

Vampire Country

       

       On Wednesday I went to the Village Museum in Bucharest. It,s an open air museum where you can see different historical styles of households around Romania. After that I walked quite a ways to the train station to catch a train to Brasov. I really enjoyed the scenery on the way as we traveled between steep forested hills, overshadowed by misty mountains, with occasional quite and sleepy towns into Transylvania. When I got to Brasov I checked into a hostel and took a free walking tour of the old town. Brasov is a really nice town and I really enjoyed hearing about its history through the tour guide.
        In the morning, I went with a few others from the hostel to the Bran "Dracula's Castle" and the Rasnov Fortress. Honestly, the Bran Castle wasn't very impressive and seemed like just a tourist trap to me. I had heard this from other people before I visited, so I wasn't expecting anything more. The Rasnov Fortress, on the other hand, was very cool. It sits on top of a hill outside of the town of Rasnov and many of the buildings within its walls are still intact. After that, we all headed back to Brasov and got lunch. I climbed Tampa hill in the middle of Brasov. It was a strenuous hike, but it was worth the amazing view at the top.

*Bran Castle:

*Rasnov Fortress:

       Yesterday I got up early to catch the train to Sinaia with a newfound friend. There we visited a beautiful monastery and a couple castles. The first castle, Peles, was very impressive, inside and out. We did a tour of the inside, but unfortunately it costs quite a bit for the privilege to take photos, so I didn't take any. After that we went to the nearby Pelisor castle. This one was still very decorated and lavish, but felt more like a home. The situation with photos was the same here. After that we had a light lunch and then sat in the sun in a park near the train station before we caught the train back to Brasov. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, besides the fact that I'm pretty sure I got food poisoning.
       

       This morning I went to the Black Church in Brasov. The church is huge and impressive, but not very ornate. This is because when it was being built, most of Brasov's money was going to war efforts. The inside was very nice. It was a lot less lavishly decorated and gaudy than the other Orthodox churches I have been to, but I liked it because of that. After that I caught I bus to the train station. I just barely caught the 1 o'clock train to Sibiu.

Sofia to Bucharest

       Yesterday morning I went on a free walking tour of Sofia. There are so many beautiful churches in Sofia along with a huge mosque and synagogue. There are also a lot of other interesting buildings and the tour guide gave us a lot of good historical information on all of them.
       

 

         I decide to catch the 12:30 bus to Bucharest last night. It was close to an 8 hour ride and we arrived around 8 am this morning. I hardly got any sleep so as soon as I got to the hostel I took a nap for a couple hours. When I got up I decide to go for a walk in the city. There is a lot of really cool architecture here, especially in the old town area. I walked around for most of the day, and got a bit lost when I was trying to get back to the hostel(it seems I never fail to get completely turned around in a new city) and ended up walking for about a mile in the wrong direction. Now I'm back at the hostel and trying to decide what to do with myself for the rest of the evening. I'm still exhausted from the night of travelling.
       I think I'm going to head to Brasov tomorrow. There's just not much to see or do in and around Bucharest and if I go to Brasov I can make a few day trips to some nearby places.

Until next time...

I Guess I'll Keep On Ramblin'

      Meteora:

 

A Tortoise:

       I arrived in Thessaloniki on Friday afternoon. I walked quite a ways from the bus station to the hostel. When I arrived I saw two Australians that I had met in the hostel in Trikala. It was nice to know some people from the start. For the rest of the evening I hung out with them and an older Australian man with a lot of stories. We drank some beers at the hostel before a Swedish man joined us and we started playing a word association drinking game. Later that evening, we all went to dinner at a tiny restaurant down the street. When we got there it was full of locals playing music, singing, and having a good time. The five of us shared several different plates of Greek food some wine, and plenty of raki, a Greek liquor.
       The next day I walked around the city for a few hours. Thessaloniki is a really nice city and I felt very comfortable there. I went to the waterfront and visited the White Tower. From the top of the White Tower I saw a castle on the hill and made my way up to it. There is an old wall around much of Thessaloniki that connects to this castle. After that I headed back to the hostel and spent some time just sitting in the sun and talking to some of the employees there.        

      Later that evening, the two Australians, a Canadian, and I, headed downtown to meet up with a local from Thessaloniki and a couple girls from the Netherlands and Germany to check out some of the night life. There were plenty of clubs to check out and, although clubbing is not really my thing, we were out pretty late.
     The next day I caught a bus to Sofia, Bulgaria. I got here around 10:30 last night. This morning I, along with a South Korean and an Egyptian, got a ride from a Bulgarian man in his minivan to the Rila Monastery. As soon as we pulled out onto the road, we were side swiped by another car. The drive was a bit long and we went way up in the hills outside of Sofia. On the way we passed through a town where on almost every roof there is a stork's nest. Apparently the storks come to Bulgaria in the spring and summer and then fly down to Africa in the winter.
       The Rila monastery was really cool. We also walked up a trail to a small church that was right next to a cave where a monk used to live around 1700 years ago. Now I'm back at the hostel. I'm going to stay here for another day and then head to Bucharest.

Meteora

       Yesterday I got up early and got breakfast at a local bakery before catching a bus to Kalambaka. Kalambaka is situated just below Meteora. Even on the bus ride there, I could see the huge rock outcroppings from the highway. When I got to Kalambaka, I walked over to an old Byzantine church. There were so many old paintings inside telling different stories, mainly of the martyrdoms of different saints. This seems like a common theme in many of the churches here in Greece. From there I set out in search of an old footpath that was originally used by the monks in the region. There were a couple times that I thought I had found it, but both times I was led to a small shack with a yard full of chickens. I kept walking until I left Kalambaka and came to the nearby town of Kastraki. I decided to take a side road that lead off of the highway just before entering the town. This road led up a rocky hill and past some caves. As I walked further I noticed, high in one of the huge rock formations, some caves with old wooden platforms built outwards from them and a little ways down, a monastery built directly inside the rock. I took another road that seemed to lead to the area and came upon a small church. I kept walking until I reached the wall where these cave hermitages were located, but was unable to reach them, so I just looked from below. I couldn't go any further because the road was blocked off, so I headed back to the road I had been on before. I kept walking until the road led me into a neighborhood of Kastraki. I found another church here and next to it was a set of decaying wooden stairs that led up the hill and into the forest. I figured that this was the path I had been looking for, so I started up the stairs. A little ways up was yet another church and then a small, but well worn path leading deeper into the forest. I followed it until I came to the top of the hill and to the other side where the vegetation opened up and and I was in a sort of valley in the middle of a circle of four or five huge rock formations. It looked like there was a way to get out through a narrow passage between two of these rocks, so I headed up a steep, rocky hill in its direction. After climbing a ways, I realized that there was no way I was going to make it through, so I headed back to where I had come from. After backtracking all the way to the church below the stairs, I found another small path. I walked down this path, past some emaciated, but vicious looking dogs into another part of the neighborhood. Here I came upon a narrow cobblestone path that lead up another hill. It was a beautiful area to hike in. The there were flowers of every color blooming, light green trees, and epic rock formations everywhere. Many sat precariously on thin bases on which balanced a much larger and heavier looking top. As I got deeper into the forest, the path split several times and I was never sure if I was on the right path, or if any of the paths really led anywhere. Finally, I arrived at a road just below the monastery of Saint Nikolaos Anapafsas. I took a brief rest before climbing the stairs to the monastery which is perched on the top of a smaller rock outcropping. After seeing the inside of the monastery and enjoying the view from the top, I headed back down to the road. I walked the wrong way down the road for a bit before realizing it and heading back the other way to another path. This path was the most strenuous of all. It was made almost completely of stairs made of poorly placed cobblestones, so with every step I was worried I would twist my ankle. I was already exhausted from all the hiking and from the heat of the sun, and by this time was realizing I had bit off a little more than I could chew, originally expecting that I could easily walk to all the monasteries. I finally arrived at the top of the stairs where the Megalo Meteoro monastery is. I was out of, water, hungry, and over exerted. I made my way up the steps of the monastery. This monastery is the highest and most popular of the six monasteries in Meteora, and is very nice inside. Its set up like a museum showing what the life of the monks who lived there would have been like (there are no monks living in any of the Meteora monasteries anymore, although monks from surrounding monasteries often visit and perform liturgies). There was even a room filled with the bones of all the monks who had lived there before. After that I decided I was done going inside the monasteries and I headed down the scorching highway. I took in some amazing views near the Varlaam monastery and continued walking down the road past the three other monasteries until a found myself back on the path that had originally led me to the monastery of Saint Nikolaos. I headed back through Kastraki to Kalambaka where I ate a gyro and caught a bus back to Trikala. When I got back to the hostel I spend some time talking to an Australian couple and then walked over to a nearby Turkish Mosque. After that I went back to the hostel and spent the rest of the evening drinking cheap Greek beer and watching soccer with a Brazilian and a Czech. Today I am going to Thessaloniki. I was going to catch a bus at 10:30, but its full, so I have to catch the one at 1:30. Now I'm sitting in a smokey cafe that's attached to the bus station, watching a Greek man smoke his fourth cigarette in a row and listening to a mix of Greek and American pop music.

I'll try to post some pictures and write more later today or tomorrow, but I can't make any promises.

Lechaina

On top of mount Lycabettus

Akronafplio fortress

Palamidi fortress

Enterance of ancient Mykines

 Cool hill near Mykines

Beach in Nafplio

       On Friday I caught a bus to Isthmos to get picked up by my uncle's friend's Greek family, Dimie and her parents. Isthmos is near Corinth and is characterized by a deep canal that connects the Ionian sea to the bay on the other side. We walked out on the bridge that crosses it and looked down. After that we made our way to Dimie's great aunt's house in the small town of Lechaina on the west coast of the Pelloponese region of Greece. Neither Dimie's parents nor her great aunt speak any English besides two or three words here and there, so there was quite a language barrier from the beginning. As soon as we reached her great aunt's house, we sat down to eat. The first thing was a soup that was a bit like minestrone, but different. After that, they continued to put more food in front of me: more soup, bread, bread sticks, marinated olives, feta cheese, and two different kinds of salad. All of this came with a couple glasses of home made wine. Just when I thought it was all over, they pulled out some peanuts. We ate those and when they were almost gone, out came the fruit. First an apple, then an orange, and finally a pear. For dessert was some chocolate with almonds in it. I was so full, but in a good way.
       Friday was a day for honoring the dead, so we went to the cemetery to see the graves of some of their family members and light some candles. Then we headed to the church to pay our respects to some of the saints. After that we headed back to their house to watch a bit of TV before going to another church on the other side of town (the town is very small. You can walk from one side to the other in 10 minutes). At this church they had a sermon and procession in honor of the dead. We, along with a huge crowd of people holding candles, followed a group of boys dressed in church garb, carrying staffs, banners, and a cross. They led us back to the cemetery where just outside they where having a symbolic burning of Judas with a large bon fire fuelled by wooden pallets. There were so many firecrackers and some mortars going off all night. After that, we headed back to the house, watched some TV, and drank cognac before going to bed.
       

       The next day I got up and was fed several types of bread, warm milk with honey, and salami. Dimie was still asleep for a while after I woke up, so I had to nod my way through all of the Greek and look out the best I could for facial and other physical language cues. We ended up taking a drive by the local castle before taking a brief walk on the beach. We also walked around the local port for a bit.
       That evening at midnight was the resurrection celebration. We all walked over to the church, lit some candles, and listened to a sermon. Then the priest brought out the "light of Israel", a flame that is supposed to have been brought all the way from Israel, and we all lit our candles on it so that we all had a little bit of the "light" to take with us. We walked back to the house and at around 1 am we began the resurrection feast. The first course was a stew made up of some vegetables and the organs of a goat, including the liver, the spleen, and the brain. After that we ate the goat and some beef. We spent another hour or so after that hanging out and watching TV.
       On orthodox easter Sunday, we went over to Dimie's uncle's house to eat more.  I really wish I could've communicated with everyone better, but I still had a good time. I learned a few Greek words, and they learned some English, and it all went well. In the late afternoon, we took a walk around the outskirts of the town. The countryside was nice and the air was fresh.
       The next day we went to the island of Zakinthos. The ferry trip was short and we had a pretty relaxed day walking around the island.        

       Today I headed to Trikala. I should have been able to catch a bus that would've taken me straight here, but because of the holiday it was full with people going home. Instead I had to take three different buses to get here. It was okay though, because there was some really beautiful and dramatic scenery along the way. I'm staying two nights in a hostel here.

I'll write when I write.

Also, always feel free to add comments or questions at the bottom and I will answer them the best I can.

Heading West

Unfortunately I can't post any pictures right now (I know those are like the best part of the blog), but I thought I'd let you know what I've been up to.
       Although I was hoping to leave Athens on Tuesday morning, I ended up staying one more night. This gave me a chance to have one more fairly laid back day in Athens to see and do a few extra things. The first thing I did was hike up Mount Lycabettus. It was a nice hike up to the top where there's a flat area to take in the amazing 360 degree view of Athens. I walked back down and just wandered carelessly through some neighborhoods that I hadn't been in yet. I went inside a few churches and lit a candle in one. Then I stumbled upon the real Athens market place. This was not the cobble stone streets where tourists visit shops to buy souvenirs and post cards. I doubt that many tourists ever venture to this part of Athens. The sights, sounds, and smells were overwhelming. I went down one block where there were skinned sheep hanging everywhere along with all different types of organs and other meats which I could not identify. The next block was filled all different types of fish and other sea creatures. There were many carts holding a plethora of nuts and dried fruit. It was very interesting to be in this environment with everyone shouting and trying to sell what they had. Not much happened after that. I spent a bit more time wandering around the crowded streets before I headed back to the hostel. There I met up with a group of British students who had just arrived and I spent some time with them. I spent much of the evening walking around Athens with the first native Greek I had ever spent any time with.
       The next day I caught a bus to Nafplio. Nafplio is such a beautiful town and is over shadowed by two huge fortresses. There is also another fortress out in the harbor, completely surrounded by water. Yesterday I climbed the 900-and-something steps up to the Palamidi fortress. The Palamidi fortress is the coolest thing I've seen so far. It was like something out of a movie. I was so exhausted from walking up all those steep steps, but it was definitely worth it to ascend into such an awesome piece of history.
       Today I caught a bus to the ancient ruins of Mikines. They weren't the most impressive ruins I've seen, but they were still interesting to visit. I really enjoyed the landscape around them with its steep and rocky hills, deep valleys, and snow clad mountains in the distance. When I got back to Nafplio I got lunch and then walked up the the other fortress called Akronafplio. This fortress is supposed to be the oldest of the three and some of the town is basically built into it. Its less up kept, but still makes for a nice place to take a walk. In contrast to the stairs of the Palamidi fortress, the Akronafplio fortress is accessed by a gradual incline on a cobblestone road that winds through the fortress itself. There are some really nice views from the top. After that I walked down to a small beach made up of mostly white and pink pebbles. The water was calm, clear, and lightly blue-green in color. I sat there on the beach for a awhile and listened to the birds and the gentle sound of the waves of the Mediterranean Sea.

I'm not sure when I'll be able to write again...

Getting Lost

Me infront of the Parthenon:      

Me in front of the Temple of Zeus:

 Greek beers:

Aegina:

Mykonos:

    
        Mykonos is a very interesting town. Just like on all the other islands, the locals are setting everything up for high season. The whole town smells of fresh paint because everyone is painting their houses and businesses with a fresh coat of white paint. The main town that I stayed in is fairly small, but its easy to get lost in. The streets, which are basically narrow footpaths (although many small motor bikes and four wheelers drive through them), are hard to navigate. The whole city is like a maze. I got lost several times, which was alright since I really had no schedule last night. I walked around and took in all there was to see. Around every corner there is a small church and one of the famous sights on Mykonos are its windmills. I really just walked around for a few hours before I went in to a local market to buy some apples and stuff to make sandwiches for the next day. I got some souvlaki in a pita for dinner and headed back to the motel. I was so exhausted last night and it was really nice to have my own room so that I could get everything in my bag in order without bothering anybody. The cleaning lady there was nice enough to wash and dry my laundry for me, which is something I haven't had a chance to do myself since I left Canada. I got up today, had the free breakfast of toast with butter and honey, coffee and orange juice at the motel, and headed back out into the town. I went and bought a ticket for the Seabus to Delos and a ticket for the ferry back to Piraeus this afternoon. Then I went searching for a bakery to buy some bread for my sandwiches. I got lost again, which is fine when you have nothing to do, but I still needed to get back to the motel, pack my stuff, make my sandwiches, and get to the Seabus within a half an hour. I finally found the motel and made it to the Seabus just in time.

       The boat ride to Delos is very short so we were there in about 20 minutes. I had been told that no one lives on Delos, and that no one can stay over night, but there are a few houses there. Perhaps they are for the people who upkeep the area. Delos is just one big archaeological site. Even the boat ride up to the port is (for lack of a better term) super rad. It reminded me of something out of Homer's Odyssey with choppy seas and a narrow straight with jagged rocks on both sides. The ruins of Delos are pretty scattered and spread out, but they are still cool. My favorite parts were the statues of the lions and, of course, the leftover bases of fallaces, of which the tips have been lost. I ended up getting a little lost in the massive ancient town and ended up walking through some rubble and brambles until I ended up in an area that it looked like they were renovating and I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be. I finally made it back to the boat and ate one of my sandwiches and a whole red bell pepper (I think I need the vitamin C) and talked to a few exchange student who are studying in London, but are originally from Las Vegas, and a man from Corfu. When we got back to Mykonos, I made my way to the ferry and got there about 45 minutes early. I spent that time talking to couple girl who have been studying in Barcelona and are from Texas and Ohio. After a 6 hour ferry ride I made it to the hostel in Athens. I want to get out of Athens tomorrow, but I have no plans yet.

Don't expect to hear from me for at least a day. But maybe I'll surprise you.

Athens and the Islands

       It's been a few days since I posted anything. I haven't really been anywhere that I could and I haven't had much down time in the last few days. I left you on the evening of the day that I arrived in Athens. That night not much happened. The hostel was nice other than the two girls who spent about an hour late at night and then early in the morning rustling through there things and being seemingly purposefully as loud as possible. There was a positive side to them waking me up before sunrise, however. It gave me a chance to hear all the new bird sounds early in the morning. I was feeling lonely and nervous about the city so I decided to take the free Athens walking tour that the hostel offers everyday to meet people and to get a better bearing on my surroundings. When I got to the meeting spot there were only 2 other people there and so it was easy to quickly get to know each other. One was a 25 year old girl, originally from Chicago, who works as teacher for young children in Prague. The other was a 27 year old guy, originally from Austin, who works a teacher in Madrid. It turned out that the tour guide was very sick, so there wasn't a tour after all. The 3 of us decided to explore Athens a bit together. We walked up to the Acropolis, went to the temple of Zeus, the stadium of the first modern Olympic games, and the National Garden of Athens. The National Garden was a huge disappointment. Everything seemed dead and unkempt. Maybe its just the wrong time of year to visit. After that we just walked around a bit more before deciding to get food. After talking to them, I decided to cancel my reservation at the hostel for the next night so that I could explore a couple islands with them. The next morning we headed to to Piraeus to catch a ferry to Aegina. It was a quick trip lasting only about 45 minutes. Our first goal when we got there was to find a beach and go swimming. We walked quite a ways in the hot sun without finding an actual beach, so we settled on a rocky area with shallow water and lots of sea urchins. The water was a bit colder than we had expected so we didn't swim that long. We spent the next couple hours just lounging in the sun. Our plan was to catch a ferry from Aegina to Hydra where we would find a place to stay for the night. Unfortunately we didn't take the time to look up ferries from Aegina and it turns out that you cant go anywhere from Aegina besides Piraeus. We decided to stay on Aegina for the night and caught a cab to what was supposed to be a very popular beach town destination. On the ride there we were able to see a lot of beautiful scenery. Apparently Aegina grows a lot of pistatios, so pistatio trees, along with old growth olives, are everywhere. We arrived at the town we were going to stay at and it looked like a ghost town. There were only a hand full of shops open and no one on the streets. It seemed like about half of the building were abandoned. We checked into a cheap hotel and the owner told us that the reason the town was so dead was that the hight season doesn't start for another 2 weeks. We headed down to the beach and in the distance up a hill there was what looked a huge partially built hotel made entirely of concrete. We found out later from a local that that is exactly what it is. Apparently in the 80s the Greek military had forced the builders to stop building. I'm not entirely sure why. We walked up to it and climbed all over. It was really big and really creepy. There were dark halls and rooms with rubble all over. There was an empty pool and a huge parking garage. From there we walked up the hill a ways and took in the view of the bay, sail boats, and other islands in the distance. After that, we headed back into town and got some dinner in an almost empty restaurant. We ended up spending the evening in a bar with the locals doing karaoke.
       The next day, the owner of the hotel was nice enough to give us a free ride up to the ruins of a temple on the hill. We spent some time there and then walked back down to the town. We spent some time walking around the town. Like in Athens, there were many stray dogs and cats. They were all so sad and wanting human attention. At 2:30, we caught the bus back to the port, bought tickets for a ferry to Piraeus, and headed back to Athens. The Texan and I had to find a new place to stay since the hostel we were staying at before was full. Almost everywhere in Athens was full. We ended up staying at a pretty crappy hostel in a bad part of town. The two of us spent the rest of the evening hanging out with a very drunk Irish man. We met him in a sports bar, and the Texan and I would have been content to just stay there and get to bed at a reasonable hour, but the Irish man was adamant about going to a club to try and pick up girls. We ended up following him to an area of Athens that is full of dance clubs. To the Irish man's dismay, hardly any of them would let us in, and when they did, they would refuse to serve us. It was a bit irritating because they kept asking if we had money, or who we were. In any case, I was glad not to go into any clubs and we ended up heading back to the hostel soon after. Today I got up early and headed back to Piraeus to catch the 7:30 ferry to Mykonos. I thought that I would be able to sleep a bit on the ferry since it was supposed to be a six hour ride, but it turns out that economy class on the larger ferries in Greece is just a cafeteria. I tried to sleep a bit with my head on the table, but I didn't sleep much. When I arrived in Mykonos it was very quiet. I walked up the road a ways and talked to some people who gave me a ride to a room to stay in. The room is right downtown. There are almost exclusively locals here and they are having some kind of pre-easter dance celebration on the beach. I'm not sure how long I will stay here. Perhaps a couple nights. I'm considering more and more calling it quits on the islands after I leave Mykonos and just heading back to the mainland. I wish I didn't have to go back through Athens, but it looks like that's my only choice. I'll try to book a room ahead of time this time.
       I would love to put up some pictures, but I'm writing this on my phone and don't have access to a computer and have no way to upload photos from my camera.

I will try to write another blog tomorrow, but I can't make any promises.

Athens

       I finally made it to Athens! I was supposed to get here yesterday, but my flight from Amsterdam got cancelled due to the weather. The wind there was insane and the turbulence was so intense when we were landing that I didn't know if we were going to make it to the ground in one piece. Apparently the airline found an alternative flight for me that was supposed to take me to Athens via Bucharest. That didn't work out. The plane to Bucharest was so delayed that I would have missed my connection. I probably would have gotten on that plane, however, if it hadn't been for a very assertive old British man and his wife. They were dealing with the same situation as I was and urged me to go with them to airline's customer service representatives to complain and try to figure things out. Because of the British man's relentlessness, the airline ended up putting us up in a hotel for the night and giving us tickets to Athens for first thing in the morning. Because of the weather, many people were stranded in Amsterdam and all the hotels near the airport were full. After what seemed like an endless day of walking from one end of the airport to the other, talking to different people, and being directed all over the place, we finally were lead to a shuttle that took us to a motel around 15 to 20 miles outside of Amsterdam. It was out in the countryside of Holland surrounded by fields of blooming daffodils, and hyacinths and tulips that had yet to bloom.

       I was so jet lagged and lacking in sleep that I really didn't do much. Not that there was much to do where I was. The hotel was huge and seemed very empty. Walking around the empty halls and dining areas reminded me a bit of that movie The Shining. I walked around some trails just outside, ate the free dinner that was provided to me and the other "stranded passengers" (that's what they called us) and went to bed.
       When I got up in the morning and the wind was still howling, I couldn't help but expect the worse. All the way to the airport on the bus I kept thinking that my flight would surely be cancelled and I contemplated what I would do if that were the case. Despite my worries, the flight was on time and got to Athens about 10 minutes earlier than expected.

       When I got to Athens, I got on a bus that was supposed to take me near to my hostel. Unfortunately, I can't read Greek, and there was nothing indicating what the stops were, so this proved to be a stressful experience. I ended up talking to a local who spoke broken English and directed me to the correct stop. I had even more trouble actually fining the hostel when I got off the bus as I wandered through the narrow streets in the heat of the afternoon. Finally I found it and checked in. The street that my hostel is on is lined with fruiting orange trees and the smell of their blossoms fills the air. I had a late lunch at the hostel's bar and received a free shot of ouzo. I spent the rest of the day just walking around and seeing as much as I could. The Acropolis is like the focal point and Athens, and you can see it from almost anywhere, but the whole area around it is like a giant open air museum. I was literally stumbling over new things all day. There are even just old chunks of marble bricks just lying in the grass in some places. I saw so many different things, and I haven't even ventured up to the Acropolis yet, or gone into the museum. I decided to save that for tomorrow morning when its cooler.

       When I got just outside the tourist area, I realized that Athens is a bit sketchy. There is graffiti everywhere, and so many stray cats and dogs digging through garbage and sleeping on the side of the road, looking like they're dead. I also don't think there are any parking rules here or, at least, no one cares. Cars are parked everywhere you can think of and in dangerous ways up on sidewalks and halfway in the street on corners.

       I got a little lost when it started getting dark and some little girl tried to force me to buy roses from her, calling me "George Clooney" and otherwise talking in Greek.

I guess I'll leave it at that tonight since I'm paying by the minute for internet, and the clock is ticking.
I'll probably write more tomorrow.