Where to start.
We left Sydney in a flood of tears. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Aparently there is a huge difference between sad tears, happy tears and I'll miss you tears. It's a mystery we mere males have no chance of understanding, and heaven help us if we try to fix the problem. You see, it isn't a problem, just a state of affairs. That's as far as I've got in 6 decades.
About 25 hours later we were dumped out the other end of the traveller processing system in a very chilly Athens. We spent an hour trying to buy a simple local sim card so we could sms the family and let them know we'd arrived safely. When it got to the point on the mandatory form where they wanted parents' names and dates of birth I spat the dummy, threw the toys out of the cot and we took a taxi to our hotel. The hotel wifi, Skype and Heytell served our purposes just fine.
Right now we're on the Island of Leros, about 200 miles from Athens. It's pretty and probably typical of a medium size Greek Island with friendly, helpful people whose english is only marginally better than our greek. A sense of humour goes a long way, particularly when you order a couple of greek dishes, and point to the word 'garlic' in another dish on the menu to make sure there is no misunderstanding that this is the ingredient that must not be in any of the food. Well we ended up with that dish too, also without garlic so that got that bit right. Two stuffed little piggies went rolling back to the train that evening!
What an assault on the sensed the last few days have been. We've seen the best and worst Greece has to offer. We've frozen to death as the only idiots on an open top double decker bus seeing the sights of Athens. Not only did we see protestors and the scars and burnt out buildings from the recent riots, but hopped off and climbed all over the Acropolis. Who can visit such grandure and not be awestruck by the sophistication and magnificence achieved so many thousands of years ago? Where did it all go?
We've had wonderful discussions with highly intellegent people here who have such a different perspective on what the current economic crisis is all about. Conspiracy theories abound!
And we've been pickpocketed on a train with the same level of efficiency as everything else around here. I can only assume he was a government employee, or trained by one.
They never got a thing! But it was a cheap lesson well learned for us. He lifted what he thought was a leather wallet from a buttoned down pocket, but it was a leather notebook I always carry. In his haste to dive through the train doors just before they closed he dropped it on my foot!
Can't get a damn thing right.
We caught the overnight ferry from Pireaus to Leros a few hours later, stopping at the island of Patmos to drop off a few passengers. The same island where John was imprisoned and wrote Revelations, his great, mind blowing, inspired prophetic 'fantasy'.
We got to Leros at 4:30am with nowhere to go. No open terminal for a warm bench and a coffee. It was about 3 degrees before counting the wind chill factor.
Fortunately there were a few taxis around and one took us to the marina where we found Cusar looking very sorry for herself.
He then dropped us off at a small, old but renovated hotel. Poor Sandy. I thought it was cute and romantic. She thought it was dodgy and we were bound to get our throats cut by the next hooker wanting the room for a client.
I'd checked the room and it was spotless so I made an executive decision and did a deal with the hotelier. For an extra 10 euro ($12) on the next nights rate he let us in right away. It was 5am and we slept until 9. In the light of day and the warmth of the welcome of the old couple running the place Sandy's opinion changed.
Both here and in Athens, the people have been so friendly and helpful.
The trip today to see Cusar was on foot. We are definitely going to get a whole lot healthier with our new lifestyle.
Imagine our state of mind, having travelled halfway round the world, when the marina manager told us he hadn't heard from the owner so couldn't give us permission to go on board! Again, thanks to the wonders of modern technology we hooked up to their wifi, rang the owner in Australia who had sent an email that hadn't arrived, and got permission to board. It could have been worse. He works on the mines where there is no reception but just happened to be back in Perth for the weekend.
Cusar has beautiful lines and seeing her confirmed that she does in fact have the perfect layout for a full time liveaboard yacht. Unfortunately she needs more work than we're prepared to take on at this stage, particularly outside. In 18 months she could look great, and with $100,000 thrown into the project. She would be worth every penny. If I was 50 or less and could take it on in an English speaking country I'd buy her in a flash.
And so the search continues.
We've got another day to kill in Leros before we can get a ferry back to Athens so we may take a walk up to an ancient castle in the centre of the island tomorrow. The bay below is beautiful with a few great cafes.
I'll do another post in the next couple of days... mainly photos of everything covered above. I didn't have the camera cord to hook up with me, in this warm friendly little tavern.
Until next time...
Vic