Paris, Again

Like all great adventures, I have now come full circle.  The ending and the beginning are one.  Back in Paris, only this time with John.  I have traveled many places, and seen many sights.  Now, I was returning to a city I was already familiar with, and taking time to enjoy the atmosphere. 


We awoke to a beautiful crisp morning.  Our hotel was not far from the Ile St. Louis, and it was to there that we walked for a breakfast of crepes.  We then wandered some of the historic core, walking past Notre Dame and a few of the big sights.  We walked through the exterior of the Louvre, giving John some sense of its immensity.

After wandering the historic core, we then took the metro to Montmarte, and walked up the hill to Sacre Coure.  We enjoyed a lunch lower on the steps, then walked to the top of the steps, where we sat for quite some time, listening to a thoroughly enjoyable street performer.  He was a singer from Italy, who sang mostly American songs, joked mostly in English with a smattering of other languages thrown in, and had a great talent for getting the entire audience interested and involved.  He would frequently ask people in the crowd where they were from, and reveled in the fact that on those steps were people from all 5 continents, all gathered in harmony, enjoying the same thing.  Later, we walked through the shops and artists around Montmarte, then headed back to our hotel. 

For dinner, we ate at a great restaurant in the Latin district.  This area is called the Latin district, since it contained one of the oldest Universities, and back in the 12th and 13th centuries, Latin was the language of learning.  It was the common language to the people of all of the different countries who gathered there, spoken so everyone could understand.  It has always been the area known for free thinkers, where ideas of liberty and equality were bred.  These days, you will no longer find Latin spoken, but it is still a lively scene.  The first restaurant we passed looked pretty good, and as we wandered deeper into the neighborhood, each restaurant looked even better, and for better prices, until finally we settled on one.  It was a lengthy and multiple course meal, with every bite absolutely delicious! 

Following dinner, we headed to the Eiffel Tower.  After the lengthy dinner, we got there a bit later than planned, and it was no longer open nearly as late as it had been during my visit in August.  Unfortunately, the very top was closed, but we could still go up to the second observation deck.  There is something thoroughly romantic about being up on the Eiffel Tower at night, seeing the sights of Paris, after a wonderful French meal, with the person you love!  A fun way to end the trip. 

Dubrovnik - the Pearl of the Adriatic

After Korcula, we took a ferry to Dubrovnik, a beautiful old walled town, which is known as the Pearl of the Adriatic.  Unfortunately, we had less than 24 hours there, and John's energy was still not up to full speed, so we didn't have a chance to do much.  This is a much larger town than Korcula, and had been wealthy for many centuries, having trading power in the area second only to Venice.  It has been partially destroyed several times, including an earthquake in the 1660's, and bombings during the Croatian war for independence in 1991. 

One of the most impressive things about the city is the walls, which you can walk around the top of.  I've been to several walled cities, and the walls of this one are more impressively fortified than the others.  They are tall and thick on the land side.  On the water side, much of the wall sits atop a very large cliff, and attacking by that route would be like trying to scale the Cliffs of Insanity. 

Probably a combination of how well fortified the city is and the fact that hundreds of years ago, they could afford to pay off any other powers to keep their independence, the only time the city walls were actually used to defend the city was during the war in 1991.  Crazy that such ancient defenses were of use in modern times! 

The city was beautiful, with tiny streets that were often quite steep, with restaurants and shops everywhere.  There is a great little bar that is perched on little terraces in the rocks outside the wall on that steep seaward side, which was a wonderful place to sit and have an evening drink.  With the city behind us, the rocks below us, the sea all around us, and Sinatra music bathing it all, it was quite romantic!  Dubrovnik is a great city, that definitely deserves more than the 18 hours we had for it.

 

Fevers in Korcula

After taking a night train from Slovenia, we arrived in Split, Croatia around 7 AM, with plans to take the ferry to Korcula at 10:30 AM.  That gave us just enough time to walk around a bit.  Split is the bigger city on the Adriatic Coast.  It has a small old city, within the walls of Diocletian's Palace, the retirement palace of the 3rd century AD Roman Emperor.
Around the old city is a large waterfront town, with large modern buildings interspersed with lazy Mediterranean buildings and old buildings from Roman times.   The thing that impressed me most about the old city was the way that newer buildings (some from centuries ago, some modern) were just built into and around the old ruins.  There was even a modern bank with large glass windows, which had desks,  computers, and the usual modern bank stuff, all around ancient Roman ruins sticking up out of the floor! 

After a 3 hours boat ride and another 1 hour bus ride, we arrived in Korcula.  Korcula is a beautiful old walled city, which you can walk around the circumference in about 10 minutes, and across the middle in about 4 minutes.  The only way into the old city is up numerous stairs, and the roads are only about 1 -2 yards wide, so there is no way for motorized vehicles in the old city.  We were staying in a lovely apartment just outside the old city, with a small kitchenette, and a balcony with a great view of the old city and of the sea. 

What is the downside you ask?  Well, I have had a cold for about a week, which had gotten worse, so I was constantly having to blow my nose and cough.  But, that was nothing compared to poor John.  He got some sort of a virus, and spent the entire time here in bed with fevers, alternating between chills and sweats.  Most of the time, he hardly had enough energy to stand.  A couple times per day, I was able to get him up to walk the 2 minutes into town to get some food, then it would be back to bed for the rest of the day.  Fortunately, our apartment really was lovely, in a great spot.  Once we realized how sick John was (along with the fact that there was no Friday mid-day boat, but only a 6:45 AM bus/ferry/bus to get to Dubrovnik), we decided instead of only 2 nights here and traveling on, we would stay here a 3rd night.  He could stay in bed, with only a short walk for meals.  I could sit on the balcony reading, where there was a great view, and a great breeze above the city. 

One fun thing that I did here was I had the chance to go see the traditional Moreska Dance (while John stayed in bed).  It is a sword fight dance, that has been performed here for hundreds of years, and continues to be taught from one generation to the next, to be performed every Thursday.  It was a lot of fun to see.  The black king stole the princess from the red king.  Then the red and black nights "fight" to get her back, with about 10 or 12 knights on each side.  It is all very stylized fighting choreographed into the dance.  The whole dance lasted a long time, with numerous portions.  Each portion consisted of a different set of coordinated sword fighting, many of which the dancers were striking their swords hard enough to spark. 

On Friday night, John was able to muster up enough energy to go have a drink at a bar that is located in one of the old city wall towers, with a great view!  This morning, he is feeling a little better, and we will be traveling on to Dubrovnik, the "Pearl of the Adriatic". 

Adventures in Slovenia

On Sunday, John flew into Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, where I had take a late train to the night before.  We met at the train station, and it was great to finally see him.  The late morning bus to Bovec we had wanted to take did not exist, as it was Sunday, so we spent the afternoon wandering Ljubljana, while waiting for the evening bus.  It is a very pretty town, on a river, with a lot of outdoor cafes, and tons of bicycles.  You could tell that people were really into outdoor activities.  Not unlike Portland in a lot of ways.  John had a fair amount of jet lag, but only slept for a little awhile on a bench in the middle of the main square…. 

We then took a 3.5 hour bus ride over mountains through very twisty roads, stopping numerous times for everyone to get out and stare at the engine, because the coolant was leaking.  Luckily the bus made it there, and we made it to the camp.

Adrenaline Check is the name of the adventure group we were staying with, and our initial plan was climbing, biking, rafting, and canyoning all within 2 days.  After getting there late, and with John’s jet lag, we cut it down to just canyoning and rafting. 

The canyoning was awesome!  We did it with our guide, Simon, and with 4 guys from Holland who are about our age.  There is a river that has carved natural waterslides, waterfalls, and deep pools into a canyon.  When we first got there, our first sight of it was a 12 meter (39 foot) waterfall, that had someone going over it.  I exclaimed “awesome!” while two of the guys with us turned green and almost turned back.  Simon explained that it is the last thing to go over, is far and away the biggest, and there is a hiking path to go around, so you do not have to go over it.  Finally the guys with us were convinced to go forward.  After hiking to the top, you start with going over small things.  Some of the places you slide down a water slide, some you fall down a waterfall, and some places you jump off a rock into a pool.  The first ones were only about 3 feet high, and you build up from there.  For some of them, he had us go over belly down or backwards, just to mix things up. 

There was one that he would not let us look over before going over, but instead had us each float on our back while he steered us toward the fall.  It turned out to be a 20 foot waterfall, with rocks overhead, so you almost land in a cave.  The pressure of the falls shoots you down like a torpedo.  It was amazing, and much better to do without looking first.  (A couple of the guys with us admitted that it was fun, they were glad they did it, but they would not have done it if we had seen it first).  Finally, we got to the 12 meter fall.  I was excited to go over it, and stepped right up.  John went because he was still tired from jet lag (and months of working on the house), and figured that letting gravity do the work was easier than hiking out.  Three of the guys with us hiked out, and one of the guys only went over the waterfall after watching John and I both do it, and realizing we didn’t die.  That night, the guys from Holland told John, “We feel really bad for you, having a girlfriend like that.  You can’t really back out of something if she says she’ll do it first!”  Once they found out I was his wife, they said, “Even worse!” :-)

The rafting the next morning was in an absolutely beautiful setting, with a beautiful river.  It would have been a lot of fun (and very challenging) in my kayak.  It would have been a ton of fun, without too much challenge in a small 4 person raft.  In the giant 10 person raft they had us it, it was a nice run to enjoy the scenery.  But, as the scenery was incredible, it was worth it. 

For the two nights we were with Adrenaline Check, we stayed in their camp, in tents.  They were platform tents with mattresses, but they were still tents, which John was not too happy with.  The camp was in a beautiful setting, but it was definitely roughing it. 

To get back to Ljubljana, instead of taking the 4 hour twisty bus, Simon, the guide we spent the most time with, offered to drive us, since he was headed that way.  It was a much shorter (only 2 hour) and much nicer ride with him.  The entire way, he kept pointing out sights and telling us the history behind different areas.  After that, we took a night train to Split, Croatia, then a boat to the island of Korcula for some beach town, old walled city, relaxation.  More on that soon! 

What is it - Answer

Mom was the one who finally got it!  An ancient potty training device.  Congrats Mom!!

Venice - Beauty and frustration

On my way to travel from Greece to Slovenia, I had 11 hours between when my flight landed in Venice at 10:30 AM and when my train left at 9:30 PM.  Between getting baggage, getting from the airport to the city, etc, that would leave me 9 or 10 hours to explore Venice.  What to do in that time? 

About half way through my trip in Greece, I realized what I would do in Venice.  Laundry.  As unglamorous as it sounds, it needed to be done.  There was nowhere to do it my last couple of days in Greece, and I didn’t want to have to worry about it when John got here.  So, I had it all figured out.  My guidebook mentioned a laundromat near the train station.  The trip from the airport to the city takes you right past the train station.  So, I would head in, do the laundry, stash the bags at the luggage check at the train station (all of which would take 3-4 hours at the most), then have much of the day left to explore Venice.  Perfect plan. 

The only hitch was, it is really hard to do laundry when you don’t have dirty clothes.  Or any clothes but what you are wearing.  The airline must have forgot to put a cart of bags on the plane, since about 15 people on my flight were missing their baggage.  They didn’t know where the baggage was, but “could deliver it to my hotel“.  Except for the fact that I had a 9 PM train to Slovenia, which got there in the middle of the night. Then I would leave on a bus at 11 AM for the adventure place, remote in the hills and woods of Slovenia.  Then a night train to Split, Croatia, the a boat to Korcula, where we don’t yet have a hotel booked.  Nowhere to deliver bags to for days.  But, with luck, they could get there during the day. 

So, I took the bus to the city.  I took one of the bus-type boats through the Grand Canal of the city, on which I scored a front seat with great views!  I followed Rick Steves’ self guided boat tour, learning about the city as I went.  I then wandered through San Marco, the big touristy area for a couple of hours.  It was all beautiful, but the whole time, I was worried that I wouldn’t have my bags, and I was trying to figure out how I would manage several days of rafting, climbing, etc in Slovenia with no bathing suit and only one set of clothes.

Luckily, when I called the airport at 3, they had my bag.  I went all the way back to the airport to get it, had time to come back and do laundry.  Unfortunately the Laundromat near the train station closed a year ago, so I had to walk through the entire city to get another one (the whole time wishing I was doing it at 11 AM instead of 6 PM and close to my train departure).  I paid way to much to do laundry, but in the end, I had clean clothes, and the chance to take another of Venice’s famous boats through the canal, this time at night, on the way back to catch my train.  A beautiful city, except for a few hours spent dealing with the bag, and a few more worried about the bag! 

What is it?

Please note - I am putting up 3 posts at the same time, so don't miss any! 

For this post, I am stealing a game from the blog my brother and his wife (Dan & Abby) did when they traveled. This post is interactive.  I will put a picture here.  Everyone who reads this should create a comment to guess what it is.  The first to guess correctly gets a great prize (if you think the respect of all the other readers is a great prize). 

This is a piece of ancient Greek pottery.  It is about a foot and a half tall.  What is it used for? 

Hydra - relaxing in the Greek Isles

A vacation from my vacation.  Relaxation, pure and simple.  Which is what I needed after several more cities of running around constantly.  Hydra is an island, only about 2 hours by boat from Athens.  The main town, also named Hydra, is an adorable old town, built into the hill surrounding a bay.  The “streets” are all narrow passageways, less than 5 feet wide, with steep hills and stairs. 

They have banned motorized vehicles on the island, using donkeys for transportation instead.  The donkeys spend half their time giving rides to tourists, and the other half lugging stuff up hills to houses, hotels, and restaurants.  They carry everything from groceries to major appliances. 

What is there to do here?  Nothing.  Plain and simple, you can spend a lot of time, doing a lot of nothing, which is exactly what I did.  I bought a book (at over twice the sticker price, but heck, it was a book in English on a small island in Greece).  I spent the majority of my two days here sitting by the sea, reading the book.  When I got too hot (it was in the 90‘s), I jumped in the sea, which was refreshingly chilly, then got out to read again.  Peaceful and wonderful. 

The town has a lot of shops and restaurants around the port, which cater to the hundreds of tourists that get dropped off by cruise ships for a few hours at a time, throughout the day.  But, the streets up the hills, and all streets in the evening are uncrowned, but never feel deserted.  The place that I stayed, Achilles Pension, was run by a delightful woman who spoke only a few words of English (more than I speak in Greek), but was extremely warm and friendly, and very helpful, despite any language barrier.  I had left my luggage at the hotel after checking out, since I wasn’t taking a boat back to Athens until late afternoon.  When I came back to pick up my luggage, she apologized, mostly with repeatedly saying "I'm sorry" then pantomiming the rest.  She had seen a water bottle sitting in the pocket of my bag, and it was so hot out, she put it in the fridge.  She hoped I didn’t mind.  So sweet!  The ice cold water tasted wonderful after spending the day in the heat!  On the way out of town, I ran into Roberto and Robbie, the two guys who I had gone to Delphi with, who had been island hopping, and happened to be there in the same back street as I was.  Altogether, a great place to stay! 

Delphi - visiting the oracle

Delphi, the home of the Oracle.  It is a 3 hour bus ride from Athens, so round trip 6 hours of traveling to go see it.  Fortunately, two nights before, I had met a couple of guys at a restaurant, who were planning to go to Delphi on the same day as me (Roberto and Robbie).  We agreed to meet at the early bus (7:30) to Delphi, and head there together.  They are engineers from Michigan who work for Ford, and were great to spend the day with. 

Delphi is high on the slopes of Mt. Parnassos, at the site the Greeks believed to be the center of the Earth.  They know is was the center of the Earth, because Zeus had released two Eagles from opposite ends of the Earth (which was flat) and this is where they met.  Originally, a priestess, the sibyl, worshiped Gia, the mother of the gods here, with a serpent guarding the site.  Apollo came and killed the snake, and the place and the sibyl now served him, and she became known as the Oracle, skilled in prophecy. 

As far as records can tell, the oracle was here as a prophetess from about 1400 BC until 394 AD when Christians shut down the pagan site.  Of course, it was not always the same person (given that she was there for 1800 years), but since the person was purely the mouth piece of Apollo, it was ok that she changed, and during busy times, they even had more than one, taking shifts.  She would sit in a three legged bowl, over a natural ravine, where a spring bubbled, and after you made the appropriate offerings/sacrifices, you would get a very cryptic message, for you to work out the meaning.  Science has not found a ravine at that location, but there are cracks and springs in the earth in the area, which omit psychotropic gasses, which may have helped form her cryptic divine knowledge. 

For centuries, no important decisions were made in the area without first consulting the oracle.  Socrates, Midas, Croesus, Plutarch, Nero, and many others all got advice here.  Even Alexander the Great came to see the oracle before trying to conquer the world.  Everything from starting wars to marital problems were discussed with the oracle. 

At the site, in addition to the Temple of Apollo, were all of the surrounding buildings, to support such an important site. 

There were the treasuries and statues, built by people to thank the oracle for helping them win a war, or to bribe the oracle to be favorable to them in the future.  There were the stands, where merchants could sell you a better offering, in case you got cold feet and decided that goat you were going to sacrifice was just not good enough for what you had to ask.  There was a theatre, where music contests were held, as Apollo was the god of music. 

Above it all, there was a stadium, where every 4 years, games were held, which were second only to the Olympics in size and popularity.  While wandering around, the Robs and I found a secret tunnel that went under the temple of Apollo, away from any guards saying “don’t climb in there”, which we explored, filled with excitement and mystery! (don't tell the guards)

Most of the statues and friezes from the site are no longer there.  Some are in the museum at the same site, which is great to see.  Many of the rest have been brought to other sites around the globe, either by treasure seekers / archaeologists of the last two centuries, or similar plunderers from ancient times.  (Many are accounted for, just in museums at sites far and wide from here). 

Very impressive.  However, despite our locating the secret tunnel, we were not able to find the oracle, so I know no more about my future than I did before seeking the oracle!

Athens

The city where democracy was born.  The streets where Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato walked.  The stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey.  The gods, Athena, Apollo, Zeus, Poseidon.  It is all from here.  It is incredible to walk around this city.  As you walk through the area of the old city, here and there you come across random bits of ruins, right in between the modern city. 

The highlight of ancient Athens is the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora.  The Acropolis was the ceremonial center of the city, with the Parthenon and temple of Athena.  The Agora was the marketplace of the city, on which steps the great thinkers would gather and teach their disciples.  The Acropolis has been the center of Athens since 6800 BC.  Wow, a lot of history.  The Mycenaeans,  the Persians, the Aegeans, Spartans, etc. 

The Parthenon is just as imposing in real life as you may imagine, even in rubbles.  Built in 450 BC, it has amazing architecture techniques designed to fool the eye, with engineering that would be impressive today. The carvings are intricate and imaginative.  (Oh, and thanks to Rick Steves, I now can clearly discern Doric from Ionic from Corinthian columns!)  Originally, the Parthenon contained a 40 foot statues of Athena, with all of her skin a glowing ivory, and all of her clothes from gold.  That had to be incredible to see, but has been missing over a millennia.  Next door, the Erechtheion, with its beautiful Porch of the Caryatids, is stunning! 

 

Beyond the hill of the Acropolis, the city of Athens sprawled in every direction as far as the eye can see.  A third of all Greeks now live in Athens, making it an absolutely huge city. 

Agora - while the Acropolis was the ceremonial center, the Ancient Agora was the market and gathering place of the city for millennia.  This is where Socrates spoke to people on the streets, asking them to question popular wisdom, and “know thyself”.  This is where rational thinking and science evolved.  Democracy, and the instruments that allowed it to happen were developed here.  Very cool. 

The National Archeological Museum walks you through the artistic history of Greece, from the earliest traces of civilization, to the Golden Age of Greece, through the occupation of and fall of the Roman Empire.  It, along with Rick Steves’ guide, does a marvelous job of teaching you to appreciate the different styles classic to each Era. 

Wandering the streets, people, food, etc.  Here the churches are not the grand Cathedrals of much of the rest of Europe, but rather the smaller, simpler churches of the Greek Orthodox church.  Filled with symbolism, in a simple format, some of these churches have stood for over 1000 years, being converted or tolerated during the long Ottoman (Muslim) occupation of the country.  They are now surrounded by modern buildings, and continuously busy with people stopping by on their way to or from various parts of life, to light a candle and say a prayer. 

One last fun sight in the city - I happened to catch the changing of the guards in front of the parliament building.  They do a very traditional high stepping ceremonial changing, while wearing very traditional outfits.  Tourists can take their pictures with the guards, who are not allowed to smile, interact, or show any sign that they care.  Meanwhile, another soldier in camouflage and a beret interacts with the crowds, keeping them in line. 

Next stop Delphi, to visit the Oracle!