Olympia
Trip Start
Jan 03, 2008
1
15
38
Trip End
Apr ????
Olympia,
Greece
Monday, February 4, 2008
The shores of Greece
. We were assigned seats at apposing ends of the train and we were going to continue our travels together as we got off at our stop. Go was no where to be found as I got off at the correct stop - seems as though he was subject to that bad luck again. I had 45 minutes to make it from the train station to the port before my ferry was to depart, the only bus to get there would come in 20 minutes to pick me up. I rapidly used up the Italian postage I had, rushing to write several of postcards and ran to the bus. On the bus the driver was speaking to me through a college student who was to translate for him, he noticed I was traveling solo and in a rush. "Didn't your mother warn you of the dangers about traveling Europe, and especially alone?" The driver asked - That's the difference between him and I, he listened to his mother ;) Love ya mom! It was 8pm as the bus arrived, as I ran off he yells to me, "When in Greece, call your mother!" This would be one of the first things I do when I get to Greece. I caught the ferry just as the gate was beginning to lift - The pressure is exciting!
The ferry was nothing as I had expected, my Eurail pass covered the cost of boarding, only a deck pass however, I took what I could get. The ferry is 16 hours and was a hotel on water, a massive ship. Escalators, casino, 2 restaurants - one being ala carte, shops, a disco, pools, decks, reception - you get the idea. It was beautiful being on the 10th floor watching as we set sail to Greece
The shores of Greece
. I enjoyed my only meal of the day and tried to locate warm place to sleep on the ferry, I would be crazy to sleep on the deck in the middle of winter. Above the disco is a lounge, I pulled several of couches together and attempted to catch some sleep with the thumping of music, thankfully no personnel interrupted my slumber to tell me to vacate. On the ferry I read about a city nearby to the port of Patra where we came ashore, several of hours to the next train station to transfer to a bus to the city of Olympia. Olympia is where they held the original Olympic games in ancient Greece. By the time I get to the city it is about 8pm. The town is only a tourist town, little shops and a population of 10 thousand at best. The only hostel in town had a lock in by 10pm, at this time lights had to be out and all hot water would be turned off, what can you expect for 8 Euro a night. I grabbed a gyro & called my mother as the bus driver indicated to do when I got to Greece. This night I also stepped in wet cement, I have forever left a mark on Olympia. Olympia the next morning was fantastic, I got up early enough to watch the sun rise on Olympia, at breakfast and waited for the archeological site to open. The site was very cool especially reading about the history of the games and the culture of the time. The surrounding landscape was once trees, yet all the hills were bare, the past summer horrible fires had spread across the country side near Olympus, and just scorched the land. Shortly there after I had to retrace my steps from this remote city in the middle of Greece and make it to Athens by night fall - my next adventure was to begin.
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