Destination X
Trip Start
Aug 27, 2001
1
11
14
Trip End
Dec 13, 2001
Olympia,
Greece
Friday, September 21, 2001
Since we left Switzerland on Tuesday, we've been travelling for the better part of two days. On Tuesday, we head south of Zurich to a place close to the Italy border called Lugano. For the people I know who are reading this and have had previous Lake Como experiences, Lugano is located extremely close to Como.
Lugano is also situated on a lake, and is basically a carbon copy of what Lake Como looks like. Tour boats cruise the lake, houses are perched on the sides of the rolling hills, and overall it is quite the tranquil little place. Tranquility is nice but not for 6 hours. We were basically stranded there until our train left. We did take a boat around the lake though.
We left Lugano and two train rides later, we were in Brindisi, Italy. The over-night train wasn't a lot of fun, but an experience none the less. A note to self: it's tough to get by the older Italian men when they're set on looking out the window of the train. Trying to squeeze the 'Big Mutha' backpacks by them is next to impossible.
Brindisi is located in the southern half of Italy and on the east coast. This is certainly not the place to go if you want to spend a few days there. Actually better yet, Brindisi is not the place to go if you have more than an hour there. There's nothing to see! Pure unadulterated boredom. The only reason we were there was to catch a ferry over to Greece. Unfortunately, we had to wait out the whole day before our ferry left... so our time there was clearly well over the 1-hour comfort zone. We spent the day sitting in various places. First it was the park, than the train station, and, oh wait, let's sit in the park again. I guess if anything good came out of this, we got a chance to play the greatest card game ever, "Super BBQ Bash". Actually, something we did find of interest was a little roller coaster situated near the waterfront. It was called "Brucomela" and was the same caterpillar ride that the Calgary Stampede offers in the Kid Zone (once again, a reference to those who would understand).
After feeling like death, we boarded a van (free transport) to the ferry. Obviously the driver had had many slow days in Brindisi as well and we (the tourists) seemed to be his only form of entertainment. He played a game called, "How many silly tourists can I fit in one van and with the added weight, how fast can I make this van go?" With my self-appointed title, I don't think I even need to explain how the game works.
The ferry ride was okay. It left at 8pm and arrived in Greece at llam. We slept most of the time. I also must note that we did have a bit of help through these trying times in Brindisi and on the ferry. We met up with a South African women when we first arrived in Brindisi and the three of us stuck together - for the most part. Her complaints echoed ours, and it was just comforting to know that we weren't the only ones going through all this trouble.
We parted ways at the port in Greece - Patras. She headed on to Athens to see her son, while Julia and I headed down to what we thought would be Olympia. Oops! Yes, I echo my initial statement. We hopped on a train to Pyrgos, which is about 20 km from Olympia. However, once we arrived in Pyrgos, we decided to throw caution into the wind. The thought process was that since Olympia was so close, the train, which was headed in that general direction, was sure to stop there. Oops! When the train stopped we found ourselves an hour and a bit south of Pyrgos in a little place called Kipparissia. Ahh, what have we done? So we fumbled in communication with the train station ticket attendant and purchased a cheap ticket back to Pyrgos. It left in an hour. During that time we bought much needed food and sat in what was probably the central plaza in town. The plaza's fountain was very sad, to say the least. It was basically a sprinkler. It slowly circled around and sprayed the water into a tiny pool of water. It seemed like a good time to leave.
After another strange train ride - with a fellow passenger barking out the window - we got to Pyrgos, found a hotel, watched Dances with Wolves on tv, and went to bed. We certainly were punished for being so ignorant in our travel decisions. I'm not sure what's worse, stuck in the car with some guy and his crazy antics, or, Kevin Costner's bare behind.
PRESENT DAY: (Sept.21/01)
After catching a bus to Olympia, we ventured off towards the ancient ruins of Olympia. It was quite the feeling to be where one of the 7 wonders of the world once was (Statue of Zeus). At the stadium, I sat in the shade and tried to visualize myself as one of the many spectators during the games. Julia wandered the entire stadium and was amazed to see how big it actually was. The museum was also breath-taking. With the pediment sculptures of the Temple of Zeus being situated at eye level, it was very easy to visualize how big the temple must have been.
Better stop at that. That was quite the mouthful, sorry.
Chad
