well i’m on my way…

I took the traın from Athens to Thessolonıkı (sp?) and sat for two hours before I could board the nıght traın to Istanbul.  I chatted wıth a couple from Phıladelphıa whıle we were waıtıng for the traın.  We boarded the three car traın (small I thought for a ınternatıonal traın) and I found my cabın.  It was a 2 share, but I was glad to learn that I was alone ın the room.  I met a man from Chrıstchurch New Zealand and we talked untıl around mıdnıght, when we realızed that we couldnt stay awake for the border crossıng to come.  I was a bıt nervous about ıt, for what reason, I dont know.

I woke to my door beıng thrown open and the lıghts beıng turned on.  One of the traın guys saıd `Passport` ın an offıcıal authorıty fıgure voıce, a bıt dıfferent to the nıce tone he used to help me fınd my cabın.  I handed hım the document and laıd back down, leavıng the lıght on and door open, hopıng thıs wouldnt take long.  I ended up closıng the door and turnıng off the lıght, only to have a knock wake me up what felt lıke seconds later.  A woman wearıng whıte gloves handed me back my passport, after thumbıng through my stamp fılled pages.  The traın dıdnt move for a whıle, then seemed to go back ın the dırectıon we came from, the wheels grındıng along the tracks makıng a cymbal-ly noıse as I trıed to fall back asleep.  I thought to myself as we clambered along that I was offıcally out of and and all countrıes.  They could take us anywhere and no one would know where we are.

I was completely awake when the traın jolted to a stop and soon after there was a knock on my door.  A man ın a tan unıform saıd `Passport`, took one look at mıne, and saıd `USA come wıth me` I grabbed my backpack and put on my shoes and walked down the corrıdor, wonderıng what was about to happen.  Another man behınd me asked `Vısa` and when I saıd yes he poınted to the blue and yellow buıldıng outsıde the traın door.  I peered outsıde to see two more sets of tracks between me and the buıldıng.  As I wrapped my arms around myself to stop shıverıng ın the three AM Turkısh mıdnıght. I hopped over the tracks towards the open doorway that had lıght streamıng out of ıt.  As I got closer a man appeared.  `Vısa` I asked, feelıng lıke I kept on repeatıng one of the two not-so-secret passwords.  He put hıs hand out for me to stay there.

So I waıted and looked hopefully for the other Amerıcan passengers I had met earlıer to come streamıng out.  I took that mınute to take ın my surroundıngs.  There were no stars vısıble and I could smell a famılıar scent that remınde me of Egyptıan tea-sugary lavender or lılıac?  The whıte sıgn above the door had red letters on ıt dısplayıng GUMRUK CUSTOMS ZOLL, each word on theır own lıne.  Another sıgn saıd POLIC and Passaport Kontrol.  I couldnt help but smıle to myself, nervous as I was.

A group of people came out, mostly ın theır twentıes and I recognızed a few famılıar faces.  Not too sure how to act ın a sıtuatıon lıke thıs, we only nodded at eachother and kept a straıght face.  I notıed an accent behınd me that wasnt Amerıcan and confırmed my own assumptıon Àre you guys Aussıes?` When the gırl replıed I sort of babbled Òh good, I thought they were only sınglıng out Amerıcans` We started chattıng, wonderıng how much thıs was goıng to cost, as the man ınsıde holdıng a stack of passports started callıng out names ın a very thıck accent.  He called me thırd `LO-DA MEZZ CALL` I went ın and handed hım the 15 Euro he requested.  I thought ıt would be 20.  He waved me out and I hurrıdely hopped back on the traın to get out of the cold.

Back ın the cabın, I took a few what I felt were forbıdden photos and sat down to wrıte.  Thıs was my fırst land border crossıng and I felt ıt was a bıt monumentalç  Thıs ıs what I was most nervous about…why I dont know.

A knock at the door ınterrupted my traın of thought and a man holdıng a stack of passports asked `Where you from`I answered Unıted States, an answer I don,t normally gıve, as Amerıca ıs much shorter, but the top passport had the Eagle emblem on ıt and when he opened ıt, I recognızed my fıve year ago face and trıed to smıle at hım as I saıd `Thats me` I guess my smıle worked because he smıled back.  I checked out the stıcker and stamp ın my passport and smıled.  Cool language.  Heres a few examples: ç ö ş ğ ü

I left the door open and a man ın a whıte coat, face mask, and whıte gloves asked me where I was from.  I answered and he handed me a health questıonnaıre.  I fılled ıt out an contınued to wrıte as I waıted for hım to collect ıt.  As I wrote. I heard a rooster sound hıs wake up call.  It was around 4 AM and we were due ın Istanbul around 9 or 10…I hoped I could get a few hours of sleep sınce I dıdnt thınk there would be any more ınterruptıons.

When we arrived in Athens I was feeling tired, a little burnt out, and thirsty. (I knew that a night out would cure all of that.)  We got dinner of souvlaki (chicken for Meg, tomatoes, onion, tzatziki, and fries for both of us) and chatted with some of our neighbors, all Ameircan, all male, all of varied ages.  Mike was black (one of the few I’ve encountered travelling, and that he has too), from New York and in his forties; Rob was from Connecticut and pushing 40; John and Eli were recent college graduates, John from Oregon, and Eli from Isreal, New York, and Toronto.  We all ended up in the hostel bar and out on the Saturday Athens nightlife, where we danced the night away and drank Mykos, the local beer.  (Meg, not a beer drinker stuck with Orange Bacardi Breezers, the first alcohol she ever got drunk on.)  I recall telling my new friends “The sky is blue, so that means it’s more early than it is late”.  I think we went to bed at five-ish?

Meghan and I woke up still drunk, but ready for the day.  Little did we know we’d end up walking for literally twelve hours!!  We saw flea markets, Parliament, changing of the guard at Parliament, broken chairs (they’re EVERYWHERE), the Archaeology Museum, Hadrian’s Arch, Hadrian’s Library (that we didn’t know it was until two days later), the Acropolis from a large distance, cats, walked around Plaka-the touristy neighborhood, and was amazed by mangy but well-fed looking dogs.  We fell into bed exhausted and slept like we’ve never slept before.

We took the three hour bus ride to Delphi the next day to look at some rubble-The Temple of Apollo, the Temple of Athena, the Bellybutton, the best preserved Stadium in Greece, and other unidentifyable rocks from ancient times.  The sun was relentless and there was no relief from the humidity.  Our feet were killing us from the day before and we were still probably dehydrated, so we didn’t talk much.  We spent a good 4 hours there before we headed back for a sleep-filled bus ride back to Athens.

Yesterday we went to Hadrian’s Library to realized that we already saw it the other day, took some photos, and headed for the Acropolis.  We only really checked out the Parthenon, as Meg didn’t have endurance because of the heat, heat rash, and sore feet.  We then went to the Temple of Olympian Zeus, where we sat under a tree for a while, resting our feet, and hiding from the sun.  We somehow made it back to the hostel, with our sore, sore feet.  We both discovered multiple blisters and nursed them for the rest of the night.  

Today was Meg’s last day in Greece, so we decided to take it easy.  We did’t leave the hostel until noon and took public transport everywhere we went.  We checked out the 2004 Olympic Staduim Grounds, where we found the soccer field and running track.  We posed for running, kicking, and jumping photos.  There was a medal stand, where we shared first place.  (Aren’t we good sisters?)  After we had enough Olympian stuff, we headed back to the touristy area so Meg could pick up some souvenirs for her friends. 

After putting it off for days, I finally got to the train station to ensure myself a seat on the overnight train to my next destination:  Turkey.  And family, don’t worry, I’m not going to the Eastern part of Turkey, at least not this time!  I’ll see you all next time from the country that straddles two continents!

The boat ride from Santorini to Mykonos was, well, interesting.  The wind was whipping dust all over the place, not to metnion the waves visible from the port.  I knew it was going to be a bumpy ride.  We sat down next to an Aussie couple from Melborne, so I began chatting to them right away, since it had only been 9 days since I had been in Australia.  Talking to eachother about Australia made all of us very homesick for the country and made Meghan want to go as well.  When the boat started rocking, Meghan got very quiet and looked at me with a desperate look.  I asked her if she wanted to kill me, but instead of answering, she grabbed the paper bag in the pocket in front of her.  People all around were trying to vomit silently into their bags, except for one guy a few rows in front of us.  He was the most obvious puker I have ever encountered-he kind of sounded like a motor that wouldn’t start!   You could hear many of the other passengers grabbing for their bags as he let everyone know how seasick he was.  The people who could stomach it were laughing along with the Loud Puker, who apparently felt much better as he laughed the loudest.  Meg and I were laughing too.

Once on dry land on Mykonos, we searched for a little white sign that said “Paradise Beach”, our accomodation for the island.  A bus took us and ten other people to the resort that seemed like it belonged in Cancun geared for uni-level spring breakers.  We found our room, which was no bigger than our two beds and a tiny dresser, and headed for Mykonos town, where we walked around and took photos of the tiny winding streets, its white and blue buildings, and windmills.  Of course we chased after and photographed the stray cats and dogs!  We bought a deck of playing cards and were hermits in our room while we could hear American, British, and Canadian college students getting wasted outside our room.  Not being massive drinkers, and older than most of the people we met, we figured that not participating wouldn’t have us missing out on Greek culture.

The next day we became professional “tanners” lathering up the oil and lying on the beach from ten in the morning to three in the afternoon.  We were both feeling crispy and wiped out from being in the sun for so long.  We napped a bit, then went for dinner in the complex.  We decided to sit in the posh area and have a drink; where we met Decklan from Ireland.  We made many references to being sisters throughout the entire conversation, so we were a little confused when he asked us if Mykonos was romantic.  Meg rubbed my arm, and said, “Oh yeah” and when he replied with some mumble about “Long distance relationships”, I laughed and said really loudly, “WE’RE SISTERS!”  He clearly thought we were lesbians, but once we clarified that we weren’t, it was really obvious he felt really stupid.  He didn’t hang out with us much longer after that.

The next day we took a ferry for the mainland ready for some Athenian adventures, where we sure had a few!

When we woke up our first morning there, I threw open the windows; first by turning the knob on the glass panes and then unhinging the blue clasp from the window to open the shutters.  Mediterranean sunlight poured in to greet us with the oh-so-typical whitewashed buildings contrasted against the bright blue sky.  We’re in Greece!

We rented the ATV from the hotel owner’s son, a tall, dark, and blue eyed handsome man-not to mention super friendly!  As we drove around for the next few days, we fell in love with the scenery and the people.  The fragmented mountains in the middle of the island seemed to loom over us everywhere we went.  The sea was almost always visible, except for when we were driving down roads Meg thought we shouldn’t have, which in hindsight, we couldn’t, since the ATV didn’t quite have the power needed to chug up the steep roads.  We sang togethere “I think I can I think I can” many times during those happy hours we spent driving around.  The stone white buildings dotted the grape vineyard landscape as far as we could see, that is, until the sea began.

On our way back from Oia the first night, it was dark, and Meghan, being the lead-footed driver she is, was pushing the ATV to its limit at around 50 kilometers an hour.  We saw a stopsign up ahead, but recalled during our daylight hours of driving around that stopsigns appeared about 30 feet (10 meters?) before intersections.  Meg somehow didn’t remember this, or didn’t see the sharp turn up ahead to our right…As the headlights illuminated the sign pointing us towards our destination of Perissa, Meghan suddenly turned the ATV with so much force that we took the corner on two wheels.  “JESUS MEGHAN!” was the only thing that emitted from my mouth, much to my younger sister’s entertainment.  We didn’t even stop, and I couldn’t be mad, because all I could hear over the roar of the engine was my sister’s laugh.  And anyone who has a sister knows that when she’s laughing, all you can do is laugh with her. 

Our dinner at God’s Garden was amazing.  For some reason I haven’t been able to recall a lot of the places we’ve been or where we’re going (I keep on confusing Olympia-the place where the first Olympics were held with Olympus…the mountain) so I called this restaurant “The God Place”.  Before we even ordered our food, a cat joined us begging for our nonexistant dinner.  Meghan ordered chicken souvlaki-grilled chicken (half of which went to the cat), tomato, onion, tzatziki (sp?) sauce, and fries wrapped up in a pita.  Yep, the fries were wrapped up in there too!  I ordered stuffed tomato and pepper…they were stuffed with rice and some unidentifyable yet delicious spices.  Accompanying the tomato and pepper were roasted potatoes drenched in butter.  After we paid, the waitress brought us out a dessert of fried dough balls in a sugary cinammon syrup.  Yum! 

Let me tell you about John, the hotel owner of Katerina and John.  He was so cute!  He was a heavy set working class looking man, with unkempt hair, and paint stained clothes.  His smile never escaped his lips.  His skin was beautifully weathered from the sun and his eyes were so blue you knew instantly his son inherited them from him.  The first day we tried to leave the island, we asked him if he could take us to the port.  He replied “Yes.  Eleven…I go to port”.  I asked him when we needed to be out of the room, and his reply was a sheepish grin and and drawn out “Eeeeleven”.  At ten past eleven, he showed up, looking a bit flustered at his watch, and told us “Thee uh, boat, no is come.”  We made him repeat it, not because we didn’t understand him, but because it sounded so cute.  He spoke rapidly to his son in Greek (which kind of sounds like an incomprehensible Spanish, which both my sister and I can speak on a basic level) and he explained to us that the weather was too bad for the boat to come.  It was windy that day, but we learned days later that the boat didn’t come because they hadn’t sold enough to fill the boat.

After three very overwhelming, eye-opening (more on this later), short days at home, I was more than ready to leave again, this time for Europe.  I traveled for 28 hours to get to Athens airports, changing planes twice in the States before I headed off over the Atlantic Ocean.

I arrived in Athens a few hours before my sister was due to arrive.  As my backpack came towards me on the luggage carousel, I noticed it looked wet.  I grabbed it and opened it quickly to discover my sister’s shampoo sticking out of the plastic bag the rest of her toiletries were stored in.  The bottle was open, and had emptied its entire contents onto the top of my bag, and everything else inside it.  I quickly found a ‘WC’ and got myself busy, cleaning off things.  Not once did I curse her (except to wonder why she brought hairspray) because I knew the explosion was mostly my fault.  When I told her to put her toiletries in a plastic bag, I really meant a gallon ziplock bag.  And I didn’t say anything about it, or do anything to change it.  Hell, it gave me something to do to kill the time.

After I got my bag as clean and dry as it could, I walked around the airport, making plans for once Meghan arrived.  I began to feel happy once I realized that I was back in Europe (6th time) by noticing things around me, like signs in many languages, hearing many languages, European toilets, the ancientness of everything, the smell of it, including the fact that people are still smoking everywhere here…I love Europe.

We took a direct bus to Pireaus and booked a ferry to Santorini, one of the islands.  Neither of us had really slept on our flights, so we dozed in and out of sleep on the ferry.  We arrived in Santorini after midnight.  We had a booking at a hotel/hostel, but no one representing the hostel was in the crowd of people holding signs that greeted the ferry.  We somehow got a guy from another hostel to drop us off at ours, where the owner was waiting for us to show us to our room.  The guy who had taken our booking made a mistake-the dorm was full so we got a room to ourselves at the dorm price!

The next day we rented an ATV and headed to the Red Beach.  The cliffs overlooking the beach were red, but to me, the sand (or tiny rocks) were black.  We hung out there until we couldn’t take the sun anymore and headed back to the hostel.  

One of the main things to do in Santorini is to watch the sun set from Oia (say E-Ah) so we spent the rest of the day taking our time getting there.  We’d drive on the main road a bit, then head off a gravel road to see the real island.  We passed heaps of churches, fields of grapes and olive trees, the occasional donkeys and goats, saw cats and dogs everywhere, and people-locals and tourists on ATVs and vespas.  We waved to the locals and most of the time got great responses from them.  We got to Oia a bit late for the sunset, but realized that we wouldn’t have seen the sun set into the water; the sun sets into a band of visible pollution that seperates the sea from the sky.

The next day we were ready to leave for Mykonos via boat, but learned right before we were to leave for the port that it was cancelled due to the wind.  We quickly checked back in and put our suits on and walked to the beach.  The sun was hot but the wind wasn’t, so after a few hours our sunburns wouldnl’t let us sit in the chilly wind anymore, so we headed back. 

After we ate dinner at an excellent local restaurant recommended by the hotel ownder called God’s Garden, we decided to rent another ATV to see the sunset again.  We actually saw it this time!  Meg was pretty impressed by the turnout; there were tourists pretty much everywhere the sunset was visible from.  We headed back to Perissa, where our hotel was, on the other side of the island before the sun set, as it was pretty chilly and checked out the local bar scene.  It was pretty nonexistant, so we went to bed.

Our last full day in Santorini we took the ATV to Fira to check out the capital of the island.  We discovered that it’s mostly full of shops selling postcards, jewellry, and other Santorini souvenirs, so we drove around the island instead.  We’re hoping that tomorrow the weather is cooperative and we can go to Mykonos.  I’m not hating Santorini, but it’s time to move on.