Travel Karma

Its a term I use to describe luck and destiny travelling.

So I am in Greece and got here on Thursday. Two night ferries, not too fun. The second one was just about too cold to sleep. I see these cats with Sleeping Bags and wonder if I shouldn't get one too.

So I get to the Pink Palace, big young person resort for 800 people. We've got 60. So after two nights I am ready to go. Unfortunately, its on this Island, and the island is tough to get off of.

So I head to Corfu town on a rented moped to see the ferry schedules. (Mopeds=fun but danger) On Saturday. The Port does not post them. I don't know why.

So you have to buy a ticket at one of the offices, and they are of course closed until 6pm. I need to get back to the Pink Palace by 5 to return scooter and catch last bus to Corfu town.

So I have no idea when the last bus leaves, so when I check the bus schedule, and it says I can get to Thessolonika Monday morning, I am disappointed. 6:45. But there is no night stuff out. And I can't check the ferry schedule to see if there are any ferries to anywhere I would like to go. So I am frustrated. And I can't stay at the Pink Palace because I didn't think the Sunday bus left early enuf to get to town and a cab is a ton of cash. There is also a night bus from the Pink Palace to Athens but it costs $10 more than the one from town, $30 instead of $20 and I am cheap, as ya all know.

So out of options, I head back. And decide to head to Thessonolinka. From there I can see Mt Olympus and the Meteora. Take the bus into Corfu town and it gets off at the bus station which is good cuz I want a ticket anyway and I go to the guy, and he says, Its Full.

So in my 4 months of travel, I have only had 2 full buses. One to Poland. One in Costa Rica, that later turned out not to be full when I went back again. So this doesn't happen often.

So I really don't know what to do. I check into my hotel and just don't know what to do. I figure I can get off this Island, but I am so frustrated by the difficulty in getting travel info and ferry info and no buses and all that, that I just don't want to deal with it. If I was at home, I would have just went home. Sometimes you get this feeling, and you decide to Take It On, and you do it. And sometimes you just want to hide in a corner and hope it goes away. Well, I was in the Run and Hide mode.

So I decided to take a ferry in the morning to the city across from the Island and try gettin' a better deal from there. Hope for more buses. But the 7am would have gotten me there at 4pm which would have been a nice time to arrive. Doing it on my own adds at least 2 hours I figure, and that is if there are early ferries, which I don't know, cuz like I said, they don't post such things.

So I decide I am just tired and cranky and that I need some extra sleep. So I set my alarm for 7:20. I had considered getting up at 6am and trying for a really early ferry and all that, but I just didn't care.

And Sat night was daylight savings time, right? But I knew that, and so did the Palm Pilot which is my alarm, so I didn't have to worry about that.

So I wake up and get out of bed at 7:30 and get a shower and go down and ask the hotel dude when the next ferry is, and he said the 8:30, Big Ferry.

So as I am getting on, I see a bus boarding, and kinda think, maybe I can check if its the Thessolinki bus, but kinda forget that during the ferry.

I am waiting to get off, and hear some English next to me, and ask the two girls talking if they know where the bus station is. She knows, but asks where I am going, and I said, -Thesslonika, and she says, -Thats the bus I am on. I say its full, and she tells me there is an extra seat and she would check with the driver about it, and after a rather verbacious discussion that I understood nothing of, it looks like I was on the bus, but would have to stand or something. Well, Sounds Good to ME!

Then it turns out her friend is going to Meteora, which is actually where I wanted to go, and it was on the way to Thessolonika, and I could go with her. Then it turns out her friend really isn't much of a friend but just some Mexican girl who she met on the bus.

So anyway, that's what I call Travel Karma. I am on the bus that I wanted yesterday, and I even got a seat somehow, and someone on the bus is going where I wanted to go anyway, because I thought I had to get to TKA first, before going to Meteora, which wasn't true.

So life is good and we get to Meteora at 2pm and get a place to stay and if you don't know what Meteora is, they are these monestaries they built on top of these pillar like rock formations 600 feet of the ground. The most famous one was a evil villian hideaway in James Bond's For Your Eyes Only, if you remember that. Anyway, they were pretty damn cool. So we grabbed a cab up top and hiked back into town from them, going into the two biggest ones. Orthodox churches too which were a big change from the usual Catholic type in most of Europe.

So that night we check the train and bus schedules. I want to go to Mt Olympus in the morning, she's going to Athens. I have the choice of leaving at 6:15, arrive at 9 near Olympus. Or 7:30, arrive around noon. Well, I couldn't decide, but before I went to bed decided to get up at 5:30 to get there early and maybe do a quick day hike.

So I wake up this morning at 5:30. Actually, I woke up at 5:27 and checked the clock, and isn't it funny how you can wake up almost exactly 2 minutes before your alarm clock??

Got up, brushed teeth and went to the bus station. Well, guess what? Its full. The next one is full. So I can leave at 10am.

So I go back to the hotel and get a shower and eat a really awful breakfast at this place and get on the bus at 10 that says to where I want to go.

Except it doesn't go there. There are only 2 buses that leave this station and for whatever reason, they used on to Trikala to go to this other place. Usually on a bus, there is a conductor who checks your ticket. No one checked mine. First time ever I think. Like I said, nice signs on the front saying where it doesn't go.

Well, I figure this out and get dropped off by a gas station and flag the next bus back and get in a fight with the conductor cuz he wants me to pay and I try explaining Its Not My Fault and that doesn't work.

So at 11, which is when I was supposed to catch the bus to Olympus (actually, a city called Litohoro) was supposed to leave where the bus I was Supposed to Get On went.

So I missed that one.

The woman at the station was waiting for me - she knew I think before I even got to the station that I had taken the wrong bus. She spoke English and went to check when I could get to where I wanted to go.

Nothing until almost 6pm, and that was Standing Room Only. Full. Athens? At 3:30, get there at 8:30pm, dark, in Dangerous Athens. No way.

So I go to the train station. I could have left from there at 9:15 and gotten there around noon, but there was a layover, so I opted for the bus instead. They have nothing, the 2:45 to Athens is full. Athens later?

I ask the guy, What Is UP? You guys better get more busses and trains for the Olympics.

So with no way out of town at 11:30, I just decide to eat lunch.

Do I go to Athens and arrive at 8pm?

I hit the Tourist office and ask for help. They say, OHHH. Turns out this weekend is a festival. 4 day weekend type of thing. You would think, and I know its too much to expect, that at one of the hotels I stayed at, or ferry places I went to, or bus stations I went to, or train stations would have said something about this? Well, after my 8th trip to the bus station, and my 3rd trip to the train station, someone finally told me. Did I mention my 4 trips to the bus station were today alone. Amazing.

Well, they have the train schedule and I can still get to Litohoro but it wouldn't be till around 8:30. So I either stay here another night, go to Athens and arrive late, or go to Litohoro and arrive late.

So I go BACK to the train station and buy a tix to Litohoro and thats where I am now. So I will arrive there about 12 hours later. I tell ya, travel here in Greece is AWFUL. Or has been so far. Aie.

So I can't decide if this is my worst travel day yet or not. I think it is. When I found out my poland bus was full, that was the only one that day. I have been shut out of about 8 buses I think. The worst thing is, had I known this this morning, I could have done something very different, but catching the wrong bus really screwed me. So Monday has been a total waste of time. I might catch a nice sunset on the train over Mt Olympus. Lets hope so! And tomorrow can only be better, right??!?

In disbelief over travel difficulty here, in Greece, a first world, EU, soon to be Euro Currency country......

- Ryan