“Using words to describe magic is like using a screwdriver to cut roast beef.”
--Tom Robbins
July 14, 2011
The bus. Our home away from home while we are on the road. I know I spend much more time sleeping than awake on the bus. Even when I am completely awake when I get on the bus, it is this magical land that rocks me to sleep very quickly. Most times, I can barely keep my eyes open. My professor will start talking on the bus, and I will have every intention of listening or hearing the random announcements that he will make during our journey. More often than not I sleep completely through it. The traffic in Greece is insane. Cars dart in and out of everything, and I have no idea how the bus is able to make its way through the streets. Just today, the bus was literally inches from a building. The driver just continued to inch its way down the street and did avoid hitting anything. This trend is true in Crete, in Athens, and in the Peloponnese. It really is remarkable, but I have no desire to drive at all in Greece. All of our bus drivers have been amazing and incredible drivers.
On the other hand, I would be perfectly happy if Czech Connect Airlines didn’t exist. My friend and I had all of our travel plans figured out for our three week trip through Europe. That was until Czech Connect Airlines decided to cancel the flight I had booked for us to get to Athens. Not only was the flight cancelled, but I have to fill out extra paperwork to get a refund for the tickets. It’s absurd! They cancel the flight that I had booked AND paid for, further inconveniencing me because I have to figure out a new flight or how to change my next flight. And now fill out a form. By the way Czech Connect Airlines, the link you gave me that should go to the form I need to fill out. It doesn’t work. So thanks so much!
It is frustrating, but it isn’t awful. Based on the other options for flights, we would lose a solid afternoon and evening in Athens. That means that it doesn’t really make sense to try to go to Athens anymore. It is just too expensive for too little time. I think that our current plan is just to take out Athens and spend a day more in London and a day more in Dublin if the airlines can make that happen. It will make flights much less expensive, since Athens is expensive to fly into and out of.
Beyond my travel frustrations, let me just say that I am currently looking out of a bus window onto a bright blue ocean. Jealous yet? It is gorgeous, and these views are everywhere in Greece. They honestly can’t be captured in a simple picture. Even a panoramic, while better at capturing the scene, can’t do it justice. And the coast goes on forever. Normally I would miss these views because I am asleep, but these views are everywhere.
Now, because I feel like I should discuss my actual experiences in Greece, I suppose I will talk about Crete. We were told by Aleko, our Dr. Feel Good and kind uncle on our trip, that Crete is the Texas of Greece. Everything is bigger here, and the culture is much more Wild West/take things into your own hands. (Side note from Aleko: No offense to anyone from Texas.) All of us know that Texas is not all like that, but Crete has some very back country areas.
Most recently, I stopped by a kiosk and simply said “yiasas” (hello) to the cashier. He immediately asked if I spoke Greek (in Greek), and I was able to respond (in Greek) that I spoke a little Greek. Those language CDs have paid off a little. But enough for my showing off.
We stopped by Knossos our first day on Crete and tried to beat the heavy tourism. We were mostly successful, but by the time that we left the place was hopping with tourists. While in Crete we have visited a number of archaeological sites, but generally only in the mornings. It has been incredibly hot with very little shade, so I don’t mind the shorter days. Afternoons have been spent at the pool, although we are going to have a beach at our next town.
The town we have been staying in was tiny. At very least, we never saw anything huge. Both in Zaros, where we were staying, and Archanes, where we just stopped for lunch, guys have driven by our group repeatedly. As in, a car will drive by, turn around, and drive by again. One of the motorcycles even popped a wheelie for us. Honestly, I wasn’t too impressed. We have been told by Aleko that if one of our guys looks at a girl for too long, her father may show up and try to force a marriage on the guy. It is a very interesting culture where the guys appear intimidating.
A group of three of us went for a walk yesterday evening. We reached the base of a path towards the beginning of the walk, and a sign said that a gorge was in 2.5 km. We started following this path, but the next sign that we found said that the canyon was 4 km away. We continued along this path for a while, which had a number of gates along the path, which we presumed was for animals. We saw a church from the path and tried to find it. None of us were dressed appropriately, but the church appeared fairly modern, and we just wanted to peek in through the door. It took a lot of exploring to finally find the church, but it was completely closed off by fences. Through the fence, I saw an old man and an old woman dressed in black. It looked as if a house stood nearby, and these religious people lived there. We were standing in the middle of a group of chickens, and at one point in time, someone whistled at us and motioned for us to leave. It is possible that they wanted us to leave their chickens alone. Religious people, I am sorry for invading on your space.
Later on we saw plenty of goats on the side of mountains, eating the vegetation. We also met a sheep with her lamb. The noise this sheep was making was strange; I have never heard such a sound in my life. The lamb was still drinking her mother’s milk, but the mother sounded like she was terrified. It didn’t seem like she could find the rest of her group, and I felt so bad for the mom and her child. They seemed to calm down eventually, but it was a really cool sight to see them climb part of the mountain. We never made it to the end of the path, but we did walk quite a distance. It was a really pretty path, although we slipped plenty of times.
The magic of the bus is at work; I think that it is naptime for me now!
No comments:
Post a Comment