You saw Anell? Ask her where the heck her and Brian went? I'm sure they wanted 'alone' time from Barb, Fred and I.
* September 17, 2008, evening, Florence, Italy: I finally made it - woohoo! I’m sorta glad to leave Greece. In my general opinion, a lot of people in Greece were not that friendly. I’m not saying all, just a lot. There were certainly friendly people, but most wanted nothing to do with me. Maybe it was my deodorant? I had a good conversation with the lady at the travel service named Efi. I inquired why the often times rude behavior by so many Greeks. She said that it was because most of them are uneducated and do not like Bush politics and, since I’m American, I must be just like President Bush. She cited two recent issues: the Iraq War and the recent Olympics when Bush recognized Makedonia as a separate country from Greece. They are pretty torqued over that last one, plus the Greeks have a long memory it seems. Oh well, I came away with many, many very good memories/pix from Greece, but the two things that stand out not so good are so many unfriendly people and all the trash.
I have been looking into bike rental places in Italy and around Europe and happened upon this guy:
Achilles Krete Tours. I love his intro, plus click on his enduro tours link. Good stuff, and maybe I should’ve continued further south from Santorini? I decided to go try out this place:
www.stradanova.com I have a date with them at 9am Thursday morn to look at some KTMs and BMWs. I inquired to my good Italian friend, Stefano and here’s what he replied - he always cracks me up! (hope it was okay to share, Stefano!)
Looks nice!
You have to take the winery road to Greve in Chianti and have the wild boar ragu in the main plaza of the little town. Watch out for “very nice wines” they can be very expensive…go for vino della casa (house wine) instead.
Out of Florence is ok.
In Florence watch out for the following:
- anyone approaching you for some special deal or marvelous offer. Do not trust anyone. There is no such thing there.
- be aggressive in the lines, try the excitement of being Italian! Bump away your friendly American friends!
- people that look local asking you for directions…or bumping into you, especially in crowded places…they are just removing your wallet or other things from your pockets! THIS IS VERY COMMON!!!!
- ALWAYS use the lock on the bike, even for 10 seconds drop at a store or anything else.
- Keep eye contact with everything you own (want a bad idea? go to the restroom with something on your restaurant table…it’s magic! it disappears!)
- any gas is fine for your bike. Do not buy expensive gas (like 98), the regular is just fine (just do not use diesel!).
- try to avoid places that uses the sweep on the paper for the card…trust only the electronic thingy. If they have to (like for a deposit) ask for the slip when you are done. This is not very critical, but just to be safe and not find a Country Italian Villa on your credit card…
- enjoy and eat like a pig!!!!
Stefano.
So I got up this morning, had the usual Greek breakfast (that comes with the hotel fee), hit the ATM for the Euros, took a shower and… Speaking of shower, this was one of the best ones yet! Check it out, it actually has a shower curtain and toilet seat! It's basically about the size of a dinky RV shower - same parts too, as you can see. Now look closer and notice the shower curtain stops at just about the edge of the shower perimeter - just enough so that all the water hit’s the curtain and (you guessed it) drains directly on the floor. No wonder all the Greek bathrooms have drains in the middle of the floor! Then I went to use my Visa to pay for the room and it wouldn’t work - yikes! After some help today, along with some very-long distance calls, it got resolved. They were concerned it was stolen with all the large charges in Greece. I guess that’s a good thing, and I forgot to let them know before I left. Then I caught a taxi to the airport. The driver didn’t say a word, started smoking and I asked if he could enable the window switch in the back, so I could roll down the window (it was hot too), so he did. About one mile later, he rolled up my window and pointed at his ear. Argh. Waiting at the airport I heard a couple girls talking behind me reading my ISDE shirt. Turns out they were from Serres and we had a great conversation. I also briefly met a couple from Belgium who were there for the ISDE too. They said they were fans of Mandi Maston and the wife gave me some yarn strings of the Belgium colors. I hope I make it to the ISDE again and see them, although there’s no way I will remember their names.
Finally, I’m going to Italia! CLICK HERE to go see the next leg of my sojourn - Italy!
-Tom
It rained again in Thessaloniki! The brightest rainbow shown - but I had my darn camera in my room (hard to believe!). I ran and got it, and this was what was left.
![Image](http://tawmn.smugmug.com/photos/374664956_F92AR-M.jpg)
Maybe Efi was right?
![Image](http://tawmn.smugmug.com/photos/374665215_YuxYy-M.jpg)
This pic is for all my TransAlp afficionados (and you know who you are). Here's a look at what you can't have - they're everywhere over here!
![Image](http://tawmn.smugmug.com/photos/374663515_uV2yF-M.jpg)
The shower. At least it has a toilet seat and curtain!
![Image](http://tawmn.smugmug.com/photos/374662684_masJ5-M.jpg)
If crash, BIG boom! This is a Honda three wheeler, FYI.
![Image](http://tawmn.smugmug.com/photos/374663543_7FANJ-M.jpg)
The two very-nice and funny girls from Serres: Haradini and Kiki.
![Image](http://tawmn.smugmug.com/photos/374664043_APWt5-M.jpg)
The full route I did in Greece.
![Image](http://tawmn.smugmug.com/photos/384020226_YWq7r-XL.jpg)