Off to Delphi to seek the Oracle 03/09/08 Day 48

Day 48 (slide show)
(video 1)
(video 2)

My plan to see the ruins of Delphi are quite complicated for a few reasons. First, I have been changing my mind on when to leave so often it’s been hard to make a plan. Second, it is a complicated trek for someone who doesn’t speak any Greek at all. It’s a good thing I had a friend like Mahe to help me get the connections and transfers right.

There are a few bus changes and the bus stations are just like the states where it’s just about all locals. The station itself is quite ordinary and reminded me of a station I saw in 1972 when I was in the Army in St. Louis. O’ except that you have to pay 0.20 Euros to take a piss. I didn’t see anyone at the door so I just walked in and this big old Greek woman came running at me while I’m standing there saying the pledge of allegiance. I didn’t know what the hell she was saying I just zipped up and stepped back. I wish I could have got a picture of it. This is about 5:30am in the morning after two connections on the metro so I was in a daze.

I figured out the ticket situation and went to the area where it said Delphi. At 6am the bus is to leave and I’m felling proud that I survived the ordeal. Here comes a bus to the loading area at 6am so I get on. About a dozen others got on with me and we take off. They have ticket takers on the buses here. I’m glad because we got about 1000m down the lane and the guy has been counting heads. The bus stops and he starts checking. He comes to me and mumbles something like “you’re an idiot tourist aren’t you” I’m gone. Something’s Wrong (Junior Watson). OK so I screwed up again but how was I suppose to know. I get on the next bus at 6:15 and I’m on my way. These are nice buses too. I can hear those locals laughing behind me.

My plan is to stay for the day then try to make my way back to Athens. I’m thinking I’ll be back at about 7pm. should be a great day for an adventure. The temperature is about 31C but it might get a little warmer. It’s a 3hr ride and I’m now writing this while at a halfway rest stop. It’s a small restaurant with just snacks though. We only have 20 minutes. I got a few pictures of the countryside which is very nice. All I can think about is the history here when I look over the landscape.

The bus rolled right past the ruins entrance and into the village of Delphi. The bus stop was a little shop where they wanted to sell me everything. It turns out the ladies that were laughing behind me were tourist too. Three ladies from Chicago. Now remember we are on the local bus, there were lots of tour group buses but the four of us went local and for 14 Euros. I was starting to introduce myself to the Chicago gals when we decided all about the same time that we need to start walking down the hill. It’s about a 20 minute walk to the museum. I walked past the beautiful little restaurant patio that was just starting to open. “That” I told the ladies, “is where I’m going to have a late lunch”.

At the gate I decided to go to the museum first. My friend Mahe had told me that it is better that way. As I started thru the place I lost the Chicago ladies after about an hour but it was a little crowded. I wanted to start hiking up the trail. I’m taking lots of pictures as I walk so I won’t bore you with that much of a description. I’m not that sure what I’m looking at anyway.

As I write this I’m sitting under a beautiful olive tree overlooking the Theater. It is so nice and pleasant here I could stay for hours. To bad there aren’t a few friends here with a bottle of wine, some cheese and bread but that will come later at the restaurant I spotted below. There is a nice cool breeze and I’m listening to one of my favorite blues artist. Mem Shannon, No Religion. Great song.

Well I made it to the restaurant patio and it’s just as I expected. Great waiter and a beautiful Greek Salad. The waiter took the picture. I stayed a little too long though because I had to hurry to the shop where the bus comes. When I got there I did the same damn thing. I was late so I jumped on the first bus. Now there was no excuse for this. This bus was going the wrong direction. All I can say is I had a lot of wine with my salad. Within seconds I realize what I’ve done and I start to calculate the options. First I check my money and I have enough to spend the night wherever. Then I see we are headed for the little fishing village that I could see from the hillside. Great I say, lets go. In the meantime the ticket master sees that I’m an idiot and wants my ticket. I didn’t understand him or he I but I give him a real shit eaten’ grin and he motions to stay where I was. He has a radio I see and now I figure he is setting it up for me to meet the other bus going back. Great, Apollo is looking out for me again. I got to see the village and still caught the right bus. I also saw the campground that I was planning to stay in had I not found these friends to climb Mt. Olympus with.

As I pulled up to the shop where I where I had made the error the Chicago ladies were waiting and laughing again. They had seen me get on the wrong bus and thought I was history. I gave them a story to tell.

So you might think that this is a big day and a mediocre story. I’m not even close to the end. Go grab your favorite drink then read the rest.

I was so impressed with the bus on the way out this morning but on the way back, well all I can say is it reminded me of Pakistan. No air, stinky and I sat in the back where a spring was sticking out the seat and kept skewering me in the ass. I felt like a Greek Kabob. I endured this for three hours then the two metro transfers and a 15min walk. “Alright I’m at Mahe’s house.” I’m going to sleep well tonight.

As I walk in the door at about 8pm she tells me we are going to dinner with her father and a friend of his. Then she says you got 15 min. I don’t know what I did then except I was on the edge of the couch with my face in my hands. I was just trying to catch a second wind but I guess she didn’t understand. She just kept saying lets go. So I took a deep breath and I got my act together. It was easier after a two min shower and 4 Excedrin.

We went to an original Greek restaurant not for tourists. It was a below ground place with only 4 tables. The owner is the chief and the waiter. He prepares the food for his friends and the always come back. No menus. It was absolutely the best. Mahe’s Father is a special man. I’m not sure but in his 70’s and his friend Dimitri was so funny, it was a special night. Mahe’s father told a story of his WW11 medal from the Queen that he gave back to England. Seems he was one of 10 or so Sailors to survive the sinking of their ship. I won’t go into the whole story but he’s quite a man. The restaurant is known as a Kotoki Restaurant and we shared a special wine made at the restaurant called Reisitine Wine. There are lots of resin wines but this is a special type that was too good. Then we went for Greek Ice Cream. Greek love there Ice Cream and their Honey, Olive Oil and just about everything Greek. I think I agree. I like this country.

Athens: The Gods are watching out for me Day 47 02/09/08

Day 47

I finally got out of the Fivos Hostel/Hotel. I sure wish the people at Citi Card had done there job right in Kathmandu. I would not have stayed here for the extra three days. This place might be worth 20 Euros but certainly not 40 which is the price I paid. The worst was that last night when I picked up my key I meet some nice folks from Australia and they had got some deal for their room, 35 Euros I think. I’m glad to be gone from here. So I got the Credit card and the Citi people screwed up again. They sent me a temporary card, only good for 30 days. What wrong with these people. Now I have to get on the phone with them again. It cost me about 8 Euros to make the call. I’ve already made six such calls. As my friend Thomas Damon tells me “quite complaining”

I’m going to meet again with Constantinos today and I’m looking forward to that. I want to ask him if he found out anything about the “Original route the Athenians took to the Mountain” It would be nice to find out if it’s true or not. A couple of other problems have come up. I need to figure out what to do with my cold weather gear. My large duffel will be quite impossible to carry to Prague. The other thing is I need a shipping address for Moses at ETC so he can ship my crate to Prague. I have been trying to find someone to help me with this but no luck yet. I have asked everyone who I think might know someone in Prague, one of these nice people was Dora from the other day and she said she might know of a Couch Surfer who might help but I haven’t heard anything yet.

So my meeting with Constantinos turned out to be a phone call but I can’t believe it. He has a climbing friend named Nickolas who is an avid rock climber and they want to go with me. I’m amazed because they just returned from Italy where they climbed in the Dolomites for several days. Now they are going to turn around and climb Olympus. Nickolas has a car and will take us there on Friday the 5^th. This is a good piece of luck.

Now I need to find a place to stay for a few days. I was going to leave today and start making my way north. I called my friend Mahe and she was generous enough to let me Couch Surf at her place. This was above and beyond the call because she had just had a surfer from Argentina who just left. She wanted to have a break. Thank you Mahe, I appreciate your kindness. Now I’m set to wait and leave on Friday. If I work it right Mahe tells me I can take the bus to Delphi tomorrow at 6am and spend the day seeing the ruins then return to Athens. I think Mahe will like to have the day by herself; she has a lot to catch up on.

I stopped at the cybercafé and posted some more blogs and checked my mail. Turns out Dora found me a nice CS’er in Prague that might let me use his address if I write him a note. At least I have a few days to work on these problems now.

Sorry, again I have forgotten to take any pictures. I guess I’ve got too much on my mind.

Athens and my trek to the Laundry Day 46 01/09/08

Day 46
I’m off today to get my laundry done. I ask the lady at the counter of the hostel “do you have a laundry service around here” she smiled and got out the map. It’s about a 30 minute walk. Wow. It’s in an area where I need to pick up some maps and I’m still looking for a can of fuel for my stove. I’m finding that this might be difficult. I left early so I could take some morning pictures but I keep getting lost. It’s hard to think of getting pictures when I can’t find the street names but I like Athens in the early morning though. I finally found the laundry and dropped off my clothes which would take about 2 hours so I set off for the map store where I can buy a good map of Mt Olympus. It looked close on the tourist map but I spent some time trying to find it. It is tucked back into a business office. I didn’t find a small backpacking map but I did buy a larger 1:25.000 map. After getting my laundry I was tired and it was getting hot. I headed for my room and the air conditioning. It’s turning out to be a tough day. I arrived at my room around 1pm and no air conditioning, it went out. “Something’s Wrong” (Junior Watson) What a bummer, it’s hot. I tried to sweet it out through the afternoon then I went with my new friend Elpida for a bite to eat and she helped me find some supplies. The one thing I needed the most was a can of fuel. I can’t cook anything while camping without it. The evening cooled down and Elpida was great to help me. We walked around the town a little stopping in for a beer here and there. We found the fuel cans and I bought two. If I’m going to be camping all the way up the Adriatic Coast I might not found another one. I got back to my hot room about 10pm and there was a message from Mahe. It seems the friend she introduced me to the other night wants to go with me to climb Olympus. His name is Constantinos Gofas. Great news, I’ll find out more tomorrow.

Finding my way to Mt. Olympus Day 45 31/08/08

Day 45 (slide show)
I didn't do much today at least in the morning. At noon I did meet up with another nice Couch Surfer named Theadora Patsi and some friends of hers. She had all kinds of information about Mt. Olympus. She has been there many times and is a rock climber to. She told me all about her month long adventure climbing all over the western US from Seattle to Los Vegas. She had the same words of advise about Albania though. Dora, as she is known, had a list of the phone numbers and operators of the Refuges there called. It seems that their are several buildings or Lodges as we would call them run by different climbing clubs in Greece but the main lodge which sleeps over 150 people is owned by a family and has been for many years. She told me their name but I can't remember it. So I think I can make this work. Take the train to the mountain and see what happens. Some how I would have to stop off at Delphi though but that's possible. I can camp right outside there, then a couple of days hitchhiking and a few train stops, no problem. I guess I have a few details to work out but for the first time I know now that I can make it happen. I was thinking I would stay with Dora and her friends for a few hours then see the ruins of the Zeus Temple. As usual in Greece once you sit at a nice outdoor restaurant for lunch it turns into an all day affair. Sorry Zeus Temple. Tomorrow I will get my Credit Card and then I can start packing. This is going to be hard. I need to get rid of a lot of stuff. My ordinal plan was to leave this with friends as I go and arrive in Prague with only what I can carry. You see I have planned this for many months. I have new gear and clothing ready to ship and if I calculate correctly it will be in Prague a few weeks after I arrive and get set up. This is the plan. I planned on leaving several items with my friend in Kathmandu, Khrishna but because we couldn't connect on the last day I just threw everything in my big rolling duffel bag. Now I have to deal with the same question. What do I leave behind. It is raining here today. A real nice summer rain, but it will be cold on the mountain. How can I carry everything I need to get me to Prague. I'll bet my friend Alex from REI would know. He is the best I've seen at packing light. I remember talking to him about all the variables. I always ask what if and he asks why. What would you take. O' and by the way. Sorry but the pic's were lean today. I saw this printing press in the morning then forgot to take any more pictures. I don't know why.

The Acropolis Day 44 30/08/08

Day 44 (slide show)

(Must See Video)
I received a call this morning from my Couch Surfing friend Maha. She has some folks who want to go to dinner tonight at 7:30 so I think its a good day to see the Acropolis. I walked around for a few hours in the morning trying to get a better feel of the city. I found a tourist open air train that would take me up the hill but the walk is much better. The weather is perfect. I arrived at the site around 11:30 at what I guess is parking area. I feel I got lucky because the crowd hadn't arrived yet. Once you leave the parking area there are many different trails to get up to the ruin. Most tourists take the steps up but the trails wind through Olive trees and small ruin areas. The only word I can use is stunning. The Archaeologist have all the stones marked with numbers to make it easier to find the right location for the pieces. Its a giant puzzle. The Theater was my favorite place. I wish I could see a performance there. I walked around the whole mountain. There is even small trails through the neighborhoods. Afterwards I found a nice little restaurant and sat down for a Greek Salad and a glass of wine. (This was my second Greek Salad in as many days) I meet Maha and her friend for dinner later that evening. His name is Constantinos Gofas. I great guy who is a rock climber as well as a trekker. He had just returned from a climbing trip to the Dolomite's in Italy. We ended up at his house to review some maps. I told him of my plan to trek on the original Athenian trail to the summit of Mt. Olympus. "Never heard of it" he said. "Come, let's look at the maps" He had not climbed Mt. Olympus since he was a kid, some 20 years ago. I think he felt a little ashamed he hadn't been up to the mountain more. Its a great symbol of pride to the Greeks, even those who don't climb love the mountain. He said he had a friend that he would talk to about the Athenian trail and get back to me. I had a great night talking about the mountain with him and Maha. O' and one more thing is they were very worried about me and my plan to leave Greece by going north through Albania. Both he and Maha were quite emphatic that I not do this. We left it at that and I went back to my hostel. This is Saturday and I have to wait until Tuesday for my credit card to arrive at the hostel. I extended my stay to get it by UPS. I don't like it but I had no choice.

The Temple of Ames Day 43 29/8/08

Day 43 (slide show)
I was so tired last night that I went to bed to early. I woke at about 5am so I thought I would go walk the city and get some early morning photos. I was out before the sun rose. This its a great time to see the area before the people are around. I was surprised at the amount of graffiti everywhere. It looked like LA did 15 years ago. Also there were many people sleeping off the night before on the benches and steeps. They might sleep there every night but they looked like they had some source of income so I'm not sure. The temperature is great here though and it would be real easy to drink to much and just fall asleep. I wasn't going to spend a lot of time walking the streets but I did want to see this Botanical Garden they had by the Parliament Building. There wasn't anything great here but it was very quite and a good way to start the day out. I worked on several different ways to use the camera too. All this time and I still find new things that it will do. I got word on the Couch surfing Site yesterday that I will be meeting a nice lady today named Elpida. (Elpi-th-a) It took me way to long to remember her name. I posted a note on the site that I was looking for information on the Mt. Olympus climb. She answered and we are to meet later. Right now I'm heading out to see some of the sites close by and get a feel of the place. My hostel is right in the tourist area and very close to a big ruin site. I don't want to go to the Acropolis until I can do it without rushing. This area will be fine for a few hours. Well that turned out to be wrong. The area I went to under the Acropolis is huge. (Here is a google map of it) I couldn't see it all in one day. I will have to come back later. I meet with Elpida in the afternoon and she had lots of good information on Mt Olympus. She grew up in the area and was very knowledgeable of the situation there for climbing. We spent several hours looking over the map and talking about the different sites in the northern part of Greece. My goal is to find someone how has heard of the original path the Athenians used to get to the mountain. She wasn't aware of this but we talked about different ways it might be possible. I also found where Delphi is and now I am starting to develop a plan. Just need to decide when to start out.

Athens, Greece Day 42 28/08/08

Day 42 (slide show)
I did sleep well last night. I was so tired. Went to a great restaurant and got my first taste of a Greek salad the way they are suppose to be made. Before I see anything and there is a lot to see, I have to find a Citibank Branch office. Remember my card was stolen almost a month ago and these folks can't seem to get me a new card. So, my first full day in Greece and I'm going on an adventure across the city. After figuring out the Metro and making some mistakes I find the branch office. Of course the day is half gone by now, but I walk into the office with a since of accomplishment. I go through three service lady's before I get English. "This is Citibank Greece not Citibank USA" she says. "Can I have a card sent to this office" I asked because I was changing hotels so much. "No we don't work with the Citicards division." I walked out thinking this sucks. Somethings Wrong (Junior Watson-Blues Man) I spent most of the day working on this problem. I made my way back to my hotel area and found a cybercafe. I called Citicards. Of course it is Thursday night and they can't get a card out until Monday then three days for delivery that gives me a card next Wednesday. I don't want to spend a week in this hostel but I need to have an address. I sucked it up and told them to send it. When you make a call from out of the country to Citi the computer voice comes on and says "we accept collect calls." Well that would be great except I can't find an operator to talk to place a collect call. You still have to pay the hotel or the cybercafe. After Nepal I'm already into this problem for almost $65.00. Citibank is a pain in the ass if you loose your card. Tomorrow will be better. I keep saying that.

19 hours in the Bahrain Airport Day 41 27/08/08

Day 41 (slide show)
Arrived in Bahrain at 7pm last night. Now its 1am in the morning and I have a lot of waiting to do. I don't leave until 2pm today. I searched around and there aren't many places to hang out. Many people from all over trying to find a place to sleep. I found a Cathy Pacific VIP Club and convinced them to sell me a membership. Only 4hr though so I'm going to wait until about 4am then go in and wait till they kick me out. Its 21euros and worth it. Free food, nice lounge area with big screen and showers. I stayed until 10am. the best thing was a free computer. I didn't get an upgrade on the next leg but It wasn't so bad. Gulf Air. Next time your on a plane and have to hear the safety message think about this. The message given in five different languages I think it took 45min. On a short flight you could land before the finished. I'm in Athens now sitting in my new room or should I say closet. Its a hostel at hotel prices, that's fine though because I didn't even know if I would have a place or not until I was in Bahrain. Thanks to my friend from Couch surfing. Her name is Maha and she was very kind to help me out. She has a CS'ers at her house right now, he is from Argentina. They will be coming to get me to go to dinner in a few hours. I'm quite tired and need to find a second wind.

Leaving Kathmandu for Bahrain Day 40 26/08/08

Day 40 (slide show)

I started packing today. I leave about 5pm for Bahrain. I was to meet Arjun for breakfast and sure enough he came rolling in right on time. As he sat down he told me he had been up all night with some new sponsors for the Porters Progress. He was insistent that I come to his office in Themal at 11:00am. I told him yes but I had to pack and my mind was already on the plane. As I scrambled to figure out how to pack my gear I noticed it was starting to rain early today. I was going to have to walk 20 min in the downpour. I took off with my poncho on which helped but there was a lot of mud along the way. As I walked in he had the leaders of the Porters Progress waiting there. They had a presentation for me with all five of them in attendance. I was made the first Lifetime Member of the Porters Progress of Nepal because of the help I had given them. They also made me the US Ambassador and told me they need my help and to keep promoting them in my travels. I told them I would do my best. Its quite an honour. It's 2pm now and I'm sitting in the lobby waiting for the shuttle to the airport. I'm looking forward to moving on. Crazy things happen on days like these. I'm on the plane now but I have to mention a few things that have happened. As I was waiting for the shuttle at the hotel a nice guy came in and was looking around. When he saw me he came over to ask how I liked the hotel. I told him it was fine and it was a good location to. We started talking and he just got to Kathmandu and was going to be here for 3 to 4 weeks. His name was Walter and he was from Switzerland. He had come to Kathmandu in 1990 and trekked to Tibet. That's a 3 week trek. He said they were a group of 5 guys and they had a great time and had a lot of stories. Anyway I only got to talk for about 1/2 hour. I wish I could have meet him earlier. Real nice guy. He would have been fun to kick around with in the city. Next crazy thing happened at the airport. My bag was overweight so I had to pay the overage and I asked if I could get bumped up to Business class. No problem she said. "WOW Cool." Not finished yet. I run into Leonard and Enric from Spain. I run into these guys everywhere. I think they said the same about me. After leaving them I realized I had paid all my Rupees for tips and was hungry. Just like in Hong Kong. I had enough for a bottle of water maybe. I walked into the restaurant and nobody was there except a guy from Edinburgh. He says "Come on over and sit here." Turns out he is a Botanist and works for the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. He just got off a 3 week trek of the mountains of Nepal to discover new species in the area. We had a great time and he bought me lunch. Thank you Dr. Mark Watson. I wish we could have spent more time together. So now as I said I'm on the plane in Business Class next to this young lady that doesn't speak any English. I was able to figure out that she works for the Nepali Embassy in Bahrain. There isn't any talking going on here until all of a sudden in perfect English she asked me if she could go to the toilet. I said sure and started to laugh. Crazy day.

Kathmandu Day 39 25/08/08

Day 39
Well the rest of the group leaves for home today. Other then Paul they were sure hard to get to know. O' well this part of my adventure could have been better. Paul was a nice guy and I enjoyed his company.I headed back to the phone company's cybercafe for more torture. I tried to work on the pic's today and got lucky. I spent 3hr.. If this keeps up I might need to buy a computer. I was reminded of a conversation with a friend at REI. His name is Bayani Espino. He was showing me his new 9in square mini laptop about a month before I left. It was very nice and he asked "you should get one and take it with you" as I looked at it I thought it was just waiting to be stolen. Bayani I should have listen to you. All the travelers I meet on the road have one. No one I've meet has had them stolen yet. I received some news from Athens today and I might have a place to stay there. I hope so I don't have a clue where to go once I arrive. I'll just see what happens. I don't have a slide show for you today just this one picture. I saw this kid who was laid down here yesterday morning. He looks very sick. I saw him last night and this morning. He is on the sidewalk of a busy street. Today I had to take his picture because I hate to see this. I tried to hide around the corner and check to see if anyone came to get the money I left but saw nothing. Other people take the money because he is to week to hold it himself I'll bet.