I'm Back!

I'm back from working for 2 weeks on the Eurodam, and ready, more than ever to get back on the bike. And it's wonderful to be back with Alix, whose Greek skills have improved dramatically since I left, and it's also great to be back in Greece.

We plan to get back on the bikes and head south on Tuesday.

Eurodam in Venice

What a change from bicycle touring in Greece (which I miss very much!)

I am working on the brand new Holland America Line ship, the Eurodam. Worth about $700M, this is a luxury liner. It is parked in the shipyard where it was built, Fincantieri, in Venice, Italy, while some last minute additions are made. Tomorrow we will set sail for Southampton, England, making one stop on the way in Malaga, Spain.

I am doing general labour on board, getting paid well (by my standards anyway) and putting in 11.5 hours a day. One this ship I am pulling cable, so far it's all been fibre optic cable. It's dirty itchy work (lots of fibre glass insulation) but it's not a bad way to make a good deal of money in only a few days. I get off in England on the 27th and fly back to Athens from Heathrow.

All of my expenses are taken care of, and the food that is served on board has been superb so far.

Unlike the other jobs I've had aboard ships over the last year, the contractors on board are a minority, there's not as much work to be done as in a dry-dock refit job. It's quite a different atmosphere.

I must say, I am really looking forward to the sea bound portion of the job That said, I am most looking forward to getting back to Alix and to Greece and to bicycle touring and camping and being outside under the Mediterranean blue sky all day long.

A short intermi$$ion

Sadly, and happily, we are taking a short break from our bicycle touring in Greece.

Happily because I'll be working on the new ship Eurodam helping with some last minute construction as it sails from Venice to Southampton, England. What an opportunity!

Sadly because we were both really, really enjoying Greece and the bicycle touring.

Happily because it's only until June 29th (that's when I'll be back on Greek soil) and I'll be making some good money to allow us to continue touring and not have to worry about finding work in Greece.

Sadly because I will really miss Alix and also Greece in general, a country that I have found a new love for.

Happily because Alix gets to spend a couple of weeks in a lovely apartment that we rented for an excellent price in a beautiful little village by the sea, south of Argos, south-west of Nafplio. The village is Xiropighado ("dry well"). This will hopefully help Alix to immerse herself in Greek and really learn some of the language. Mrs. Helen (Kiria Eleni) who owns the vacations apartments is a wonderful host and will most certainly inject many Greek words into Alix's vocabulary.

Our Church Sanctuaries

I'm a little behind in my blogging, I'll try to catch up, and add some pictures while I'm at it.

Our first night on the road, June 1st, we stayed inside a partially built factory. The Egyptian watchman hesitated when we asked if we could sleep under the olive trees across the way. They're not mine he said. He could see that it was getting late and we needed a place to stay. He called his co-worker, a kind faced Bangladeshi man. They chatted for a moment and finally let us in the compound and said we could sleep there. We looked around for the ideal spot and in the meantime, the two came back to us and told us we could stay inside an office in the partially built factory. A clean floor, and a bathroom and some wonderful foreign hospitality (they invited us to share their food, but we said we'd already eaten, and went to sleep). That was our first night of camping on the road.

The second night was under the roof of a seaside taverna.

From that night on, except for when we paid for a room in Nafplio we have been taking advantage of a wonderful Greek phenomenon. The countryside is literally dotted with little churches dedicated to this saint or that. You can go in and light a candle and say a prayer. You can also set up your tent beside it and take advantage of the structure for shelter. We've really been enjoying visiting all these little churches and sleeping at some of them. I was lucky enough to load my GPS with a very detailed map of Greece from Anavasi which actually shows where all these churches are located, so we know when one is coming up, but each one is different and a new surprise for us when we arrive

Goats and sheep and bells

We started cycling through endless orchards of olives and pistachios. Greek olive oil is some of the best in the world - next time you go to buy some olive oil, look for Greek, splurge a little and enjoy the richness of one of the diverse flavours available in Greek oils. Don't get me started on pistachios.

Later on we started seeing apricot orchards and grape vines in the wine region of Nemea. Then in the mountains the vegetation transformed to more pine trees, then fir tree (have you even had Greek fir honey? There is NONE better!). In some areas there were also innumerable bee hives in fields beside the road. Greek honey is some of the best in the world. It is certainly the best I have ever had.

What do you eat with honey when in Greece? Greek yoghurt of course. Again, some of the best in the world. I can even say it's better than what I make. The best stuff is called traditional style, comes in clay pots and is made with sheep's milk.

So what else did we see in the mountains? Lots and lots, and I do mean lots of sheep and goats. Some old shepherds looked like they had just stepped out of the last century... maybe even the one before that. Some were more modern in their approach but all had bells on their animals. And what a lovely sound in the hills, bells and birds chirping.

Oh, and...

... I forgot to mention...

* a long cucumber

* 1 large tomato

* 1 green pepper

* at least 7 kinds of tea that Alix is carrying...

* etc...

Food Inventory

Our food inventory leaving Nemea and heading into the mountains is quite impressive.

* 1 bottle of wine from the first of two wineries that we went to for wine tasting. This region is reportedly Greece's pride in wine production, and I, not being anything of a wine connosuer will not argue the point. It's good wine because I like it.

* 1 large loaf of bread, as well as a pair of "koolooris" - kind of a Greek sesame twist or bagel (but better!) that the kind Polish man at the bakery gave us.

* 1 filo cheese filled pastry

* 3 tins of ready food: Giant (or elephant) baked beans, yellow split pea mush cooked with onion and garlic (fava in Greek, but it's NOT fava beans), roasted eggplant.

* A tin and a bit of Quaker oatmeal (standard inventory)

* Two kinds of Cheese, about 1/2kg total

* 1 bitter Greek brand chocolate bar

* kefir in the making (also standard inventory)

* 5 bananas

* 250ml bottle of olive oil

* honey, delicious Greek fir honey. It's really, really good. Really.

* grape syrup

* other things that I can't remember right now, and lots of water.

Impressive, no?

Tourist "culture"

We're on the road again after a much needed rest day in Nafplio. Yesterday we had a short day of cycling and visited the ancient sites of Tiryns and Mycenea which were very impressive - Mycenea was spectacular. But in all that we were surrounded by what is both a blessing and a curse for Greece - massive tourism. I can't help but be increasingly cynical of tourists (I know, I am one also) that faceless, mindless mass, each person trying desperately to pretend that they are the only tourists in the whole country.

Honey and churches and apricots and steep hills and an ancient theater and a huge feast

What a day yesterday was!

We started with a crazy 14% grade uphill, yes, I do need all the gears on my bike! Getting back to the main road, we finally felt that we had begun to bicycle tour. Traffic was light, and the scenery spectacular, but we had to earn every bit of it as the hills never ended (though no more 14%ers).

Along the way I found a guy selling honey from his home. He had lived for qq years in Brisbane, Australia, and regrets returning to Greece. "Australia, best country in world" he says. Well, his honey is delicious anyway. After tasting the fir, thyme and orange blossom honey, the choice was easy for me, the fir honey is less sweet and delicious! He also threw in a little (but not that little) jar of thyme honey with honey-comb. Alix went crazy over all the honey products. We may need to increase our daily budget to include a kilo of honey for Alix.

Greece is dotted with little churches in honour of this saint or that saint I happen to have a map in my GPS that shows the location of ALL of these little tiny churches, and they make wonderfull little sancuaries where one can stop for a break. We had lunch at one such church with a view of the sea, and stayed overnight at another one. I lit a candle in each.

Near the end of the day we visited the ancient Epidaurus (epEEdavro in Greek) theater. Spectacular and huge. I'm sure it could fit many thousands of people. Strange thing though, it was a little confusing as there are many Epidauruses - Epidauri? There's New Epidaurus where I bought the honey, Old Epidaurus, Ancient Epidaurus, Upper Epidaurus AND the Ancient Epidaurus Theater. These are all in different places, not very far apart, but quite different places. Oh, and there's also a little Epidaurus theater in Old Epidaurus. Confusing.

So to end our day, after the theater, we went into Ligourio town and ordered some dinner. The man attending to us told me that they had tzatziki, salad, fries, feta cheese and pork chops. I repeated that back to him to make sure I hadn't missed anything, and then ordered a pair of pork chops for Alix and I. Well, my Greek must not be very good, or we looked very hungry, or it was just a simple miscommunication, but we got EVERYTHING! I couldn't believe it, but we ate it all.

A little down the road we found a church for Saint Nicholas and here we slept.

I take it back

OK, so the Greeks are friendly afterall. It just seems that the people in this area (Peloponese) take a bit to warm up to you.

Day Two was a very short ride of only 26km, but that was just fine as we were still pretty exhausted from cycling out of Athens yesterday. After a long picnic under the shade of an olive tree in the square of a little village, we decended a steep windy road to a tavern on the beach. My first swim in the Agean since 1992! And Alix's first ever. We lazed around, had a couple of cold frape coffees, swam and snorkelled and had a big lunch of calamari, Greek salad, fries and bread. In all that I managed to chat up some people and they proved friendly afterall. Add a couple of big bottles of water and the propietors only charged us 20 Euros for all that (he gave us a discount). Tonight we are spending the night in our tent in the tavern by the seaside.

Day One from Athens

Greece: The land of ignored street signs. Stop. No parking. One way. You name it Greek drivers ignore the sign. Despite that our epic day one ride from my cousin George and Sandra's place, to Athens, through Athens and away from Athens was not bad at all. Sure, less traffic would have been nice, but the drivers were generally quite curtious.

Once away from the city, the old ehtnic highway followed the coast, with some stretches right by the sea, heading towards the istmuth, on our way to the Peloponese.

All in all it was a wonderfull day one.

$1.91 a liter

Gas expensive? Well it's more in Europe. $1.91 a liter on a country highway in the Peloponese. That's $7.23 a gallon. Ouch . Get on your bike!

Disappointed in Greek Hospitality

With the exception of my friends and relatives, who have been absolutely wonderful hosts, I'm a little disappointed in Greek hospitality. I hope that this is just a wrong first impression, or just the region we're in right now. I'm not finding people to be very friendly or open. It's hard to find a toilet to use except in large service stations or museums, when I ask to use one elsewhere I'm invariably told "no". Alix has better luck; perhaps because she speaks English to people, perhaps because she's a woman, or perhaps because she's just better looking!