We'll soon be leaving Lesvos, but before we do, I thought I should record our "getting here" adventures.
We finished our time in Rome with a lovely dinner with Jason and Laura, packed up the rest of our stuff, and Jason graciously took us to the Ciampino airport. Our flight out was for 6AM, so we settled in (with about 100 other people) to spend the hours between 10pm and our departure getting a little sleep/watching a few movies/reading a book.
In hindsight, it was a very appropriate experience for us to have en route to coming to Lesvos with the goal of working with refugees - not that one night is ANYTHING like the rigors of the road and their journey, but being sleep-deprived and cold on the tile floors was a good reminder of how challenging such a simple thing as finding a comfortable place to rest at night can be for immigrants.
Our flight was uneventful, and we landed in Athens bleary eyed but ready to see what we could of the city during our day there. After using the airports free internet to take screen shots of maps and bus information, we caught a bus and landed in a large square of town, somewhat near the Acropolis according to our map.me app.
I was fading rapidly, so we spotted a cafe and made a beeline to get some food (technically, I think it was lunch, but it was our first meal of the day) and NOT have to navigate for a few minutes.
After being restored by chickpea salad (for me) and gyros (for Gabe), we found the travel agency we'd noted from our internet searching who could store our backpacks for us. He tossed the bags under his desk before he returned to smoking his cigarette while walking on his treadmill, and we headed out with plans to find the Acropolis!
We found it after some fun wandering, but were deterred from going up into the sight by the €26 per person entry ticket - we opted to walk around the base of the hill and see if there were any good vantage points. Sleep was crowding in, though, so we napped like bums on a marble bench along a walking path - a man with an accordion a little ways down provided a wonderful musical atmosphere!
After an hour or so of sleep, we woke up to take a group photo for a big group of tourists wearing hajabs, and we continued on our search.
We did find a nice little outcropping of rock to climb and get a better (albeit far-off) view of the Acropolis, snapped some photos, and went in search of "something tasty and refreshing," according to Gabe (after w brief stop in the Acropolis museum's foyer so we could use their toilets).
We found our afternoon refreshment in the form of a juice-bar shop, where the main feature for sale was fresh squeezed juices. We took the juicers recommendations and purchased two fabulous, flavor-bursting, nurturing-feeling jars of juice to drink sitting in their zen-like shop.
With not much energy and not much money left, off we went to collect our bags and catch our bus out to the port.
When we got to the port, we were dropped off a good mile or so from where we needed to be, so we had a hike (thank goodness for that juice fuel!), but that wasn't as discouraging as arriving at the ferry line office to pick up our prepaid tickets only to find out the ferries were on strike and our overnight ferry (and thus our housing for the night) were not in fact going to be sailing. She transferred our booking to the morning's 7AM ferry, and we walked outside to sit on the curb to laugh incredulously about it.
Spotting a few hotel signs, we decided to pray: "Lord, we have a €50 bill on us. Please let the hotel be no more than that - I don't think I can do another night of sleeping on the floor somewhere. And please, let us be able to see the room before we take it so we can make sure it's not frighteningly disgusting!"
We walked into the sketchiest hotel lobby I think I've ever been in (well, maybe it about matches the creepy $4 hostel room I stayed in in Cairo, but still - not pretty!), and we asked the man at the desk if there was an availability. He said, "I have one room. It is €50. I call my daughter to clean it, then you can look and see if it is OK, OK?" I was too tired to jump over the desk and hug him, so I just said "OK" and we sat down I the lobby for 20 minutes while our room was cleaned.
Fortunately, as I'd whispered to Gabe while we were waiting, the hotel got a little nicer after you went upstairs, and when we saw our room, it was perfectly adequate.
The next morning's ferry departed on time - and we we on it - and about 15 minutes out of the port, we sat down in the nearly-empty economy class airplane-style seats and fell asleep. I think we slept about 8 of the 11 hours on the ferry.
When we landed in Mytilene, we knew we were too late to catch the last bus to Molyvos for the day, so first we tried to rent a scooter, figuring we'd just load our bags on it (we've been living in Thailand and Burma - this is normal for us now!) and drive the 35 miles over the island to get to our rented studio before the sun set. The rental agent wouldn't let us rent a scooter, though, if we were planning to take our bags, and insisted that we put the bags on the bus in the morning and then drive the scooter.
We opted for a taxi, arrived very late at our housing, found the key the kind landlord had left for us, and let ourselves in - very much grateful to be in this beautiful place and see what God had in store for us.
- Dani
We finished our time in Rome with a lovely dinner with Jason and Laura, packed up the rest of our stuff, and Jason graciously took us to the Ciampino airport. Our flight out was for 6AM, so we settled in (with about 100 other people) to spend the hours between 10pm and our departure getting a little sleep/watching a few movies/reading a book.
In hindsight, it was a very appropriate experience for us to have en route to coming to Lesvos with the goal of working with refugees - not that one night is ANYTHING like the rigors of the road and their journey, but being sleep-deprived and cold on the tile floors was a good reminder of how challenging such a simple thing as finding a comfortable place to rest at night can be for immigrants.
Our flight was uneventful, and we landed in Athens bleary eyed but ready to see what we could of the city during our day there. After using the airports free internet to take screen shots of maps and bus information, we caught a bus and landed in a large square of town, somewhat near the Acropolis according to our map.me app.
I was fading rapidly, so we spotted a cafe and made a beeline to get some food (technically, I think it was lunch, but it was our first meal of the day) and NOT have to navigate for a few minutes.
After being restored by chickpea salad (for me) and gyros (for Gabe), we found the travel agency we'd noted from our internet searching who could store our backpacks for us. He tossed the bags under his desk before he returned to smoking his cigarette while walking on his treadmill, and we headed out with plans to find the Acropolis!
We found it after some fun wandering, but were deterred from going up into the sight by the €26 per person entry ticket - we opted to walk around the base of the hill and see if there were any good vantage points. Sleep was crowding in, though, so we napped like bums on a marble bench along a walking path - a man with an accordion a little ways down provided a wonderful musical atmosphere!
After an hour or so of sleep, we woke up to take a group photo for a big group of tourists wearing hajabs, and we continued on our search.
We did find a nice little outcropping of rock to climb and get a better (albeit far-off) view of the Acropolis, snapped some photos, and went in search of "something tasty and refreshing," according to Gabe (after w brief stop in the Acropolis museum's foyer so we could use their toilets).
We found our afternoon refreshment in the form of a juice-bar shop, where the main feature for sale was fresh squeezed juices. We took the juicers recommendations and purchased two fabulous, flavor-bursting, nurturing-feeling jars of juice to drink sitting in their zen-like shop.
With not much energy and not much money left, off we went to collect our bags and catch our bus out to the port.
When we got to the port, we were dropped off a good mile or so from where we needed to be, so we had a hike (thank goodness for that juice fuel!), but that wasn't as discouraging as arriving at the ferry line office to pick up our prepaid tickets only to find out the ferries were on strike and our overnight ferry (and thus our housing for the night) were not in fact going to be sailing. She transferred our booking to the morning's 7AM ferry, and we walked outside to sit on the curb to laugh incredulously about it.
Spotting a few hotel signs, we decided to pray: "Lord, we have a €50 bill on us. Please let the hotel be no more than that - I don't think I can do another night of sleeping on the floor somewhere. And please, let us be able to see the room before we take it so we can make sure it's not frighteningly disgusting!"
We walked into the sketchiest hotel lobby I think I've ever been in (well, maybe it about matches the creepy $4 hostel room I stayed in in Cairo, but still - not pretty!), and we asked the man at the desk if there was an availability. He said, "I have one room. It is €50. I call my daughter to clean it, then you can look and see if it is OK, OK?" I was too tired to jump over the desk and hug him, so I just said "OK" and we sat down I the lobby for 20 minutes while our room was cleaned.
Fortunately, as I'd whispered to Gabe while we were waiting, the hotel got a little nicer after you went upstairs, and when we saw our room, it was perfectly adequate.
The next morning's ferry departed on time - and we we on it - and about 15 minutes out of the port, we sat down in the nearly-empty economy class airplane-style seats and fell asleep. I think we slept about 8 of the 11 hours on the ferry.
When we landed in Mytilene, we knew we were too late to catch the last bus to Molyvos for the day, so first we tried to rent a scooter, figuring we'd just load our bags on it (we've been living in Thailand and Burma - this is normal for us now!) and drive the 35 miles over the island to get to our rented studio before the sun set. The rental agent wouldn't let us rent a scooter, though, if we were planning to take our bags, and insisted that we put the bags on the bus in the morning and then drive the scooter.
We opted for a taxi, arrived very late at our housing, found the key the kind landlord had left for us, and let ourselves in - very much grateful to be in this beautiful place and see what God had in store for us.
- Dani
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