In keeping with tradition, Greek weather only remained crappy through the evening of Easter, presumably mourning Jesus. On the day after Easter, we got bright blue skies and gorgeous sunshine. Go Greece!
We rented a car yesterday to take us all around Paros - which, if driving slow, takes a couple of hoursto completely circumnavigate. It was only minorly hairy at times, thanks in part to the weeeeee little car we had (which was like 4 sized UP, and the "smallest" they had that day (!) but which was also an awesomely ugly bright green and therefore nicknamed Kia the Grouch); partially due to the mostly-paved, mostly-marked nature of the Paros roads, and partially due to the fact that my dad is not as familiar driving stick shift anymore. I, sadly, cannot drive, as I am a poor unlicensed driver, as it expired on my birthday. Sigh.
But there were no casualties! And we got to see such a pretty island - we found beaches that were tiny and cold, but with gorgeous clear blue water and littered with spectacular marble pebbles; we went to the third-largest town on the island, a non-tourist spot that we were told was what Greece was like 50 years ago; we got lost several times in the windy cobblestone streets of Parikia, the port town (but found ourselves in time for an awesome lunch at a local souvlakeria). I really like paros, and I can easily see why it is such a popular spot for people from all over Euope to come and rent an apartment or a bungalow and just get lost for a month or two every summer.
The today, we went to a whole other island. The original plan was to see Mykonos, but ferry schedules being what they are this week (they are notoriously changeable in Greece, apparently) a day trip was impossible. Instead, we went to Naxos, the island next door. It's mostly agricultural, but the main town is pretty big. They have their own ruins there - an unfinished temple to Apollo that greets you as you come up on the ferry, how is that for spectacular? - as well as a really well-preserved old town, complete with Venetian castle. But the most amazing thing was in the oldest part, the Mitropolis, where the excavated ruins of the town are underground, really, and date back, no joke, to the 13th century BC. That is OLD, when it makes the Acropolis look like nouveau construction.
We walked about some and tried for Mexican food - it's been too long! - but it was sadly closed. It was hardly a bustling day, but it did make me realize that I like Greek islands a lot in general, but I do like Paros more than Naxos. Tomorrow, we head to Santorini, and we will see how it stacks up. I am already guessing gorgeous.
My mother and I split a Grecian Coke Light yesterday. I think my parents' conversation sums it up the best:
Dad: So, Coca Cola Light didn't cut it, eh?
Mom: Coca Cola Crap is more like it.
It's my very special second Easter this year - in Greece for Eastern Orthodox celebrations means I get the whole Good Friday/Easter Sunday rigamarole again, and things are just as shut down - and rainy, sadly - as they were in Sydney back during Famous Original Easter.
It's funny, the things that I hear about countrie before I get to them, and how they compare. Bngkok was so exactly as advertised that I felt like I had been there before I'd even set foot in the city. Athens, though...it was touted as a grotty, smoggy, dirty city, very much see-the-Acropolis-and-get-out on the itinerary. It was, though, nothing like I expected, in a good way. I kept being struck by how quiet the city was; it was no more dirty than any other major metropolis, and quite a bit cleaner, really, than a lot I've been to. I don't know if it's that we were there at the first blush of the tourist season, or if it was because it was the start of Easter weekend, when many of the Greeks flee the city, or if most of the information was from people who had visited a while ago, and changes from converting to the Euro and upgrading the city to accommodate the Olympics changed everything that significantly. Whatever the reason, I really liked Athens, and found it navigable and interesting, and much more appealing than I had been expecting.
Yesterday, though, it was time to go and we ferried out of Athens and to the Cycladian island of Paros. It is every bit as picturesque as postcards would have you believe. We are here really early for the tourist season (a lot of things like restaurants, bars, and hotels close in the winter and only reopen in mid-April or early May) and it's easy to see why. Athens had perfect weather - a light breeze, sunny and fine. Perfect jeans-and-tee weather, with a light fleece for the evening, which might be a little warm for scrambling around ruins at midday and a bit cool after a late dinner at a taverna, but overall pretty ideal.
Here, though, it's a bit of a storm - quite chilly, rather windy, overcast. It's still picturesque, but not exactly beach weather. It made me glad we booked the high-speed ferry; it took 3 1/2 hours from Athens, and got pretty rough in the middle. I got seasick for the first time ever (happy birthday!) but it passed and I was fine when we arrived.
If it's ever possible, I do recommend spending a birthday on a Grecian island - this place is stunning, an just wandering about everywhere you look are the whitewashed buildings and blue shutters and red geraniums. I love it. There is also an unexpected bonus, being here for Easter - apparently the tradition is to go to Easter services late on Saturday night, and then have a huge feast afterwards. So for a birthday dinner, I ate a spectacular 5 course meal at about 1am, complete with the grilled Greek cheese and roasted lamb and dried figs. Fantastic.
Being on a quiet island out of season on a rainy Easter has one other good side effect, too - I really feel like I can see that I've become a lot more adaptable to things since I left originally. Obviously, having everything shut (though apparently things open at like 6pm on Easter Sunday, and that's when everyone sets of firecrackers and goes to the bar? Weird Greek traditions.) is not ideal for anyone, but I don't know - it just doesn't bother me much. I've learned quickly that the best laid plans of a traveler often bear no resemblance to how the day turns out - as often for better as for the worse, though. So a day is rainy, you get bored, you get a different day the next. It is what it is - that's the way life is, honestly. It's nice to let things roll off your back more often than not.
Happy Greek Easter, everyone. He is risen for the very last time this year, I think.
First off, you guys are great. Thanks for all the nice things, and the votes of confidence, and for reminding me that I am not the only one for whom travel is an awesome walk in the park where every single moment is magical. Sometimes, the moments suck, and sometimes that's ok.
I am in Athens, and already things look up. Being with my parents is such a load off - I suddenly don't have to decide every thing for myself, I get to have others suggest dinner or an itinerary, and when I see something as spectacular as the Acropolis, I have people there to share it with.
It's also reinvigorated other things as well, being in Greee - my skin is already so grateful not to be trapped in smoggy humidity, my poor melted "solid" shampoo is about back to solid, and I remember why I like traveling again. Things are better.
I really like Athens, probably more than I thought I would. The Plaka neighborhood, with its tiny streets crammed with tavernas and a view of the Acropolis, is my favorite. We don't get to see the National Archaeological Museum, as it's closed for Good Friday, but hopefully I will see it on my way back through Athens. Instead, we've scrambled over tons of ruins, enjoyed the perfect weather, fallen in love with Greek yogurt, and eaten wonderful lamb and chicken and enjoyed it all. And it's only day two!
Tomorrow we are off to the islands. I can't wait.
the truth is, i am tired. right now, today, yesterday, i am tired of traveling. if you honestly gave me the choice to keep going as planned, or to go home with no harm or foul...i would take the latter. i would leave. right now i am just at the end of my rope.
i am at the halfway point - way past it, technically, if you count from when i left for south america, and just at it from when i left again for new zealand - and i think i am just worn out from traveling in general. it is draining, to always have to be making decisions, figuring out where to go, always on the move, always away from anyone who knows you.
some of it, to be sure, is bangkok, and thailand in general. it's a hot, disorienting country, one that i didn't intend to be in this long - that kind of thing wears on a person.
part of it is just the added difficulty of being abroad for so long. anything that goes wrong is a huge hassle - calling a credit card company, for instance, is nearly impossible from another country. and things go wrong, all the time, things that are an annoying 5 minute fix at home and a full day of stress on the road.
so there it is. i am burned out and lonely. but the bright side: i leave bangkok tomorrow. i fly to somewhere significantly cooler, significantly more picturesque. i get to move on and keep going, and remind myself that, no, i don't want to leave. i want to be right here doing this exact thing.
and best of all, i get to see my parents. i get to have a hug - it's been six weeks - and i get to let someone else choose where we go to dinner, and i get to have people i love around me.
i just hope nothing goes wrong, because if my parents are with me, who is at home to fix everything? hi, susan!
no, it will be fine. this mood will pass, i will love greece, i will get to see pyramids and fjords and rolling green hills yet, and i will be a better person for it, and so grateful. but the truth is, every day of travel is not a vacation.
Without a doubt, as I knew it would be, the best part about Asia has been the food. I could eat like this forever. I have already gone on at length about the awesomeness of the street food in Singapore, and I am not honestly sure if Thai food tops it, per se, but it is just as enjoyable.
I certainly have my favorites - Thai iced tea, green curry, mango and sticky rice (and I am here during mango season to boot - it is astounding how good they are), but more than that, the food here is just such fun.
I mean, not all of it looks tasty, and I can certainly do without the more aromatic things, like the dried fish stands with the
ir barrels of little...fish...crisps things that reek to kingdom come. And Thai street food is, a lot of it, still the domain of the locals, so there frequently is no English translation, photos, or handy instruction manual on the carts. I am certain I have missed some of the best foods here because I don't know what the completed meal is like when I walk by the ingredients, so don't know to get it. I know some things, though, so I get to enjoy little gyoza or spring rolls, the always popular meat on a stick (I don't know what the ladies have done to this chicken, but it is SO TASTY), sugar-popped corn (for when I went to see a movie!) and all manner of little sweets or sandwiches. I did learn one valuable lesson, though - never buy a curry from a street vendor or a night market stall. Those things are not meant for westerners - I could take two bites before my mouth was on fire. In a restaurant, you can always get the tourist-level spicy, and that's plenty when you are pansy like me.
The Thais know how to do fruit - cut up fresh fruit on the street, the freshest fruit blended with ice to make a shake that will finally, for a second, let you feel cool(er), the mango on the rice...the fruit here is like the antithesis of Argentina, where produce fears to treat. Vegetables are not easy, but the fruit.... Nothing has equalled Ko Phi Phi in that, though, when there was a Thai pancake and fruit shake stand every 20 feet. I would have been way more full of banana or mango or coconut or pineapple shake if that were the case.
There is, of course, ubiquitous American fast food here as everywhere - McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Subway (though not nearly as many as in NZ or Australia), Pizza Hut, Starbucks, etc. But then there are a lot more, ones that I didn't know aggressively exported, like Swenson's, Dairy Queen, Dunkin' Donuts, Sizzler - some of those places I can't even get at home. Western food is everywhere, and what's sad, thouogh not surprising, is that it is easily 2-3 times more expensive than Thai food, and yet they are all jammed. The model has been aggressively copied, too, and there are all kinds of local chains that look just like the Sizzler, serving Thai or Chinese food like a peking duck Red robin - these places are more expensive, too. I don't know why I find it sad, but I do. The menus are not, unsurprisingly, the same - McDonald's especially seems to have a lot more pork on the menu from what I saw, and I did check - no Diet Coke on fountain. But the best part - the dessert pies (fried, like in the days of our own transfat-filled yore) come in three flavors: pineapple, taro, and corn. Awesome.
Nothing has been more embraced and incorporated to Thai life, though, than the 7-11. They are everywhere - which really isn't an exaggeration. There is one across the street from this internet
cafe; there is also one next door. Every couple of blocks in Bangkok, there is a 7-11. I am not knocking it, at all - air conditioned havens of splendor, these are. And the 7-11s sell lots of water (essential so you don't die of dehydration walking from one to the one on the next block) and other minor essentials. But they also sell awesome stuff - Thai iced tea from the little machines that is as tasty as any restaurant in Thai town, and apple mentos, and quick snack foods. They have a lot of hot food, too - chicken burgers that I tried out of curiosity, and a baby clam burger (like, the patty is made out of baby clams...smooshed together) that I wouldn't try if you paid for the doctor bills after, and toasted sandwiches - this month's featured flavor is ham and corn chowder. They have regular slurpees, as well as slushies made from aloe jelly and sugar cane, and candy called "Toe Dust" that looks like either Pop Rocks or Lik-em-aid. I did try try the sushi Lay's, too - they taste like seaweed. So, I mean, if you are into that....
The food, except anything western in style, is affordable and flavorful and wonderful, and I will be so sad to leave it behind. Naturally, this has made me terribly hungry, but on the little soi (side street) where my hostel is located is the neighborhood night market, so I get to go to town for my last dinner in Bangkok. Yay!
So today, I went uber-traditional, uber-touristy, and uber-Thai for the day - why not, I only have a couple left. I took a morning Thai cookery class, and had a Thai massage.
Unexpectedly, considering I generally love to cook and am not so keen on massaged, I was a much bigger fan of the latter than the former. Who would have guessed?
The cooking class was great, don't get me wrong. It's just that a couple of years back, I took a Thai cooking class with my father and sister that was awesome, and I didn't feel like this one blew me away any more than that. Any excuse to eat, though. I do wonder if my opinion would have been different if we did a different dessert - namely, mango and sticky rice. I want to know how they get that rice so sticky! Instead we did bananas poached in coconut milk. Tasty, absolutely. But the how to is...kind of right there in the name, you know?
The massage was better. Not just for the hour of aircon splendor in the middle of the day, but beause it was a lot more stretching and working of kinks than a massage I am used to - I felt more like I was being stretched out by a trainer at a gym than getting a massage, and I mean that in a good way.
Other day highlights (it was a full one!): My last wat, Wat Arun, a Khymer-style temple that you can climb up. It was late in the day, thank God, but the hard part was the steepness of the steps - I had to pull myself up by the hands, honestly. I didn't die, though!
Because I've been in Bangkok so long, I am checking off anything from any guidebook highlights section that sounds remotely interesting. One of them is fascinated by upscale hotels, so a friend and I went to check one out today. This place was so stuck up its own bum that it won't admit backpackers to come in, and has a stricter dress code than the grand Palace, one of the most sacred sites in Bangkok. I wouldn't stay in that hotel for anything, honestly - those places, like flan, are really only good if you are fancy on the inside, and I am not. I took a picture, crossed if off my checklist, and went on my merry way.
(On a side note, there is a side of Bangkok that is like that - forget the income of 98% of the country, we are rich and we will flaunt it; it's called Siam Square, it tires to be as European or American as possible, and it is distressingly juxtaposed with the entire rest of the country. There is more to it than that, sure, but this country has nearly as much in the way of five star luxury resorts as it has in poverty, and that's just bizarre. I got way off track here. All of that wasn't today, it was just where my mind went).
I am still ready to leave, but at least I will have seen more when I do.
