Contiki Day 5: Spotlight on Greece 4

Spotlight on Greece, Delphi, Thursday September 8th, 2011.

I woke up feeling drunk still. I barely had a few hours of sleep. I was not feeling sick, just hungover. Bec had to tease me, apparently I did not make any sense when I got back to the room last night. To be honest, I barely remember getting back to the room myself, so it's no surprise. What I don't like is that I have a very long cut on my big toe, and there is blood and dirt everywhere. What the? I vaguely remember tripping on something, so I guess it was glass. Luckily, I had a first aid cut, so I cleaned and bandaged my toe, showered and then packed my stuff. Somehow, I left my sweatpants on the bathroom floor when I left, never to see them again.

Too tired to care much, I slipped in a summer dress, my hat and my ballerina shoes (worst idea ever as we would be walking and climbing stairs all morning.) and went outside for breakfast. Of course, I'm not really hungry, but I nimble on a few things and drink water and tea and juice. Gotta love those fluids. It's a very hot day, perfect for climbing Mt Parnassus. I make my rounds, chatting here and there, gotta suffer a lot of teasing for my craziness of last night and I also make sure I find the other girls who left late. Everyone is here, I'm relieved. I don't know why I sometimes feel responsible for others, I just do. There's been a few cats running around the place, one girl even had to switch rooms because when she got to her room, there was one sleeping on her bed and she's allergic, and one of them seems friendly enough so I knelt down and attempted to pet it. Yeah, great idea and I got a bloody hand for my troubles. It's a good thing I'm prepared, antiseptic spray and voila, good to go.

So today is Delphi, which was one of the 3 places I was looking forward most to see. (The 3 being, Delphi, The Ephesus and Delos. I know, it's all about the Sun and the Moon, Appollo and Artemis hehe) I am very emotional as we drive to the site, I can hardly believe I am here.

 

It's 36 degrees out, everyone is pretty much hungover, we meet with a guide at the museum, and we start with the indoor visit first. It's very impressive and I'm taking pictured like a maniac. A lot of people are dragging their feet and sitting down every chance they get, some even skip the visit and go sit outside at the restaurant, with Paola. I'm feeling crappy myself, but there is no way I will miss a minute of this. After plenty of time in the museum, with amazing stories and facts (I really like this guide) we go outside and prepare for the real site. We will be climbing up Mt Parnassus, yes, I teared up, again. There's a lot of stray cats outside, lots of babies too, they're absolutely  adorable.

I can't describe this place properly. It was without a doubt, breathtaking. Apollo's temple, the Oracle, the theater, plus the view, it was just a fantastic day. The guide had fantastic stories, and all I could picture was all the stories I've read, especially my favorite "The Firebrand" a fantasy novel about Cassandra of Troy. Anyways, it was a perfect day.

The guided tour ended pretty much at the middle of the climb, after the biggest sights. I so remembered to tip. I spent a lot of the morning walking with the guide and talking about facts on this place, it was fascinating. After that, we were free to make our way down to the shop/restaurant, etc, or if we were brave enough, to make the whole climb to the top for another amazing view and for the stadium. No questions asked, I was in for the climb. It was hard, all that walking under a scorching sun, and the steps were sometimes pretty steep and uneven, you know, the original rocks from 2000 years ago. Very slippery and you get distracted by the view. A few girls and I stuck together. By now, my feet are absolutely killing me, wearing the ballerinas was the worst idea ever. I needed more support than that for this type of walking/exercise. I miss my sneakers. Oh well, I can always take painkillers later on tonight.

 I'd say it took about another hour to reach the top, with lots of stops for pictures. But it was definitely worth it, the stadium was impressive yes, but it was the bird's eye view that was magical. Then we made the trip back down, using a different trail, so more to see. I did not want to leave, but unfortunately, our time was running out. Instead of sitting down outside for a drink, I went to check out the souvenirs and run around in the museum a bit more. This had truly been a wonderful day.

Back on the bus, we had a long drive before making it back to Athens. When booking this trip I  did not realize I would leave so many new awesome friends behind after only a few days. I almost wished I had picked the 3 days cruise instead of the 7. We stopped for Lunch at this nice little restaurant where you had a very limited menu, but it was delicious. I was truly enjoying being able to eat and keep the food down. I had a cheese omelet which sounds very simple, but eggs and loads of fried feta cheese? I still drool thinking about it.

Back on the bus, nothing really exciting happened, lots of driving, a few pit stops for breaks and snacks and we also stopped at this amazing view for a group shot. It was really fast, our awesome driver would accept just a few cameras and take the shots, and we would have to keep in touch to share. Ah! Works for me :)

What we didn't realize when we got to Athens was that us, the ones on the 7 days cruise were being dropped off at a different hotel than everyone else. Not a lot of time for goodbyes, but there is always facebook. So, the 8 of us got dropped off at the President Hotel and I found out I was not rooming with Bec anymore. It felt weird, we had assumed we'd be together the whole time. We only had a short meeting with out new TM later on that night, so we had hours of free time. The rooms were amazing but as everyone was tired, we lost track of each other fairly quick. My new roomie quickly went to the roof, to the pool, and I headed for a shower and a change of clothes instead. Then, since we were in a different part of Athens, I went on my own to explore a little bit around the hotel. I didn't go far, as it felt like we were downtown, in the not so safe neighborhood. Walked around, found a 1Euro store (I love Dollar stores) and a very good cheap Gyros place. Yummy! Then came back to the hotel to relax. I even went on the roof to check it out. It was beautiful, but others were either drinking or swimming and I didn't feel like either.

Went to the other meeting, got introduced to our new TM Laura, lovely girl from Australia. The meeting was in the lobby, we didn't really had anywhere to sit and not half the group showed up. Granted, most of us were coming from different trips and we only had to feel in paperwork, but it would have been nice to see everyone. Then, Laura was heading the optional Greek dinner, which was the same one we did on our first night in Athens. We decided not to go, as it was 35 Euros and we've done it before. *** This was a mistake. I strongly recommend you do this, it is the BEST way to meet your group.***

Some of the other girls were going for Chinese, but I was so tired I wasn't really in a mood to be around people, I just wanted to grab some food and go relax in my room and go to bed early. My roommate decided to come with me. So we walked around for a bit, couldn't really found anything, it was crowded. We saw this little store, down a flight of stairs that seemed to have a lot of clothes, for really cheap. We decided to go take a look. Now thew thing is, my foot was hurting, so I was wearing my flip-flops, and the stairs and floors are most often freaking marble. Slippery in general, imagine a clumsy girl wearing flip-flops walking down marble stairs. Sigh. I flew and I fell hard. I was lucky not to fall down all the stairs, I only missed a couple and fell on my ass. I hurt my hand and one of my calves. I didn't think anything was broken so we kept browsing, but I could not bend my fingers anymore. Not fun. And the limping wasn't fun either.

Back to the hotel, another shower, more first-aid kit, then in bed for some TV and reading. We have an early day tomorrow, since we have to go board the cruise ship :)

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.