Freakishly Happy

The next day we packed up our things and left the hotel at a relatively decent hour (meaning escaping JUST before check out time ;-) ) and headed to the train station. We boarded a train to a tiny coastal Greek town called Patras We met up with a young Canadian couple who were also touring in first class. We all decided to move to the dining car together. The train ride was absolutely spectacular with the snow capped mountains, the vineyards that we in bloom, and not to mention the surf crashing up practically over the side of the train once we neared to ocean. We swapped travel tips with the couple and had an enjoyable lunch of leftovers from the night before.

We arrived in Patras and had a few hours to kill before our boat to Italy. We walked around the town, sat in a park for a long while and watched two strange older men inspect the park benches, and then went to find some food for the train. This is quite a feat, because in Greece everything pretty much closes down at 2 o’clock, and it stays closed for the rest of the day. We were able to find an open bakery and an open convenience store (how convenient) and bought ourselves some provisions for the night. Then we headed to the boating docks. We got our tickets which were an AMAZING deal. With our Eurail tickets, a bed in a male or female dorm was only 13 Euro apiece for a 20 hour journey! The tickets would have been completely free, but due to the higher price of gas, a 13 E tax was imposed, but still not too shabby.
We had to wait for a while to board, so we sat in the embarking area and played Sudoku for about an hour (earlier we picked up a Greek version. I think so far we have Sudoku from 3 or 4 different countries).

After we’d completely numbed our brains we decided to try to board. We went to the docks, found our ship and boarded with no problem. We got our room keys, and dropped our stuff in storage lockers outside of our room and then went out on deck to watch the scenery and the sunset with a huge bowl of fresh strawberries that we bought from the cafeteria. I was really silly though and completely missed the sunset, because I went back in for my jacket, and then I locked my keys in the locker and had to get a spare from the front desk yada yadda yadda, so when I got back outside everything was grey and darkish.

This shipping experience was completely different than our first one. It seemed as though there were more people working on the ship than actual passengers. It was just us and a handful of Asian tourists, which was really nice. I ordered dinner, and John and I ate that along with the rest of the leftovers from the Greek restaurant. Then we went and spoke to the front desk people and told them that there were no other people in either of our dorm rooms, and asked if it’d be ok if we bunked together. They said that as we were in the middle of the sea, and the likelihood of other guests boarding was pretty slim, that it’d be okay if John came and stayed with me.

We got all of our stuff moved, and grabbed the laptop and found a big cozy couch and watched a couple of movies, went to the video arcade room and played some ____________ and ate tiramisu and chocolate cake from the deli. All before bedtime ;-)

The next morning John worked on his dissertation and I took a nap and played Sudoku before we arrived in the port town of Ancona. When we arrived we hopped on a crowded bus that took us to the train station and boarded a train for Bologna. We met a nice Professor on board who told us all about the Italian university system, and gave us some tips on where to stay and eat in Bologna. Once arriving in Bologna, we decided that we’d call our hostel in Florence and see if they could squeeze us in for the night, and they thankfully they could. We hopped on a train south.

While on board I got my finger wedged between a sliding glass door an the wall which hurt like nothin’ else, we played Sudoku and had a broken discussion in English/Italian/German/Hungarian with a Hungarian man who had just moved to Prague a few months before

We got to the train station and set out to find our hotel. It was dark, and an hour after the hostel owner expected us. I told her what time we were leaving and she assumed the time that we’d get there. We had a general idea of where the hostel was but it still took us a while to find it. Florence was bustling even at night time. Students and bar crawlers all out wandering the town. We found the hostel and were let in to the immense wooden door by some students from Minnesota who were also staying there. We hoofed up the 6+ flights of stairs with all of our gear on, only to find the owner wasn’t there. We waited for a few minutes before dragging our exhausted bodies and all of our gear back down the stairs to search for a pay phone.

We found the pay phone right in front of the building. It was smashed to bits. I began to get panicky and cranky, as we set off further from our destination. About a block down we were approached by a nice guy from New Jersey (they do exist!) who offered us the use of his mobile phone for no charge. He said he’d been in many similar situations, and knew the look of desperation when he saw it. We called the hostel owner and within 10 minutes we were cozy and in our bedroom, eating a stale baguette and goat cheese left over from our trip from Greece.

We arrived in Thessaloniki a little before midnight, without any where to stay. We walked out of the station to a street lined with several hotels. We passed one that had a HUGE flashing neon sign reading “Hotel Rex” and went on to a Best Western, Holiday Inn etc. All of those were well over 100 Euro, so we grudgingly went back to Hotel Rex, whose rates were 30 Euro for a shared bathroom. Now I forgot to mention earlier that Hotel Rex was sandwiched between two strip joints and had a sex shop in the adjoining building. It looked as though it probably rented rooms if not by the 20 minutes, at least by the hour.

After experiencing the “shared bathrooms” (at least the women’s was NASTY I can’t vouch for the men’s, we opted to spring for the 50 Euro ensuite. We crawled into bed, wearing shorts and tank tops, but after laying there for less than three minutes, we were both up and out of bed piling on as much clothing as possible before trying to sleep. John and I ended up sharing his twin mattress (in Europe most hotels have 2 twin mattresses shoved together to make a big bed, instead of just buying a big bed. Our bed here in Freiburg is this way, too…) as mine had not been rotated during it’s 20 years in usage, and had spring poking through and had a huge crater … no comment on as to why. The next morning I even woke up with several bruises on my arms, ribs and legs from where I had managed to sprawl out on my bed and had unfortunately hit a spring or two or three.

I got directions from the two bald, tattoo bedecked brothers at the front desk and John and I headed into the city. On the way we passed a wonderful market selling all kinds of things from whole lamb carcasses to half priced underwear. On the way out we had the best food of our trip. Spannikopita, Greek Spinach pies… fresh from the oven, dripping buttery flakey goodness. It was really amazing. My mouth waters just remembering it.

Then we took a stroll along the coast, and visited some Byzantine Era monuments and wandered around for a while. The city was beautiful, warm and sunny. We ventured back to the market and I bought a ¼ kilo of olives for 80 cents and we got Gyros, which I couldn’t eat after revisiting the lamb carcasses. It wouldn’t have been so bad had they not had their eyes and teeth still in. John tried to convince me that they were geese, as without their wool and skin it was hard to tell what they were, but the damage was done and my gyro, soaking with grease and covered with French fries went into the trash.

After our meal, we went hurried back to the train station. We had JUST missed the slower train bound for Athens and had to pay 70 Euros to take the “fast” train. We got some provisions and went and waited for the train.

When we got on the train, it was completely silent. John and I played a game of charades, where one person mimes something say “rabbit” and when the other person gets it, they have to mime the next word beginning with the last letter of the other person’s word, say “ tarantula.” The old men across from us and the young men sharing our seats were quite amused and or perplexed by us. The scenery on this trip was also fantastic. The sunset went down behind the mountains in a fiery blaze and we saw mount Olympus standing majestically snowcapped on the horizon.

After awhile we struck up a conversation with one of our seat mates. He said that he was a TV director in Athens but he was from Thessaloniki. We talked for a long while about all things, when the announcer came on and told us we were to be delayed. We continued talking to our new friend and we all moved into the dining car together. He taught us useful phrases in Greek, the usual, “Please” “thank you” and of course, curse words and shared with us a traditional greek cake. The train ended up being very late, over 3 hours late in fact. So much for our 70 Euros, and it being the fast train. Everyone was getting very frustrated and after awhile the entire train appeared dead as almost everyone (except for us) had fallen asleep.

We arrived in Athens well after midnight and scrambled with the rest of our late arriving train to find a cab. We were able flag one, and zipped along the streets to our hotel which was thankfully MUCH nicer than the hotel the previous night.

We awoke late the next morning and decided to take the hotel for another night, instead of heading on to a different city. We spoke for a while with the delightful concierge, before heading off to the Acropolis.

The Acropolis was pretty cool, except for the fact that it closed at 2 o’clock and we were herded out by loud and sort of scary official looking Greek women. We walked around, saw the fallen Zeus’s temple, the Olympic Stadium from the turn of the century and a lot of other really cool monuments. We tried calling our friend from the night before, but to no avail, so we ate lunch in a beautiful gardens by the palace. It was the nicest, freshest Greek salad, with plump green and black olives and huge hunks of goat cheese. Then we walked through the park some more and found a small zoo in the centre. It was really terrible. They had well over 150 ducks crammed into a small area. The ducks were going crazy and were beating the crap out of the smaller less healthy looking ducks. We threw bits of gravel on them to keep them from killing one of their brethren. At least 10 ducks and 2 geese were piled, pecking and scratching on this poor little guy. He came up from the pile with his neck completely bare, as the other had pulled off all of his feathers. I think I may call a PETA group on this zoo, as not only was there an over population problem, but there was also no water to speak of for the ducks to drink or swim in. It was really awful.

We left the park, and went back into to the main part of the city. We stumbled upon a free museum of Greek caricatures and spent a good deal of time in there. Afterwards, we bought some pastries, another spinach pie and a cheese pie. They weren’t nearly as good as the ones in Thessaloniki, but Greek pastries are all pretty much awesome. Then we went back to our hotel and rested for awhile. I called my friend Tracey, as I hadn’t really talked to her much since she’d had her baby, and my dad who told me all about his new kayak. Then we went to a traditional Greek restaurant, and absolutely stuffed ourselves silly and came back to the hotel with 2 boxes of leftovers. With fully bellies and sun kissed cheeks, we went to sleep.

The train ride was beautiful. As we left Sigishoara, everyone was out burning their fields. We passed dozens of little shack towns, with clothes on the line and goats in the back yard. We ate our lunch, and soon were joined by a man whose name was Johann Weinachten, Jean Noel, or in English… Johnny Christmas!! He was a delightful old Romanian man, who was taught German by his grandmother, some 70 years ago. We spoke for the next several hours in German. He told us about the countryside, showed us breathtaking views from the train window, and shared in our cookies bought from the café. But soon, it became dark and we were in Bucaresti and Mr. Christmas left us. We too got off the train and went to find information on a train to Greece. As we were walking, a young man approached us and began leading us to the information booth. Once we got there he demanded money. We gave him a few coins, which he was not at all pleased about and he stormed off after saying some rude things about us to some other waiting passengers. They told us not to worry and not to speak to anyone who approached us. We got up the window and inquired about our train. The woman was far less than helpful. We asked her about the train and she said, “I don’t know.” Or finally after much pressing, “I won’t tell you.” So we walked off disgusted, to find that once the passage through to the information center was a point of no return. We had to pay to get back in. The only problem was that we were out of Romanian money and the ATM was on the other side. We explained this and explained this, and finally a young guard decided to let us through and be our “escort” to the Bank-o-mat. We followed his quick pace to the automat, got out some cash and again found ourselves following him to our train. Once got to the train he asked us for money. We pulled out a 50 note, the equivalent of 3 or 4 Euros, but it wasn’t good enough. He pointed to the 500 note, telling us that it really wasn’t that much money, in reality it was about 30 or 40 bucks. John said no, and gave him the 50, which he wasn’t too pleased about, but oh well. We went to our car, where we met the old man who we’d met in line at the ticket booth. We sat and talked to him. We found out that he was an ambassador from Bulgaria to Romania. We talked to him for a while, before he went to another car. He told us that he’d come back once we got to the border to help us, so we wouldn’t get screwed by “taxes” imposed on foreigners. And help us he did. When we got to the boarder, he changed trains with us, and helped us change some money and get tickets. That night we had the best night train. It was 4 Euros apiece to cross the country and another 4 Euros for a first class night train. The beds were comfortable, and there was a sink and power in the room. We sat on our bed, exhausted and ate warmed cheese pastries from the station.

We didn’t get nearly enough sleep, and arrived early in the morning in Sofia Bulgaria. When we got to the ticket office, we found out that daylight savings time had kicked in that morning, and that the train that we wanted and would have made to Greece had left an hour before due to the time change and we had to wait 8 or so hours till the next train. We walked out of the station into the cold, misty early morning, tired and hungry. We had dropped off our bags, so we went out into the city unencumbered. We decided to try to find a hostel in the city so we could catch some more sleep. We’d met a nice woman in the station who had a hostel, so we decided to find it. We walked and walked and walked. We found the sign for the Kentucky Fried Chicken that was on her map, but still couldn’t find the hostel. We did find more cheese pastries and a nice woman in a bakery who couldn’t really help us. Then we realized that we were over 2 blocks too far and we righted our course and finally after a lot more walking and searching we found a hostel. We were unsure if it was the right one, but we rang the bell anyway. We walked in to a dark dirty and dank building, with flickering lights. We mounted the stairs to the second floor, where we met the woman’s sister, who spoke absolutely no English. The beds were all open, but due to language constraints we couldn’t convey that we only wanted to sleep there until 4 or 5 in the afternoon. We left tired and disappointed, and decided to take care of our other need: Food. We sat down in a park and ate our pastries which were good but as we sat there I became very very cold, so we went to find somewhere to sit and get something to drink.
It was early Sunday morning, and nothing was open. We finally found a café, and ordered some fresh squeezed orange juices, and coffee. The juice was refreshing and the coffee was bad. But we were able to sit and be warm for over an hour. I’m convinced the waitress overcharged us horribly, as the price of 3 orange juices and coffee cost us more than our entire afternoon meal, but, in the long run, oh well.

When we immerged from the café, the sun was trying to come out but not quite succeeding. The air still had a bite to it. We walked down a long block past dozens of closed shops. At the end of the street was a huge convention center that was having a home goods exposition. We walked in, and made a game of avoiding the people trying to hand us flyers. We finally found some chairs, and we sat there and talked and did a running commentary on the people passing us and the home goods around us and after a half an hour or so of sitting, we decided to move on. We wound our way back down the maze of escalators to the entrance. The sun had come out and the temperature was finally warming. We went back to a shopping center that we’d seen earlier. We spent a lot of time just sitting on benches, waiting for time to pass.

After awhile we became bored with sitting on benches, so we went back out into the bright sunshine. And wandered around some more. We were approached by an annoying girl, dispatched by her mother, who was asking us for money. It was really the most pathetic attempt we’ve seen. She didn’t even really try before giving up. I’ll do an impression for you in person some time if you want.

After wandering around aimlessly for quite a while, we decided on lunch, which was not really all the significant. We did more wandering and finally it was time to get on our train. I bought a pastry, and water and we got on the train. The train ride was really beautiful, and the sunset was amazing. And after several hours we arrived in Thessaloniki Greece.