Monemvasia - an exotic destination

I would like to dedicate my 200th post to Monemvasia...It's a place not known to many in this world...but a memorable one atleast for the three of us [Swad, Venky & Yours truly]. For more details about the place click on the wiki link

I had earlier written 4 posts on the Greece trip, giving an account of all adventurous events [ delightful & sorrowful ones],

Part - I
Part - II
Part - III
Part - IV
                                               Greece Country Map

The route map; Swadheen is the man, who drove all the way single handedly. I really wonder now how he managed to do that feat then. I couldnt appreciate it then as I never drove a car before. Now that I drive my own car, I feel it was one hell of a drive. It is definitely not so simple as it seems from the map.
Our itinerary was like this
1) Nafplio to Tripoli
2) Tripoli to Sparta
3) Sparta to Aeropolis (via Githeo) 
4) Aeropolis to Githeo
5) Githeo to Monemvasia
6) Monemvasia to Olympia [most difficult part as it went through one of the most dangerous ghat roads in the world but Swad pulled it off coolly]
7)Olympia to Nafplio
                                                     Route Map

                                                              Monemvasia from top

 

Greece shopping

The following are the stuff I bought in a shop in Athens as part of our Greece shopping, which we felt was big mistake then, but now when I look at those stuff it helps in refreshing my memories.

Athena is the Greek goddess of wisdom. This stone carving is bigger than it appears in the pic. It was priced at 36 Euros but we got it for 18 Euros, as there was some sale going on

The great philosopher Socrates for 8 Euros


Please click on the Read More..>>

The trip to Greece - Part IV

Recap

Part I - It all started like this  , Nice to Greece, which covered the journey from Nice to Ancona and the encounter with the Police there

Part II - Then once we were in Greece, Ferry to Patras and Athens,we had many interesting experiences one of them being the friendship with a thief.

Part III - This had a chain of upsets, which made the trip seem like one of the unluckiest ones.Athens to Athens, I ended this post saying that the next part would tell on how I  was molested by police and the transporter like car chase. For all that excitement, you may go ahead clicking the read more

The trip to Greece - Part III

Recap: It all started with this Greece trip-Part I , then the twists and turns continued even in the next part Greece trip-PartII.

So reluctantly we went to his friend's place. It was a shop and I don't remember what they were selling. It was dark inside. He took us to a small dingy room on top, to which there was ladder inside the shop. He made us sit in that small room and went down to talk to his friend. We all had a big question mark on our faces, to what were we up to. After a while he returned with a sorry face and told us that his friend couldn't give his car. We were inf act happy for that and said it was ok with us as we had changed our plan to go by train...Then he started telling about his story...may be he was guilty about his current situation..so he told his whole saga of how he became a refugee in Greece after having traveled many countries.

We were surprised to know about how corrupt the Greece government officials were by cheating the UN on funds allocated for refugees and not giving the same to the refugees, instead harassing them.

Strangely he had some views against Islam and that's when we started talking and trying to argue over that. He is definitely a well read person. He said he was a part-time journalist when he was in Dhaka, and that was evident with the logical views he had. His dream was to go to France and start a fresh life. He proclaims himself to be a good drummer and can sing also. The situation was getting lighter with all that cool talk and just at the moment when we were about to leave. He stopped us and invited all three of us for dinner. Now somewhere at the back of my mind..it was like the crocodile trapping monkey story for me...He was requesting us repeatedly...but we declined the offer very gently saying we had to go Kalamata and we had our return ferry booked. And also we were getting late to catch the train from Athens. So he gave up on that and gave me a box of biscuits as a parting gift. We then rushed back to our hostel.

*Upset 1*

This train to Kalamata was supposed to start from a station which was quite far off from the main station,Larissa, and has a different route. We decided to walk till that station. It could have easily been about 3-4 kms. After all that walking with heavy luggage, finally when we reached the place we discover that the station was abandoned long back and no trains run through that. Imagine how our situation was like, walked 4kms with almost 15kgs of luggage each. This was like a big blow to us. We kept aside our kanjoosgiri(stinginess) and then immediately took a taxi to the main station. There was only one train running on that night which was to Thessaloniki. Now as usual we wanted to skip the night stay at hotel by sleeping in the train which was free us. So we checked the chart..it halts at a place called Larisa(different one) around 3am. And there was a train from there back to Athens around 4am.So we thought this was the best way to spend our night.
In all this hurry we couldnt have our dinner, It was the same biscuits given by Shabeer we had for that night.. I take this blog as an opportunity to thank him. And I feel really bad to doubt his character. Shabeer, I wish you realize your dream of starting a fresh life, InshaAllah

*Sexual+Racial Discrimination*

We then boarded into the first class compartment in the train.. There were 2 ladies in our cabin who were very scared looking at us. Right from the time we got into the train they were very skeptical about us. One of them even complained to the railway police thinking we were some jerks....

The trip to Greece - Part II

All that drama didn't deterioate our enthusiasm levels. We were like kids entering disney world. After the 2 days of train journey, the cabin in ferry was like heaven. We went out to the deck area took snaps(this is very important for us). I am generally not acrophobic but if it is water underneath then I get really scared.

We gorged on our bread, salaamis and cheese stuff and crashed to sleep. I don't know about Venky and Swadheen but all the time while I was trying to sleep I was thinking on what would I do if something like titanic happens to the ferry. The next day morning we got up early in the morning to find some good view. It was a great feeling standing at the edge of the ship. When you look at the mountains around, you feel the ferry is hardly moving, but when you look down at the white foam formed in water as the ferry cruises in, you realise how fast the ferry is running. In the below you can see Swadheen, Me and Venky (L->R). Check out the path of the ferry in the other pic.

* Patras *

At around 10am we reached Patras.We didnt know where to get out of the port, so we were randomly walking..only to be picked by the police standing at some place. And then it starts all over again. One of them calls out "so you Pakistani or Bangladeshi??".. Then we say "No! we are Indians". Then the normal tradition of showing passport. They ask some basic questions, Why have you come etc. It's so boring like a recorded audio we say the same blah blah story everywhere.  We somehow managed to get into the middle of the Patras city. It's a cramped city with narrow roads, too many shops, open restaurants etc. There were so many restaurants that you get nice smell of kebaps etc all along. You will see the local Greeks enjoying the food in these restaurants and then you see some dark people(don't mean to offend anyone) everywhere probably illegal immigrants selling pirated DVDs, CDs. Before starting...

The trip to Greece - Part I

I got this wonderful opportunity to tour all over Europe during my exchange program with the college, CERAM (Now Skema) Business School, at Nice France. In a span of 3 months I had been to around 13 countries totally and of all the trips one thing which is most memorable is the trip to Greece. I believe even Swadheen and Venky would agree to this. 

It was a 7 day trip and during those 7 days we went through so many hard ships which makes the trip a lifelong memorable one.  The encounters with the notorious Italian police, the fake police in Thessaloniki, the hostile Greek police, acquaintance with the thief and the transporter  like car chase are some of the highlights of this trip. So here we go…

To many people Greece is some kind of an exotic place, owing to the great history it has. The first thing that used to come to my mind when someone says Greece was the Trojan war. And in the recent past it was Sparta from the movie 300. Lets not talk about the Euro crisis. So was hoping to see remnants of those wars, architecture etc. And I was also eager to see the Greek beauties (from the famous Helen of Trojan war). In fact I dint know any other female character apart from her. So with that little knowledge about Greece was a lot excited about going to Greece.

Now our base location was Nice, France. From there...