Published Thursday November 18th, 2004

Ah, it seems as though much has passed and happened yet again since I last wrote anything. So much has happened, it seems... though, I have a bit of a blur of all events after Wednesday at 22.00 until the next morning..

As I wrote and finished the previous entry, I went and had dinner. Sat with the couple from French Canada, and with the Latin American's from Miami, Florida. After dinner, I went to some very touristic and stereotypical portrayal of Greek dance performance which Todd of Florida talked me into going to. It was some event organised specifically for tourists in tourist groups and made known to us the miss-tour guide, Casandra.

After one large Beer and a bottle of wine which was very, very, very, very dry, it was not so bad anymore. All who went from the group had a good time. Laughed and so forth.

Went to bed at midnight promptly after returning to my room and fell asleep quickly. Woke up in the morning at around 08.00 and went through the usual procedure of clothing and feeding myself. How boring. Clothes? Psh!


Oh how I've fallen behind. As I continue writing this entry, I am presently at a restaurant outside, in the Plaka back in Athens on Saturday, October 23rd at 19.55 waiting for my chicken souvlaki and Bacardi Cola. Heh.. Well, lets continue recounting of events.. So many of which have passed by.

Heh, wow.. I had to make an outline just to remember before eating. Now with a full stomach of yummy chicken souvlaki, carrots, and zucchini, I am ready to write!

We depart the town of Olympia and drove northeast to leave the Peloponnese peninsula. We reached Patra from where we crossed a just recently built bridge completed for the Olympic games back in August linking the Peloponnese peninsula with the rest of Greece after we had made a short little rest-stop. There was a church or basilica in Patra where we had stopped. It was of typical Orthodox construction. The depiction of Jesus staring down onto the floor from the domed ceiling in the middle of the building.. It was really scary. "Bwaaaa! I am GIANT depiction of Jesus's face staring down at you from a DOME! WORSHIP MEEEEE! My GIANT head is bigger than your entire body, that's how GREAT I am! Have I mentioned how I STARE down at YOU from this DOME?! Baaaaa! I do! I am GIANT face on DOME Jeeeebus! Weeee!" Heh.. okay.. okay.. Give me a second while I sweep together my respect. All done.

Back to the bridge.. I thought it interesting that they decided to build this bridge in time for the Olympics. The impact on the nation produced by Athens hosting the Olympics back in August had had tremendous, noticeable impact and effects throughout the nation.

*Takes a sip of his Watermelon flavoured Bacardi Breezer.*
Damn, I love this stuff. It's so damn good. I'm going to miss it when I'm back in the states. Stupid America and 21 years of age for alcohol. Only in America would it make sense to have the legal smoking age be 18, driving age 16, and drinking at 21.. I ask you, "What.. the fuck?"

Anyway, we drove along the coast a bit, over some mountains and then stopped for lunch somewhere in some isolated, remote area. Hooray for Restaurant and Tour Group Company relations.

Ate lunch with some of the people from the tour, including Todd of Florida. After eating, I walked down to the shore and took some photos. I tasted the ocean water which had a semi-sweet consistency being sea-water. It was also Luke-warm.

We continued on driving, up a mountain on very curvy roads, and back down and back up until we reached the town of Delfi, or Delphi. It reminded me of towns in Switzerland like Muerren or Wengen in the Jungfrau region of the Bernese Highlands. Perched on the sides of glacier carved valleys. Very beautiful. The difference in Delphi was that it was dry and not luscious and green like in Switzerland.

We visited the temple of Athena, perched on the side of the mountain. Another typical temple, and I found the surrounding scenery to be much more interesting. Sheer-vertical rock walls hung above us. We left the ruins and dropped off those in "first-class" accommodations.

I've briefly mentioned the two classes which were offered. Tourist class and 1st/luxury class. But now, the tour having ended, I'll elaborate. My recommendation for anyone going to Greece and going a tour, given the option (one might have to specifically ask for the option) tourist or 1st/luxury class, that the tourist class be selected for the following reasons: Each night we would first drop off those in luxury/1st class accommodations in upscale, fancy hotels. While these hotels were always 1st class without a question, and luxurious without a doubt, they were always located remotely, outside of the small villages and towns we visited on the tours. This was the case every night. The tourist class hotels were always in town, dead smack in the middle of everything and anything interesting the town might have had to offer. Those in luxury/1st class hotels were isolated, frequently stuck in their hotel, outside of the town. This was truly unfortunate for those people because they missed out on the charming, small villages and local scenes.. Oh, and of course, they paid more to miss out.

Sure, the tourist class hotels were ..special. Typical European in style: small, quaint. Sometimes there was no shower curtain, or the bathroom acted as one large shower with a drain right infront of the toilette. However, the rooms were always charming and clean. Additionally, the tour guide and bus driver also spent the night in the cheaper, tourist class hotels. One always had access to them and through questions, access to their knowledge. ..And there you have it. My rant on "Tourist versus 1st/luxury class hotels on tours in Greece" Pick tourist class! Vote not Bush! Erm..

Continuing.. We checked into the hotel Hermes in Delphi. I quickly dropped off my luggage or backpack, refreshed myself (That means that I excreted some feces and urinated, then washed my already grimy hands.), and with my camera I hit the town.

While walking up the very small, one way street almost void of any summer-seasonal tourists, I stumbled across a local, Delphi based tourist agency. I entered and after an hour I had arranged, organised, and purchased my tickets for all the miscellaneous boats to various islands in the Cyclades. The lady there was very kind. She must have smoked 5 cigarettes during the time. I would ask what connections there were on some day between island so and so, and soon an itinerary, loosely based, began to form.. For a total of 5 catamaran and ferry boat tickets I paid EUR 101.30.

Because she had been so kind and patient with all my enquiries, it interested me enough to ask her where she and her agency made the money off of the transaction. Apparently how it works is that travel agencies throughout Greece sell the tickets for the boats, and then earn commission from those sales via the boat companies for which the tickets were purchased.

Satisfied, I thanked the lady and departed, continuing my stroll through town. I found a long flight of steps leading high up to the upper levels of terraces of the town. I ascended them, set up my tripod and camera, and photographed the beautiful view from Delphi down into a valley of 300,000 olive trees and the sea during sunset. I felt content. It was a beautiful sight.

I returned to the Hermes hotel lobby in time to go to dinner. Every night of the tour these dinners were pre-selected locations in the hotel or in a restaurant nearby with a fixed course. We would always sit together, which was fun because we got to have some interesting and amusing conversations. I was lucky to end up with the group that I did. There were many people between 20 and 35/40, so most people were not old-old.. Not that I have anything against old people.. It would just have been less exciting. It always felt like a family of complete strangers. We would laugh and chat and the atmosphere was truly comfortable and pleasant.

That evening in Delphi, I sat with the family from Australia and with the French Canadian couple from Montreal who were both police personnel. It was a lot of fun and pleasant conversation as well as some joking around.

It was very interesting that when asked, Casandra, our tour guide, said she did not eat and sit with the rest of us because she and the driver smoked during their dinners. Completely unrelated, she is a lot like, or rather, reminds me a lot of the sort of stereotypical, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" Greek citizen.

After dinner, I joined the 2 pairs of Latin American couples from Miami, Florida as we wandered through the streets of Delphi, joking around and nearly being driven over by the insanely fast cars driving through the small one-way streets.. Buses made no difference to this observation. They sped just as much..

Note that photos in this entry have not been altered and could possibly use some white-balancing, contrast, brightness, saturation, and hue adjustments among other touch-ups.