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Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Athens and theTurquise Isles
The picture many paint of Athens is one of a grubby, grimy, dusty city thats only worth getting out of as quickly as possible and indeed if you follow all the guides and advice this is what they'll tell you, but having to stay there for some days while I processed my Indian visa taught me just how guides and books are only really one persons view and ideas of people and places theyve seen. I admit Athens isnt the picture perfect tourist destination people are looking for when they come on holiday, but increasinly I dont feel like Im on holiday, I feel quite separate to the tourists in a way thats hard to describe, like Im part of the land rather than simply passing through unconnected as perhaps others are. So Athens for me felt very real and gritty and not painted over with the pretty tourist brush that can wear a little translucent when you get used to it. For me I loved the dirt and dust and the broken down old buildings with their shabby balconies
and peeling paint, I loved walking through the the fish market and meat markets at dusk, saw stalls piled up with dates, seeds and nuts, sold for pennies, watched sadly junkies,husslers and prostitutes hanging around scruffy squares and amazed at street stalls selling everything and anything you could ever want and some stuff you might not ever need. I did do some of the touristy things however like see the Acropolis and the other many ancient monuments and ruins, but like I said I find the real life of the city far more interesting than traipsing from this site to the next. I will say however that the view from the top of the hill overlooking the Acropolis into 
Athens is something everyone should see, everywhere you look is Athens from far off mountains in one direction to distant blue sea with ships and islands in the other,its simply breathtaking, such a mass of houses and monuments, steets and cars, buildings and rooftops as far as the eye can see. I tried to c
apture it on my camera but its simply impossible, you'd need a lense that looks behind you and more.
And then the day came when I came face to face with the amazingly crazy beurocracy that surrounds getting an Indian visa, oh man, its just simply bizzare, everything has to be just so and the amount of useless information they want from you is both bizarre and fantastical. A word of advice to anyone doing this, approach with a sense of humour and a continuous and unflinching inner smile. Apparently my photocopies of my passport were the wrong size,they had to be A4, they needed to know where I was staying in Athens, and also a statement written on A4 size paper as to why I had not got my visa in London, and what I was doing in Greece on a motorcycle, all this in a two hour slot in a hot sticky visa office in central Athens with a woman behind a screen who had managed to acheive a startlingly good impression of a prison camp guard, I tried to make her laugh, but an unflinching scowling face made me realise that that was certainly not the way forward. Anyway she sent me scuttling across Athens to grab my camp address from an internet cafe, 2 new correctly sized photocopies of my passport from a pokey little shop in a backstreet, and addresses of where I intended to enter and exit India all to be back within the space of an hour. To say it was a mad dash is an understatement, spinning in and out of streets, trying not to trip over people and bags in a search to find an internet cafe and somewhere for photocopies, but I made it back, albeit in need of a shower and an iced drink and after once again giving me a suspicious look and rifling through the papers she eventually lifted up her hand and stamped my documents like a judge sending a man down.
So with that I packed up my tent, headed for the port and booked myself and the bike onto the cheapest oldest ferry Ive seen floating and slept my way to the greek islands. I landed 5am on the island of Ios and found camp on the beach. The least said about Ios the better really. I had some fun there when I was younger and only really went there because I knew the island and knew there was a good base top make plans. The place is overun with young kids who have no respect for the island the people or the culture, all they want to do is party and live in a world of hedonism, booze and self gratification. It really swung me and looking at the locals it seems to me that its taken its toll. People seem tired and with little patience and if you take time to ask them how they are they seem genuinely suprised that you care. Its such a shame because the island is so beautiful, but now its energy is somehow heavy, its hard to describe, not dark but not clean. I think it seems the party tag has become a noose on the islanders collective necks, they need the money but they dont want the kids who litter their streets each night with bottles, rubbish and in some cases themslves.
So, not need
ing any part of that I got my bearings and caught the next boat anywhere out of Ios which happened to be where I am now sat in a little camp cafe on the island of Folegandos. The change is indescribable, 
a tiny little port with a few tavernas made out of old fishing boat housings and the prettiest old town with winding, rickety streets, all white washed with hidden alleys and courtyards. A few tavernas in the central square with book exchanges and seafood to make your mouth water and the energy here is amazing. I lay on the beach and it felt like all the days of little sleep Ive had in my life were being pulled from me into the rocks and the pebbles of the beach, beautiful, solid, warm energy filled with life and goodness and the locals happy and smiling, stopping to talk with you, easy. I met an old man sat sideways on his donkeys, trotting down a steep hill from the local church perched high up on the cliffto
ps, he slowed down and stop to ask me "you english" I said yes, "this one" he said pointing to the donkey, "this one Mercedes, the other one Rolls Royce" and off he plodded chuckling to himself. Great!
So, today I head for Athens just me without the bike to pick up my Indian Visa, god willing, prayers to the universe and all, it'll be a dash of overnight ferry to Athens arrive 8am tommorrow, grab the visa and some essential supplies (new pair of crocs) overnight ferry back to Folegandros same day, same ferry, 5pm. I keep trusting in the universe that all will go to plan and work out in the end, but I suspect some things might well go totally pear shaped, but thats just how it is I guess. Once I get back Im straight off to Koufonissi a small island just off naxos where you can camp for free, so for now many blessings and much love and peace to all who know me. Jonny
The picture many paint of Athens is one of a grubby, grimy, dusty city thats only worth getting out of as quickly as possible and indeed if you follow all the guides and advice this is what they'll tell you, but having to stay there for some days while I processed my Indian visa taught me just how guides and books are only really one persons view and ideas of people and places theyve seen. I admit Athens isnt the picture perfect tourist destination people are looking for when they come on holiday, but increasinly I dont feel like Im on holiday, I feel quite separate to the tourists in a way thats hard to describe, like Im part of the land rather than simply passing through unconnected as perhaps others are. So Athens for me felt very real and gritty and not painted over with the pretty tourist brush that can wear a little translucent when you get used to it. For me I loved the dirt and dust and the broken down old buildings with their shabby balconies and peeling paint, I loved walking through the the fish market and meat markets at dusk, saw stalls piled up with dates, seeds and nuts, sold for pennies, watched sadly junkies,husslers and prostitutes hanging around scruffy squares and amazed at street stalls selling everything and anything you could ever want and some stuff you might not ever need. I did do some of the touristy things however like see the Acropolis and the other many ancient monuments and ruins, but like I said I find the real life of the city far more interesting than traipsing from this site to the next. I will say however that the view from the top of the hill overlooking the Acropolis into Athens is something everyone should see, everywhere you look is Athens from far off mountains in one direction to distant blue sea with ships and islands in the other,its simply breathtaking, such a mass of houses and monuments, steets and cars, buildings and rooftops as far as the eye can see. I tried to capture it on my camera but its simply impossible, you'd need a lense that looks behind you and more.
And then the day came when I came face to face with the amazingly crazy beurocracy that surrounds getting an Indian visa, oh man, its just simply bizzare, everything has to be just so and the amount of useless information they want from you is both bizarre and fantastical. A word of advice to anyone doing this, approach with a sense of humour and a continuous and unflinching inner smile. Apparently my photocopies of my passport were the wrong size,they had to be A4, they needed to know where I was staying in Athens, and also a statement written on A4 size paper as to why I had not got my visa in London, and what I was doing in Greece on a motorcycle, all this in a two hour slot in a hot sticky visa office in central Athens with a woman behind a screen who had managed to acheive a startlingly good impression of a prison camp guard, I tried to make her laugh, but an unflinching scowling face made me realise that that was certainly not the way forward. Anyway she sent me scuttling across Athens to grab my camp address from an internet cafe, 2 new correctly sized photocopies of my passport from a pokey little shop in a backstreet, and addresses of where I intended to enter and exit India all to be back within the space of an hour. To say it was a mad dash is an understatement, spinning in and out of streets, trying not to trip over people and bags in a search to find an internet cafe and somewhere for photocopies, but I made it back, albeit in need of a shower and an iced drink and after once again giving me a suspicious look and rifling through the papers she eventually lifted up her hand and stamped my documents like a judge sending a man down.
So with that I packed up my tent, headed for the port and booked myself and the bike onto the cheapest oldest ferry Ive seen floating and slept my way to the greek islands. I landed 5am on the island of Ios and found camp on the beach. The least said about Ios the better really. I had some fun there when I was younger and only really went there because I knew the island and knew there was a good base top make plans. The place is overun with young kids who have no respect for the island the people or the culture, all they want to do is party and live in a world of hedonism, booze and self gratification. It really swung me and looking at the locals it seems to me that its taken its toll. People seem tired and with little patience and if you take time to ask them how they are they seem genuinely suprised that you care. Its such a shame because the island is so beautiful, but now its energy is somehow heavy, its hard to describe, not dark but not clean. I think it seems the party tag has become a noose on the islanders collective necks, they need the money but they dont want the kids who litter their streets each night with bottles, rubbish and in some cases themslves.
So, not needing any part of that I got my bearings and caught the next boat anywhere out of Ios which happened to be where I am now sat in a little camp cafe on the island of Folegandos. The change is indescribable, a tiny little port with a few tavernas made out of old fishing boat housings and the prettiest old town with winding, rickety streets, all white washed with hidden alleys and courtyards. A few tavernas in the central square with book exchanges and seafood to make your mouth water and the energy here is amazing. I lay on the beach and it felt like all the days of little sleep Ive had in my life were being pulled from me into the rocks and the pebbles of the beach, beautiful, solid, warm energy filled with life and goodness and the locals happy and smiling, stopping to talk with you, easy. I met an old man sat sideways on his donkeys, trotting down a steep hill from the local church perched high up on the clifftops, he slowed down and stop to ask me "you english" I said yes, "this one" he said pointing to the donkey, "this one Mercedes, the other one Rolls Royce" and off he plodded chuckling to himself. Great!
So, today I head for Athens just me without the bike to pick up my Indian Visa, god willing, prayers to the universe and all, it'll be a dash of overnight ferry to Athens arrive 8am tommorrow, grab the visa and some essential supplies (new pair of crocs) overnight ferry back to Folegandros same day, same ferry, 5pm. I keep trusting in the universe that all will go to plan and work out in the end, but I suspect some things might well go totally pear shaped, but thats just how it is I guess. Once I get back Im straight off to Koufonissi a small island just off naxos where you can camp for free, so for now many blessings and much love and peace to all who know me. Jonny
and peeling paint, I loved walking through the the fish market and meat markets at dusk, saw stalls piled up with dates, seeds and nuts, sold for pennies, watched sadly junkies,husslers and prostitutes hanging around scruffy squares and amazed at street stalls selling everything and anything you could ever want and some stuff you might not ever need. I did do some of the touristy things however like see the Acropolis and the other many ancient monuments and ruins, but like I said I find the real life of the city far more interesting than traipsing from this site to the next. I will say however that the view from the top of the hill overlooking the Acropolis into 
Athens is something everyone should see, everywhere you look is Athens from far off mountains in one direction to distant blue sea with ships and islands in the other,its simply breathtaking, such a mass of houses and monuments, steets and cars, buildings and rooftops as far as the eye can see. I tried to c
apture it on my camera but its simply impossible, you'd need a lense that looks behind you and more.And then the day came when I came face to face with the amazingly crazy beurocracy that surrounds getting an Indian visa, oh man, its just simply bizzare, everything has to be just so and the amount of useless information they want from you is both bizarre and fantastical. A word of advice to anyone doing this, approach with a sense of humour and a continuous and unflinching inner smile. Apparently my photocopies of my passport were the wrong size,they had to be A4, they needed to know where I was staying in Athens, and also a statement written on A4 size paper as to why I had not got my visa in London, and what I was doing in Greece on a motorcycle, all this in a two hour slot in a hot sticky visa office in central Athens with a woman behind a screen who had managed to acheive a startlingly good impression of a prison camp guard, I tried to make her laugh, but an unflinching scowling face made me realise that that was certainly not the way forward. Anyway she sent me scuttling across Athens to grab my camp address from an internet cafe, 2 new correctly sized photocopies of my passport from a pokey little shop in a backstreet, and addresses of where I intended to enter and exit India all to be back within the space of an hour. To say it was a mad dash is an understatement, spinning in and out of streets, trying not to trip over people and bags in a search to find an internet cafe and somewhere for photocopies, but I made it back, albeit in need of a shower and an iced drink and after once again giving me a suspicious look and rifling through the papers she eventually lifted up her hand and stamped my documents like a judge sending a man down.
So with that I packed up my tent, headed for the port and booked myself and the bike onto the cheapest oldest ferry Ive seen floating and slept my way to the greek islands. I landed 5am on the island of Ios and found camp on the beach. The least said about Ios the better really. I had some fun there when I was younger and only really went there because I knew the island and knew there was a good base top make plans. The place is overun with young kids who have no respect for the island the people or the culture, all they want to do is party and live in a world of hedonism, booze and self gratification. It really swung me and looking at the locals it seems to me that its taken its toll. People seem tired and with little patience and if you take time to ask them how they are they seem genuinely suprised that you care. Its such a shame because the island is so beautiful, but now its energy is somehow heavy, its hard to describe, not dark but not clean. I think it seems the party tag has become a noose on the islanders collective necks, they need the money but they dont want the kids who litter their streets each night with bottles, rubbish and in some cases themslves.
So, not need
ing any part of that I got my bearings and caught the next boat anywhere out of Ios which happened to be where I am now sat in a little camp cafe on the island of Folegandos. The change is indescribable, 
a tiny little port with a few tavernas made out of old fishing boat housings and the prettiest old town with winding, rickety streets, all white washed with hidden alleys and courtyards. A few tavernas in the central square with book exchanges and seafood to make your mouth water and the energy here is amazing. I lay on the beach and it felt like all the days of little sleep Ive had in my life were being pulled from me into the rocks and the pebbles of the beach, beautiful, solid, warm energy filled with life and goodness and the locals happy and smiling, stopping to talk with you, easy. I met an old man sat sideways on his donkeys, trotting down a steep hill from the local church perched high up on the cliffto
ps, he slowed down and stop to ask me "you english" I said yes, "this one" he said pointing to the donkey, "this one Mercedes, the other one Rolls Royce" and off he plodded chuckling to himself. Great!So, today I head for Athens just me without the bike to pick up my Indian Visa, god willing, prayers to the universe and all, it'll be a dash of overnight ferry to Athens arrive 8am tommorrow, grab the visa and some essential supplies (new pair of crocs) overnight ferry back to Folegandros same day, same ferry, 5pm. I keep trusting in the universe that all will go to plan and work out in the end, but I suspect some things might well go totally pear shaped, but thats just how it is I guess. Once I get back Im straight off to Koufonissi a small island just off naxos where you can camp for free, so for now many blessings and much love and peace to all who know me. Jonny
★ 2 Comments. | Jonny, Wednesday, July 16, 2008 2:34 AM
Leave a Reply.
hey Jonny!
glad you left a note on my vespa (by the way, she looks great in that picture!!) so that i can keep track of your whereabouts!
it was great to meet you - no rethoric here! different soul in a confused reality.
hope all goes well with you 'entering' into turkey. glad you enjoyed folegandros!
take it easy
peace
mass
By:
massimo
glad you left a note on my vespa (by the way, she looks great in that picture!!) so that i can keep track of your whereabouts!
it was great to meet you - no rethoric here! different soul in a confused reality.
hope all goes well with you 'entering' into turkey. glad you enjoyed folegandros!
take it easy
peace
mass
By:
massimo
One day I will show you my diary from my first visit to Athens. The words I wrote were almost identical to yours. Indeed, since then I have used the word Athens as my own personal totem. But then maybe you already knew that. I hope all went well with the visa and you are having a great time on your island.
A
By: