May 10, 2008

Ok, where did I leave off - Cairo I think. I forgot to mention that we visited Alexandria
in Egypt. It was a great spot and having just spent about 10 days in extreme heat, the cool breeze off the the Mediterranean was really nice. We found some amazing sites here, beautiful gardens and parks, palaces and a stunning library. We saw some very cool country side on the way to Alexandria and the taxi ride back was an adventure in itself. When thinking back on it, it's a miracle that we actually survived some of the cab rides. We handed in our score sheets and
were told of our next destination, Athens.



Library in Alexandria














We arrived in Athens and checked in to our hotel - right by the Acropolis - fantastic. We had
no scavenges for the rest of the day - a couple of hours of much needed R&R and in the evening
we have a group dinner at a local restaurant. Joanne and I wandered around a little and discovered that Greece, including Athens, was closed for a long weekend. It would re-open
on Tuesday. It was Easter Weekend - the biggest event of the year in Greece. All the
tourist sites, most shops and even the train stations were closed. This would be very interesting!!
Anyway, we met the gang at the hotel and wandered off to the restaurant. Since GSH was picking up the tab for this, the wine flowed and flowed and flowed. We did ourselves proud, and after much Retsina and other wines, dishes were smashed - as per Greek tradition - we honoured several Americans by making them Canadian citizens. Anthems were sung and generally everyone (at least at our table) let loose. A great evening and the look on Bill's face when the dishes started flying - priceless. At 10 p.m. we were to meet in the hotel bar and get our scavenge books for this leg of the trip. We also then found out that this leg would end
in Bucharest, Romania and that we had to find our own way there. Flying would not be allowed.
The first scavenge was attending midnight Mass at a cathedral not far from the hotel.
The service started inside and because of the huge crowd it moved outdoors into the square
in front of the cathedral, where a stage had already been set up. It was quite a spectacle and
we stayed for about an hour and then had to get back to the hotel to get some sleep.
The next morning we completed several scavenges locally and decided to take a ferry to
Aegina. It was a beautiful day and we just wandered around and had a very nice and relaxing couple of hours there. Back on the ferry and took the train back to near the hotel and completed a bunch more scavenges on the way home. Definitely somewhere I want to go back to.
Didn't get in to see the Acropolis (just saw it from outside the gate) but did catch Hadrian's Arch,
the Temple of Olympian Zeus etc. etc. It was very difficult getting train information as
so much was closed. We decided to blow the budget and take a taxi (we shared with Lloyd and Treacy)from Athens to Thessaloniki as we really wanted to see Delfi and Meteora. Not only were they big bonus points but 2 sites that Joanne had not seen when in Greece 25 years ago. They were amazing, well worth the effort of getting there.



Delfi







From Thessaloniki we took the train
to Bucharest - we managed to get a sleeper - although not a first class : ( - for the first leg to Sophia, Bulgeria. The train was a little slower than scheduled and we arrived there at
10 a.m. We did manage to get a few hours of sleep in between customs officers getting us up to check passports. We could have, and probable should have, stayed in Sophia for a few hours to do some scavenges here. Some of us were very
anxious to get the train over and done with and get to Bucharest. At the station I had a bit of a run in with a couple of Bulgarians who thought that I should pay them for not carrying my bag from the station to the train. To add insult to injury, they wanted 50 of the local currency which would have amounted to about $25.00 - dreamers.....I must give them credit for trying to get hold of my bag so that they could take it, but come on, it's a rolly bag. Maybe they felt that they should be rewarded for the effort and the good intention. Bulgaria, not on the list of places to go back to. The next leg to Bucharest was another 8 - 10 hours, again, couldn't get first class seating and were stuck in a pretty disgustingly dirty second class. We won't even go into washroom conditions. All in all it was a pretty rough ride, there was no food or drinks available on the train and we were lucky to at least have some water with us. I would say that this was by far the worst part of the 3 weeks.
More on Romania later.
K