Saturday, June 16, 2012

Contiki Day 4: Spotlight on Greece 3

Contiki Day 4. Spotlight on Greece, Olympia, Wednesday September 7th, 2011.

Another early start, I'm still feeling a little queasy, but that could be because of the late night with drinks. But I'm not feeling as bad as usual so I even dare try a little breakfast. The medication for upset stomachs seemed to be working. I kept stashing fruit and water in my backpack just in case. It took a few hours, but at one point, all my colors came back and I was really awake and alive all of the sudden, wow. Everyone saw the difference, maybe I had finally kicked this annoying Jet lag away.

We picked up a guide at the site, she wasn't my favorite, she didn't really seem happy to be doing what she did. We started with the museum, which was pretty big and had a lot of stuff. Too bad the guide wasn't more interesting, but the stuff was. The only downside with a guided tour is that you only get to see the highlights, not everything. I don't recommend paying for a guided tour in a museum, unless it's the Louvre. But I still loved it, I'm a dork. I had no idea how massive this site was. Olympia, you blew my mind. SO big, so many ruins and foundations and stories behind it all.

It was a lovely hot day, close to 40 degrees, but as long as you had enough water (and you could buy it everywhere for 50 cents) you were ok. With all this walking and the sun, I was really started to hurt for a hat. After the tour, we had a lot of free time to explore on our own and take lots of pictures. I pretty much stayed with Kelly the whole time, as she was of the only ones who was openly as fascinated with the history as I was. So we helped each other with pictures. I don't understand how some people just went to sit at the restaurant and stayed there pretty much the whole time. It was a good, long visit and I was satisfied I had enough time to truly appreciate it.

After we were done, with the tour, and I did not tip the guide, sorry, we were given another hour of free time just outside, where they had a couple souvenir shops. It was like 4 different stores, full of so many beautiful things. It was hard not to go crazy and buy everything. I wanted to bring a lot of little things back for everyone. I found a hat right away, what a relief and then bought cheap original jewellery and some souvenirs. My bill came to something like 46 euros and I was telling the cashier how much I liked the store, he turned out to be the owner!!! He handed me a bar of complimentary Baklava and would not accept more than 40 euros for my purchases. Such a small gesture but I loved it. Again, smiling and being polite :)

(I'm not even going to mention all the flirting here as well, I've never felt prettier in my entire life hehe)

After that we had a "sales" presentation at a workshop where they make statues. I was interested to start with, statues, I wanted to bring back an Artemis one but when I saw the guy greeting us in, my knees almost gave out. He was one hot Greek man. Wow. Pretty much all the girls agreed with me. He gave us a presentation and then walked us upstairs where there was the giant store, mainly statues, but with lots of souvenirs as well, including a nice little jewellery store. Real, nice, silver jewellery, not the cheap kind. For some reason, the hottie became fascinated with me, specifically with my tattoos. (I have a moon on my left back shoulder, a sun on the right side and a pentagram inside a moon on forearm.) He loved it. He was very touchy as well, and kept flirting with me. Such an empowering delightful moment for me. I splurged on a silver ring, earrings and necklace (which was 100 euros) but I was unable to find an Artemis statue like I pictured, even with my new friend  helping me. (I was very specific in what I wanted.)

After that, back on the bus, on our way to Delphi. Even though a lot of time is spent on the bus, it never feels too too long as there are a lot of stops to see things and service stops too. (peepee stops Paola called them.) And for me, it was perfect to take pictures of the landscapes, it was just so wonderful. We crossed this enormous white bridge and I was terrified, not a fan of bridges at all. Pictures time, then we were off again. A bit later, we stopped in Nafpaktos for a coffee break. It was a lovely little village near by the water, and you could order either a cafe frappe, a beer or a soda. I had the cafe, of course, which was yummy, but so very strong. I couldn't finish it, halfway through it every nerve in my body was jumping so I got up and started exploring.

So many lovely spots for pictures, I had a field day, even dipped my feet in the ocean. The beach was all pebbles, which is not convenient for walking around at all. And then we settled in for another very long drive in the mountains, to make it to the hotel for the night. We had some fun trying to watch a "The Hangover 2" Dvd that a guy bought from a street vendor and it turned out to be a video of the movie playing on a computer screen. We could clearly see a beer bottle in the frame, and sometimes the monitor would go to sleep. It was hilarious. (Not the actual movie.)


We made it to Delphi by the end of the afternoon, and we were told dinner would be a bit late, because we were all going out afterwards, to a local club, and Paola insisted we all go. We settled in, again the view was absolutely breathtaking and most of us went outside for a drink or to the pool. More fun and relaxing times. I was rooming with Bec again, so we had our taking turns for shower and getting ready routine perfectly orchestrated by then. For dinner, I sat at a big table with a dozen or so others, we had wine and beer, took pictures, but the food wasn't that great at all and the service was very slow too. But it was a great evening.

The club was a 10 min walk away from the hotel, down the road. We had an included shot and drink with the entrance and pretty much everyone showed up. At first, I wasn't sure, it was very small, dark and the music so loud and the place was completely empty except for us. But soon other groups arrived, I swear they were like 14 and 15 years. Apparently, drinking age is not a big thing in Europe. It was a bit annoying and really packed up after a while, so we all got our drinks on and danced the night away. Lots of fun was had. And it so happened that it was Larissa's bday at midnight, so I had to call for lots of shots and have the DJ give her a shout out too.

Funny thing happened, whenever I went to the bar, I had to wait forever to get served, I thought the bartender was quite rude and somewhat ignoring me. I wasted a lot of time waiting on him, even though I tipped really well and even bought him a shot. I think there was a big misunderstanding in the end as well, I wanted to get more shots for Larissa and I and the girl didn't know what we had before, so told her to get the guy, that he made them last time. Somehow, it was as if I special-requested him or something and he took a big interest in me. I got a few free drinks and he started flirting with me like crazy. By the end of the night, when the bar was almost empty, he even jumped over the bar and came to sit with me. We danced and made out, it was completely crazy. (I wasn't really interested, it just happened and I went with it.) His English wasn't the best and I cracked up every time he called me "baby", which sounded like babe. I drew the line when he dragged me in the store room and started fiddling with his pants, no way! He let it go. I ended up the last one in the place after close, along with Larissa and a local and Shawnee who was making out with the DJ. By then though, I just wanted to get back to the hotel. Dimitri said he would drive me, to which I said no, I wasn't getting in a car with a stranger. I agreed to let him walk me, and I kinda sobered up at the thought of me walking in foreign streets in the wee hours of the night with a stranger. Lots of horror movies start like that. I remember feeling very protective of Shawnee (who brushed me off and went home with the DJ) and Larissa, who was walking in front of me with the other guy. Dimitri, the bartender, kept trying to drag me to dark corners to make out some more, but I was having none of it. I was a bit scared and just wanted to get back to the hotel.

He did get me to the hotel, and I think he was disappointed when I didn't invite him in. But I was relieved I was back. It's a bit of blur after that, but I remember that Bec wasn't sleeping yet, she was on the balcony, and I remembered babbling some non-sense to her before completely passing out in my bed. Thank god I set my alarm clock before we left.

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