Greece - The Bourne Identity, Meteora, Apollo & the Parthenon

View of Athens from the
Parthenon

Parthenon summit

          Part of our honeymoon (Italy) had ended as our Greece part of the honeymoon was just beginning.  I had assumed I would prefer Italy to Greece but even now I still struggle as to which one I liked visiting more.  I would prefer to retire in Italy over Greece for the food and the wine but the scenery and feeling of contentment I had from places like Meteora and Mykonos Island were enough to make me want to come back.  Our flight from Rome brought us into the capital city of Athens.  From the airport we immediately planned to visit the Parthenon (not to be confused with the Pantheon in Rome).  Along with the Colosseum, the Parthenon was something I had longed to look upon.  The Parthenon sits on top of Athens like a giant light house overlooking the city.  We made our way through the subway and started our upward walk to the gates of the Parthenon.  The view from the plateau the Parthenon sits on is amazing, you have a clear three hundred sixty degree view of the city.  As an semi-retired archaeologist, crossing things like this off my list brings me joy I cannot describe.

The Parthenon

The Partheonon

          After the Parthenon we planned to make our way over to Piraeus which is a major port city in Greece.  We had to spend the night in Piraeus before heading out to sea on our five hour ferry ride.  Piraeus is a gateway to the Aegean Sea and how  our next destination: Mykonos Island.  Piraeus leaves a bit more to be desired, its definitely a port city.  We had the misfortune of being talked into staying at a sub par hotel by the person we bought our ferry tickets from.  He also tried to scare us out of our traveling methods by saying everything would be booked on the island.  We almost bought into it and I decided to avoid confrontation and let him book us something on Mykonos (even though I didn't want to).  I decided the next day that when we arrived on the island we could decide whether or not to stay at the place this pushy guy booked for us.

Little Venice, Mykonos

Mykonos windmills (Bourne Identity
movie site on the bottom right)

          The ferry ride was a normal type ferry if you have ever been on one.  If you do not book the nice seats you have to shuffle to find couch spaces or somewhere in cafe, otherwise you have to sit on metal chairs and tables near the back of the ship.  I do have to say that five hours is a long ride and makes you contemplate the expensive plane ticket direct to the island from Athens.  When we arrived in Mykonos we decided to duck the pickup van that the Piraeus guy booked us (somewhat out of spite because he was kind of a money hoarding jerk) and take the public bus to the main city area.  We took out our lonely planet guide and found a place that was highly rated called the Carbonaki Hotel.  It is family run by this really nice older couple, that helped me find my Bourne Identity film spot.  They were not aware of the filming so I had to show them a picture of the scene and they recognized it.  This family was incredibly kind and accommodating to us during our stay.  To offer up my first movie reference about Mykonos:

I had found out about this little island after watching the first Bourne Identity movie (movie scene to the right).  If you remember at the end, Jason Bourne gives all his money to this girl he meets after his amnesia and tells her to go make a life for herself.  So following all the sweet action and crazy fight scenes, the movie retires to a remote Mediterranean location (Mykonos Island) where his girlfriend is running a moped shop and of course the clever assassin Jason Bourne tracks her down and surprises her.  Well of course immediately after the movie I had to scan the internet to find out where they filmed this.  I was particularly attracted to all of the white buildings when I saw the scene in the movie.  

So after we settled in our lovely villa (one of the benefits of coming towards the beginning of the off season) we set out to find the famous (in my mind) moped shop from the movie.  After about a half hour of walking

Sunset View from our Hotel

Little Venice

we found it, the shop was re-purposed as a moped shop for the movie, but was really a cafe / fish market.  This beautiful location stood in the shadow of five beautiful windmills.  Just down the step from the windmills is an area of the island called "Little Venice" (because the water is very close to the docks and tables of the restaurants) which has many of the nice restaurants and clubs on the island.  We spent a lot of time hanging out in Little Venice as is was a short walk from our villa.  Life is very simple and slow moving on the island, the walkways though the endless corridors of white buildings is quite enjoyable to walk through.  It is very easy to slip into the calm, laid back vibe that all the locals of the island give off.

          On our second day we decided to take a short ferry ride over to the island of Delos which is an uninhabited island that contains the remnants of an affluent ancient Greek city.  The island had an ancient history as being the birthplace of Apollo and for that reason was a holy site of pilgrimage for the ancient Greeks.  The trip to Delos was definitely worth it, from touring the well preserved houses and temples on the lower plane of the island, to  making the trek up to the temple on the peak of the island (which gives a great view of Delos and Mykonos).  Just as we finished the tour a storm was rolling in and we made it on the ferry just in time (one of the risks of vacationing during the off season).
          Our third day on Mykonos was also somewhat stormy so we made the executive decision to return to the mainland as the islands are rather boring during bad weather.  We had to change our ferry ticket (because we violated our travel rules of planning too far ahead yet again) one day back because we booked

Delos Island ruins

Delos

in advance for three days.  When we were on the ferry to the island I had noticed an interesting picture of these huge rock formations on the cover of our Lonely Planet book which did not seem like the Greek I pictured at all.  It was an area called Meteora which was five hours north of Athens via train ride.  When we plotted it out on Mykonos we guessed it would take eleven hours (we do not mess around with time, we sleep anywhere we can if its important to make a site) to get there.  We reached Athens in the late evening to catch our train to Meteora which put us there around four or five a.m.  When we arrived in Meteora it was cold, dark and windy, we were lucky to catch the one taxi at the train station.  I threw a mental dart at our Lonely Planet Meteroa hotel list and told the taxi driver to take us to a place called Alsos House.  The entire city was on this very sharp angle which winds up the steep hill, but even at night you can see these megalithic structures looming over you in the darkness.  When we

Delos Temple

Delos Temple Summit

arrived at Alsos House it was completely dark, the taxi driver rung the bell and a light turned on in the far corner of the hotel.  The innkeeper came to the door and asked us what we wanted, of course we needed a place to sleep for a few hours.  Sadly he told us he was booked solid (the first negative of our "do not plan too far ahead approach"...Or was it?), but we begged him saying we had been traveling for almost twelve hours and just needed a place to rest.  He looked around outside at the weather and back in at his lobby thinking for a second and he smiled and said "ok come in".  He led us into his lobby to the couches, brought us some sheets, pillows and said "you can sleep here".  I have to say we have plenty of funny, strange and surreal travel stories, but this is one of my favorites.  We were so down on our energy, in

Meteora Below

Town of Meteora

a strange place and this gentleman let us in and took care of us despite the fact that there was "no room in the Inn".  I say this with utmost sincerity when I express that these are the moments when I think the world has hope, when I think the world is a beautiful place and there are people out there who really are working to make it that way.  Hats off to this guy and the hope of many others like him in the world.  In the morning he served us breakfast and called in a favor to get us on a tour of the region.
          The allure of Meteroa is the fact the entire city is surrounded by these massive natural sandstone rock

Monastery Pillars

pillars on top of which monks have built a series of monasteries on top.  To me it is one of those places I never imagined existed in the world.  Our tour bus took us to the six monasteries still in operation and still occupied by monks and nuns in two of them.  We crossed bridges to access the monasteries but in the times the monks still occupied them, they were built to seek refuge from the violence of war in the surrounding areas.  For this reason they used to hoist the monks up in rope nets to the top.  When the monks were asked when they decided to replace the ropes their reply was "when the Lord lets it break".  The pictures really do not give credit to the amazing sight these rock formations and monasteries are to see.  We also took a tour of a cave (A part of a series of caves called the Theopetra caves) that had been occupied and utilized continuously by ancient settlers for more than one hundred and thirty thousand years.  After our tour we did some souvenir shopping and ate at a lovely restaurant called Restaurant Meteora which had some very tasty Greek dishes.  After our meal we headed over to the train station to catch our flight out of Athens back home.

          I think the pure diversity of the trip in Greece made me fall in love with the country right away.  It is another place in the world with rich ancient history which I love and yet I enjoyed relaxing on Mykonos just as much.  Seeing a place like Meteora makes me realize how much I still have to learn about the world and its geography.  The language barrier is a challenge but the rewards of getting through this challenge is worth it.  Greece is a place I would love to revisit again as many other regions are waiting to be explored.