Good God, Greece has Great Greasy Gyros!

Santorini
Originally uploaded by camandkristin.

Well, the temperature in Greece is definitely cooler than Egypt, and then some! We arrived at the Athens airport at 2:30am and immediately froze to death. The thrill of being cool wore off quickly, and we started pulling out all the clothes, socks, toques, and shoes that have been buried in our bags for months. Much of the initial shock was probably just an acclimatization problem, as after a few days it either warmed up considerably, or we just got used to it!

We started our Athens tour by working the bus and metro system to arrive at our hostel at 6am, after having been up for about 40 hours straight. They kindly told us we could not check in until 9am, and that we could wait over in the corner on the freezing cold cement floor, by the drafty window until then. Which we did.

After getting warmed up, and getting some sleep, we headed off to explore Athens. Our pre-Olympics guide book indicates that the city isn't anything special, but it has clearly had a facelift and, in the touristy Plaka area in particular, it is very nice. The backdrop of the Acropolis is tough to beat, of course. We visited the Acropolis and all it's surrounding areas (Parthenon, Erechtheion, Propylaia, Temple of Zeus, Theatre of Dionysos, and countless other Greek sounding things) where we were overwhelmed by the number of people doing the same thing, and who were all being controlled by Greek "guards" and their ever-blowing whistles. The sites are spectacular, even with all the people, and it was one of those "I can't believe I'm at the Parthenon" kind of things. We then ate some gyro-pitas. Did you know that "gyro" just means "big hunk of meat on a spinning stick", and that the actual thing you order to eat is a gyro-pita? Ya, neither did we. We are now well versed in gyro-speak, as that is pretty much all we ate for 2 weeks. It's the Greek equivalent to fast food, and is the cheapest option by far.

From Athens, we caught an overnight ferry to Santorini- one of the most popular Cyclades islands. We spent the ferry ride with a bunch of other Canadians- we seem to almost outnumber even the Greeks here, and we have certainly met (or seen) more Canadians than any other nationality in Greece. We stand out, with all our MEC wear... On arrival we were met by a Greek-Canadian (from Nanaimo, no less) who took us to his hotel just outside of the main town of Fira. Our guidebook warns "watch out for hotel owners who sell you places just outside of Fira, after claiming they are IN Fira". We figured that the question "Is it in Fira?" (answer= yes) would clarify it for us, but clearly not. We decided to stay, and as it turned out it was a great option. The surrounding restaraunts were cheaper and the area was just a little less touristy.

Anyway, Santorini is a gorgeous island- it is really a flooded volcano and all the cities are built on the rim that pokes up from the water. It makes for pretty spectacular scenery, especially with the classic Greek whitewashed buildings clinging to the edges, with tiny little sidewalks wending their way around. No car access in these places- you drive up as close as you can, and then walk. We spent an entire day visiting the whole island by scooter, ending up for sunset at the northenmost point in a town called Oia (ee-ya). Oia is the epitome of all things Greek- it is probably overrun in the summer, but right now is pretty quiet and is just beautiful.

After finishing with Santorini we headed to a second island- Paros. Paros is much the same, but a little "less". It's a bigger island, and less dramatic than Santorini, but still beautiful. Again, you can tell it must be packed in the summer, just based on the sheer number of restaurants that line the water- when we were there each one had ony about one table occupied, if that. We spent a day exploring on scooter, and then headed back to Athens where we slept the night and then jumped on the first bus to the northwest part of Greece, to a city called Ioannina.

A short walk around town revealed that there weren't a lot of options for sightseeing except to rent a car and head out on your own. So, we found a car that was available for the next morning (tiny little 2 door, 900cc, Fiat Seiciento, or somsing...) and then bought ourselves some sleeping bags. We figured we'd sleep in the car to offset the cost of the rental. So, where do you go to buy a sleeping bag? Why, the supermarket, of course! We got two sweet bags for 10 euro each, and were on our way! Slept like babies in the little Fiat for three nights in a row, thus paying off both the sleeping bags and the car rental :) In the car we explored the Vikos Gorge and Meteora regions, which were not landscapes we expected to find in Greece. Our first week here was exactly like you would imagine (just like the pictures on the Odyssia placemats, for those of you from Sidney!), but here we discovered snow capped mountains, huge deep gorges and ravines, rivers, forests... except for the little signature Greek villages, it looked a lot like home! Meteora is an area where these huge pinnacles of rock jut out of the ground, and they have built monasteries on top of them. There are only 6 remaining (out of 24), and they are quite a sight!

We returned to Ioannina, dropped off the car, and jumped on a bus to Thessaloniki and then immediately onto a night train to Istanbul, Turkey. The train was a vast improvement on any we've been on yet- we had our own little cabin, complete with two beds, a sink, and a locking door! Except for the multiple wakeup calls of "Passport" during the border crossing (and shelling out 90 euro to get into the country) it was quite a pleasant trip!

We are now in Istanbul and exploring here before we head off for two weeks around the rest (or at least the west...) of Turkey!

Hello to everyone at home!
Bye for now,
Cam and Kristin