Leaving Athens is a melancholy experience for me. Though I had initially thought Athens would simply be a check-off for another wonder of the ancient world and then tra-la-la on our merry way I found myself wanting to to delve into the ancient sites and gritty-ancient-cum-worldly vibe of this city. Another time perhaps and certainly armed with extensive study to fully appreciate the depths of Athenian and Greek history (particularly post 1453, where my knowledge is most lacking) Athens ranks now HIGH atop my must-return list of places.
The travel to Patra involves true independent-traveler-backpacker style savvy and Michele is up to the task! We taxi to the central bus depot, buy express tickets and settle in among the human circus around us, gypsy street vendors, Romanian and Turk beggars, little old ladies, grungy US and UK 20-somethings, aging hippies and the assorted fare on a bus ride to a regional port-city. I am in travel nirvana as we sweat, shoo off the vendors,flies and beggars and wait for our bus. Nothing like Greyhound or city busses. This (sadly noting the sunset of much rail travel) is a great way to get around Greece (and Portugal and Germany, and Italy and the UK and etc.) Air-conditioned, direct routes, good drivers, central destinations and overall ease of travel are all to be recommended. Nothing short of rented cars (or a private helicopter) comes close :)
Michele endures the madness of Greece with no complaint and I am ceaselessly astonished by her resilience and willingness to go it ‘rough’ with me in adventure-travel mode... Is it any wonder I love her so very much?
~S
We woke this morning and packed our bags for Patra. We ate a lovely little breakfast at the hotel and then took a cab to the bus terminal to catch a bus to Patra. Buses from Athens to Patra leave every 30 minutes and several times throughout the day there are Express busses that go directly to Patra with no stops in between. Our arrival at the terminal was 11:30 and the next express bus is at 12:30, so the timing was perfect. We bought our tickets, found our bus, and were lucky to find open seats where we could sit and enjoy the wait. The busses here are like tour busses... nice and big and clean and comfortable. Not like city busses and not scary or gross like Greyhound busses. This was already a nice experience and I told Stanley what a great job he had done!
Our bus arrives, we board and we’re on our way! The drive from Athens to Patra is about 3 hours and I dozed a lot of the way while Stanley read and also dozed. Easy, breezy, beautiful!!! We arrive in Patra and we spot a hotel that was in our book of recommended hotels, and luckily it is right next door to the bus depot :) We check in and this hotel is very nice. Twin beds though, so we’re sleeping ‘Leave it to Beaver’ style again tonight :) Our balcony looks right out into the bay where all the ferry ships are. I swear, we’ve really lucked out with balcony views on this trip. Our view in Positano was amazing. Our view in Mycenae was really great. Our view in Delphi was unbeatable. Our view in Athens was the best. And the view from this room as well. How did we get so lucky?!? Even better is that every single one of these hotels were unbooked, unreserved... we just walked up and asked for a room and this is what we got. Too cool :)
After checking in, we made our way though the streets in search for a snack. We find a little cafe on a street and enjoy a salad and some very interesting Chinese Spring Rolls (yes, I know we’re in Greece, but they sounded good :)) We’ll eat dinner later when it’s actually dinner time here (Greeks eat late... like around 9:00pm).
Stanley is off to explore - he found some information for a Turkish Bath. Quick preface... my cousin Mark E is serving with the Peace Corps in a country near Russia called Georgia. He took a trip down to Istanbul recently and posted a very informative and cool blog about Turkish Baths there. After Stanley read Mark E’s post, and then read about the one here in Patra, he was all excited to go check it out, so I stayed here at the hotel to write to all of you :) When he gets back we’ll go find some dinner and maybe go for a swim (this hotel has a rooftop pool) if it’s not too crowded (earlier it looked and sounded like MTV’s Spring Break up there which was an instant turn away for both of us).
Tomorrow - explore a local winery, then make our way to the ferry terminal for a 23:59 (that is 11:59pm for you non-military time folk) departure. Arrive in Venice at 07:00 on Tuesday the 26th!!! ~M
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