Santorini-Rhodes

(Lesley) On our last day in Santorini we managed a swim, some walks and a drive around the island.

It was at Red Beach that we swam. The beach was sheltered from the wind by high red cliffs so it got quite hot. The beach itself was made up of red and black stones from the old volcano eruption. There were white stones too, which were so light and airy that they floated. It was fun swimming alongside these white stones that bobbed in the water. After we dried off we relaxed on the beach for a bit then carried on our tour of Santorini.

The drive to Oia was quite pretty with good views of the sea on both sides of the island. We met a volunteer at the bookstore who told us all about her job there. She lives and volunteers in the bookstore. There were two beds among the books. Apparently there is another such bookstore somewhere in the UK. What a way to travel. I can think of a few people who would happily volunteer in a bookstore in exchange for rent. Sam, Mhari, Marco, Emma, Angus and Meagan come to mind and will probably sign up for that type of job in a few short years time. Perhaps there are other such bookstores around the world. John wants to find a bike store that has the same deal. I want to live in a silver jewellery store.

Oia is suppose to have a marvellous sunset view but as the clouds were low and stormy we didn't bother to stick around for it. We headed to Fira for a lamb gyro and then fetched our bags from the hotel. We were allowed to keep our rental car until the ferry left at 1:05 am thanks to our lovely Georgian car rental man.

The ferry port was dead an hour before the ferry arrived. I read in the car by street light and John and Sam and Mhari had a hoot playing around the abandoned port with the stray animals. I think their favourite dog got a lot of peanuts and bread sticks. As there really was no one about they set themselves up at a street side cafe. John even pulled out and drank the tin of beer he had bought for the ferry journey. The port did eventually came back to life but really only 30 minutes before the expected arrival of the boat (which was a good 20 minutes late).

Once on the boat, we easily found places to bed down (comfy chairs and carpeted floor). We all slept well for at least 6 hours (some of us for 8). In Rhodes, we anticipated a few touts and accommodation brokerages at the port. There were just two touts and they were bringing people to the same place. We went along on a promise of a clean room for 4 with cooking facilities for 40 Euros (the upper limit of our budget). Well, we were brought to a pension that rivalled some of our best in India. Clean-not!; Internet-not working; kitchen-sort of (but take your risks with the mould in the fridge); bathroom under repair; spiders everywhere; I could go on... but, I will stop so you don't get the heebie geebies.

We were tired and gave the fellow a nights rent, had a shower and set out to find new digs. We were pretty sure we would not get our first nights deposit back and in all fairness to him he had offered us a free drink on arrival (3 tea, 1 beer). We managed to find much better accommodations not far away for 45 Euros a night (5 over our upper limit). We returned with all kinds of schemes and scenarios to get our deposit back and were pleasantly surprised that our simple explanation of our sons allergies to the paint fumes from the renos and the mould was ample. We left the fellow with 10 Euros to cover the drinks and my hot shower and went merrily on our way. Needless to say we were very relieved and happy not to have had to battle it out and get angry and threaten to ruin the place with bad reviews etc. However, he really needs to do a lot to that pension if he want to get travellers to pay more than 5 Euros for a dorm bed.

So we are in Rhodes, hoping to met up with John's brother and sister in law, but we don't know where they are staying.

Thanks to John's family back home and their great detective work, Peter got in touch with us and we have seen him and Angie. We have another outing planned for tomorrow. It was great to see them looking so relaxed, rested and tanned.

Photos: Red Beach and Cliffs; Sam-the Strong Lad!; Floating Rock; Sam's spa treatment; Oia not the best day for a sunset view; Mhari on a Santorini beach; More floaty rocks!; Rhodes! The seahorse fountain in the old town-very near our pension; A nifty courtyard in Rhodes Old Town.

Greece part 1 (Sam)

(Sam) Well, we are out of Egypt now, relaxing on the Greek island of Naxos. We took a flight from Cairo to Athens beside some people who had brought their cats as carry-on. We spent 3 days in Athens, we saw a whole bunch of cool historic monuments including, the Parthenon, Lyvaticcos Hill, Roman Agora, Ancient Agora, and I eat a total of 7 delicious souvlakis.

As I said earlier, we are in Naxos now and we have been for the past 10 days. The first few days were rainy and cold but now it is sunny, although still very windy. Most days we have done very little: read, write or go for a walk in the the tiny alleys of the old village. One day we rented a car and went for a drive through the island's interior. There were many marble quarries and we even passed through a couple of villages where the sidewalks, alleys, even the curbs were made of marble. Another day, (Easter Sunday)we went for a long walk along the coast, when we arrived in town we were so hungry that we stopped at a restaurant and had the special: Easter lamb roasted on a spit, it was delicious. Another I should mention was that we went to the midnight easter service. The church was packed and when the service was over everybody lit firecrackers and the square outside seemed to blow up due to the sheer number of explosives, oh, did I mention that the church bells went crazy as well?

Santorini.

Santorini is a volcanic island shaped like a crescent. It used to be round, but after a massive explosion, the centre of the island collapsed along with most of the west coast, leaving giant black cliffs along what is now the west coast. When we got off the ferry we went to a travel agency and asked what kind of hotel they could offer. They told us about a three star place, on the east coast, close to the beach, with a kitchen and free Wi-Fi for 40 euros a night, it sounded good so we took it. The hotel turned out to be quite nice, and the beach is good too. Because of the islands volcanic past, the sand is black, and coarse. Today we were planning on swimming at the beach, but seeing as the water gets deep fast, the sand is not fine and soft and the waves are absolutely huge, we decided against it. Especially since we had already experienced huge waves in Varkala, India. Tomorrow we will have a rental car, and will look for a beach that is protected from the waves.  

Santorini

(Lesley) We are in Santorini, and thought we should post some pics before we check out of our hotel today. We have included pics of our hotel; it is amazing what you can find for a reasonable price when you show up late-afternoon in the off season on a Greek island with no map, no booking and no transportation. We have promised the owner not to reveal our room rates (yes, again two rooms, one with kitchen and easy pool access) Suffice to say they are within our budget!

Despite the continuing cool weather we did very well; we managed swims (in the pool not the Med, yet) and did some beach lounging (luckily, we had our own supply of drinks and snacks, the waiters were nowhere to be seen.) We rented a car for a day (35 hours!) which we will leave parked at the ferry dock when we sail tonight. We drove to Fira and walked down the steps to where the cruise ship launches come in to let off their passengers. We did this so that we could get some exercise climbing back up. 600 steps, but some were quite wide and took three paces. We were successful, but sweaty, when we reached the top. The donkey pictures are from the steps as they are one option for the cruisers (the other options being walking up the steps themselves or taking the cable car). We have one more day in Santorini to explore before we head east.

Ann, we managed ice cream here too. We opted for nougat not coffee. Today we might try the cookie flavour.

Mhari's tongue after a litre of orange Kool Aid

The beach at Perrissa, Santorini

Our outdoor kitchen, Santorini

Santorini sometimes has 500,000 people on the island - Not today

Our pool

Donkeys in Fira, Santorini

Fira Old Port

View from the Caldera edge in Fira

This chapel is on the front of the Lonely Planet Mediterranean Europe Book 

Greece, Naxos

(Lesley)  We have been in Naxos, Greece, all week and the weather was foul for most of it. Although it has cleared now. During our spell of bad weather we went out for a few walks, found the local grocery store, the bakery and we walked the main strip and the little alleys around town. We got to know the place and we took advantage of the poor weather to get a little school work done. We also discovered that at 8pm at least one TV channel has an English movie with Greek subtitles. We have watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, some American movie about US Presidential Security and The Bucket List.

We have lucked into a lovely place: Magic View. We were promised a 4 bed room and when we arrived our host offered us two rooms: a 3 bed and a 2 bed for the same price so we have spread out. This means we all get some space, but the reality is that we are so used to spending time together that we all hang out in one room most of the time (the room with the food!). It is convenient as we are sharing books and borrow each others clothes when we put on a load of laundry, which we can do right here at the hotel!

With respect to school work, Sam is working on his math Unit 6: Linear Equations and Graphing. The algebra in that chapter is fun. Mhari is back to spelling and writing. John is quizzing her right now. She is also doing a lot of the algebra stuff that Sam is working on simply because she enjoys it.

I am enjoying my books on Egypt. I tend to pick up a few books on whatever country we are in and try to read those. Last year, I picked out some from each country to read in preparation for the trip, but I didn't manage to read all the books I had chosen. Of course: who ever gets to read all the books they would like to read?

Now that the weather has improved we have been out more. We rented a car the other day and drove all around the island. It was beautiful. I think we drove 148 km. We left at 9:30 and returned the car at 8:00 pm. We did a little hike and saw some island must sees. We got to taste and buy some Kitron at an old distillery. And we saw lots of beaches. We hiked up to a cave on Mount Zeus and drank from a famous spring. Perhaps we will now all turn into Greek Gods and Goddesses.

On Good Friday, we joined the locals in the evening procession around town. I can't say we actually joined in the chanting or prayers because of our limited Greek, but we went along for the walk and followed the cross. It was quite a big procession especially when all the churches met up in town. For Easter Sunday (well, Sat late night) we went back to the same church and sat through part of the Greek service. There were boys (young and old) lighting firecrackers just outside throughout the service, but the reader/chanter had a mic, so he could still be heard giving the event outside the church some religious flavour. Many people, especially the younger generation, didn't remain in the church long, if they even entered. They hung around outside chatting and socializing and parading before the gathering crowd. At midnight, the bells went crazy and so did the firecrackers and fireworks. What an event! Everyone had candles and the light got passed around and everyone hugged and kissed and well... that was it. Everyone walked home with their candles still lit. Well, most people did; ours were put out by the wind on the walk home. The event was very social. We had chatted with an old man earlier on Saturday who was telling us about the service at the monastery up the hill. It is inhabited now but just one old nun, but for a true religious Easter service that is the place to go.

Soon, we leave Naxos. Onward we go. We have been on the road for just over 8 months. We have slept in over 80 beds since we left. Sam and I have slept in more because we left for India before John and Mhari; Sam is nearing 90 beds. I hope that fact doesn't earn him a bad reputation or start any disreputable gossip. One good point: We haven't had to deal with bed bugs; although we met an American in Petra who we saw again in Egypt who was covered in bites, poor guy.

Photos: Naxos town square; We just called it 'The Doorway; Rainy Day Activity; View from our window in Naxos.

Photos: Halki Orange Tree; Halki; Spring on Mount Zeus; Kids at Apollonos

Abu Simbel (Mhari)

(Mhari)  After a lot of talking, we decided that we should go to Abu Simbel on the local bus, stay there one night and go back the next afternoon, rather than taking the convoy. The convoy leaves at 3 in the morning and if we took it we would arrive at the temple with 5 hundred other tourists.

We took a taxi to the bus station in the morning and successfully bought our tickets. The 4 hour bus ride there was uneventful but we had lovely views out the window of the desert and the Nile valley.

The village of Abu Simbel was nice and well... very small. We checked in at the cheapest hotel in town which was A) Full of cockroaches B) Full of mosquitoes and C) Not that cheap; quite expensive in fact.

In the morning at 6 am we went to the Abu Simbel Temples. They were HUGE and the insides were slightly spooky. There were two temples the big one -the Great Temple of Ramses II- which is on all the posters and most of the post cards and a little temple -Nefertari- which is just as nice but a little smaller. We hung around the temples till the convoy came at 8am. It was fascinating to watch the space around the temples fill up. It was like being in an empty sheep pen and then all the sheep were being herded inside around you. We left the temples at about 8:30 and went back to our hotel. The bus ride back was just as nice as the ride there except dad and I lost our hats. Humff! I had just bought my in Luxor, it was pretty and blue.

Tourist Convoy arriving at Abu Simbel

Kitties in Cairo

The Kitten lying in the sun is a girl the dark kitty playing is also a girl and the light kitty playing is a boy. 

Cairo (Sam)

(Sam)  We arrived at Ramses train station just before lunch after a night of the bathrooms/smoking area door handle falling off every time someone opened it. And they opened it a lot, especially seeing as they were mostly 2, if not 3 pack a day smokers. There was one guy who must have smoked 3 packs that night! He went in every 10 or 20 minutes, smoked at least 3 cigarettes then came back to sit with his young children. A few times he brought his 2 year old daughter with him and let her sit on a ledge and drink soda pop while he smoked in her face. Did I mention that there are few elderly people in Egypt?

Anyways, when we arrived in Cairo the students who bought our tickets lead us out into the street and got us a cab before saying goodbye and disappearing into the crowds. We got to our hotel fairly quickly seeing as we just missed the noon till 5:30 pm rush hour (those times were quoted to me by a Cairean, I'm not being sarcastic!) although there are traffic jams anytime of day. Once we were settled in our hostel we went out for a walk in Downtown Cairo. Downtown is different from the rest of Cairo because it is full of old, attractive European architecture, rather than boring apartments for miles and at first, you do not notice the smog although when you look down the street at something a few hundred meters away and find that you can hardly see it, it makes you realize whet a great job Canada is doing of keeping old clunkers off the roads. The Downtown is full of cheap eateries that serve the same Egyptian food, at the same cheap prices in modern almost fast food style restaurants. Our favourite was a place called Felfela, you could buy a fuul (bean) or felafel sandwich for between 1 and 2 L.E. (about 25 cents) and anything with meat would put you back about 10-15 L.E. (2-3 dollars). There was also a juice shop where you could get a fresh squeezed orange juice made using the juice of 3 or 4 oranges for 3.50 L.E. (50 cents).

On our first full day in Cairo we started off by going to the Egyptian Museum. The museum was amazing, the sheer number of artifacts is staggering. Tutankhamen s treasure was great, but my favourite section was the collection of Papyrus, some of them had translations which were very interesting, mostly documents about land ownership. They also had limestone rocks found in the valley of the kings which were covered in what were essentially doodles done by tomb diggers and hieroglyphic carvers in their spare time. Another interesting part was the mummified animals exhibit, including mummified snakes, rams, cows, alligators, baboons and birds.

Later that afternoon we visited Coptic Cairo, the Christian area of the city. There were many quaint, unassuming churches and narrow, winding alleys. There was also a cemetary where the tombs were all like little houses, it felt more like a quiet neighbourhood. A little too quiet.

Our second day in Cairo was devoted to the Pyramids. We took the bus from downtown down the 10 km long Pyramids road. The entire 10 km felt like we were in the city centre. With 25 million people and still rapidly growing, Cairo is massive. When we arrived in the parking lot which was surprisingly low on tour buses, we walked up the road about 200 metres to the entrance, we had taxi drivers telling us it was 5 km the entire walk. It's not as if the pyramids were hidden around the corner and we couldn't see them, they're pretty obvious from anywhere in the vicinity. Once we had bought our tickets and walked the gauntlet of camel drivers we arrived at the foot of the great pyramid, well, all I can say is that it is really big and triangular. The site invokes a sense of awe and mystery. We walked around a bit, saw the Shinx (which was not in as good a condition as I would have hoped) and went inside the smallest of the three pyramids. Going inside was pretty cool, there was not much to see but the steep, narrow passage down was fun and It's an interesting feeling, knowing that you are in the heart of a pyramid.

When we had had enough pyramids for one day, we drove back along the same road. The traffic was so bad we got out halfway and took the metro back. The Metro in Cairo is a bit like the metro in Delhi, although about twice as crazy. Consider yourself lucky if you get on the first train that comes, it reminded me of a wrestling match. When you do get on, the cramped, hot carriage that reeks of B.O. is not much relief from the fighting to get on, and if you were actually thinking of getting off the metro well, good luck.

On our last full day in Cairo we decided to tackle the crazy walk to Khan el Khalili, the medieval bazaar.

The walk starts off easy enough, about 20 minutes through the heart of downtown, but when you cross over Medan (square) Ataba, It becomes completely different. It's not as if you will get lost or anything, you follow the same road the whole way there, it's just that this is the most densely packed area of Cairo. You cannot lose focus for one second while you dodge cars, pedestrians, hawkers and cats. When we arrived in the market we bought a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and headed in. The medival buildings were very nice but the market was all touristy and full of touts so we didn't hang around long. We walked all the way back and I bought some dried dates for 8 L.E. (1.30$) a kilo.

Aswan Faluka (Mhari)

(Mhari)  We finally escaped Luxor for Aswan which seemed better at first, but the Faluka Captains were unstoppable. Falukas are smallish sail boats with very big sails. They can fit ten easily and the bigger boats can squeeze twenty on board.

We finally booked a Faluka ride, 50le for 2 hours. Only minutes later a Faluka Captain asked if we wanted a Faluka ride. When we said no, he did the usual ' Why not?! I have very good boat. Beautiful sunset. Please! Good price, good price!'. We told we already booked a Faluka ride, and he asked us the name of our captain. We told him it was none of his business. He kept pestering us and we finally told him that his name was Abdula. Then we escaped and had a McDonald's ice cream. When we left the McDonald's he was at it again. He told us to 'forget Abdula!'  

Greece Athens to Naxos

(John) And now for something completely different. Greece, Athens to Naxos

Getting to our hostel in Athens from our hostel in Cairo was executed almost flawlessly. First a taxi to the Cairo Airport. Then we went through all the pre-boarding ritual. As usual the process was different than any other time we have ever boarded a plane but that was no surprise. It was hard to find anywhere that did not smell of cigarette smoke, which was probably a good thing as we avoided painful withdrawal symptoms. Did I ever mention that way back when we left India and went through Kuwait Airport, there was a smoking area that was called the 'Self Medication Room' I thought that was pretty funny. Anyway, our only mistake or hitch as we travelled to Athens was that we failed to validate our ticket before boarding the Airport Metro, meaning we had to get off the train before it left and return all the way back to the entrance. We missed the train and had to wait 20 minutes for another one.

The hostel in Athens was great. Basic, but really clean. Something bit Lesley in the night though and her eye swelled up pretty badly. She seems to have survived, the swelling has receded and I can now tell her she looks beautiful without lying.

We quickly got back to Europe mode in Athens. Which means, no restaurants, street food, loitering in supermarkets and lots of walking. We stayed for three nights, saw the usual things – Acropolis, Lyvatikos Hill, other ancient temples and guards changing. We tried to buy tickets on the 7.30am ferry to the Greek Island of Naxos but we had picked the only fully booked ferry this side of July so had to be satisfied with getting on the later sailing. This meant that though we could get up late the day we left, our first ferry trip in the Greek islands would be cold and dark. This was very disappointing although I somehow doubt we are going to get much sympathy.

The five hour ferry journey was quite pleasant. It was full of Greeks. No surprise there. This is the start of Easter week so everyone is going home or to their summer place for the holiday. The mood was festive and there were lots of children. We had a bunch sit very close to us. They were loud and boistrous and one made a huge mess by dumping water into an empty cardboard fast food container. It flooded the table and spilled onto the floor by our bags. Lesley went into full on teacher mode and ordered all these little Greek kids around until they had cleaned it all up. Their parents were oblivious being out on deck – smoking probably. To their credit, the kids took orders in English really well and our bags stayed dry.

Once in Naxos we were met by Nikos (naturally) who took us to our rented apartment. We are now in our small studio, overlooking the bay. It is all very lovely, too bad it's raining. We have two rooms and a very basic kitchenette. All for 210 Euros a week. Lesley and I wandered into town this morning and got supplies from the only grocery store open on a Sunday. We spent 25 Euros. This proves that a family of four can live on a Greek Island for less than 60 Euros a day. Maybe.

Photos: Guards Changing; At the Acropolis; Sam could not remember the name of this one

Our ferry to Naxos; Sunny (Not) Naxos; A Naxos Street.

Abu Simbel-Cairo Pictures

Tea with local men in Abu Simbel

Lake Nasser at sunrise

Great Temple of Ramses II - Just us

And this guy

Hotel Cockroach/Mosquito/Overpriced

Rahit with Sam in Aswan

Mhari is really growing up

Cool!

Sphinx

It's faster to walk

Drive through market

Close to Khan el Khalili 

Bread Head

Where to now, Dad?

A Cairo bus

Downtown Cairo, Midan Talaat Harb at the end of our street

Hostel Dahab - Our Rooftop Home