Contents
- Preface
- San Francisco
- Amsterdam
- Amsterdam, Helmond
- Amsterdam, Zandvoort, Haarlem
- Amsterdam, Bruges
- Bruges, Brussels, Cologne, Berlin
- Berlin
- Berlin, Potsdam
- Berlin, Wansee
- Berlin, Prague
- Prague
- Prague, Karlstejn, Vienna
- Vienna
- Vienna, Salzburg, Füssen
- Füssen, Neuschwanstein, Munich
- Munich, Innsbruck
- Innsbruck
- Innsbruck, Zürich, Lauterbrunnen
- Lauterbrunnen, Jungfraujoch
- Lauterbrunnen, Schilthorn
- Lauterbrunnen, Spiez, Zermatt
- Zermatt
- Zermatt, Martigny, Chamonix
- Chamonix, Mont Blanc
- Chamonix, Mont Blanc, Courmayeur, Aosta, Turin
- Barcelona
- Barcelona, Sitges
- Barcelona
- Milan, Venice
- Venice
- Venice
- Venice, Milan, Cinque Terre
- Cinque Terre, La Spezia
- Cinque Terre, Pisa, Lucca, Florence
- Florence
- Florence
- Florence, Siena
- Siena, San Gimignano, Rome
- Rome
- Rome
- Rome, Sorrento
- Sorrento, Vesuvius, Pompeii
- Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, Ravello
- Sorrento, Capri, Naples
- Naples, Bari
- Patras, Athens, Mykonos
- Mykonos
- Mykonos
- Mykonos, Paros, Santorini
- Santorini
- Santorini, Athens
- Athens
- Athens, Amsterdam, San Francisco
Prev :: Monday, 17 October 2005 :: Next
46. Patras, Athens, Mykonos
Photo Gallery
I slept somewhat better than on the night train, but there's still quite a lot of motion and vibration even on this large ship. I didn't get out of bed until around 9:00, when the sun was high in the sky and the pale grey outlines of barren, mountainous Greek islands were visible nearby. I wouldn't see my French Canadian friend again; he had gotten out at the ferry's early stop around 6:00 at Igoumenitsa, from where he would ride south along the coast toward Athens. My stop was Patras, around 12:30. From here, it's still at least another three hours to Athens, or even longer if you go by train (you have to change in Corinth). After traveling for 24 hours, I was pretty much ready to arrive somewhere. I'm not sure where most of the people from the ferry went; the bus had only a handful. I talked with two guys from the US who had met on the ferry for the duration of the bus ride.
I wanted to hit the islands first, and then come back to Athens (it's supposed to be dangerous to schedule a flight immediately after a return from the islands, because strong winds can bring the boats and flights to a standstill). The ferry schedule to Mykonos was quite inconvenient — I didn't want to arrive at 1:00 am looking for a room, and I certainly didn't want to get up at 5:00 am to make the fast ferry from Rafina (an hour from Athens). So I decided to head straight for the Aegean Air office at Syntagma Square, and one of the Americans (from LA) joined me. The last flight was leaving at 18:40, and we barely had time to get to it. We got on the bus and arrived at the airport just after 18:00, which turned out to be plenty early, because the check-in was very quick and the security screening resembled that in the US pre-2001.
The only way into town from the Mykonos airport was by taxi. I called a hotel in Frommers, but no answer — it was closed for the season. We walked south up the hill towards another listing, but it was dark and boarded up for the winter! Next door we found the Ilio Maris, which would still be open for another three nights only — just long enough. This seemed to be a pretty good deal; a large two-bedroom suite with bathroom in between for €60. My bedroom was larger and overlooked the town and the sea, so I paid €35. The room had characterful dark wood and a French door opening onto a balcony. The only inconvenience was that there was only one key, so we occasionally had to synchronize our schedules. The pool looked beautiful, but it wasn't heated and the weather was cold — so much for relaxing in the warm sun on the Greek isles! I knew Mykonos would be quiet since the high season was well over now, but in fact it was comatose.
The town is really like a maze. Apparently it was made this way deliberately, to confuse any marauding pirates. Take a map, show it to a local and ask where you are, and they will look at it for a moment in puzzlement, and will have absolutely no idea! It's remarkable. After walking around in circles for a while, we settled on a Greek place, not the one I was aiming for, which was closed, but nearby. I don't recall the name, but it's very near Chez Katrine. It was excellent, one of the best meals of the trip. Especially after over two weeks of Italian, it was wonderful to have some interesting Greek food for a change.
I'm quite shy about inserting myself into the conversations of strangers, but fortunately the guy from LA was anything but shy. And so we met the other people in the restaurant, a trio of very lovely Brits who seemed quite ambiguous (though perhaps only by American standards, which is pretty much true of all European guys). One was a young male journalist traveling with a girl friend of his (which is not to say girlfriend, I think). The third was a Welsh guy who had met the others on the island. At first I think they made an effort to provoke us a bit politically, but this fell flat when they realized I actually disliked Bush far more than they did. These people can drink — they never seem to stop. We went to a bar and had about six bottles of red wine between the five of us. Naturally enough, I ended up feeling rather like the horrible Matt Damon as Mr Ripley, the dopey and unsophisticated American wanting to kill his aristocratic blond friend for the crime of being altogether too beautiful. A gaggle of pretty but very tacky young Australians wandered up with loud shouts of "OY!" — I think they may actually have come straight from Porpoise Spit. Amazing that I found the hotel after all this, but I think we did make it back around 2:30.