Athens was the last stop for our Southern Trailers (another Contiki tour that has left us and we had another join on). Pretty much the highlight was the parthenon. Of course! Also, fun fact: Athens is currently housing some riots/demonstrations to "rise up against the man" so when we arrived at the Parthenon there was actually a demonstration happening over the side up at the top. Pretty interesting stuff. It was also pretty sweet to see what theyve done to restore/preserve the temples themselves since you could see the newer white marble compared to the more yellowish 2500 year old marble.
Also saw zeus' temple which made for a pretty cool photo but there's sadly not much left to the thing. The rest of the day was spent shopping, both at the markets and at H&M (leave it to me to totally underestimate the heat in a European summer. Tis is what happens when you're from Newfoundland I guess. Totally only brought two pairs of shorts). Bought some souvenirs for those I love that couldn't join me on this trip and btw if you haven't already and you want a postcard, send me along your addy! I may be home by whe you get it since I'm not oo sure how frequent post offices are in eastern Europe.
That night saw the birthday of two of my tour mates: Caitlin and Allison (sorry if you spell your name a slightly different way). Had way too many expensive cosmos and a super long chat with Becks at the bar. We turned around and everyone had left! Oh well... Had some ridiculous sandwiches on the way home that I'm pretty sure went from my fingertip to my elbow.
The next morning, Rachel, my tent mate, epic failed on me and made me sleep through my alarm. Thanks homie... NOT! She won't live this one down for a while hahaha. Stopped in Kavala for the night as a stopover on the way to Turkey.
Speaking of Turkey, it took us two hours to cross the border, which is apparently as smoothly as it goes! Nuts. Also for all you canadians who want to visit Turkey and haven't, it costs 45 Euro for your travel visa (everyone else who has to pay pays 15; fair? NOT). apparently they could've asked us to completely empty the bus of absolutely everything so they could search it. Trust me, that thing is packed to the brim and that would not be a pretty site.
Later in the afternoon we went to ANZAC cove, a super important place for all of the Australians and New Zealanders on our trip. Also found out that 49 newfoundlanders died there. Needless to say it was a pretty solemn afternoon. May have cried a few times, no bigs. I really appreciated comig to visit it though.
On to Istanbul tomorrow! And off for what I hope is my first of many more runs on this trip as I write.
I can understand the emotions, I've never been to ANZAC cove, but have toured the Normandy beaches with somewhat the same feelings. Listen to Eric Bogles "And the band played Waltzing Matilda" and you will get another understanding of the events of Suvla Bay.
ReplyDeleteOn a happier note, I think of you every day as I sit in my office working on schedules drinking my coffee from a mug that says "Do what you like, Like what you do - Life is good" given to me by a wonderful Chief of Training a few years ago.
I've never been to Istanbul, but did enjoy my visits to Marmaris and Izmir
Gordon