Day 258 - 9 Mar '24 - Tirana to Saranda. It was a 7:30am alarm for today, to get a taxi across town to the regional north/south bus station.
On the way to the taxi, we walked past some intriguingly painted buildings. A previous mayor had asked the residents of the city to paint their buildings in multiple colours, in an attempt to throw off the shackles of communism.
When we got to the bus station, I think the only way to describe it was 'organised chaos', with more emphasis on the 'chaos' than the 'organised'.
There must have been around 50 minibuses and coaches, moving around with the drivers' hands stuck to the horn. Our taxi driver took us right into the middle of the maelstrom, and some bus drivers kindly pointed us in the direction of the ticket booth, which was literally a man at a desk in an mdf cupboard.
He helpfully spoke English, and even got someone to lead us to the correct 'platform', otherwise known as a parking spot. Our bags were loaded, and half an hour later we were on our way.
It was a very cramped minibus. Barely enough space for my knees, and shoulder to shoulder with Alex. I felt sorry for grown men having to sit beside each other, as the only way they could successfully do it was by sitting at an angle.
We stopped halfway at a toilet and cafe, which gave us all a chance to stretch our legs in the rain that has started shortly after our journey began.
"I've lost my sunglasses!" Dan said as he came up to me.
"What?!"
"They must have fallen out of my pocket in the taxi."
"Oh no! That's dreadful! I'm sorry."
"Yep. Brand spankers."
"I know."
He'd only had them for two months, and had barely had the chance to use them over that time. Brand new $350NZ Oakleys. Luckily he still had his old ones, with a scratched lens and missing nose piece.
The rain continued for the rest of our trip, only stopping once we had climbed up and over a huge mountain range. The highway looked brand new, and the drop off the side was not a small one. I'm sure the view would have been incredible, but it was shrouded in clouds.
The bus 'station' in Saranda was merely a pullover bay in front of a shop, where almost everyone got off. We got our rucksacks out the boot, and discovered they were all wet to varying degrees. Dan's hip straps and back were soaked, Alex's and my hip straps were wet, and the bottom of Abi's was a bit damp.
"Why's everything so wet?" Alex complained.
"It would seem the seal of the luggage compartment was not very good," I guessed.
"I thought that might happen," Dan said, "as it was raining a lot and we went down the hill."
"I imagine their cardboard boxes will be pretty wet too!"
Cinching wet straps (not entirely pleasant), we made our way to our apartment with extremely vague directions like "near a hotel", where we found the door unlocked and nobody there to meet us. We were a little later than we'd said, but the lady came back after half-an-hour to collect the payment.
Let the fun of food finding begin!
The first market didn't have anything gluten free, and had limited supplies of anything else, although they did had a disproportionate amount of laundry detergent.
The second market didn't have anything gluten free, but there was tuna and tinned vegetables, which nobody wanted.
The third market had some gluten free cereal and spaghetti. I only bought the cereal, as nobody felt like having pasta...again.
We walked along the waterfront, past all the places that were closed for the season, until we came across one that was open. And they had gluten free options!
"We're eating here."
For €55, Dan had deep fried prawns and chips, I had a vegetable risotto (heavy on the corn), Alex had prawn linguine, and Abi had pan-fried-for-three-weeks chicken fillet and chips, plus we all had a drink.
Yummy!
Back at the apartment, we admired the view of the lights on the water, and even watched a short fireworks display at 8pm. We cranked the air conditioning to 31°C because it was bizarrely freezing cold inside and 23°C was blowing out cold air, watched Captain America, and went to bed.
Day 259 - 10 Mar '24 - Saranda to Corfu. Up at 7:30am again, as we had to be at the port for 9am to catch the high-speed ferry to Corfu. It was only a half-hour trip to one of the largest Greek islands, and we were back in the EU again.
Our host met us at the apartment and kindly let us drop our bags off, before escorting us to a traditional Greek restaurant for us to get some lunch. It was the second Sunday of Carnival, and lots of places were closed. In his words, we would have been lost trying to find somewhere to eat!
On the way to the restaurant we came across a parade of men and women dressed up in ball gowns and dress coats, all wearing elaborate masks of Venetian styling. So many beautiful costumes and incredible masks. I was absolutely thrilled, as we were unable to make it to the Venice Mask Festival. We saw them again round the corner from the restaurant, as they made their way down the streets.
When we got in the restaurant, Abigail was nothing short of an embarrassment. The man behind the counter showed us which items were gluten free (chicken and potatoes, stuffed tomatoes, a meat dish, mixed vegetables, a green bean dish), then stood politely while Little Miss Tantrum refused every option, complained about not being able to eat other stuff, and was told by Dan to leave the shop.
I had a delicious moussaka, Dan had sofrito, and Alex had pastitsio. I ordered Abi the stuffed tomato (which was yum), and Dan went and got her from outside.
"We have ordered this for you," I said with a glare. "You are being very rude, and an embarrassment."
"Well, I don't WANT this!"
"I'm telling you this now, I'm not going to have this anymore. If you don't eat it, there's nothing else until dinner. I"m not ordering you anything else, and I'm not getting it to take away. We will eat it instead, it's yummy, I've tasted it."
We were almost finished before she eventually deigned to try a mouthful. She then happily ate the whole thing as she agreed it was yummy.
"And I'll tell you another thing, you'll be apologising to the man for your behaviour."
"WHAT?!"
"You can say you're sorry for your behaviour and then say the food was really yummy," agreed Dan.
Abi went up to the man while Dan paid his bill, and he graciously accepted the apology with his hand on his heart, then gave her a big smile. Once outside, we again told her about the cuisine in this region, with meat and veges being the staple.
"And think about it Abi," Dan added, " when they only have meat and veges, then the sauces will be delicious. It was a busy place with lots of locals, so they have to do a good job, otherwise they wouldn't have a business!"
We walked back to the apartment to properly check-in, have a look at the apartment supplies, and get a quick drink. Our balcony had a gorgeous view over turquoise waters, with Vido Islet in the foreground, and the rest of Corfu in the background.
While on the balcony, I could hear lots of loud music and whistles; there was a party going on and we were missing it!
"Come on," I cried, "let's go back into town and join in the fun!"
"But you said we were going to relax in Corfu," Abigail cried.
"Yeah," agreed Alex.
"Relaxing doesn't mean sitting on the couch on a sunny day!"
"Your mum's definition of relaxing means only walking 3km instead of 7km," Dan helpfully added.
"Great! Get your shoes back on, we're going out!"
We followed the music, with the sound getting louder with every step. There were multiple banks of speakers set up along a road, some still getting plugged in. As we neared Spianda Square, we could see a group of people in a parade, wearing matching outfits, and dancing to the rythymn of Boney M.
We joined the edge of the pedestrians, and watched group after group of young children from community groups and dancing schools, all dressed in different themes. They were wonderful to see! Every group was really colourful, and they would pause every so often to go through a stationary routine before moving on.
The parade lasted an hour-and-a-half, with whistles, horns, confetti, and streamers everywhere! Everyone had big smiles, all the chilredn were in fancy dress, and the cafes and restaurants that lined Liston and beyond were full to the brim. Such a patry atmosphere, it made us wonder what Mardis Gras in New Orleans and Carnival in Rio de Janeiro must be like!
We went to the only supermarket that was open and were blown away by the massive selection of gluten free food available; other than all the usual breads, there were cakes, biscuits, spring rolls, pies of many different flavours, pizzas, fish fingers, chicken fingers, pasta, pastry, crackers, waffles... Having eked out our meagre supply for the last few days, Abi (and I) were thrilled with the choices available.
Pizza it was! And some wine.
Followed by The Avengers.
A wonderful first day in Corfu!
Day 260 - 11 Mar '24 - Corfu. Dan and I had a very early wake-up at 1:50am, when the smoke alarm above our bed went off.
"Wha...?" as I fumbled for the light switch.
"It's the smoke alarm," Dan said as he opened the door to check if the apartment was on fire.
The hush button didn't work; I tried to take the cover off but the whole thing came out the ceiling. Dan took the battery out, and everything was silent again. There was no smoke, no smell of burning, and the kids were both still sound asleep.
"Must have just been a flat battery," Dan reckoned, as no other smoke alarm was going.
It took me another hour to get back to sleep, but when we next woke up, it was almost 9am. We had lost an hour when we came to Greece, and the shutters on all the doors and windows had done a marvellous job at blocking out light and noise.
The weather report had forecast high winds, and severe thunderstorms and severe rain, at either 9am or 3pm. Not quite the idyllic weather we were hoping for! It didn't come in the morning, although we could see it over the islet and in the hills, so we took the opportunity to visit the Old Fortress.
This fortress dated back to the 6th century, and had seen many changes and alterations since. The original inhabitants of ancient Corcyra had sought refuge in the natural fortifications following attacks from the Ostrogoths, and from the 14th to the 18th century, it was ruled over by the Venetians. British occupation from 1814-1864 saw the building of military barracks, a hospital and the Church of Saint George.
Today it was blowing so strongly, we were struggling at times to walk in a straight line, either horizontally or vertically! But it was worth it, as the top of the fortress gave us fantastic views over all of Corfu town.
We walked around the grounds for a while, and the kids had loads of fun upturning their jackets and using them like sails. It was hilarious watching Abi trying to make any forward motion, and she was almost blown over a few times!
After the fortress, we walked back through Spianada Square, past Liston (which looked desolate compared with yesterday's hustle and bustle), and went to a bakery our host had said had gluten free items. He was unfortunately mistaken, so we went back to the supermarket to get Abi a treat (and dinner supplies, of course, and another bottle of wine, because I could), then went to another bakery for the rest of us.
We went back to our apartment to eat, and I did some laundry. The washing line was on the other side of the balcony railing, which was a bit daunting at first. I sure didn't want to drop either the clothes or the pegs from three storeys up! It didn't get to hang outside for long though, as the rain that was forecast eventually arrived.
And that was us for the rest of the day, relaxing on the couch after all! Cue Iron Man 3.
Day 261 - 12 Mar '24 - Corfu. The day started sunny, so I hung out the washing, but then there were a few thunder rolls, so I brought it back in. It cleared, so the washing went back out, then it rained, so it came in again. After a few more minutes, the sun was back out.
"Should I hang it out for a third time?" I asked Dan, who was looking at the clouds.
"Ha ha ha, yeah, why not?"
Once it was back on the washing line, we went for a walk in a different direction, and to keep the kids entertained we did a Pokemon Go route. It took us to the new fortress, and from there we ended up back in the old town. It really is a small place!
We bought some pastries and dinner supplies, and went back to the apartment briefly to cook Abi some mini gluten free calzones, then took our lunch to the waterfront.
It was a gorgeous afternoon; sunny skies and hardly any wind. We watched a couple of people swimming in the sea (even though the water was only 15.6°C). It was super flat and really clear, and clearly a popular swimming spot as there were lots of ladders into the water and seats around the edge. In summer, the sea there can reach 26°C!
We played on the rocks for a while, looking for wildlife both in the sea and in the puddles caused by the rain. It was nice to be able to just stop for a while.
Dan and I had both been watching the sky, and there were a lot of puffy white clouds building up, which meant more bad weather was on the way. There were some large drops of rain on our way back to the apartment, but fortunately it was just a passing shower. More importantly, the washing was still dry!
We had enough time to watch Thor 2 before dinner, and afterwards I took the opportunity to have a whole tank of hot water to myself and washed my hair. It's been a new experience having to push a button in the fuse box to get hot water, and this apartment has had the smallest cylinder yet, so showers have been even shorter than before.
Day 262 - 13 Mar '24 - Corfu to Athens. We didn't have to check out of our apartment until midday, which meant we got a relaxing morning and one last chance to enjoy the sunny view from our balcony.
We got a taxi to the airport, where we had to wait until 3:45pm before taking off. Not surprisingly, three hours takes a looooong time to pass when all the cafes and shops in the airport are closed because it's not peak season.
"Hey, look at that, we get to take a bus today after all," Dan said, as he saw the shuttle bus on the tarmac.
It was a small regional plane, two-by-two seats, and one propeller on the wing. Still, we were served a cup of juice and a biscuit, which was unexpected.
Athens airport was much busier than Corfu, and once we'd collected our bags, we made our way to the train station next door. Dan, Alex, and I bought sausage roll each, and Abi had our last tin of tuna salad.
"I don't want this," she complained.
"Well, that's all there is sorry. Eat your dinner please."
"Is this dinner?!" she asked, horrified.
"Yes. There's that or nothing."
"But Alex didn't have to eat tuna!"
"Alex and I had a tuna salad for lunch, and daddy had a banana. You had pasta back at the apartment. So now, we're having something different, and you're getting tuna."
We waited just under an hour for the regional train, which got busier each station, and once we got off at the central terminal, walked a few minutes to our apartment.
By the time we got there it was almost 7:30pm; we did a quick visit to a convenience store to buy some milk and juice, and once back at the apartment put the kids to bed. Hopefully we all get a good sleep tonight, ready to start our visit of one of the places I've wanted to see since doing classical studies at high school!
Day 263 - 14 Mar '24 - Athens. It was a gorgeous, sunny day when I opened the shutters just after 8:30am, and already 13 C. I ate my breakfast out on our fifth floor balcony, and listened to the bustle of the street below and a couple of parakeets arguing in the tree next to us. Wonderful!
Today we were off to explore the first of many ancient sites - the Acropolis and the Parthenon. I'd bought a five-day pass to seven historical sites, and we had our entry slot for the Acropolis booked for 11am. We walked to the nearby subway station and bought another five-day pass for their public transport; the best deal yet, at just 8.20 each!
When we arrived, there were queues of people in line to buy tickets, as well as multiple school groups and cruise excursions waiting to be let in the gate. I could see why many guidebooks said to go early, and I was thankful we weren't in peak season, as it must be insane!
Once through the gate, we walked past a lot of excavated ruins of foundations, and also past the original retaining walls (now supported by modern blocks as well). The size of the walls of the South Slope were amazing - sheer brick walls with glimpses of the Parthenon on the top.
We saw the theatre of Dionysus, with 'first class' armchairs right at the front, and simple marble benches arranged behind it. We could also see where the benches used to once be, as well as the depressions in the soil of what were once the walkways.
Further on, there was a partially reconstructed theatre, this one called the Herodes Atticus theatre, named after the man who donated the construction in honour of his wife. It was built about 161 AD, and is still used as a classical theatre today (hence the reconstructed marble seating done in the 1960s).
We carried on up the path and came to a choke point at the west gate, to walk through the Propylaea to get to the top. This had been originally constructed around 600BC, destroyed, rebuilt around 500BC, destroyed again, and rebuilt again around 435BC.
Once through the gate, we could see the Parthenon up close. As well as everybody else!
The Parthenon, a temple dedicated by Athenians to the patron of their city, the goddess Athena Parthenos, was built around 440BC. As derelict as it was, it was amazingly impressive to be there, standing in front of something that was still standing itself after 2500 years!
There was a fair amount of restoration work going on, with a crane lifting huge pieces of stone, and scaffolding everywhere. This restoration work was in part undoing previous restoration work, conducted using methods known at the time and since improved upon. Stacks of blocks were all around the place, each one catalogued until it could be replaced into its original position; we saw one piece numbered 23713, so it was a massive undertaking! We also found the way the process itself impressive; new stone had been carved to provide support for remaining elements, but not to replace missing pieces or make it what it once was.
The Erectheion was another beautiful building, that used statues of Karyatides instead of columns to hold up the roof. The statues we could see were replicas, as the real ones had been moved to the Acropolis Museum for preservation reasons.
From the top of the Acropolis, we had an incredible view over Athens. It was a very densely populated city, interspersed with a number of other large, rocky outcrops. One, Lycabettus Hill, had a church on top of it, another, the Philopapou Monument.
Unfortunately, the North Slope of the Acropolis was closed for restoration purposes, but we could still climb a rocky hill to get a view of it. The hill was treacherously slippery, with all the rocks polished smooth by thousands of people climbing over it for eons.
We left the Acropolis and walked to a nearby restaurant that had gluten free traditional Greek food! Abi was thrilled to be able to have some moussaka (which I had as well), and Dan and Alex both enjoyed their deconstructed gyros. Their pita bread and tzatziki were absolutely delicious, and I happily helped them finish their meals.
At the end of the meal, the waiter brought out some free dessert - a slice of brownie for everyone. When I found out it had nuts in it, he came back with a digestif for Dan and I, which was a glass of Mastixa each. It was an interesting flavour, kind of like a mild herbal toothpaste, and very, very tasty! Both Dan and I agreed it would be a yummy replacement to dessert at it was very light and still sweet, and I will definitely be buying a bottle when we get back to New Zealand.
After lunch we went to the Acropolis Museum, which housed only artefacts removed from the Acropolis. So many statues, and relics, and frieze panels! There were even some that still had their original paint, which was fantastic to see. We could only imagine how colourful the Parthenon must have been when it was built.
The top floor of the museum had been built as a replica of the Parthenon itself, with the frieze panels from the Parthenon installed around an inner 'temple' and metal supporting columns representing the columns of the real temple. Once again, missing pieces had been cleverly replaced by some talented sculptors, and it gave an excellent idea to the size of the temple.
Outside the museum, and directly underneath it, we could see a massive excavation of a neighbourhood that once stood there. Some of the buildings' foundations visible were storage towers, bath houses, and public latrines (men and women had different hours).
After this, we headed back to the apartment for a quick toilet break, before going to some shops to find something for dinner. None of us were particularly hungry following our large lunch, so we were just looking for something light.
Nothing was gluten free. That's not strictly true. Nothing that fitted what we were after was gluten free, but there weren't any specific gluten free items to be found. No bread, no pasta, no crackers, no biscuits. After the third shop, we gave up and went home to watch Captain America 2.
"It's not her fault," we kept saying to each other.
There were lots of places we could eat out at, but trying to keep the budget down meant cooking at home. A variable number of cooking supplies made that harder. Gluten free made it even more so. Having any kind of variety made it almost impossible.
For instance, the kitchen of the place we were in now, had a spatula and a whisk, an oven with no oven trays, two large saucepans, and a six inch frying pan. The place we were at before had one small saucepan, a soup ladle and a spatula, and a colander. Rarely oils, salt, pepper, tin foil etc..
I challenge Jamie Oliver to come up with meals under those conditions!
Day 264 - 15 Mar '24 - Athens, day two. Another beautiful day when we got out of bed, so I decided to put my pins on display and wear shorts again! It was going to be a high of 18 C, and with my cousin's wedding in Mallorca coming up, I reckoned I'd have just enough time to get a bit of colour into my white, winter legs.
We got on the subway and headed back towards the Acropolis, to start our day at the Roman Agora. This was effectively the flow-on area from when the ancient Agora ran out of space. It was all ruins, but there was lots still to see in the building foundations, bases of columns that formed the stoa, as well as the tower that housed a monument.
After the Roman Agora, we went to Hadrian's Library, built in 132AD. This ground also had the remnants of a tetraconch church built in the 5th century, which still had colourful mosaic floor tiles visible. The space for the library was quite large, and could hold over 10,000 papyrus scrolls. It had been written that there were 100 columns of marble surrounding the building, and was the greatest library in Athens.
We next went to the Ancient Agora, a massive area of land beneath the Acropolis that was once the centre of commerce and democracy, where orators would speak or musicians perform or philosophers converse. A replica stoa had been built at one end, specifically to be the museum of artefacts found during excavations. And there were a lot of excavation sites!
We walked up the hill to the Temple of Hephaistos, which looked to be in better condition than the Parthenon, although it had no doors and the statues that were one inside were long gone. Interestingly, this temple had, in recent times, also been used as a church and a museum!
We walked around the grounds of the Agora, marvelling at the size of the place, and wondering what it must have looked like in its heyday.
"What really amazes me," I said, "was how the Greeks, and Romans, and Egyptians had so vastly advanced societies, and peoples from other places of the world like the Americas and Polynesia did not. What was so different, that here they had created a written language, had books, created democracy, built massive temples, and all 700BC and on, yet other people on the planet didn't even have pictograms?!"
It really does baffle me.
We then went to the musuem where we saw quite a few interesting artefacts. One was a large clay urn, used to bury children (adults were cremated, children were inhumated). The child would be put in the urn with a few special bowls, and a stone slab put on top to seal it. The one on display still had the skull and some bones inside it.
Another were two examples of the democratic process. Ostracism was a public vote of a quora of 6000, where everyone would write the name of the person they most wanted gone, onto a shard of pottery. The names were counted, and the person with the most votes was exiled from the city for 10 years!
The second example was their method of jury selection. A large stone slab was etched with many slots, that the eligible jurors would then insert a bronze strip with their name on it. Once it was filled, a bunch of white and black bronze balls would be poured down a tube on one side. The rows where the white balls lined up against, were the jurors - fantastic!
By this stage it was just past 1pm, and Abi had been complaining of being hungry for the last hour. We went to Hard Rock Cafe as they had gluten free burgers, but we weren't going to spend 15 on one! So she had a packet of crisps and lemonade, while we went to a bakery and had some pastries.
After lunch, we went to the Kerameikos, an area that had potters (where the English word ceramic comes from), a large burial ground that was started around 3000BC, city gates and walls, and a large public building called the Pompeion (where nobility would eat sacrificial meats during the Panathenaic Festival).
There were some amazing carved funerary monuments from before the 4th century, but from 317BC onwards, people were only allowed to have small columns or square marble blocks.
Some of the monuments had been moved inside the museum for preservation, with replicas at the burial sites. We were rushed through the museum, even getting the lights turned off while we were inside, despite having 15 minutes until closing time.
A really fun thing we'd found today, was all the wild tortoises everywhere! We saw loads of them, at both Agora's, Hadrian's Library, and also at the Kerameikos.
It was 3pm when we left, and we decided that was enough for today, and headed back to the apartment via a proper supermarket. There we found gluten free food - YAY! But dinner was once again going to be pasta with tomato sauce, and a salad.
"Did you get feta, mummy?" Alex complained. "I don't want to eat feta!"
"Yes, I got feta, and did I say you had to eat any of it?"
After dinner, we watched Guardians of the Galaxy. We're chomping through the movies, which is great, because our one month pass to Disney+ only has two weeks' left!
Tomorrow, more of Athens' antiquities.
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