Greece and all that

For about a week I was in Greece. I borrowed Lakshmi's camera, took Devang's backpack and a little bag packed with clothes, made sure all the documents were in order and off I went to Crete. I was travelling alone, friends having bought tickets before I decided to go.

I was flying Alitalia. I am not complaining; no not after the two-day long train journeys in the heat of the summer in second class from Bombay to Trivandrum. But it's worth a mention though: as the plane took off the lights went off and on, flickered hestitatingly and no one seemed to care; the outer pane of the window next to me had some serious looking cracks, and I could hear it rattle; so I was waiting for the headphones, so that the rattling wouldn't trouble me too much, and they brought me a stethoscope which I could plug into a tiny hole playing the music!

I was by the window, as I said, and in the morning (which came upon us fast and early) saw the sun rising above the wings. It was beautiful!

From Rome it is a short flight to Athens, and the plane was a small one too. At Athens I had arranged for a taxi to wait for me, which took me to the port at Piraeus. It was quite expensive, and one my way back I had that trip done for 1/16-th that price! Anyway, I reached the port well ahead of time, which was quite good considering that hours before the flight I was still calling up the airlines and rescheduling my itinerary, after the original flight turned out to be inordinately delayed.

Athens to me looked very much like some place in India as the taxi took me through outskirts of the city, and in some time I was at the port. Passengers can board the ferry much earlier, and I could get into my cabin and take a not-so-quick shower. Then I wandered around this huge ferry- I forgot it's name now, it's an Anek Lines ferry - and took a few experimental snaps through the window panes.

And then we sailed on, into the Mediterranian.. The breeze was strong in the top deck, and I found a lonely corner for myslef. I sat there for a long time, watching the ferries coming against us, and then the sea, and the sun, and then again the sea.

Early in the morning I reached the port of at Heraklion, Crete. And another taxi to the hotel. And the cheapest hotel that was offered to us turned out to be quite luxurious by my standards, and by Greek standards too I guess. And the breakfast there was quite good, much more luxurious than the GC ones, which by the way I think are very good. I had already paid for the lunches as part of the conference registration, but had to fend for myself for dinners. Now, before leaving for Crete my Greek friends commented that chicken might be the closest to vegetarian food I could get there. Thankfully things turned out much better. Let me not go into the details of my eating habits, but I'll just mention that salads and pizzas are always there for the vegetarian.

Just before leaving India we had bought a camera, and I had some opprotunities with it. But the novelty of taking photos was still there. I had with me two rolls of film. And the photos you find inserted here and there in this page are all from that. (In IE and Netscape 4.* you can hover your mouse pointer over the photos for a caption). Here are a few images just for the sake of it!

And here are a few showing me. Of course, I didn't take these ones.

So as you see I went to the Acropolis (the last two were taken there). That was on my way back. I figured out that my ferry reaches Piraeus at five in the morning, which is when the first train (metro) starts, and I could get off near the city centre, walk my way up the hill to Acropolis, which opens at eight in the morning, take a quick tour of the place and walk down to Syntagma, and take the express bus from there to the airport, to reach the airport in time for my flight at one. All this information was available online. In good detail for me to plan the whole thing accurately enough. And then I talked to a Greek friend too, who gave me some more helpful tips. Talking about online information I should mention my trip to the Greek consulate in NY city. One day I realized that it was high time I applied for the visa. And if I didn't go the next day, I'll have to wait till next week. So I come back to my room with a print out of what all I need to take with me. And sure enough, I can't find my passport-photos. After searching for a long time, I cycle down to CVS to see if I could take a photo and get it ready early in the morning next day, only to find that it was closed by then. So I come back to my office, and start looking for studios in New York. Yahoo! yellow pages turned out quite useful. I type in the address of the consulate and get many photo studios in the vicinity. None close-by seemed to have instant or one-hour photos. So I search near Penn Station, where I change trains. There is one just across the street from Penn Station, and what more he has a webpage, with rates and opening/closing hours and all that. That's where I finally went.

Let me get back to Acropolis. My detailed plans more or less worked out. Except that my bags seemed quite heavy as I tugged them up hill to the entrance to Acropolis, where they finally let me rest my load. Acropolis is a famous place, and if you are interested, rather than trying to tell you anything about it myself, I would just refer you to some place on the web. But nevertheless below I'll put a few pictures I took there, here

Well, that's all for now! But before I sign off, let me sigh and remark, "It has been one full year!" It was today one year back that I landed here. And today evening I am going to Berkeley to visit my brother who got there a week back. So now I should hurry back, pack my bags and get some sleep. Hope I wake up in time to catch the flight...