Greece

I had decided that to save money by traveling through Italy to Greece is a pain. So I had booked a cheap direct flight from Cologne to Athens. German Wings is a relatively cheap airline that took me to Athens for about 70 euros. The day when I reached Athens was boring. Athens was experiencing a bad thunderstorm and our plane could barely hold on to the runway due to cross winds. The metro from the airport to Acropolis which the central Athens takes about an hour to reach. I stayed that night at the Backpackers Youth hostel. It is a nice YH about 50m from Acropolis station. They charge 25 euros for a bed and breakfast with a free drink at their amazing bar.

Athens was much below the expectations. Apart from the Acropolis, some old ruins and Agora temple there was nothing much in the city. So I headed for a cruise to the Aegina islands off the coast of Greece from Patras, the port of Athens. The cruise was very nice as I could capture pictures of sea gulls in my camera when they were moving at the same speed as us. Aegina island has a wonderful archaeological site worth watching. The scenic beauty from the island is also very good. One can experience Octopus meat as it is known to be a delicacy there. Since I was alone, I didn't hire a car for my travel through the island. But nevertheless its a good option. The duration of cruise is 1 hour and ticket price was 7 euros single side.

I had reached back Athens on the same day. i didn't want to start another day from Athens, so decided to visit Meteora which is a group of monasteries on high rocks in central Greece. To make the experience better I took a bus from Athens bus station B to Trikala a town near the village of Kalambaka which is at the foot of those monasteries. I was shocked when I spent 22 euros and 5 hours on a bus to realize that Trikala had no youth hostels. So the best option was to sit for the night in a cyber cafe @ 2 euros per hour. In the morning I took the first bus to Kalambaka which was 30 km away. From Kalambaka I took a one way taxi to Meteora for 6 euros. Meteora is one of the most beautiful places in Greece. Once you reach there then you realize automatically why the monks chose that destination for monasteries. The entire area is very calm and serene and the views from Meteora are also photography material. Once I came out from meteora, I realized that there were no taxis. I started walking down the jungle but changed my mind when I saw a pack of wolves about half a kilometer from me. I walked back and hitch hiked with a cement carrying van to Kalambaka. From here I took a train to Thessaloniki.

Thessaloniki is a sad business city unless one wants to explore the outskirts. There is a grave of "Alexander the Great's" father about 30 km from the city. But I had other plans. I was excited by the plan of crossing into Germany from eastern Europe via Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria. Therefore I took a ticket to Sofia for the night train, thinking that my residence permit doesn't bar me from traveling that way.

At the border the Greeks, allowed me into the Bulgarian territory However the Bulgarian police stopped me and instructed me to alight from the train. My passport was with the police for 2 hours and I was made to sit in the Control Room. The next train to Thessaloniki came at about 10:40pm and I was put on that train. My whole plan had been thrashed. I didn't know what to do next as I hadn't booked my tickets to Germany. As I was thinking about this I realized that the train hadn't moved from Thessaloniki station since a long time. I came out of my wagon to find that it was the only wagon on the station. The train was separated at the station. I cursed my luck and got down.

I was lucky that there was a super fast Inter city to Athens at 2am i.e 1 hour later. I booked a reservation for it and reached Athens at 6am and it was raining terribly. I again went to the backpackers youth hostel, but they were full. So now the only option was to fly to Germany on the same day. And you know what, there was no flight less than 340 euros to Germany. So I decided I would rather fly to Barcelona as I knew Melona aka Sriram R would be there. So I took a 3 hour and 100 euro ticket to Barcelona. I was so tired that I ordered all the hard drinks possible on the flight and slept for at least 2 hours. Luckily in Barcelona, I found Jhumka there too at Melona's place and we proceeded to see Spain and Portugal together from there.

The trip to Greece was my costliest trip in Europe and all because of the day when I was deported back from Bulgaria!