Friday, October 08, 2004
funning in the islands! (update from greece)
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 04:09:23 -0700 (PDT)
We are now in Greece on the island of Mykonos. and guess what? we are able
to upload some pictures (I think). Seth is working on that right now. So if
you want to go to photos.yahoo.com/sethjoel there should be some new pics
there. It is difficult to rename them, so they are in chronological order,
with the city at the end of the name of the first pic from that city. You
can look back on blogger.com at megtravels.blogspot.com to see where we have
been and match it to the pics if you are unsure of what you are looking at.
I tried to pick some of the most self explanatory ones (We have taken like
500 pictures so far, but are only putting about 60 online now.)
Anyway, so we left strasbourg and went to the Rhine in Germany. The train
ride was long and required us to change like 3 times, but it was ok. We
stayed in the town of Bacharach. We had reservations for the castle hostel
on the top of the hill. So when we got there we had to walk up over 200
steps and some steep trail to get to the hostel, then we were told they
didnt have our reservation and the beds were all full! The woman was really
nice though and booked us a room in a cheap b&b in town which was good cause
we got our own room, and the hostel had tons of little kids staying in it.
But we had to lug our stuff all the way back down the stairs AND we were
planning to do our laundry at the hostel. So when we got to our B&B I asked
the woman, who was very nice but didnt speak much english, if there was a
laundromat in town. (I had to use hand gestures, pulling at my clothes and
smelling them and making a face, it was funny) anyway, she said we could
wash them in the sink and hang on
the line outside. So we did. She looked at our baggies full of clothes and
indicated that we had a small enough amount of laundry that this would work.
But she didnt reallize that we had stuffed those baggies to the max with
clothes. So we had more than she thought. So we squeezed it onto the line
and went to dinner. We had dinner at a restaurant that rick steves
recommended. I had the tender boiled beef in horseradish sauce and seth had
beef in wine sauce, we split this wonderful wine cream soup and each had a
glass of local wine. My beef was wonderful! tender and the sauce was just
the right combination of tangy and creamy! Seth's was alright but not great.
After dinner we went next door to a winstub that was also recommended by
rick steves where we got a wine carousel with 16 glasses of wine to taste
for only 13euro! Then this canadian couple that we had met on the porch of
the castle came over and we talked and drank and had a great time, the place
pretty much closed down
around us, only a few locals in another room. we couldnt even find a
server, adn left our money on the table. when we got up the next morning,
the woman from the b&b was upset cause our laundry hadnt dried. she wanted
us to take it up to the castle and use their dryer, she was afraid we would
have to carry it wet. only we didnt want to walk all the way up there, and I
knew that it would probably dry during the day, the night had been damp, but
the sky was blue and our stuff is quick dry, so I argued with her, we would
miss our boat if we had to go to the castle. She didnt really understand and
after much difficulty, agreed we would see how it was in the evening. So we
left and got on a very crowded ferry boat for a cruise down the Rhine. It
was amazing! calm adn relaxing (except for the hundred Japanese tourists
crammed in there) and we saw a lot of wonderful castles and stuff. the tour
group got off at the stop for St. Goar, so we pretty much had the boat to
ourselves. We went a
few miles down to a town below the Marksburg castle. We had lunch, then
walked up to the castle (I wanted to take the little tourist tram but they
wouldnt take us cause we needed 4 people) So we toured the castle. The tour
was in German, but we had a self guided tour in the rick steves book so we
followed along (they wouldnt let you in without the tour guide). It was
cool! then we took the train back to the St Goar place adn looked around,
had some gelato and a bottle of wine, and seth got a hair cut. He really
needed one, but was afraid to get his hair cut by someone who didnt speak
english. It turned out great! the guy spoke a little english, not much but
enough I guess. And he did a good job. Then we went back to the b&b and our
clothes were dry (all but the socks which were only slightly damp) So we
went out to dinner at another winstub. They didnt really have real food so
we had soup and cheese adn another wine sampler. (we had had a big lunch so
it was ok) In the morning we
caught the train to Berlin. Or rather we took a train to the nearest train
station where we could ask how to get to berlin, then caught a train to
frankfurt then Berlin. It was a long day of travelling, we didnt get to
Berlin until almost 7pm. We stayed at the holiday inn at the airport. it was
the most expensive place we have stayed yet, but we needed someplace close
that woudl give us a ride at 5am to the airport. So we got up at 4:30 and
got our plane to athens. Then we didnt know what we were going to do when we
got there. We decided to go straight to the islands becuase the
transportation in greece is not so good, so I figured if we were going to
get to the islands we would need to go right away. We took a bus from the
airport to the port and got boat tickets. we splurged and got the fast boat
becuase I get seasick and didnt think I could handle a 5 hour boat ride
after traveling for 2 days straight. The trip to mykonos took 2.5 hours and
was VERY rough, becuase the storm that
had been raining on Berlin was now over greece. When we got to Mykonos we
went to the hotel reservation office and booked a room through them. we
usually dont do that, but we were really tired. We got a great room though!
at a pretty good price. 55euro a night adn it is right on the beach, with a
little balcony with a beach view, our own bathroom, they picked us up from
the port and breakfast is included!! We went out for dinner last night and
got lost in Mykonos town. Apparently they built the city like a maze becuase
there were so many pirates and raiders, well the map is pretty much no good,
you have no choice but to wander. we were trying to find a restauarant from
one of our books, but it was no use. We ate at a popular tourist restaurant,
with reasonable prices, adn the food was good. I had the special, kind of a
lamb stew and the local wine. Seth had souvlaki and the local beer. his food
was better, my drink was better. It is still kind of chilly here, no
swimming right now.
usually they have warm weather in october, but they are having
unseasonably windy and chilly. So we might head back to the mainland
tommorrow, or else tour the ruins on the nearby island of Delos, then head
back to the mainland. There isnt much to do here other than beach stuff, but
I am still glad we came becuase it is really beautiful. we slept in today
and this afternoon we are goign to wander the streets and look in the shops.
The town is made for walking becuase the streets are too narrow for cars, in
fact most of the streets look like alleys! but cute ones, not dangerous
ones.
Ok that is all for now. ( I know you are thinking really? is that all? seth
is teasing me that I wrote a novel.) Apparently the pictures are uploaded
but not in order. If you want to figure out the order they should be in, all
of the ones that start with 'b' should be first arranged in order of thier
number, then all the 'c' ones arranged by number, etc.
Meg
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail  CNET Editors' Choice 2004. Tell them what you think. a
_________________________________________________________________
Get ready for school! Find articles, homework help and more in the Back to
School Guide! http://special.msn.com/network/04backtoschool.armx
We are now in Greece on the island of Mykonos. and guess what? we are able
to upload some pictures (I think). Seth is working on that right now. So if
you want to go to photos.yahoo.com/sethjoel there should be some new pics
there. It is difficult to rename them, so they are in chronological order,
with the city at the end of the name of the first pic from that city. You
can look back on blogger.com at megtravels.blogspot.com to see where we have
been and match it to the pics if you are unsure of what you are looking at.
I tried to pick some of the most self explanatory ones (We have taken like
500 pictures so far, but are only putting about 60 online now.)
Anyway, so we left strasbourg and went to the Rhine in Germany. The train
ride was long and required us to change like 3 times, but it was ok. We
stayed in the town of Bacharach. We had reservations for the castle hostel
on the top of the hill. So when we got there we had to walk up over 200
steps and some steep trail to get to the hostel, then we were told they
didnt have our reservation and the beds were all full! The woman was really
nice though and booked us a room in a cheap b&b in town which was good cause
we got our own room, and the hostel had tons of little kids staying in it.
But we had to lug our stuff all the way back down the stairs AND we were
planning to do our laundry at the hostel. So when we got to our B&B I asked
the woman, who was very nice but didnt speak much english, if there was a
laundromat in town. (I had to use hand gestures, pulling at my clothes and
smelling them and making a face, it was funny) anyway, she said we could
wash them in the sink and hang on
the line outside. So we did. She looked at our baggies full of clothes and
indicated that we had a small enough amount of laundry that this would work.
But she didnt reallize that we had stuffed those baggies to the max with
clothes. So we had more than she thought. So we squeezed it onto the line
and went to dinner. We had dinner at a restaurant that rick steves
recommended. I had the tender boiled beef in horseradish sauce and seth had
beef in wine sauce, we split this wonderful wine cream soup and each had a
glass of local wine. My beef was wonderful! tender and the sauce was just
the right combination of tangy and creamy! Seth's was alright but not great.
After dinner we went next door to a winstub that was also recommended by
rick steves where we got a wine carousel with 16 glasses of wine to taste
for only 13euro! Then this canadian couple that we had met on the porch of
the castle came over and we talked and drank and had a great time, the place
pretty much closed down
around us, only a few locals in another room. we couldnt even find a
server, adn left our money on the table. when we got up the next morning,
the woman from the b&b was upset cause our laundry hadnt dried. she wanted
us to take it up to the castle and use their dryer, she was afraid we would
have to carry it wet. only we didnt want to walk all the way up there, and I
knew that it would probably dry during the day, the night had been damp, but
the sky was blue and our stuff is quick dry, so I argued with her, we would
miss our boat if we had to go to the castle. She didnt really understand and
after much difficulty, agreed we would see how it was in the evening. So we
left and got on a very crowded ferry boat for a cruise down the Rhine. It
was amazing! calm adn relaxing (except for the hundred Japanese tourists
crammed in there) and we saw a lot of wonderful castles and stuff. the tour
group got off at the stop for St. Goar, so we pretty much had the boat to
ourselves. We went a
few miles down to a town below the Marksburg castle. We had lunch, then
walked up to the castle (I wanted to take the little tourist tram but they
wouldnt take us cause we needed 4 people) So we toured the castle. The tour
was in German, but we had a self guided tour in the rick steves book so we
followed along (they wouldnt let you in without the tour guide). It was
cool! then we took the train back to the St Goar place adn looked around,
had some gelato and a bottle of wine, and seth got a hair cut. He really
needed one, but was afraid to get his hair cut by someone who didnt speak
english. It turned out great! the guy spoke a little english, not much but
enough I guess. And he did a good job. Then we went back to the b&b and our
clothes were dry (all but the socks which were only slightly damp) So we
went out to dinner at another winstub. They didnt really have real food so
we had soup and cheese adn another wine sampler. (we had had a big lunch so
it was ok) In the morning we
caught the train to Berlin. Or rather we took a train to the nearest train
station where we could ask how to get to berlin, then caught a train to
frankfurt then Berlin. It was a long day of travelling, we didnt get to
Berlin until almost 7pm. We stayed at the holiday inn at the airport. it was
the most expensive place we have stayed yet, but we needed someplace close
that woudl give us a ride at 5am to the airport. So we got up at 4:30 and
got our plane to athens. Then we didnt know what we were going to do when we
got there. We decided to go straight to the islands becuase the
transportation in greece is not so good, so I figured if we were going to
get to the islands we would need to go right away. We took a bus from the
airport to the port and got boat tickets. we splurged and got the fast boat
becuase I get seasick and didnt think I could handle a 5 hour boat ride
after traveling for 2 days straight. The trip to mykonos took 2.5 hours and
was VERY rough, becuase the storm that
had been raining on Berlin was now over greece. When we got to Mykonos we
went to the hotel reservation office and booked a room through them. we
usually dont do that, but we were really tired. We got a great room though!
at a pretty good price. 55euro a night adn it is right on the beach, with a
little balcony with a beach view, our own bathroom, they picked us up from
the port and breakfast is included!! We went out for dinner last night and
got lost in Mykonos town. Apparently they built the city like a maze becuase
there were so many pirates and raiders, well the map is pretty much no good,
you have no choice but to wander. we were trying to find a restauarant from
one of our books, but it was no use. We ate at a popular tourist restaurant,
with reasonable prices, adn the food was good. I had the special, kind of a
lamb stew and the local wine. Seth had souvlaki and the local beer. his food
was better, my drink was better. It is still kind of chilly here, no
swimming right now.
usually they have warm weather in october, but they are having
unseasonably windy and chilly. So we might head back to the mainland
tommorrow, or else tour the ruins on the nearby island of Delos, then head
back to the mainland. There isnt much to do here other than beach stuff, but
I am still glad we came becuase it is really beautiful. we slept in today
and this afternoon we are goign to wander the streets and look in the shops.
The town is made for walking becuase the streets are too narrow for cars, in
fact most of the streets look like alleys! but cute ones, not dangerous
ones.
Ok that is all for now. ( I know you are thinking really? is that all? seth
is teasing me that I wrote a novel.) Apparently the pictures are uploaded
but not in order. If you want to figure out the order they should be in, all
of the ones that start with 'b' should be first arranged in order of thier
number, then all the 'c' ones arranged by number, etc.
Meg
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail  CNET Editors' Choice 2004. Tell them what you think. a
_________________________________________________________________
Get ready for school! Find articles, homework help and more in the Back to
School Guide! http://special.msn.com/network/04backtoschool.armx
