Jun. 26, 11
Am sitting in Athen's international airport right now. Local time is 11:30, noonish, while it is 1:30am Pacific Time.
Note: I did not adjust my watch at all for this entire trip. I have found it useful in the past to keep track of the time differences should I need to contact someone. In any case it's a 2hr mark difference on my analog watch so the math is simple enough.
Am appallingly awake. Was dropped off at ~5:40am last morning by parents. Despite of seat ordering was assigned seats separate from Annie for the SF to NJ & NJ to Athens flights. However was fortunate enough to change seat on the plane with a kind gentleman so the flight to Greece was much more pleasurable. We (Annie and I) bonded over grad school, academia, and teaching. We watched the Russian adaptation of SHERLOCK HOLMES while flying over France to Greece which, as I've just remarked to Annie, may have been the most trans-cultural thing I've ever done.
Annie also took the time to introduce me to LibriVox, an organization similar to Project Gutenburg in the sense that while Gutenburg project releases public domain ebooks for free, LibriVox produces, with the aid of volunteers, the podcast version of those books.
Have spent past week listening to DRACULA. Have found it boring. Have discovered I may not be suitable for audio versions of books I don't already like, as while reading I can skim through sections where picking out individual words that jump out at me will let me get an idea of what each paragraph is about without reading every single word. In contrast in an audiobook I am forced to sit through 30 minutes of musing regarding the weather and local scenery. I wish I were exaggerating, but I am not. Also, Ms. Lucy must have type AB blood because nothing else makes sense. Or possibly Stoker just fail at medical knowledge / blood type knowledge was not common knowledge during his era? But if they know how to do transfusion the medical professionals must know the importance of different types of blood, right? RIGHT? But I digress.
Descending flight told me why blue & white are the nation's colors --- those are the only colors you see for miles (white = clouds & waves, maybe). A few turns and a few more miles down later Athens seem...less cosmopolitan than expected -- more spaced out, though this could be entirely due to the location of airport. Have no idea how far this place is from central Athens.
The airport is even more mall-like than SFO. There is something reassuring bout how all these airports (SF, NJ, here) are all alike, especially when all the local floral I've glanced at through the window screamed "foreign!".
Oh right, and NJ = New Jersey. Newark, New Jersey. I have the feeling that it's the hub for all trans-Atlantic flights.
Jun. 27, 11
Slight delay from Athens to Iraklio yesterday, but all things considered, arrival was v. smooth. Taxi station @ airport had drivers who v. easily understood our v. English needs and within 15 min. we were deposited @ the front of the hostel, which was v. cute. Annie's passport was held hostage to our living here, and there was the unexpectedly hilarious incident of the rusty door lock where, while trying to understand how we managed to accidentally lock ourselves in, the nice young lady @ the reception momentarily was locked in with us (the unlocking mechanism of the door was rusty). Of course, it was infinitely better to have that sorted and fixed (she got a handyman in less than 5 min.) then and there, and not have to deal with it ourselves at some inopportune moment.
Neither Annie nor I managed to sleep on the flight, so at that point we were v. jet-lagged and starting to feel a bit hysterical, what with the accidental door-locking.
I should mention we stayed at Prince of Lilies and it was a lovely place, despite of the initial misunderstanding with the door.
Then we walked to the beach (10min away). The beach has a bit of littering problem but the scenery was spectacular anyway. Annie was sufficiently distracted from collapsing from sleep deprivation (she was unable to sleep the night before the trip) by the bits of fossilized things she found in the rock strata lining the beach. It really does seem that you can't walk without stepping on historical remains of some sort in Greece.
The beach was not a tourist beach, though presence of umbrella skeletons en masse suggested at some point it was. Not it just seems an abandoned stretch of sand, accessed through an abandoned and rather sketchy looking parking lot, that is sandwiched between the touristy beaches.
Located a grocer's conveniently across the street and have purchased water (tap water is NOT drinkable)
We were warned by the receptionist at the hostel, and you can tell it's true because when you rinse your mouth out after brushing your teeth the water tastes like mildly saline fluid -- not quite as briny as sea water, but definitely not something I'd recommend drinking.
I do remember reading something about wells further inland on Crete, however, but didn't remember to experiment when we visited Archanes (more on that later), not to mention I'm not sure how far inland qualifies as inland on Crete.
and bread and such (housing has fridge).
General observed in Greek hostels: need key/ keycard plugged in somewhere inside the room to have working air-conditioning/fridge/electricity.
Dinner was a roasted chicken that we cant finish and fried potato chunks called chips (maybe they're the Greek equivalent?). Afterwards we showered and crashed @ 7pm (9am Pacific Time). Kept windows closed as advised for fear of mosquitoes (first night = none) & weather was v. pleasant. Was awakened ~11pm by neighbor's radio playing loud Grecian music, however.
As Annie had accurately noted, waking up while still significantly groggy and sleep deprived in a unfamiliar room to pop music in a foreign language was a v. surreal experience.
It was hilarious and thankfully both of us were tired enough to sleep again despite of it.
Got up @ 6:30am, breakfast
For some reason in my book I wrote "dinner" instead of breakfast. What on earth, brain? Want to make note that in the Mediterranean regions the local schedule does not really include breakfast, as people get up fairly late, work, take siesta around 1pm, work, and dinner / after work life is at 9pm. (I know some of my friends would've liked this schedule. Tremendously.) In slightly smaller -- and less touristy-- places, the shops may or may not be open after siesta or in the evening, and may or may not have a regular days of the week schedule...but I'm digressing again. My point was that, for tourists, it pays to either find a place that does include breakfast or buy stuff right off for your own breakfast if you intend to start the day early and not pass out from hunger by noon.
was at 7:30am (in 30min). Going to Knossos today. Weather great.
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