Fugitive Diaries: Day 7

We once again woke up in our comfortable little hotel room to a morning of sunshine. Our plan for the day was to see the ruins of Apollo and Athena. We started the short walk to the ruins from our hotel room and ended at our destination: the Sanctuary of Apollo. While taking in these ruins and observing all of the treasuries, the only thing I could think of is how so many people dedicated their lives to the wrong god(s); effort, money, and sacrifice were given to these frauds. It was quite a dismal thought. There was a Greek tour guide with a Texas Longhorns had that was giving a tour to 2 oldish Americans. Since we did not have a tour guide, we decided to talk this small group and listen in. I think they might have become suspicious... but they never said anything. Just as we were beginning to leave, a hoard or tourists just began to flood the entrance. Thank God we missed those people! We left just in the nick of time.

Fanny Pack! & Matching Chinese Tourists

But while walking to the Sanctuary of Athena, we passed a little store that said they had hamburgers. Andrew was excited and wanted to eat there on the way back, I didn’t really care what we are so I was game. On the way back, we stopped at the restaurant but no hamburgers. One thing we have learned in Greece, SIGNS LIE. It is SOOO disappointing. Instead we just ate a sandwich and Andrew bought a 3 Euro tiny glass of orange juice. Chuckles, sucker. On the way back we passed this giant store where the only product they have is slushies! Slushies, slushies everywhere! All sorts of flavors of yummy goodness. Just the sight of them convinced me. Once I purchased my mango slushy, I looked and there was a peach slushy with champagne! I was SOOO mad that I had missed that one! I almost wanted to buy another one but they were a little on the pricy side so I didn’t. But I did grumble about it for the next ten minutes. We then decided to do a little souvenir shopping. In one store, there were these 2 old men who owned it and they would stand behind you and read everything that is on the product outloud. Thank you very much for reading that because I was incapable! One of the funniest times was when I was looking at a shirt and he ripped it out of my hand and pointed to the tag, “Made in Greece and NOT China!” Chuckles, it was hilarious. Andrew and I split off and were going to meet at our hotel. As I was walking down the street all of these people kept saying hi to me, which I thought was kind of strange. Finally one young gentleman was standing outside his store and said, “Do you know why everyone is saying hi to you?” My response was, “Ummm. No.” With a big smile on his face, “Because you’re cute!” With a nervous smile I chuckled and said thanks and bee-lined for our hotel. Stupid freaking Andrew, where is my husband when I need him. I mean that’s mildly flattering and all but I guess I’m not very good at accepting those complements. Once Andrew got back we went out to a local shop and ate some gyros and watched many episodes of the Office. Tomorrow = Thessaloniki!

Fugitive Diaries: Day 6

View from our balcony in the morning light

I awoke with the sense of being refreshed and ready for the day. I spent some time out in our balcony eating my Honey Nut Cheerios and taking in the view. It was a little chilly outside so I decided to wear pants. They felt foreign because I had been wearing shorts everyday. It took me a while to get Andrew up, but he eventually began to stir. We set out with the an objective of seeing the ruins. Andrew wanted to see the Throne of Apollo which was quite a hike. Delphi is a little tiny village which reminded me of Cinque Terre. It is terraced on a cliffside which gives a climber a workout! We first began to ascend the stairs and I already felt the burn. Talk about out of shape, phew! We decided that we should probably start stretching. We got higher and higher until all that was in front of us was a mountain. Not entirely a mountain, more so the foothills of mountains. They had paths cut out in the soil which we began to follow. We saw a tree and guessed that it was a date tree. Wrong-o! It was an almond tree. These nuts would be a pain to get out of their shells! I will no longer why they are so expensive. Note to self: not ripe almonds DO NOT taste very good.

Almonds

I haven't tied my sweatshirt around my waist since I was 10.

Sanctuary of Athena

We continued on our path to reach a gate that was locked. The normal response would be to turn around. No, no, no not Andrew. His response, “Well, its only about 6 feet tall.” No way Jose! Delphi has been going smoothly and I do not want to mess up our mojo. Locks don’t stop Andrew! We did see a trail that went upwards so we decided to take that and see where it leads. It was quite a hike but we were able to see some fantastic scenery. As we began to climb the cliffside, a spectacular view of the Gulf of Corinth came into sight. Thousands of twisted olive trees could be seen for as far as the eye could see. As the distance between us and Delphi grew, the only thing we could here was the buzzing of the bees. And oh man, these were everywhere. Not the scary hornets, but the friendly honey and bumblebees! We also came across a couple foundations of what we suspect to be houses. We doubt that they could be that ancient.

It was nice to be able to go at our pace and stop and observe our surroundings. We also were able to see a bird’s eye view of the Sanctuary of Apollo. We had not quite anticipated the degree of the hike we were taking, and I had only brought my water bottle. Talk about being parched. We kept passing water cisterns in which Andrew was trying to break into but came out being thirstier than he was in the first place. While he did this I laid down and took a little nap. Everyday this past week I have taken a nap and I can honesty say that I have grown accustomed to this habit. It is very soothing and relaxing to lay outside and feel the warmth of the sun on my skin.

We kept hiking up but had no idea what our destination was. We had climbed over the first foothill and kept on going. We ended up at some rural Greek farm. Andrew kept commenting on how he felt like Frodo. The first thing he is going to do when we get home is watch Return of the King. Chuckles. What a nerd. We were growing tired and decided to turn around. On our way down we saw another turtle! Turtle hunting! This little guy was way more playful than the one we saw in Athens. After some time we eventually made it back to Delphi. By this time it was well after 17:00 so we went back to our hostel, got cleaned up, and went to a café for some homemade ice-cream! I felt like I earned 2 scoops because I just burned a bagillion calories on our multi-kilometer hike. We then went to the supermarket to buy some more milk to finish off our cheerios and peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches. We once again ate on our little balcony and proceeded to watch So I Married an Ax Murder. Tomorrow’s agenda entails touring the Sanctuary of Apollo & Athena.

Luckily we had no encounter with our adversaries. Fortunately, they are not quite in the athletic shape that we are in, and were unable to trail us up the mountain. Our guard has not been let down and we are ready for any enemies we might stumble across in the near future.

Our updated plans are to head to Thessaloniki on Friday with the hopes of catching a train on Saturday to Germany! The airports are expected to be up and running on Thursday, but there are loads of pepole who are trying to get flights. Therefore, we opt to take the train. Plus Athens is crazy and I don't want to have to deal with that. Not sure exactly where we are going or staying once we get to Germany, but as long as we are in that country I will be at ease!

Fugitive Diaries: Day 5

We began our morning with saying our goodbyes to our new friends. The plan was to go to breakfast at 9:30, check out at 10:30, catch the bus to Terminal B and board a bus to Delphi at 13:00. Well we got 2 ½ out of 4 right. We were all set when we left our hostel. We knew which bus we had to take, we knew how to get to the bus stop, and we knew which stop to get off at. We got to the bus stop and didn’t see a machine to get our ticket so we just figured we would get it on the bus. The bus arrived and the driver said we couldn’t get our tickets there and that he didn’t know where to get tickets. Are you stinking kidding me? What kind of bus driver are you? Enough said, he was NOT very nice. By this point Andrew and I were both annoyed and we just wanted to get to Delphi. After some arguing, I decided to leave Andrew with our stuff and walk the distance to the tram to get our tickets there. Got to the tram, got our tickets (I think they were the right ones, but at this point I didn't really care), and was headed back with negative thoughts in my mind. I was torked at Andrew for not helping me plan anything and already had come-backs planned in my mind for any smart comments he might shell out. I had not boughten post cards yet and purposefully took extra long to pick them out, which made Andrew wait longer. HA! (Which he doesn't know, good thing he doesn't read this thing) That relieved my tensions a bit. When I got back to the bus stop and gave Andrew his ticket, he gave me a high-five. Sigh. Fine, not mad anymore.

The bus then came again but didn’t stop!! Stupid Athens public transportation. We waited another 20 minutes for it to arrive again. We got on and I had high hopes. We had to wait 13 stops. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ….. you get the picture. Then came 13, 14, 15 and our stop had not yet come. Go figure. We were looking at our map and at the directions our hostel gave us. We were really torked off and I decided to stand instead of sit just incase I had to run off the bus if our stop was to arrive. Note that the Greeks use a different alphabet than we do, which makes it even MORE complicated. Especially since our diretions were in English and not Greek. At one point, this nice lady and her husband (I would assume) tapped my hand and said station? “Yes!” I exclaimed. Both her and her husband did not speak English but we got the picture. They were SO helpful and kind. They got off at the stop and took us directly to the station. When we got there I didn’t have the heart to tell her that we needed to get to the bus station… not the train station. Chuckles… it is funny now. But we figured at least we were somewhere! We entered the train station and sat down. Contemplating what our next steps should be. By this time, we had missed out 13:00 bus and I was pretty sure that there was a later one. Hmmm.. what to do, what to do. By this point, this Delphi trip was Interlaken, Switzerland times 5. Interlaken compared to Delphi was a piece of cake. We didn’t know how we were getting there, we didn’t know where it was, we didn’t know where we were staying, and the list goes on. The one thing that I did know what that I did not want to stay in Athens another night. Andrew stepped up and talked to the ticket people and found out there wasn’t a train going directly to Delphi, but a train did go to a town that wasn’t far from Delphi. The only problem was that he didn’t have much information on buses running to Delphi. Actually, zero information. Decisions, decisions. He then went and asked the information center if they knew where the bus station in Athens was. They gave him directions and we decided that he would go and try to find this station and then come back. That way it we didn’t find it, we wouldn’t have to haul all of our stuff back. Okie dokie artichockie. That made my job easy. Sit. Seconds and minutes ticked by and no sign of Andrew. With all the volcano business, the train station was quite busy with people trying to return home. I was quite surprised to see how many people actually wear fanny packs! I decided to whip out my camera and take pictures of people with them:

What NOT to wear

Fanny Pack!

& again.

This lady was onto me.

Man purse

Fanny Pack!

I stopped counting at 13.

Probably not the nicest thing to do in the whole world, but I was bored and grumpy. Andrew finally returned and we decided that this bus station is mythical and doesn’t exist. What to do, what to do. My vote was for the train. Ding, ding, ding, winner! I finally talked Andrew into it and we purchased our tickets. We boarded our cabin and I had planned to finally finish reading Persuasion. I have been reading this blasted book since January. The plot was just beginning to thicken and I distracted because the ride was some of the most beautiful countryside I had ever seen! I only read about a page. Ha ha. Keep in mind that we don’t know what we are doing once we get to this little village, chuckles. Wow. We got off the train along with about 2 other people and were like hmmmmm, what next? Turns out the train station isn’t actually in the town. We then took a bus into the town and once again, wasn’t sure what to do next. We asked the bus driver, “Bus to Delphi?” He tried to point out directions, and this other guy intervened and took us there. That was twice in the same day the Greeks took us to where we wanted to go! They are SOOOO helpful. He didn’t know any English and just pointed to a tent looking type structure and told us to wait there. He went into a café’ and asked when the next bus came. He then signaled that the next one came in 3 hours. Hallelujah! I can honestly say that everything was falling into place. Thank the Lord! Andrew went for a walk around the city and found out that we could buy the tickets to Delphi on the bus. Phew! So, we were getting to Delphi. We no longer had to think of any alternative ideas in case we didn't make it there.We sat there and talked for a bit and our bus finally came. Holy moly these guys were in a hurry! We basically ran to the bus where they grabbed out bags and threw them in the storage compartment. We were then ushered onto the packed bus and the moment we were on the doors shut and the engine started. We sat down and were like “whoa!” The bus then drove through the windy roads of Greece. Beautiful! The sun was setting and it was gorgeous landscape. The flush bushes and trees covered the scene with many shades of green.

We arrived in Delphi and started walking the street where this man steered us into his hotel and that is where we stayed. Only 12 Euros a night! The guy was like do you want one big bed? NO! Two ones will be just dandy. I refuse to pull out the honeymoon card here. I like my own bed thank you very much! It is a small cozy room where we have a balcony overlooking the Corinthian Gulf. Once again, gorgeous. We even have a t.v.! Over all it was an epic adventure and I am very thankful that we made it here safe and sound. We then took a stroll around Delphi and stopped at a grocery store and bought peanut butter, jelly, bread, cereal, and milk!

We are poor college students and we decided this would hold us over for that night and the next day. We then brought the table on the balcony with chairs and we used Andrew’s present for Grandma as a table cloth. Giggles. We also set up Andrew’s computer and watched the Office. It was epic. Our plan is to make our way north up through Greece and then take a train to Munich or Regensburg. Andrew’s funds are diminishing and we want to make sure to have enough money in our accounts in case something weird happens with tickets or airplanes. Not sure how long we'll stay in Delphi or even Greece. It has been suggested that we hurry up and get back to Germany. Sigh. But I like Greece! Oh well, I guess I'll just have to come back. We'll probably head back to Germany Saturday or Sunday.

Peanutbutter, Jelly, Bread, Milk... and don't forget the cereal!

Fugitive Diaries: Day 4

Let  me introduce you to our roommates.
Boys will be boys.

Left: John Mark Center: Andrew Right: Andrew

Day 4:

Word on the street was that a handful of flights were headed toward Spain with a route through Alicante. Andrew and John Mark decided to head to the airport to see if they could catch a flight. Andrew didn’t feel very good (lazy bum) and didn’t want to do anything. I think he was PMS-ing and told him to take a Midol. I thought I was funny... he didn't. I was determined to go to the beach and that is exactly what I did. I stepped on the tram and went to a beach farther down along the coast than the last time we went. I found a comfy spot and was looking forward to my routinely nap. This man, who was not wearing beach attire, just so happened to sit down close to me, a little to close to me if ya know what I mean. I noticed him but didn’t think anything of it. After about ten minutes or so he struck up a conversation which was totally fine. Zero weirdness. He seemed fascinated by the fact that I could French braid my hair. I wasn’t sure how to respond. He was also flabbergasted by the fact that I taught myself. A little strange, but eh.. we’re all weird. Since I have been in Europe, I have gotten the comment multiple times that I look like Audry Hepburn. He also seemed to think so and told me that I was beautiful. Getting higher on the “strange scale.” But the alarms started to go off when he said, “You know, I’ve seen you today.” Whhhhat? Excuse me? “You’ve seen me today?” I asked. “Yes, I saw you on the tram” he said with an eerie smile. CREEPER!! The alarms continuted to buzz in my head and I was preparing escape routes. The conversation quickly changed to something else and he commented on how he was cold and that he was going to go for a walk. Mmmk. Well I could not get comfortable and decided to change beaches. As I was gathering my belongings he returned. Blasted! Soooo close!!!! He asked me if I wanted to go for a walk. “Umm.. no thanks. I actually have to go meet my cousin” and I made a swift exit. I was grumbling inside my head “I bet if freaking Andrew was with me this wouldn’t have happened. I thought we were suppose to be married!” I then went back to my crappy beach and was praying that stalker dude wouldn’t follow me. I made sure that he was not on my tram and double checked the people who got off at my stop. Phew. Clear.

Day 4. They once again have attempted to apprehend us and take us into custody. They haven’t figured out that flattery doesn’t work with me. Throughout our conversation I had noticed his communication signals to his fellow comrades. I was able to bleed information from him without him knowing it. He let it slip that he was from Serbia and had attended the University in Moscow, Russia. Luckily for me, my dad is an American spy whose main mission is investigating the KGB. He had taught me all of their communication signals so I was able to comprehend his messages. He signaled that he was almost positive that I was his suspect, but that I was currently flying solo. On his “walk” he went to go prepare the quarters where they were going to hold us hostage. When he returned with the intentions of kidnapping me, I played it cool and easy which made him doubt his suspicions. Stupid Serbians. I departed that situation clean cut without any evidence that I was there. We’ll see what they have in store tomorrow.

 

Take 2. Got all situated on the beach and took a glorious nap. Went for a little swim and laid back out and began to read. This old crazy Greek man who was wearing a speedo kept running up and down the beach looking at girls and either saying “yuck” or “mmmm hot mamma” along with other things in Greek which I could not understand. Sigh… not again. I was laying by this one chick and the Greek man just stood in front of us. Double sigh. Where is flipping Andrew when I need him?? I just pretended that I was sleeping and he eventually went away. After the rays drenched my skin for a while longer, it was time to head back to the hostel, with a pit-stop for strawberry yoghurt ice cream. Andrew and John Mark were back from the airport.. no such luck for them. Their new plan was to go to Turkey. Haha. They had been joking about this but now it was for real, tickets had been bought and everything. Andrew, cousin Andrew that is, was still in bed. Geez Louise! I then skyped the parents and began looking for alternative options to get back to Germany. We might possibly be taking a train… that could be fun. I also got to talk to my bestest friend in the whole wide world! Samela! I hadn’t talked to her in ages so that was nice. Drew had finally gotten up and decided to take a walk. It was probably 20:00 by this time. John Mark, Cedric, and I decided to go out for drinks and some gyros. Mmmm. Those babies are good! We later met up with the Andrews and went to a Greek restaurant and ordered some baklava. Holy sweetness! It was quite tasty but I couldn’t finish the whole thing. It was getting quite late and the time came to head back to the hostel. Our plans for the next morning was to take a bus to Delphi and see how things went from there.

Fugitive Diaries: Day 3

Day Three: We woke up and ate our breakfast of tea, eggs, toast, and tomatoes. While sitting at our table, Andrew started singing the Sound of Music. I was sooo proud. Gold star. "Tea, a drink with jam and bread" *nod your head twice*. The television screens were filed with news about the volcano and the airports in Europe. One word: Grounded. Well we usually don’t plan our trips until last minute, so why should this trip be any different?

We are the selected few who know the actual truth about this so called “volcano.” It is all just a hoax because of the high security threat of Andrew and myself. They do not want to scare the citizens of the European Union so they created this whole volcano scandal. With the “ash” in the air, which is not visible to the eye, no air transportation is made available which concentrates us in a specific region: Greece.


Plus there is another 48 hour strike in Athens starting on Thursday. Note to self: leave Athens before Thursday and return after Friday.


They also have added some oxygen to the fire which already was burning in Greece. With these strikes, we are unable to move around quickly which inhibits us from making a speedy get-away. What they do not know is that we have a secret weapon: a teleporter. If you do not know what this is… watch Star Trek or google is.

We decided to dedicate this day to anything we had missed. We went to the Roman Agora, Greek Agora, Temple of Hephaistos and we took a little treck back to Zeus’s Temple. Andrew was trying to take a picture of the pillars, and since he had started the Sound of Music theme I thought I would contribute a little song to the cause. I hid behind a pillar and started singing “There’s a sad sort of clanging from the clock in the hall and the bells from the steeple too. And up in the nursery an absurd little bird is popping out to say cuckoo. Cukoo! Cukoo!” He thought it was funny. So did I. Andrew tried to take a picture while sitting on a column. Got yelled at again. Big surprise. I have become immune. We went through a path that said “do not cross”, but the gate was open. I was expecting a Greek appear out of thin air and yell at us.

But no one appeared. Victory! Since these guards are all wearing normal clothes, I wanted to sit in dark shadows and pretend that I work for the site and start yelling at people. Hmmm.. will have to do this if I have more time. Behind enemy lines, we saw the Roman Baths and other temples dedicated to Greek gods. We did a little more shopping at the flea market where Andrew bought an olive pipe for 5 Euros. He was quite proud of himself. In fact, he still is quite proud of himself. Since our hostel was equipped with a kitchen, we wanted to make French toast! A market was marked on our map and we were determined to go buy the necessary ingredients to whip up this delectable meal. We finally made it to the market and what did we find? Closed. Stupid Sundays.

Oh well… I guess I’ll just have to wait another week and a half before I get some. Sad day in the neighborhood, but happy I'm in Greece as you can see the the picture. <======

They put that there specfically for Andrew

Even the Greeks had to potty train their children

Not only can they control the public facilities, they can also control the markets. They are trying to starve us. They must have gotten inside information about our cravings for French toast. We will have to be more careful on who we share information with in the future. What they do not know is my infatuation with ice cream. Until then, I will always have stracciatella.

We hit up fast food place and got a burger in an attempt to quench my hunger for French Toast. Earlier that day we discovered that the hill we had been climbing by the Acropolis WAS Mars Hill. Silly us. We then took another walk up there and read Acts when Paul was there. It was crazy to think about what Athens looked like that many years ago and what its real purposes were for. The coolest thing was that Paul was actualy on this same hill at one point in time! I bet I was standing at the same exact place where he once stood. After contemplating these thoughts, we decided to return to our hostel. On the walk down I had commented how I was jealous because Tanner saw turtles in Athens. Poof! Turtle! It was just chilling in the bushes waiting to cross the step. I then whipped out my camera and pretended I was the Crocodile Hunter, God rest his soul, and was on a special expedition where my primary focus was on tortoises. Enough said, the turtle did not like me very much and wouldn’t move. We started to walk away when it poked his head out of his shell and began to waddle. Oh no he didn’t! I was very sneaky and snuck up behind him making a second video. Chuckles, it was funny.

Turtle!

We then returned to our hostel to meet up with Andrew and John Mark. The previous night, we decided that we should all room in the same rooms so we didn’t have any freaks for roommates. After talking for a bit we decided to head back to the Mars Hill for about the bagillionth time to watch the sunset. We bought some beverages and headed up there. We then saw the remains of first Christian Church that was established when Paul made his visit there. It was late evening and we decided to get some pizza. Paul at our reception told us of a restaurant where you can get 2 pizzas for the price of 1. The thing is, this little “special” is not advertised and they get quite testy when people order it. My question is, if you get so cranky, why do you have the stinking special in the first place?!? But we did manage to get our 2 for 1 pizzas and headed back to our room. The flights were still grounded (they need to get back to Spain) so we planned to go to the beach the next morning. We were in a room that slept 6 people and we had been commenting on how we hoped that no one else would be placed in our room. After a while, an Swiss-dude named Cedric came in and was not to happy with life. He was also stuck in Greece and needed to get back to Basel to attend his lectures at the University. Obviously, his first language is not English. We offered him some pizza and his response was “we are just about to go out and hunt for food.” It was apparent he meant he was going to go look for food, but I just imaged him taking out a weapon and going outside to hunt for food. We were expecting him to return with some fresh meat. Once he left I started busting out laughing. We are friends with him now which makes it even funnier. From the beach the previous day and walking around in tank tops, my skin is quite burnt. Agenda for the morning before chillaxing on the beach: find sunscreen!

Pictures around Athens: