Heraklion, Crete, Greece - Day 3

We slept in a bit more on Saturday morning, packed up our luggage, and checked out of our hotel by 11:00am. A taxi met us outside our hotel, and we drove about 20 minutes back into the city of Heraklion. As soon as we arrived, we booked our tickets on the Minoan Lines ferry between Heraklion and Pireas, the port near Athens. As the ferry was not set to leave until later on that evening, we had the entire day to explore.

It was a very hot day already, so we began by walking through the city, where we stopped at one restaurant for ice cream, and a few other pubs for drinks. We also passed by the Church of St. Titus, and then made our way to the ferry, just so we knew where it was.

After finding the ferry, we made our way along the port in Heraklion, which was once again beautiful, with bright blue water, sailboats, and mountains stretching in the background. We made our way along the breakwater, and out to the ruins at the point, where we sat and watched a handful of fishermen for a while. Unfortunately, nothing was going on, so we continued on our way.

After spending hours near the harbor, we decided to go to the McDonald’s across the street to pick up some cheap food before the ferry ride, and to get out of the heat. Since it was air conditioned inside, we ended up staying there for a while and playing cards. About an hour before the ferry was set to leave, we walked down to the loading dock and boarded.

We walked around the ship for a while, and sat on one of the decks to play cards while we had a few drinks. We could see fish down below from the top deck of the ferry, and the view of the sunset was amazing.

The ferry finally left the dock, and we got ourselves settled in for the 9 hour ride to Pireas. It was weird seeing people sprawled out all over the floors and hallways in sleeping bags. It was tough to sleep, but it was beautiful outside, so I spent most of my time out on the upper deck. At one point, I even got to see dolphins or some type of large fish jumping next to the boat. It was too dark to tell for sure what they were, but it was still pretty neat.

Finally, I managed to fall asleep. When I woke up, I would be back in Athens, ready to explore the city.

Piskopiano Village, Crete, Greece - Day 2

After such a late night on Thursday, we slept in a bit on Friday, which felt good after so much traveling. As soon as we were up, however, we headed right back into the village. First, we stopped at a few beachside souvenir shops. Then, we headed towards the harbor to check out the boat trips. Unfortunately, we missed the fishing trip by 20 minutes! Therefore, we decide to walk around the harbor, which was absolutely beautiful.

Around mid day, we stopped for lunch right on the harbor. We had delicious roasted lamb, and we got to watch a fisherman on the beach below from the balcony. Every now and then, he would pull in small fish. After finishing up another couple shots of Raki, we headed to the other side of the harbor, to check out more beaches.

Along the way, we went down onto a rocky jut-out near the harbor, where we saw some old ruins. Down near the water, there was a big tidal pool on the rocks, which was really neat. The pool was filled with all kinds of baitfish and moving plants. I even got to see a bunch of shrimp-like creatures that of course I tried to catch, but they were too fast.

As we turned the corner, we were overlooking an entire new section of beach. We walked down the rocks, and made our way to a nice spot. After a few minutes of sitting on the beach, a group of people from Germany and New Zealand invited us to play volleyball with them on the nets behind us. It was great to play on the beach, and we got to play quite a few games.

Around supper time, we headed back up towards our hotel to find a restaurant. Nearby, we found a great Greek restaurant, overlooking the village. The food was great….we had a huge meal of feta-stuffed baked peppers, salad, pasta, and crème brûlée. But, the best part was the atmosphere. The restaurant had a live band, and entire families, from grandparents to young children, dancing to Greek music. They even all yelled “OPA!” throughout the music. It was really cool to see!

After dinner and more Raki, we went back down towards the beach, and stopped for a few drinks in a small pub. There, we watched a few boxing matches on the large outdoor screens. From there, we went to the beach for a while, which was lit nicely at night. Finally, before going to bed, we headed back up towards our hotel, and stopped in at an Irish pub for a couple of hours. After a few Guinness’s, we walked back to the hotel and headed to bed.

Piskopiano Village, Crete, Greece - Day 1

Thursday was a very early morning, as we had a 6:40 am flight out of the Athens Airport to Crete, the largest island of Greece, located in the Mediterranean Sea. Luckily, the flight was only 50 minutes long, and we landed at the Heraklion International Airport by 7:30. We could tell from the air that Heraklion, the capital of Crete, was a beautiful port city. But, exploring the city would have to wait a few days, as we had a two night hotel reservation in the village of Piskopiano, a small Oceanside village of Heraklion.

We managed to track down a taxi in the airport parking lot, and gave the driver the directions to our hotel, Korifi Suites. The ride took about 20 minutes, but we were glad that we decided to take a taxi, as we would have never found the hotel otherwise. As we entered Piskopiano Village, the roads became tiny and extremely windy, as the village was literally built into the side of a mountain, overlooking the Aegean Sea portion of the Mediterranean. When we finally drove up to the Karifi Suites, we were amazed at the hotel and the location, and we even had to check our paperwork again to make sure we were at the right place. Well, it was the right hotel, and the price we thought we were paying was right as well, since evidently it was still two weeks away from the normal tourist season.

We checked in at the suites, and the guy at the front desk walked us up the stairs, past the pool, and to our apartment. It was huge! We had a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and two bedrooms, all for just the three of us. We walked around the rest of the complex, and checked out the pool, the bar inside, and also the tiki bar outside on the patio. The view from the patio was amazing, as it overlooked the entire village below.

We were at the highest point in the village, and could see absolutely everything, including the beaches along the Mediterranean Sea. The closest beaches were only a ten minute walk from the hotel. Beyond the beaches, mountains stretched everywhere in the distance. There was even a mountain peak directly above and behind us. It was very quiet and early, there were not many other guests, and it was already beautiful out. So, we decided to take a short nap out on the patio, in the sun, next to the pool.

After a short while, we decided to make our way down through the village and spend our day on a beach. As we made our way down the hill, we stopped for groceries for lunch at a small store. As usual, the cashier asked if I was Greek….this became very common while in Greece. Evidently I look Greek….I even had people asking me for directions. You know they’re in trouble then. We picked up some sandwich stuff, and of course the other two had to pick up olives, since we were in Greece. But, most importantly, we found a case of Corona! The perfect drink for the beaches of the Mediterranean! No limes unfortunately, as the fruit truck drivers were on strike. Seriously. Fruit truck drivers. Guys driving little pickup trucks loaded with fruit. I don’t know why, but that’s so cool. It just goes to show you just how small of a place the village was.

We finally made our way down to the busier part of the village directly along the beach. We walked down to the water, found a nice spot on the beach, and opened a Corona. The beach was amazing. It was so cool to see the bright blue water, as well as the mountains in the distance.

After some lunch, my two friends jumped in the water. I’m a baby though, and thought the water was way too cold for that. I must have been cold, because they sure weren’t in long. Once they got out, we played some soccer with a kickball that we bought in the village. A very young kid from the village joined us in tossing the ball around, but he soon just got a kick out of whipping the ball at people and watching them have to chase it into the water. So, when one of his friends came over, we gave them the ball and went back to relaxing on the beach, while watching them whip the ball at each other.

After quite a few hours on the beach, we headed back up to our hotel, showered, and then went back into the village for supper. Of course, right on the water, the specialty of the village was seafood, so that’s what I had to get. The shrimp and swordfish were delicious! After the meal, the waiter brought out shots of Raki, which is similar to Ouzo or Grappa and normally drunk with or after dinner in Greece. We finished up, and then headed down along the beach to stop into a few pubs. As quiet as it had been during the day, the scene was much busier at night. The beach was covered with bars and nightclubs, and we were able to get drinks very cheaply. We headed back up to the hotel by early morning, and headed to bed.

Athens, Greece - Day 1

Once again, we woke up early Wednesday morning, prepared for a long day of traveling, and walked to the Thessaloniki train station to board our train to Athens. Unfortunately, the train was delayed by over an hour. And, even when it came, we spent over 30 minutes trying to find our seats. It was hard to communicate not knowing the language. However, we were able to find some English speaking people. They directed us a few carts down, which was a sleeping cart, where we were not allowed. After being told to go to the same cart 3 or 4 different times, then getting kicked out of it for being in the wrong place, we finally gave it one more shot. This time, the sleeping cart had magically turned into a normal cart, and our seats were exactly where everyone had been telling us. Weird that they changed carts during our boarding time! That made it very confusing! At least we got to where we needed to be. I wish I had understood some of the language!

The train ride to Athens from Thessaloniki was pretty long, but at least I was able to spend a lot of the 6 hours catching up on a bit of sleep, as well as enjoying some beautiful scenery. The surroundings quickly became much different, as cities became harder to find and the landscape became very rocky and mountainous.

When we finally arrived in Athens, we took a short bus ride into the city, to the Athens International Youth Hostel. The hostel was pretty nice, and we stayed around that vicinity for the night, as it was already very late. Other than going out to get a quick gyro within a few blocks of the hostel, we just stayed in. We did get some neat sights from the balcony though. First, a covered motorcycle drove by, with a German Sheppard “surfing” on its roof. Minutes later, a cat across the street was jumping balcony to balcony, a couple of stories up. Athens sure had some crazy animals!

Before heading to bed, we packed up all of our belongings appropriately into our carry-ons, as we had yet another trip to make in the morning. This one sounded well worth the effort though: A short flight to the island of Crete!

Thessaloniki, Greece

We woke up early once again on Tuesday morning, and jumped on a train from Vienna to Thessaloniki, Greece. I was very excited to be on my way to Greece, as it is one country I had always hoped to get to. We arrived at the train station in Thessaloniki pretty late, and walked a couple of blocks to our hostel. Along the way, we quickly realized that it would be a lot harder for us to communicate in Greece. The writing on the signs was like nothing I have ever seen before. I knew it would be different than our phonetic language, but I had no idea the extent of it. After all, how are you supposed to pronounce a word that begins with a triangle?

Luckily, the receptionist at our hostel spoke English, and we brought our luggage to our room. Then, we went out to look for something to eat. First, we stopped for a quick gyro. Then, since we were looking to save a bit of money, and had a long train ride ahead of us in the morning, we stopped at a grocery store and picked up some food for the next day’s breakfast and lunch. We also picked up some Grecian beer, Mythos and Vergina, for that night.

Of course, since we were in Greece, Matt and Sherman found it necessary to buy an entire block of feta cheese, and eat it all back in the room. I gotta say, that was one of the grossest things I have ever witnessed. There is almost nothing more disgusting than people digging into a floating block of cheese. After trying hard not to gag, and finishing off the beer, we headed to bed to get ready for our long trip to Athens in the morning.

Vienna, Austria

While I was sad to be leaving Salzburg early Sunday night, it was still exciting to be on a train heading towards Vienna, the famous capital city of Austria. We arrived in Vienna within a few hours, and made our way to our hostel. Since it was already very late, we set down our luggage, and headed into the city for dinner. After looking around for a bit, because almost everything is closed on Sundays, we finally found a small restaurant to sit down in. There, we ordered schnitzel and the local beer called Gösser. While German is the country’s language, people spoke much differently than people in Germany, almost to the point where it was often very hard to understand a lot of what they were saying….similar to the difference between English spoken in the USA and England. Nevertheless, we were able to survive no problem. After dinner, we headed back to the hostel for the night, eager to get a good night’s sleep after sleeping on the train the night before. Before heading to bed, we met a handful of our roommates, who were from Nebraska, Brazil, and Australia, and who were all very nice. After a few drinks with them, we headed to sleep, so that we could wake up early the next morning.

As we hoped, we woke up relatively early on Monday morning, and headed into the city to explore. After stopping at a small store to pick up some stuff for breakfast and lunch, we made our way into the heart of the city. As we stepped out of the subway, we wandered into the Stephansplatz, a famous square in the center of Vienna. There, we got to see the Haas-House, a strange glass building, and one of the world’s largest churches in the Stephansdom. The church itself was not only huge, but beautiful as well, and the square was absolutely packed. Not only were there tourists as well as locals everywhere, but there were also numerous street performers: painters, singers, guitarists, break dancers. The number of people was absolutely incredible.

Past the Stephansplatz, we made our way along the Ringstraβe, a famous boulevard on which most of the city’s monuments, parks, and famous building lie. Our first stop was at the beautiful Rathaus, which was surrounded by gardens, parks, and water fountains. In addition, directly in front of the Rathaus, a large stage and bleachers were being set up, as a viewing point for the upcoming 2008 European Cup soccer tournament. It looked like it would sure be a lot of fun, especially as Vienna would be hosting much of the tournament.

Continuing along the Ringstraβe, we next passed the Peterskirche, Burgtheater, Vienna University, the Parliament of Austria with the famous monument of Pallas Athena, the Museums of Natural History and Fine Art, the Hofburg and outer Burgtor at the Heldenplatz, and the Staatsoper. From there, we passed the Votivkirche, then relaxed for a bit in the Park Burggarten, dedicated to Mozart, and next to the House of Butterflies. Shortly after, we passed by the Michaelerkirche and the old Hofburg, and passed through the arch at the Michaelerplatz.

Next, we made our way to the Schwarzenbergplatz, where we saw the large fountain, the Hochstrahlbrunnen, and the Monument of the Red Army. We continued on past the Karlskirche, then walked to the enormous Belvedere, where we went through the mazes of gardens and fountains. At the souvenir shop just outside the gates of the Belvedere, we were laughing at a sign above the door that said “Sharon Stone’s choice,” when the guy in the picture ran over all excited to say that was him shaking Sharon Stone’s hand. It was pretty funny just how excited he was….he felt like a celebrity!

From the Belvedere, we took a bus to the city center, and walked along the Graben, another famous street in the heart of Vienna, known for its Pestilence Column. There, we stopped for dinner on a small side street, before heading back to the hostel. Once at the hostel, we mat back up with some of our roommates, and headed to a nearby pub for a few drinks before we headed to bed for the night.

Salzburg, Austria

The weather had finally become beautiful in May, and I was outside at a cookout in the field behind Weststadt. I was talking to two of my friends, Matt and Sherman, who I met here in Braunschweig, and who are both from Canada. Between beer, bratwurst, and football, they were telling me all about their upcoming excursion to Austria and Greece, which sounded like a lot of fun. (BTW….What a small world! I met another kid who had just moved into Weststadt 2 days earlier at the cookout. From where? Right outside of Worcester. How weird!). Anyways, after telling me all about the trip they were planning, Matt and Sherman invited me along with them. It was certainly tempting, but I knew that it would be tough to miss more work, especially since I would be going home for Rachel’s graduation. So, I took about two minutes to think about it, before I realized that, hey, I’m not getting paid for work, I’ll do whatever the hell I want. With that, I signed myself up for the 10 day trip that would begin the following week.

On May 10, me and Sherman caught the 6:20 pm train to Hannover, where we met up with Matt, who was returning from a soccer game. The station was absolutely packed with people from the game. It doesn’t take long to realize that people here in Europe practically worship soccer, and a lot of the fans can get pretty crazy. At least we had some entertainment, with all of the big, drunk, German guys singing soccer cheers together while sucking down the last of their mini-kegs.

After a brief stop in Hannover and some quick dinner, we jumped on the 7:41 train to Salzburg, Austria. The train ride was pretty long, but we were at least able to get a couple of hours of sleep. Thank God for my fully charge iPod! We finally arrived in Salzburg around 5:15 the following morning, and stowed our luggage in the train station lockers, as we were only in the city for the day. We had a quick breakfast, and were off and about.

The moment we stepped out of the train station, I knew that I would love Salzburg. Right on the Salzach River, Salzburg is a relatively small city, or more like a town, surrounded by mountains on all sides. Two small mountains, the Mönchsberg and the Kapuzinerberg, are directly within the city, while alpine peaks begin only kilometers away with the 1972 m Untersberg. This landscape was quite a contrast to the busy cities we usually visit, and an outdoorsman’s paradise.

We began the day by crossing the Salzach River, and heading into the beautiful Old Town, which has been named a World Heritage Site. We passed Wolfgang Mozart’s birth-house, and continued to make our way along the famous Getreidegasse, from where we could see the incredible Fortress Hohensalzburg high above the city, resting upon a hill.

The morning was absolutely beautiful, and with the incredible scenery, it was easy to see why Salzburg was chosen as the location where the filming of The Sound of Music took place. The mountains were just as amazing as the film made them out to be. With plenty of time to explore, we began a hike up the Mönchsberg towards the fortress. Along the way, we enjoyed plenty of once-in-a-lifetime views of the surrounding Alps. Finally, we reached to fortress gate, and the trees opened up to the city below, offering another incredible, birds-eye view, of all of Salzburg.

After spending hours wandering the mountain, we descended back into the city for lunch. We passed the Salzburg Cathedral and Nonnberg Abbey, as well as numerous churches along the way. After a quick bit to eat, we stopped at a couple of Biergartens for a few pints of the local Austrian beers, before we had to head back to the train station. Even with Vienna coming up, I knew Salzburg was one city that I would be sad to leave.