Greece

 

After I arrived in Greece foolish behavior and interesting events became rare. My web pages on Greece, Italy, France, Belgium and the Netherlands will mostly consist of the "I saw this place and took these pictures" sort of thing. I was now traveling places where the tourist trail was a rut, the costs were much higher, and everything and everyone much more conventional. Not that I have anything against conventional people; I just seem to socialize better with people who deviate a little from the norm. That leads to better stories. I still found the traveling interesting, but more in an academic way. Fortunately academically interesting pictures can still be beautiful.

Samos

I took a bus from Selcuk to Kusadasi, on the Aegean coast, spent the night, then caught the morning ferry to the Greek island of Samos on Sunday, 26 November. It was a small ferry and the weather was moderately rough. I was told the winds were force seven or eight, and the limit for the ferry was nine. I don't know what the numbers mean, but for most of the ninety minute trip to Samos the boat had to travel broadside to the waves and it pitched and rolled a lot. The kind of rolling where you have to hang on to something on deck or you go overboard. I didn't go below deck because I had that kind of queasiness going where you don't get sick but wish you would. Things smoothed out a lot after we got downwind of Samos. I took my only good picture of Samos from the ferry.

It started raining before I left the ferry and for the rest of the day and night into the next day the weather varied between light drizzles and heavy downpours. There is a reason why nobody goes to the Greek islands this time of year. When the rain and mist lifted enough to see I could tell the island was beautiful. I'm sure Samos and the other Greek islands would be wonderful during sunny weather. However the weather was far from sunny, so I got the overnight ferry to Piraeus the next day. Piraeus is the port just outside of Athens.

 

Athens

I only made one stop in Greece outside of Athens, and always knew it would be Delphi. I know I could have spent months touring Greece's islands, beaches and historic sites, but with limited time I went for the location of the most famous oracle of the ancient world.

Delphi

Samos, Athens and Delphi were my only stops in Greece. I would like to go back, spending as little time as possible in Athens and as much time as I can in the country and on the islands. I've seen lots of ancient ruins; I'd like to enjoy the natural features next time.

From Greece I headed to Italy.

Intro --- Germany --- Poland --- Lithuania --- Russia --- Estonia --- Latvia --- Czech Republic --- Austria --- Slovakia --- Hungary --- Romania --- Bulgaria --- Turkey --- Greece --- Italy --- France --- Belgium --- Netherlands---End