I went to Europe for the third time in my life in the end of August and the beginning of September. The trip was new and amazing in so many ways that I am going to have to break up the posts to be able to get it all down. I am not going to write up a travelogue but may post the one my girlfriend wrote up for the sake of expediency.
The airplane ticket to get to Athens cost almost as much as the 9 day cruise that we were going to take. The plan was to get to Athens five days before the cruise was set to depart and to deal with accommodations once we got there. At the airport we headed over to an information booth to begin the process. I felt beaten and tired and out of my element so I let my girlfriend handle the reservation. She bounced from the information booth to a booth for hotels to a calling card machine, back to the information booth and finally to a phone booth. It turned out that a hotel room would run us something like 100 euro but a local hostel would only be 16 euro per person. We settled on the hostel on the premise that we wouldn't be spending any time in our room anyway.
The most useful thing in the world for a traveler is a good metro system and Athens has one. We took the metro from the airport to the hostel without any trouble and checked in. I was amazed at how easily everything worked out. We were able to talk to almost anyone in English and to go wherever we wanted mostly on foot. We only used the metro few times to get to the airport or some place that was a little farther then we had time to walk. With ancient ruins or monuments almost everywhere you go, easy travel, and easy communication, I was blown away at how little of a hassle it was to have a great time.
I have been on cruises before (but only to Mexico or the Bahamas) so I knew what to expect there and I wasn't disappointed. The ship took us to places where we rushed off to hit the sites for as long as possible before the ship left again. The cruise was a mixed blessing. On one hand it was like we woke up in our hotel every day in a new city but we only had a limited number of hours at each location to see what we wanted to see before we were off again. In a trip that included Athens, Myconos, Delos, Crete, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Giza I only felt like I got a good look at Athens. The other places went by in sort of a blur. I loved getting to see all that I was able to see but they were tours and not a explorations.
This trip has really shown me a few different ways to travel that I had not really tried before and my options were spread wide before me. I saw how easy things can be made, how to stay in hostels and how to pack light and move fast. I really enjoyed my girlfriend's travel mentality of spending as much time out as possible. I am looking forward to more trips with her to more places.
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