Oh the Innefficiencies!

Here is our How to get out of Greece free checklist:

1)  Went to the Harbor Master at Gauvia Marina in Corfu.  They were able to check us INTO Corfu but not OUT of Greece.  Go to the Port Authority they said.

2)  Took a taxi from the marina to the Port Authority near old town…cost 15 Euro.  The taxi takes us to a building but says he will wait to see if that is the right place…turns out it is NOT and we have to go clear across port to Passport Control.  Got back into the taxi who takes us to Passport Control.

3)  Taxi leaves.  Doors to building are locked.  We find a back door open and someone to direct us to the right office.  They stamped our Passports with the EXIT stamp.  They have an issue with John not having an entry stamp (a whole nother story…later) but turns out OK after much discussion.  We tell him we are leaving tomorrow and he tells us he is stamping us out today and we should not leave the boat…yeah right!

4)  Left Passport Control, walked back across port to Customs.  Go through Security.  He cannot help us until we have the right “stamp” from Port Authority in our Transit Log (this is a document that we had to have stamped at every port we visited in Greece that had a Coast Guard or Harbor Police.  We also had to pay each time)

5)  Off accross Port again to Port Authority where much stamping and discussing is done amongst the Greek co-workers.  She tells us we are missing some stamp but will let us proceed…Thank You!

6)  Again, back through Security and into the Customs to hand them our Transit Log.   OK, you are finished.  Goodbye!

7)  Want to tour Old Town so we wait for the local bus.  We wait, and wait, and wait.  I go across busy street and ask for the schedule.  It comes every 20 minutes they say.  We have already waited over an hour.  There is a woman and her 4 year old, Sophia, who we get to know very well.  They even sing Happy Birthday to me.  Finally, we go find a taxi, tour town, find the bus back to the Marina and all ends Happily Ever After…I guess

8)  Believe me, there were many moments today that we considered just bagging the whole thing and leaving the country.  I asked, what could they do to us?  We don’t have the answer to that and we always go through hoops to do the “RIGHT” thing…which we definitely did today!

Corfu at last…really last.

We upped the anchor again bright and early and headed towards Levka and then we would make the decision to stay or go further.  Levka looks like a beautiful town although the towns garbage heap is right along the water way and the stench and rubbage is not pretty.

 

After you get through Levka there is a bridge that opens up on the hour so John had to put the pedal to the metal to make it ON THE HOUR and we did…barely.

On the way to the bridge you must go through the guauntlet that reminded us of the ICW in the states where you follow the red and green buoys (except on opposite sides here in Europe) like you are on a giant Hot Wheels track.  Some of the buoys need a lot of work

After leaving the bridge, there is a beautiful lighthouse and fortified wall.  Can’t find much information about it but it is beautiful.

The waves and wind seemed doable so ON to Corfu.  This is the last Greek Island we will visit so tomorrow is Check Out of Greece day.

Where will we go today?

We left Itea Dock at 6am to get as far West and then North as we could in a day.  As we left the Gulf of Corinth into the Gulf of Patras, we had to go under a suspension bridge.  It kind of reminded me of the one in Charleston, South Carolina.

 

We ended up getting to the Ionian sea and as far as Port Leone.  We were hoping to have the whole place to ourselves but as we turned the corner…there were the ten or so other “gunk-holers” as neighbors.  It was a bit blustery and most of the other boats also had a stern line to shore to keep them from rotating on anchor.  As we wanted to leave again VERY EARLY, we decided to just anchor as close to shore but as far away from other boats as possible.  It worked for us.  This town has been deserted since a 1953 earthquake that ruptured their water line.  I guess they just didn’t want to pay to repair it and found housing elsewhere.  There is a church that is kept up and cleaned weekly but nothing other than shells of previous homes.

Funny Things

Since I try to give you the facts in my blog sometimes there are things that are left out, such as:

Lizard at Delos.  I never knew they had holes in their heads.

Anyone for MANIPULATION…and then you might need REHABILITATION to recover from the manipulation…hmmm

So Art Deco…Loved It!  This was on a wall in Little Venice, Mykonos

How long has this guy been out fishing????

The Center of the World

In the museum we saw a 4th century BC marble egg, a pedestal and the cake topper (Dedicated around 330 BC)with three “Dancing Girls” (this was the name of it, I am not making this up).  Later it was believed that they were the three daughters of the King of Athens.  This whole structure was called the Omphalos and was the symbol that Delphi was the center of the world.  The myth goes that Zeus released two Eagles…one to the West and one to the East.  The Eagles started at the same time, flew the same speed and met in the middle…THE CENTER OF THE WORLD.  This is where Zeus dropped a rock and so the Omphalos was built to mark the spot.

As we were exploring the actual Sanctuary in 100 degree heat, we found the base where the Omphalos would have been and here we are…AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD!!!

Another place we really enjoyed was the stadium.  It was a half hour climb UPHILL in the heat but worth the view:  Check out the starting blocks too.

 

Here is what the Temple of Apollo looked like in its hay day and what it looks like today.  What a view from above!

So not only is this the Sanctuary of Apollo but it is also the home to the famous Oracle.  I did not find any information about the Oracle on our whole tour today.  I am not sure why that is but I will honor the code and keep it hush, hush…

Delphi…The Temple to Apollo

We caught the 10:30am bus which cost us each 1.90 Euro (about $3.00 for a one way ticket) to Delphi.  It is about a half hour ride into the town of Delphi and then a bit of a hike uphill to the Museum and the Sanctuary of Apollo since it sits on a slope of Mt. Parnassus (a ski area in the Winter months).

We started in the museum.  Here are a couple of the highlights:

These are statues of twins from Argos, Cleobis and Biton.  The story goes that their mother had to get to the Festival of Hera very soon but the oxen needed to carry her wagon were still in the fields.  The sons harnessed themselves to the wagon and carried their mother quite a distance to the Temple.  She was so thankful that she prayed to the Goddess to give her boys whatever was best…they went to sleep that night after the feast and never woke up (Be careful what you ask for).  The people of Argos honored them by making these statues at Delphi

This is a statue of Antinous who was a close companion to Emperor Hadrian.  This boy drowned in the Nile and Hadrian then told the people to worship him as a demi-God.  His statue was very well preserved.  There are holes in his hair where a bronze wreath of laurel leaves would have been attached to his head.  Created between 117-138AD

The star of the museum is the 5th century BC Charioteer:

OMG…1,2,3

OMG #1…Our day started at 3:00am by getting up to see our Guests off and make sure their taxi showed up.  Anyone who knows me knows that I do not do 3am very well but it was important enough for me to get up.  I just want to let James, Jeanne, Nykii, and Tessa know how much we enjoyed their visit!  I will miss the giggling girls and the quiet lip-syncing while at sail the most…made me smile a lot!

OMG#2…After catching a few more ZZZZZZ’s, we got up again at 6am as we start heading for Western Greece and the Ionian Sea.  We sailed five hours through a major commercial traffic lane from Athens to the Corinth Canal.  On our way we saw this submarine:

  

We tied up along the canal wall, paid our 305 Euros which is about $450 for the 3.2 mile canal short-cut.  The canal was started by a French Company but finished by the Greeks in 1893.  There is one railroad and two auto bridges crossing above the 250 foot high limestone walls…and yes, we were being followed by a huge cruise ship.  It was one of those WOW moments for sure!

On your way out on the West side of the canal is a hydraulic auto bridge that goes underwater when boat traffic is coming through:

  Completely underwater Coming UpAll the way up now!

OMG #3…Our schedule called for us to do an overnighter into Lefkas.  The Gods had another thing in mind for us.  About an hour after leaving the canal, the waves and wind grew to Gale Force…AGAIN…and straight on our nose, of course.  So after we had a nice clean boat when we left Athens this morning, we were again covered in a thick layer of Salt.  The waves were crashing at the dodger which made us zip up the entire enclosure, creating a sauna affect.  The crew (ME) was not feeling well at all and will drink that whole bottle of Ouzo if that’s what it takes for the Gods to STOP THIS!!!!

We finally surrendered and headed into Itea on the Gulf of Corinth.  We are tied up along the town wall.  The roads here are all stained red from the lorries carrying red haemetite iron ore which is mined here. 

The mountains here are covered with olive trees and a few pines which makes for a beautiful view. 

Tomorrow it looks like we will try to make it to Delphi if we find the right bus :)

Kea, Greece

We are headed for Athens so our guests can catch their plane but stopped in Limin Ayios Nikolaou on Kea for one last night anchored out.  It was a peaceful anchorage with a beautiful lit up church up on the hill. 

Success in the Hunt for Tofu!!!!!

When we first arrived on the boat in Athens and went to the Carrefour (the food store) there was no tofu to be found anywhere. Tessa and I are both vegetarian so it’s a common staple of our diet. We were very disappointed and were looking at every store we went to. Apparently there are no vegetarians in Greece :p So anyways we had almost given up our search, but today we had lunch at a Thai/Chinese place on Mykonos. Guess what they had… TOFU!!!!!!!! Not only did we get to eat it for lunch, but we were able to snag a box from the chef for the boat…only 8 Euros… so happy :D!

-Posted from a very happy Nykii and Tessa  

Beach Time in Mykonos

Mykonos as it turns out is a very busy island, no matter day or night. Every morning we wake up to a new cruise ship docked near by where a different one had been just the night before. On the 26th we had our first full day on the island and our first plan was to just cruise around the island in the car we had rented. This, however, did not turn out like we thought because we found a beautiful beach by a restaurant where we ended up spending the whole day. Everyone got a good tan and then we returned to the boat.

Today (the 27th) was the day we really got to walk around town.  We saw the famous windmills and “Little Venice”, the oldest area of the Chora (main city)

 

We had heard that there was a pelican on Mykonos named Pete. We didn’t think we would ever see him but today we got several pictures of him when he was walking around town.

 

For lunch we decided to go to the Thai/Chinese place we had passed yesterday. (This was the delicious place with the tofu). Then after lunch we drove to another beach and spent some time there playing beach volleyball and relaxing before we had to return the rental car on our last night on Mykonos.

-Nykii and Tessa (: