November 21, 2006
What a great night’s sleep. I was quite surprised how well I slept given the fact that we were on a ferry all night. I probably slept a good 9 hours waking up a few times here and there.
We hung around our room for quite a bit this morning and then went to grab breakfast around 11AM. Well, the restaurants had just all closed so we made do with a piece of apple pie and tea. Oh, the horrors!
We got into Patras at 12:30 PM and we were going to take the train into Athens, but the train didn’t leave until 1:55 PM and wasn’t going to get in until 5:30 PM so we opted for the 16 euro bus that left right after the ferry arrived and got us in around 4PM. It would have gotten there sooner, but we stopped for a 20 minute rest at some rest stop. We, of course, were the only people not dying to get off the bus for a smoke! And when asked if we smoke and we reply no, the commonly asked question is, “why not?” How strange.
We finally got into Athens (Athina) and the bus dropped us off by some park. We stood there with my big ass suitcase, my big camera/pack pack, Karen’s enormous pack, Karen’s other carry on bag and wondered what to do next. It didn’t look like we needed to haul our stuff to a taxi stand, unlike any other major European city, so I stood by the luggage and Karen hailed a cab. We carefully packed the truck…Karen’s pack in the front seat, got in the car, and I handed the driver a piece of paper with the address and name of the hotel as we don’t know a single word of Greek. He asked the name of the hotel, I repeated, he asked again, I repeated and off we went.
About 30 seconds later we pulled up in front of the hotel. It was just around the corner. What a riot! I gave the guy 5 euros, which was probably double the fare, but I felt so silly for the 30 second cab ride, which took less time than packing and unpacking the car.
We checked in to the hotel, which was probably restored for the Olympics in 2004. Our room is beautiful, cozy and very elegant.
By the time we got checked in, it was close to dinner time, so we headed out and walked around for a bit and then found a cafeteria type place to have dinner at. Nothing too fancy, but after a month of travel, a nice salad is good now and then.
We then walked a couple of blocks of shops, did some looking around and then headed back to the hotel.
Before we got to Greece, Karen mentioned that she had heard that there are a lot of stray dogs in Athens. I had heard about the stray cats, especially in the islands, but not too much about the dogs. Well, it is true, unfortunately there are a lot of homeless dogs in Athens. The good news is that the government is at least trying to “fix” them and give them their vaccinations – at least it is something. There are two stray dogs that are fixtures at our hotel…both are very well fed we learned after bringing back some left overs from dinner. It is really sad to see these dogs that just need loving homes. So, if anyone wants to try and adopt a dog, a lot of Greek dogs need homes – just Google it and I’m sure you’ll find a bunch of different sites.
The weather is supposed to be rainy here for the next few days…but we are keeping our fingers crossed.
What a great night’s sleep. I was quite surprised how well I slept given the fact that we were on a ferry all night. I probably slept a good 9 hours waking up a few times here and there.
We hung around our room for quite a bit this morning and then went to grab breakfast around 11AM. Well, the restaurants had just all closed so we made do with a piece of apple pie and tea. Oh, the horrors!
We got into Patras at 12:30 PM and we were going to take the train into Athens, but the train didn’t leave until 1:55 PM and wasn’t going to get in until 5:30 PM so we opted for the 16 euro bus that left right after the ferry arrived and got us in around 4PM. It would have gotten there sooner, but we stopped for a 20 minute rest at some rest stop. We, of course, were the only people not dying to get off the bus for a smoke! And when asked if we smoke and we reply no, the commonly asked question is, “why not?” How strange.
We finally got into Athens (Athina) and the bus dropped us off by some park. We stood there with my big ass suitcase, my big camera/pack pack, Karen’s enormous pack, Karen’s other carry on bag and wondered what to do next. It didn’t look like we needed to haul our stuff to a taxi stand, unlike any other major European city, so I stood by the luggage and Karen hailed a cab. We carefully packed the truck…Karen’s pack in the front seat, got in the car, and I handed the driver a piece of paper with the address and name of the hotel as we don’t know a single word of Greek. He asked the name of the hotel, I repeated, he asked again, I repeated and off we went.
About 30 seconds later we pulled up in front of the hotel. It was just around the corner. What a riot! I gave the guy 5 euros, which was probably double the fare, but I felt so silly for the 30 second cab ride, which took less time than packing and unpacking the car.
We checked in to the hotel, which was probably restored for the Olympics in 2004. Our room is beautiful, cozy and very elegant.
By the time we got checked in, it was close to dinner time, so we headed out and walked around for a bit and then found a cafeteria type place to have dinner at. Nothing too fancy, but after a month of travel, a nice salad is good now and then.
We then walked a couple of blocks of shops, did some looking around and then headed back to the hotel.
Before we got to Greece, Karen mentioned that she had heard that there are a lot of stray dogs in Athens. I had heard about the stray cats, especially in the islands, but not too much about the dogs. Well, it is true, unfortunately there are a lot of homeless dogs in Athens. The good news is that the government is at least trying to “fix” them and give them their vaccinations – at least it is something. There are two stray dogs that are fixtures at our hotel…both are very well fed we learned after bringing back some left overs from dinner. It is really sad to see these dogs that just need loving homes. So, if anyone wants to try and adopt a dog, a lot of Greek dogs need homes – just Google it and I’m sure you’ll find a bunch of different sites.
The weather is supposed to be rainy here for the next few days…but we are keeping our fingers crossed.
posted by jscdn - europe at 3:46 AM
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