BootsnAll Travel Network



Not all who wander are lost

Nov 25 2009 Wow - OK - my blog is still here!! Lets see if it works as well as last time.... Jan 2007 So...Erin, yes me, is finally heading out on the round-the-world trip I have been talking about since I was 22 and fresh out of ERAU. We will fast forward over the last few years which, suffice to say, had enough reality checks to make me realize I needed to get on the road sooner rather than later. Hence - in 2 weeks, January 17 to be precise, me and all my worldly possessions (that will fit in my backpack) will board a plane to Lima, Peru to go see the world. Well, at least 12 countries of it over the next 7 months. If I get this bloody blog to work - you will be seeing it with me! And we are off...

Day 128 – Greece to Gatwick, England

May 30th, 2007

My measly 3 hours sleep was not enough as I whipped out of bed to cacth the 0400am bus to Athens Airport. Again, chaos reigned as the people in the back tried to climb over luggage to buy tickets and the people in the front climbed rearward to validate their tickets at the only machine in the back. Erg, to think they run this service every single morning like this and another 23 times a day, silly. I knew the flight was not going to be pretty when I saw all the overly hung over liverpool football club fans passed out in the waiting area ready to go home. As luck would have it a young mucker, still drunk was seated right next to me with 4 of his buddies. I knew al too well what the end of this would be but it was a full flight.

They served breakfast about 1 hour into the flight. the airplane food smell must have woke my partner next to me up and it was not long before he was regurgitating last nights fastivites. Fantastic sitting next to someone getting sick for the next 2 hours. I could not do much but hand him water and sick bags and wet wipes. I thought he was going to cry saying I was just like his mom taking care of him and I decided to bite my toungue telling him he has no business getting on a plane in the state he did. Such is life. That is my good deed for the month. In 3 hours I was in Gatwaick and got to wait 1.5 hours in the immigration line. That was fun. it was Saturday and they do not have enough staff working we were told erg…

I jumped a train to Reading, changed for Coventry and got off at Leamington Spa. A good friend of mine from Brasil, Carolina came and met me at the station. Her mum and dad were just leaving back to Brasil and I got to catch up with them. Carolina and Francisco have a lovely little one year old now, Lucas, who is a bundle of energy.

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Day 127 – Oia to Fira to Athens

May 30th, 2007

Greece may be making a lot of money off tourism but they do not seem to be too well geared for it. Their tranportation system works but pity the traveller trying to plan by it. Our bus out of Oia was slightly late and majorally overcapacity. The driver would yell and shake his hands like an Italian at each stop because there was no more room as if it was their fault they needed to get somewhere. We all made it to the station just as the bus for the ferry port was pulling out and no, they did not wait. Many people took taxis but I had faith my public transport options would prevail. The next bus one hour later should squeeze me in time. I would realize this was a bad assumption when I saw the chaos at the port. Boats were coming and going, lorries were trying to get on and off and there were tons of minivans and busses fighting directions. We were stuck on the cliffside road for 20 minutes trying to get through. As luck would have it — our boat was way behind schedule and not even there yet. Stories from others warned me busses and boats even leave early when they feel like it. Great.

On the “high speed” ferry, we stopped at an island or two then got to the Pireaus port. I jumped on the subway to Athens glad to be back in familiar territory. The country finished off this subway system in order for the Olympics to function smoothly. While they were digging up the ground, they came across all sorts of ancient civilization so each station had exposed brick with a fence around it. Kinda like an mode museum.

I settled back into my hostel and the two guys in my room had just finished med school and were travelling before the next 5 yrs of residency work. This seems to be very common, I could not imagine knowing I would not be able to travel for the next 5 yrs. I found myself a used bookstore to sell off all my newly acquired lonely planet guidebooks. No point carrying dead weight, if I would return I needed new ones anyway. So Cambodia, Greece and Egypt now wait for some other lucky traveller.

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Day 126 – Oia, Santorini

May 25th, 2007

After a wonderful breakfast overlooking the sea, I headed to Ammoudi Port to join a boat trip. The directions were “at the castle – descend 300 steps”. Since there are hundreds of sets of steps up and down, I was gald I found the right one. I boarded a boat and sailed to the volcano caldera. A couple hundred meters later I was staring at one of the most vicious geological activity centres in the world over. The geography had changed dramaticially over the last 2000 years with every eruption. The last major blow was in 1950 but in 1956 an earthquake destroyed 80% of the houses and everyone rebuilt! Have not felt any tremors yet but they are frequent here.

The rocks on the volcano were interesting since they varied in color depending on the activity they endured. Next we went to the island next door where theere were supposedly hot springs form the activity. I jumped off the deck into the brisk 17 degree sea and front crawled to the muddy section which was supposed to be warm. While there were bubbles rising from some activity underground – nothing felt warm. The sulfur, salt and metallic in the water was none too pleasant though the guide tried to convince us it was “probably medicinal”. Yeah, right. Next off to Thirissa, another islet. Most people on shore for lunch but I decided to huff 200 steps up and do something productive. There was only about 5 of us walking up and I started chatting with a gentlemen who had gotten off another ship. As my strange fate would have it, he works for Jeppeson so we chatted about waypoints and charts and third world navigation issues. Nice surprise. After a climb down the hundreds of steps fighting donkeys carrying lazy people up, I got back on the boat and headed to Santorini.

The famous sunset in Oia would not cooperate with the clouds but I am certain it could not beat some of the ones I have already seen this trip. So I ducked inside a boutique instead and designed myself up some volcanic rock jewelry, what fun.

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Day 124/125 – Chania, Iraklio -Crete

May 24th, 2007

Spent the day exploring the oceanfront. Walking out along the seawall to the light house etc. Nice town. Next morning, I shuffled up to the bus station and boarded a coach for the “2.5” hour dirve west to Iralkio or Herculion. Another city cursed with a myriad of english spelling which is fun when you are buying a bus ticket.

There was a lot of yelling on board as little greek women dressed in black shawls wanted off in the middle of some random village and the driver would not stop. Not sure what the commotion was about, this culture yells a lot at each other as a form of normal communication. The busses apparently are not so punctual. I found this out at the wrong time as I am still sitting on one when I should have been boarding my ferry. I got to the bus station with 15 minutes to spare and hit pavement to make the boat on time. Ick. Fun running with a pack but in the end all was good. I met some friends on board and we swapped travel tales. They had unfortunetly been hit with a string of bad luck hainv stuff stolens, and bags rifled through in several places. I had actually gotten quite lax about my belongings since I have not had any problems but this was a good reminders. It also helps that my passport and memory cards, the only two things of value, are with me at all times, even when I am sleeping usually locked nearby.

4 hours across the mediterrean sea, we were approaching Santorini. While I knew this island had been formed from a volcano I was not expecting its size of the sheer height of its cliffs. The 2 or 3 towns were nestled way up high on the peaks and consisted of white structures. They appeared like snow on the hilltops. I had booked a recommended, cheap hostel so parted with my new mates as they were headed to the beach area. As I waited for the 2nds bus connection to take me there i was hoping I wouild not regret my decision and I did not.

The town of Oia is indescribable. Touristy yeah, but the cobblestone paths and striking buildings in white with cobalt blue trim were a sight and the remains of the volcanos caldera stood of in front in the sea. Defintely one of the most atmospheric towns I have come across. This would have to be voted my number one honeymoon destination if you are looking for one. The hostel is a superb, clean, cheap little paradise on the edge of a mountain. Fab. I spent the eve exploring and catching the championship league final which was being held in Athens. I left in disgust when AC Milan made the 2nd goal over Liverpool but I could expect the final results and was not pleased with them…

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Day 123 – Octopus sighting Chania, Crete

May 22nd, 2007

I met up with some other backpackers and we were all hoping some people would be waiting at the dock to offer us rooms since no one had prebooked. Wrong. Guess They do not want to get up at 0600 either! We took the bus into town and made some calls to guesthouses which no picked up either. A Canadian and I decided to go enjoy the early morning sunrise on the waterfront to wait for something to open. Beside us an old greek man walked up carrying a fishing line in hand and dropped it beside us. As we chatted about finding a beach to swim in later on, he tugs on the line and pulls up an Octopus! Holy cow. I have never seen such a thing. It was sidling around on the concrete in all directions, it was insane. This guy gets down and starts petting it! It was pretty cute I have to admit and he helped it on its way back into the water. He smiled and walked off. Bizarre. Octopus sighting was not a planned event at dawn…

We walked down an alley where a women was standing outside and asked us if we were looking for a room. As a matter of fact..we were. The rooms were ready by the time we finished breakfast. Mine was a lovely topfloor place with a view of the water. I had to go outside ont he roof for the bathroom and shower but otherwise not bad for the same price as my hostel. One thing about Greece is they can not decide on the anglicization of names so everything is speeled different ways. (Hania, Chania, Xania). Fortuently, through a year of the cyrillic alphabet in Russian classes and a decade of mathematical equations of sigmas and thetas, I can sound out any greek word enough to figure out the maps.

The Canadian and I had dinner on the waterfront and enjoyed a fresh fish sampler platter. I had a morsel of guilt as I bite into a smaple of Octopus, possibly our friend form this morning. I hesitiate to call my friend Canadian because she is actually from Montreal. Her native french speaking accent is thick and her english broken. She is about the fourth person form Quebec I have met along my travels and I find it fascinating that they do not really identify themselves as Canadians. In fact, they say things like, I have absolutely nothing in common with those people. No wonder they want to succeed. While, I may not have a whole lot in common with someone from lower louisiana, I am not sure I would see the need for their breaking off into a new country either. Just a thought.

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Day 122 – Athens

May 21st, 2007

I spent the day exploring one of the ancient capitals of civilization. The Acropolis, ancient agora, Tower of the winds, fascinating little city. I am told, things dramatically changed for the better with the arrival of the Olympics. The streets were made pedestrian and the commuter service spruced up, I found it a chamring city. This week is the European Chamionship League Final between AC Milan and Liverpool so football fans were milling about. Would be a good match but I had not intention of staying in the city for the week.

Thus, I figured out the metro system – got to Pireaus Port and boarded a 9 hour ferry to Chania, Crete. Not the most comfortable night sleeping on the floor of a ferry with Greek television and strange english movies blaring but it could have been worse.

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Day 121 – Cairo to Athens

May 21st, 2007

Our group parted and returned again to the far corners of the world. I have no doubt I will cross paths with some of them, somewhere in the world, at some point as our love of journeying is shared. I grabbed a cab to the terminal. There I ran into 2 other group members who had an earlier flight and had taken a different cab. Their guy ‘ran out of patrol’ and stopped in the middle of the road. They had to get out, still pay him and flag someone elsedown on the highway. As they drove away, they saw him leave too. Creepy – there is heavy police and security into the airport and they reckoned he did not have a proper registration or something to get inside but still stopping on the interstate is sketchy. Can never be too careful.

The airport was a zoo with all flights going anywhere checking in at the counters but I made it through to my A330 which was another zoo. No ones ticket matched their seat since in some recent configuration changes, they eliminated all the “b” seats. Why they did not print the proper seat tickets, I have no idea. At least it was not a full flight so people just took anytrhing they could get. I got a neat view of the pyramids after takeoff.

A mere two hours later, I was landing in Athens. After 1 hour waiting for my backpack – (just like USAirways at DCA!) I headed to the bookstore to grab a lonely planet and figure out how to get from the airport. Always the prepared one…I found a bus that went downtown and one my second trry, a cheap, clean friendly hostel. I had been a little surprised not meeting too many americans on my travels but now I know why, they are all in Greece! apparently, europe is still a favorite hotspots for my countryfolk. I felt the effect of Europe right away on my wallet. Nice to use Euros, just wish the dollar was a bit stronger.

I did some exploring, swapped stories with some Canadians in my room, and figured out where I was on the map. Funny how you get used to things – after a week in the Sahara where it has not rained since 1987, the clouds and drizzle were fascinating. Also, seeing women walking down the street in droves wearing real clothes and all sorts of hair colors – it made me wonder what an egyptian must think the first time in a western country with the diversity. I had an amazing sofrito of Corfu meat dish, loaded up on the Tzatiki and took in the traditional greek music. The waiters would spontaneously break into song and were having a good time. This culture reminds me if Italian, but I find the greek much more friendly.

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Day 119/120 – Luxor, Hot Air Balloon

May 21st, 2007

We sailed some more up the river then grabbed a minivan to join the convoy to the city of Luxor. We checked out Karnak temple, the markets, the oil and perfume making, natural alabaster, all sorts of egyptian stuff. We took a horse and carriage to dinner just to add to our transportation list.

Another early start, a minivan picked me up and stopped along the way to grab the pilot who would captain our hot air balloon over the Valley of the Kings. We used a ferry to cross the Nile and then watched as they readied our baloon. We climbed in, about 4 people on each side of a basket and 8 people to a side for a totoal of 32. The Captain was in the middle and turns out the owner of the company. Very safety concious and competent bloke from what I gether which was good considering I was about to risk my life with him. This was my first time in one and I was thrilled. We lifted off smoothly and started ascending over the area. There are over 30 temples ytou can see fomr the air and it was phenomenal. I also got an unexpected view of life in Egypt that I never would have realized from any other craft except this one. As we flew low at one point over some houses I realized, many of them do not even have roofs. There were 2 or 3 beds in the mud courtyards with 2 or 3 people in them each. I can not imagine waking up at 0600 in the morning to the whooshing sound of fire filling the balloon with 32 tourists staring down at you and all of your loved ones in bed. It was incredibly odd. The situation was not improved by our Egyptian Captain calling out in a haughty english accent…”would you pleazzze put on the kettle for a cup of tea!”. I felt like Alice in wonderland with these tiny people in a bed, in the dirt, staring up at me.

We landed safely in a hayfield next to workers collecting the grass and the Captain insisted on a ‘landing safely celebration’. The drums cames out, all the balloon handler people started singing and then all the women were pulled in to dance. So there we were singing, dancing chanign partners even, in a hayfield at 0700 in morning with donkeys and locals onlooking, as a hot air balloon deflated behind us. Wow. Can not even describe how wierd that whole thing was. My theory is these guys with their culture under normal circumstances are not allowed to get that close to women never mind dance! but hey it was memorable.

We met up with the rest of our group, saw the colossi,Habu temple and then climbed inside some tombs where all the Pharoahs were buried. These chambers are just crazy. Decorated from floor to ceiling and carved from solid rock, they are a testament to the next life they were preparing for.

That afternoon, we went for lunch at a family’s house in a small village. The food was great and plentiful. Eveyone else in my group got sick from some other meal but since I stuck to kebabs and hummus most of the time, I was OK. They had tried a stew type dish filled with questionable meat – ‘unidentifiable food’ (as Nancy calls it). I had opted out which turned out to be a good decision. Pigeon was also a local speciality but again, exotic foods are one of those things I do not have FOMO for!

It was incredibly interesting to talk with the three daughters in the family and see how they live. This family owns a business in the area and I would guess they are considered well-off and yet their lifestyle is basic. I was completely blown away with the mud brick oven on the roof they use to bake their bread! They prepare the dough, half bake it by laying it on the roof in the scorching sun and then fire up the over in the 39 degree heat for breakfast and lunch! It was madness. In the 21 century, people using the sun and mud ovens for bread. Wow.

Sent the rest of the day milling about town buying rocks. Yep, lots of neat rocks here as well and we boarded the train at 2130 for another overnighter to Cairo…I think this tops my mode transportation in one day list covering all surfaces – train, van, boat, balloon!

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Day 118 – Felucca down the Nile

May 21st, 2007

This morning, the 9 of us boarded a Felucca, a traditional sail boat to cruise on for the next 24 hours. It is basically one big cushion covered overhead by a swath of fabric so there is absolutely nothing to do except lie and get really really mellow. Of course, this simplicity comes with its setbacks such as – no toilet on board. Thus you risk dehydration by not drinking so that you do not have to announce to the Captain you want the boat pulled over to pee on the side of the Nile as a man on a camel wonders over a dune!

No, it was an outstanding experience. Given my inability to sit still I jumped at the chance the Captain gave to help sail. My eagerness was quickly quelles as I nearly got flung off the boat trying to lean on the rudder to steer against a strong wind. As I am sliding down the running board, losing the battle with the current, and my fellow boat members watching me nervously as we veer towards a concrete bridge post – he stepped in to help me. He gave me a rope to help hold the pressure which made it much easier so before ong I was tacking like the best of them, hopping every time we reached the shore to the otherside to reverse direction. We sidled like this up the river for about 8 hours. Around sunset, we docked along with 8 other feluccas filled with tourists on a deserted shore with donkeys and dogs.

Since we were spending the night sleeping on the boat, we dug an outdoor latrine with a curtain and all. Yep, another one of those experiences I will never be the same because of! The deckhand had spent the entire trip preparing our meals, peeling carrots, fresh potatoes so we had a wonderful candlelit meal on our felucca. Since we had a 0630 launch, and it had been an exhausting day sitting doing nothing, everyone bedded down around 2200 which is precisely when the drums started. All of our boats are owned by the same Nubian family and it was like a party for them all getting together without the wives and families so the night was just beginning. I am certainly afflicted by what one of the girls calls FOMO – fear of missing out – so up I got to join the campfire with the dancing, singing and merriment of the “Nubian Disco”, it was something special.

The night sleeping on the Nile, at the edge of the Sahara was surprisingly cool and we were piled with blankets. I could just imagine the briskness in winter…

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Day 117 – Abu Simbel, Egypt

May 21st, 2007

0300 wake up call Yikes. My roommate and I both fell back asleep and got up 15 minutes later to roll downstairs. We slugged into the van and got to our location at 0400 to meet the convoy. This is just a ridiculous concept in my book but it is supposed to ensure security by piling all of the tourist busses in a long police escort the 300 km or so south to Abu Simbel temple. The fact that they leave the same time every day and guaranteee thousands of westerners sounds more like a security risk. In addition, the police escorts drive on average according to our guide, 120-140 km so the busses race and pass each other to keep up! Talk about introduced danger, you are more likely to have an accident. Fortunetly, we were all passed out and did not notice the road rage. We arrived at 0730 and went to explore another one of the temples that have been saved from the Nile.

This was another huge structure built by a king to glorify himself and his wife. The workmanship was impressive. You wonder what do these guys say – Hey carve me a temples into the side of a mountains,Make multiple rooms with scenes depicting me in battle, me with the gods, me and my wife, talk about vanity. The sun shines in on the statues inside only 2 days out of the year which used to be Feb 21 and Oct 21. After the temples were move, it is now actually Feb 22 and Oct 22 which probably defeats the purpose of some solar lineup.

After a nap, we had lunch where we experienced Bedouin coffee. The guy kept telling us we were going to start seeing pink elephants and promising it was legal so we got a bit nervous – but it turned out to be just a strong cup of Java.

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