February 7th 2018 - February 21st 2018
PART 1 - ATHENS
February 7th:
We took the train from Ghent to Charleroi Airport. It's been snowing in Wallonia! A few hours later we landed in Greece. With a temperature of 15°C we don't need scarves or even a coat. A metro ride to Monastiraki brought us to our hotel, which seemed to be located in "one of the most shady areas of Athens" (quoting several travel websites; obviously after we had returned from our trip).
We hurry ourselves back to the metro station, where there were several stalls with fresh olives and prices that make you go "whoa" (in the positive sense).
The stalls were just closing, so we'll have to check them out tomorrow.
An evening walk brings us past several ancient monuments that are well lit, as we end at one of the several vegan restaurants (grocery stores were also closed by then).
Lime Bistro, the restaurant that we chose, had a HappyCow rating of five stars. And rightfully so. The average price per person was around 12 euro for food, and it was so worth it. The cauliflower-based risotto is amazing. The vegan pita with gyros on a mushroom base with yoghurt sauce and baked potatoes was salty but delicious. We were served "raki", which is recommendable; although it's a typical Turkish drink, this one was enhanced with several spices, agave syrup and star anise.
Walking back to the hotel via the Acropolis, we come across several lit-up monuments, orange trees and dozens of street cats.
February 8th:
After a turbulent night with noisy hotel guests, the first morning in Athens arrives.
Following a short trip through the unpleasant neighbourhood, we end up at a cozy bakery where we buy a typical Greek round treat with sesame seeds (which, in hindsight might've contained honey; their English was terrible, our Greek was non-existent). We walk past touristic shops and stalls and go to Starbucks, where I'm promoted to "Ralph".
Our fantastic hotel doesn't have any maps for tourists, so we wanted to visit the touristic office; which was easier said than done.
The GPS tells us that the Greek Parliament building is nearby, so we go that way. In front of the parliament building is the Syntagma Square with several stalls, statues and street dogs.
At the parliament building are two guards (called Evzone or Tsoliás) standing ceremony at the Monument for the Unknown Soldier. Every hour, the changing of the guards takes place, which draws a lot of tourists to the spot, but it doesn't trigger our attention. Next to and behind the parliament building (where the Royal family lived hundred years ago) we find the National Gardens.
The National Gardens contains a small (free) zoo with several birds, goats and bunnies. They live in way too small cages and don't look happy at all. There's some ruines as well, one of which contains a mosaic floor and the remnants of walls. The most amazing thing about these ruins, however, was the tortoises sunbathing. Such marvelous creatures.
After the Gardens we went to the Zappeion. This was used at the "Olympic Village" during the first modern Olympic Games and now serves as a conference building.
From the Zappeion, it's an easy transition to the Temple of the Olympic Zeus, a wondrous ruine of what used to be an incredible building. Within the site, there's a very social cat that sat on our laps and only left when he or she was offered food by a third party.
The Arch of Hadrian gets dwarfed in size, in between the Temple of Zeus and the Acropolis.
Dinner consisted of vegan wraps, followed by a quick rest back in the hotel. The plan was to go back to the Acropolis, but our information was faulty; they were already closed. Oh well, since we're already there, we climbed the Philopappos Hill, which gave us a magnificent view of the night sky over Athens. We'll come back tomorrow, with binoculars! (it turns out that we forgot to go back)
We ended the night with vegan waffles with chocolate sauce.
During the day we came across a bunch of street dogs and street cats; only some of which were social enough to pet. We also saw a bunch of Greek Orthodox churches. The older generations are still very religious.
What shocked me was how rude a lot of people were. They bump into you; they don't bother to make way; they don't use their turn signal; they don't stop for crossings, they just go and don't pay any attention to anyone crossing the street; ...
February 9th:
Today's the day for the Acropolis! Our path brings us to the bakery and to Starbucks, after which we climb up the Acropolis-hill on small dusty roads where many-a-cat stand guard.
Tourist attractions in winter time are often cheaper and less busy, but close earlier.
The Acropolis, one of the wonders of the world, probably known by almost everyone in the world. You're gonna need a couple of hours to visit this heritage site. We spent four hours, gazing in amazement, overlooking Athens and the environment, letting the history seep in. And what a history it has. What a cruel history. War has torn through the city and the site.
Niké's temple is small and you're not allowed to get close, which is a shame because she's quite intact, well preserved or renovated. The propylaea and the Karyatids are stunning too. The latter was one of the artifacts that I really wanted to see (the whole Akropolis was on my to-do-list, but the Erechtheion and the Karyatids definitely were a favorite).
The Parthenon itself was a bit of a disappointment. I don't really know why. Half of it was in scaffolds, understandably, but still ... I expected magic, but I didn't feel it. Don't get me wrong, what an amazing, wonderful building, a breath-taking ruin, but still, something was missing for me.
Within the price of an admission, you can also visit the Theatre of Dionysus, on the slope of the Acropolis. The theatre is more in ruins than the Herodus Attika Theatre on the other side of the slope, on which you are allowed to walk. That's probably why the Dionysus Theatre is off limits.
As with so many Greek (and thus, Roman) sites, everything is beautifully decorated with human figures, animal figures, plants, mythological figures and plenty of other scenes. The Dionysus Theater is no exception.
After the Acropolis, we went to some sort of flea market on our way to the Old Agora. There's not much time anymore, but we hurry.
At the Agora, we start with the Stoa. It's a marvelous building which houses the museum of the Old Agora. Within the Old Agora you can find the Temple to Hephaestos, one of the best preserved temples in all of Greece, and whoa, what a beauty she is! The temple itself is worth the admission, and then there's a view from the temple site. Some birds had their nests in the temple and sang us their songs.
The rest of the Agora consists of ruins, or rather, low remnants of walls of shops and what used to be a busy place. The entire city used to come here, where everything happened. Markets, offerings, filling up on water, sentencing, administration of justice, ... when the Ancient Greeks weren't home or out for war, there were probably here.
The high-pitched noise of whistles chases us away, accompanied by a rude "we are closing".
We return to the market to find some souvenirs and end the day with vegan pizza!
February 10th:
Today we're taking things a bit slower. We start at the Kerameikos. Within this historic site is the ancient road out of Athens with graves on both sides of the path. The graves all belong to prominent figures and war heroes, and they are all beautifully decorated, as you come to expect of the Ancient Greeks.
There are also some mass graves with up to 150 people buried in one of those burial mounds. The largest mass grave is full of bodies and offerings. One of the plaques tells us that there was a plague at that time. The floors of the temples were littered with corpses, people who prayed to the Gods with their last breath and died on the spot while hoping to be cured and saved, while others died in the fountains while attempting to get a last drop to drink.
The museum houses plenty of artefacts. Some are so small that you cannot help but wonder how they were able to make something so detailed.
There are other tourists visiting the museum as well. The level of commitment is apparent when you notice that they go from statue to statue just to laugh at the size of the male genitalia. What a way to embrace Ancient Greek culture...
It's customary, by the way, not to flush toilet paper down the toilet.
Instead, you have to throw it in a bin.
Apart from not making any effort to make way when passing you, so everyone can use the sidewalk, a lot of Greeks are also trained to just stare at you. All. The. Time.
The next stop is the Panathinaikos Stadium, which was built for the first Modern Olympic Games. There's not a whole lot to see, so we decided not to enter and just continue our way to the Lycabettus Hill, the tallest mountain of Athens. Some reviews on TripAdvisor said the cable lift is worth it. So, after waiting in line for about half an hour, and an entrance fee of five euros, the cable lift only goes through the mountain, so there's no view, and it's hardly worth the time and fee.
It's cloudy and raining, so there's not a whole lot we can see from the top of the mountain. The whole journey in Greece will end in Athens (because our flight leaves from the Athens airport), so if we have the time and the weather is better, we might come back for this.
The day comes to an end. We planned to go to a "vegetarian and vegan street food" restaurant, but we were tired and happened to run into a typical Greek restaurant "with vegan options'' called All That Jatz. Here, we chose the grilled vegetables, rice in grape leaves and eggplant in tomato sauce. Divine!
And the waiter, what a nice, sincere, sweet and kind man. He's one of those people that you'd just hug. If anyone ever deserved a tip, it's this man. My god! I can't fathom how kind and polite he is, especially compared to a lot of Atheners we came across.
This restaurant (and this man) received a well-deserved five-star rating on Facebook, TripAdvisor and HappyCow.
PART 2 - ON THE ROAD
February 11th:
We have to get up early to pick up the rental car. The people from the car company are too late, but ... this doesn't seem to be a problem. Where you're allowed to go 100km per hour, she's driving 160 and even ignoring a red light, to bring us from the airport (pick-up location) to their office.
They offer us an upgrade, from gas to diesel, for a mere 38 euro extra. Since diesel is cheaper and the trip is already more expensive than expected, we agree. When we stop to fill up the tank, we discover that it's gas anyway. We haven't paid the 38 euro surplus yet, so we'll see what will happen with that when we return the car.
We park the car outside Athens and take a subway to join the Greek chapter of Anonymous for the Voiceless. They believe they don't have a lot of volunteers, but they sure have more than we do in Belgium. How they organize and execute their Cube is inspiring.
After we participate in the Athens Cube, we take the car and drive to Corinth. The pavement in less-touristic places can be abysmal.
Outside of Corinth, we find a spot where we park and sleep (we've decided to sleep in the car to save money and to be more free to change travel plans). From here we can see the Corinth Bay on one side and mountains on the other.
February 12th:
We get up early. A morning walk up the mountain beckons us. We wanted to visit the monastery on the top of the mountain yesterday, but it was too late. Halfway up the mountain, the monastery seemed to be further away than expected, so we decided to return to the car and discover Ancient Corinth.
Before we arrived at the Corinth Canal, we stopped for a cup of coffee and tea at the beach. What a wonderful view.
Across from the channel (which was built by slaves by Nero's orders), there's a pedestrian bridge that's supposed to be worth it. After walking in the sand and sun for about half an hour, we realize that the bridge is nothing more than a concrete construction for sewage pipes, which is noticeable by the smell. We turn around and head for Ancient Corinth.
Ah, closed on Mondays. Oh well, since we're here anyway and can’t get to another city in time (assuming that they don't close on Mondays and knowing that tourist attractions close at three during winter), we end up having a drink at a terrace... Well, we ... the waitress flat-out ignored me. It sure saves some money, not drinking something :-)
We do some grocery shopping at the local Lidl and have a picnic at the Old Theatre with a stunning view of the Acrocorinth.
We return, by car, to our sleeping spot via the bridge on the other side of the channel. During spring and summer, you can go bungee jumping from this bridge.
February 13th:
Without any further delay, today we visit Ancient Corinth. The museum is full of amazing pieces with a lot of information and a small army of museum attendants (at some moments, there's six of them, just for us two). The site itself mainly consists of the remnants of the temple of Apollo.
Again we read about Pausanius, an ancient traveler to whom we owe so much knowledge about Ancient Greece.
We have lunch at the gates and walls of the Acrocorinth, giving us a view that dwarfs us. Mountains, mountains and snow-covered mountaintops!
The Acrocorinth is definitely worth a visit. It's easy to spend several hours here. The views are breath-taking. Mountains as far as the eyes can see, modern Corinth, forests, ...
The stone stairways and paths can be slick and there are no railings, so do be careful. Some paths are very close to the precipice, my fear of heights prevented me from seeing certain parts of the site.
It's getting late, we're not gonna make it to Epidaurus, so that'll be on the list for the next trip to Greece.
February 14th:
The road to Sparta is littered with beautiful sights: mountains that disappear in the clouds, mountains that are covered in shade, mountains that are covered in the sun, ...
Ancient Sparta and the Acropolis aren't really worth it, in my opinion. The old theatre is the most impressive aspect of the site. A part of the stage was set on wheels and could be moved.
Most of the ruins, however, were close to completely gone and devoid of any explanation.
We spot a statue to Leonidas near the centre of modern Sparta, after which we stop for a coffee and Ouzo (Greek vodka).
Outside of the city, there's a temple to Artemis. It was closed, however, and surrounded by garbage and filth.
We start to drive to Olympia and this road is also filled with wonderful sights. Sleeping in the car isn't all that great, so we decided to book a hotel room in Olympia, surely a decent bed will do us good.
February 15th:
The weather forecast in Olympia promises us rain, lots and lots of rain, so we just stay in today.
When it started to clear up, we decided to visit the Open Theatre.
Walking there, we see a lot of dogs. Not street dogs, this time, but dogs in people's yards and gardens. Tied up with chains. "Cheap security measures". Dogs who almost hang themselves time and again, trying to chase away anyone who comes to close. Terrible.
February 16th:
We had booked another night, the room in the apartment was great, luxurious for what it was, cheap, and the owner was very kind.
The weather is a lot better, so we get to see Ancient Olympia today. The archeological museum has marvelous pieces. A model of Ancient Olympia depicts what the city used to look like. There's marble statues that used to decorate the top of Zeus' temple, but also a whole bunch of bronze (decorative pieces, but also weapons and tableware) and terracotta and clay pieces (figurines, vases and part of a roof).
The archeological site of Ancient Olympia is impressive as well, although it's harder to capture it on film, since a lot has been lost and few is still standing.
The temple of Zeus was one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, but is destroyed.
The museum of the Ancient Olympic Games goes into detail about all the several sporting disciplines during the 1167 years the Olympic Games existed, using statues, vases and plates.
We leave Olympia and drive up to a lake to grab a bite to eat, with sights of mountains and cliffs (with goats climbing the cliff walls). A path brings us to a graspatch covered in shell casings and goat droppings. While we're eating, we can hear the gunshots...
Two dogs spot us and come closer, followed by a whole herd of goats (and bells).
After we ate, we continued on the path and came across more shell casing. We also see the skeletal remains of a large waterfowl, the skull of a dog and the remains of a tortoise. While we all know that hunters are sad people, one can only imagine how pathetic a hunter has to be before he takes his rifle and shoots a tortoise. That's not even excusable as sport anymore, that is just proof that hunting is all about killing.
When we got back to the car, there's a big street dog that approached us. He walks with a limp. We do our best to get him into the car, while contacting several animal welfare organisations. Most of them don't have any phone details, and when they do, they don't speak English. It was hard, but we had to leave the dog behind. We did inform several organisations and local vets by mail, so we can only hope that something happened.
February 17th:
Today we drive to Foloi to find the path to the Nemouta Falls. A description on the internet tells us that the path starts at the museum, but we can't find a museum and thus no path.
The local inhabitants speak almost no English and we are led to nearby Koumani, but there was also no mention of a path anywhere.
We did see a beautiful donkey tied up with a chain, who was presumably used for carrying tourists and heavy loads. One of his or her front legs had a wound. The farmer was closeby, so there was little that we could do, but we did manage to give the donkey some food. A cold consolation.
We continue our way to Nemouta. Since the path should lead us there, we just figured that maybe we could follow the path in the opposite direction. The mountain road is in a bad condition and it’s pretty dangerous.
Close to nightfall we find a trail. It's probably not the path we're looking for, but it's better than nothing, but it'll be for tomorrow. Hiking in the dark in a place we don't know, doesn't seem like a smart move.
Sleeping in the car, in the middle of nowhere, with only small villages nearby ensures that we see plenty of stars out. I have never seen so many stars!
February 18th:
The car won't start. We walk to the nearby village of Elea and look for someone, anyone who understands a bit of English. We are led from one person to the next, no one really understands anything we say. Eventually we're surrounded by five or six elderly people, all talking in Greek. I try to explain to them that the car won't start, in English, with my hands and some sounds, and with Google Translate (internet reception wasn't all that great either). Someone then recommends that we hike up the mountain to the village of Nemouta.
When we pass the car, up the mountain to Nemouta, it suddenly starts again. Luckily for us! We go back to the trail, but find no waterfalls. GPS doesn't work and there are no signs anywhere, so we just try it and hope we don't get lost.
Three hours later, we get back to the car and continue to Patras. The road up the other mountain is also dangerous, narrow and in a bad condition. At some points we just go so slowly as to not damage the car, that we were passed by Greek grandmothers on foot.
Instead of going to Patras, we drive towards Delphi instead. The GPS doesn't mention that the Patras bridge is a toll bridge with an admission of 13 euros, payable at the end of the bridge, so you can't really turn back ...
After passing the bridge - and passing several dead animals at the side of the road - we enter a small village, park the car by the beach and prepare for the night.
February 19th:
It's a Monday and a holiday, so the museums and other cultural sites aren't open. Most stores are closed too. We do happen to find one store that's open. Thank god for "accidentally vegan" stuff, like the American Cookies we found. That was going to be our main food for the day.
We continue the drive to Delphi and find a cheap hotel with an amazing view of Itea, a coastal city.
There are plenty of street cats in Delphi, but they are all shy.
In the hotel we came across an older Australian guy whom we met in Olympia. Apparently he left Olympia the same day as us, and he arrived in Delphi on the same day as us, but while we had the comfort of a car, he had to take a bus for two days.
Not much else happened that day, the holiday is coming to a close and we're taking things slower.
February 20th:
The last full day of our trip. We get up early to visit the museum and the site, afterwards it's a three-hour drive back to Athens.
The site of Ancient Delphi is amazing. The theatre is the best kept ruin, but was inaccessible. Apollo's Temple has only a few columns left, but the floor plan is still very visible. The Athens Treasury is also very well kept.
Arriving at the Stadium we were greeted by a cat. The poor fellow has only one eye and only stopped meowing when I picked him up and held him in my arms. One-Eyed-Jack cosied up in my embrace and accompanied us along a part of the site. Only when another cat cried out (the site is home to a whole group of the furry friends), Jack lost interest in us. I so wanted to give him a warm home, him and all the other cats. He never left my mind, and my heart.
At the museum a model of Ancient Delphi caught my eye. What a wonderful experience it must have been to live in that city.
I wanted to visit Delphi for the famed Oracle. Unfortunately, the Oracle - located in the Temple of Athena -, and the Gymnasium are closed off for the public. Damn.
Off to Athens, then.
On the road to Athens, a bird of prey passed our car, impressive!
It's quite a hassle to enter Athens free of toll, and we missed an exit so we ended up at the toll booth. Oh well, it's only 2,8 euro.
We return to Monastiraki, where we find the local Starbucks and visit the flea market. There are so many souvenir shops, but overall it's just fun to stroll down the flea market.
A small, skinny cat came by for some hugs and cuddles. When the furry creature left, we went back to All That Jatz. The super-kind waiter wasn't present, but the food was still awesome.
We end the day by looking for a cosy place to park, and thus sleep.
February 21st:
Shortly before we had to wake up to return the car and catch our flight, we are awoken by turmoil outside. Car lights shine into the car, a male voice yells in Greek. The car leaves with screeching tires, passes us by, turns around and comes to a halt on the other side of our car. Again, the headlights shine into our vehicle. Flashlights also are shining into our car, two voices yell in Greek and they bang on the car doors and windows.
I have to admit that we're quite scared. It has also become impossible to pretend to still be asleep. I crack one of the windows open. They again yell in Greek. I ask if they speak English. One of them replies with "get out!", repeatedly. I'm not even allowed to get my pants on. When I get out of the car, I notice that the two men are police officers. With flashlights shining in my eyes and weapons drawn towards my face, they keep asking me what I'm doing there.
Eventually, I'm allowed to get some pants on. After I explained that we were tourists and that we had to sleep there near the car rental office, to get an early flight, and showing some identification, they calmed down.
"Do you know where you are?! This is Gipsy territory!" one of them yells. According to him, we should be thankful that they found us before "the gipsies" did.
It beats an alarm clock, I guess. We're awake now.
Less than half an hour later, we have to return the rental car and go to the airport.
