Greece to Italy

 

 

 

Ciao! That's hello in Italian and I say it to everyone now whether they want to talk to me or not.  Let's hit up some quick updates first. 

 

-Europe rules!

 

-We still don't have our shipment of ties.

 

-We are creating Youtube videos now. I'm posting them on my Facebook wall and the "Crushing Europe" Facebook page.

 

-Thanks to anyone that has sent me donations.  It is much appreciated.  Especially my buddy "Tree Trunk" who sent me the last $8 on his Paypal account.  Which basically means I'm drinking the finest beer on tap in Rome tonight!  When in Rome, right Mat???!!! Rage!!!!

 

-I'm averaging about 5 USA chants per day at various locations since I've gotten to Europe. If you are wearing the American flag/USA on this continent, I will find you!

 



 

Day 21- Day 23 Thessaloniki, Greece

We kept hanging out in this town hoping our shipment of ties would come.  Unfortunately the ties are still processing somewhere in Greece.  We still don't have the ties :(!  So not a lot happened these days except planning for our Ferry to Italy!  But first we had to head down to Athens to meet Tanner's aunt and hang out for a night. 

Day 24 Thessaloniki> Athens Greece

We hitchhiked down to Athens today.  It was Tanner, our couchsurfing friend, and myself.  Lets get some video going!  Here's our list of 10 Hitchhiking Essentials for Europe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpH0dGSBrx8

We then made it to Athens and met Tanner's Aunt late that night.

Day 25 Athens, Greece

Today we did the tourist scene and hit up a museum and the Parthenon.  Then at night we went all around the city and sat at the steps of the Congress building of Greece.  This is where I had a dance-off! 

 

(Parthenon)

 

 

 

Dance-off video...

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDO93EZPvNU

 

 

Day 26 and Day 27 Athens, Greece> Patras, Greece> Bari, Italy > Naples, Italy

 

We woke up the next day in Athens and took a 2 hour bus ride to a port town called Patras.  Tanner's Aunt, Tanner, and myself are taking a ferry to Greece!!!

 

Here's video....

 

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10102480286727459&l=75923241020983179 

 

Day 28 Naples, Italy> Rome, Italy

 

Today I had spaghetti for breakfast, pizza for lunch, then went to a volcano. Italy! Italy! Italy! Tanner and I like Naples and may consider getting an apartment here next week for like a month or 2 and sell ties on the streets.  Tanner's Aunt has been great to us!  Helping us pay for lodging, transportation, food, etc and I think is enjoying the trip :)  She leaves in 2 days and then Tanner's friend meets us in Rome on Tuesday.  We just got to Rome via train tonight.  I love this country already!!!

 

 



Not exactly "Crushing Europe"

Days 16-20 Thessaloniki, Greece

Things aren't really going as well as planned.  Things are looking pretty grim!  It has been an awesome journey so far but I'm going hard hit on some negative points (and a few positives).  This isn't for sympathy but for your entertainment.  Enjoy!

Negatives  

1. Tanner is sick.  His diagnosis: an ulcer and he has been burning up for a week.  My diagnosis:  I think he has at least 2 or 3 holes in his stomach from sleeping on one too many filthy floors in India.

This morning he basically was lying in death bed.  As our host and I told him we are heading to the market, he gave me these last words: "Get some peaches, the fuzzy ones."

2.  I've been sick since I got to Europe.  Mostly it's been an annoying cold and fortunately has gotten better but it's still frustrating.

3.  Our ties are still stuck in the mail!  We have a black market tie business that we played to sell in the streets and is key to the fundraising of  this trip.  A week ago we sent for 350 ties to come to our location in Greece in 3-5 business days but we still have not received them.  We need them here before we had to Athens on Saturday. 

There is not much other options to get money in Greece as the unemployment of this country is like 60%.  Our best ideas are washing windows on cars at stoplights or donating plasma.  We need those ties! 

4.  Energy levels: low.  We have been sleeping in until noon the past 5 days and are pretty worthless.

Motivation levels: surprisingly high for me after watching the first 3 episodes of "Game of Thrones" but overall they are low.

Moral: low.

Optimism: Always High



5. Football. Iowa lost, the Vikings lost, Adrian Peterson is out, and my fantasy team is looking rough.  What happened??!! It's week 2!!! I'm not supposed to be giving up on the season until like November.  This is ridiculous!



Positives

1. We are hitchhiking down to Athens on Saturday.We bought a ferry ticket from Greece to Italy for next Monday, so we are going to Italy!

2. Our host has been awesome!  She introduced me to "Game of Thrones", has been a great cook (we have also cooked) a great tour guide, and has gotten plenty of enjoyment/laughs out of our current negative situation :).

3. Played a great board game called Ubongo.  It's a little bit like Tetris.

** Final note:  I think most people in our situation would cut there losses and book their flight back to the US (USA! USA! USA!).  Not us, we'll catch our break. Just need to keep our eyes open!

Thessaloniki

Day 11  Kavala, Greece > Thessaloniki, Greece

We woke up the next day in Kavala at a hotel ready to finally make it to Thessaloniki, Greece.  The plan is to take a 2 hour bus ride and finally reach our destination.  Easier said than done.  Our bus leaves at 1:00 pm, so of course we show up at 12:58 to the bus station.  I show my ticket to the bus driver, who doesn't speak English, and he waves me away saying this isn't the right bus.  Tanner and I look around and ask someone "which bus is going to Thessaloniki??"

The man points at the same bus that driving away!  I chased the bus down and start knocking on the window!  The bus driver is very angry at us but eventually lets us on.  Tanner then proceeds to get into an argument with him that almost gets us kicked off the bus.  Also, everyone on the bus hates us for being late and looking like tourists.

Finally, we made it to Thessaloniki!  We take a city bus to get to our couchsurfers apartment.  Easier said than done.  We placed our bags onto a seat that way they are out of the aisle so people don't trip over them.  About 10 minutes into the ride an older man comes storming to the back of the bus yelling in Greek furiously!  I didn't know what he was mad about until he grabs our bags and throws them into the ailse.  I stand up telling him they are our bags.  He freaks out! "Seats are reserved for old people, not bags!"  The whole bus is looking at me, except Tanner.  Tanner looks away, pretends to not know who I am, and acts like nothing happened.  This is out of the scene in "Dumb and Dumber" when Seabass asks "who threw the salt shaker?" and Lloyd points at Harry as if he has nothing to do with the incident. 

The next 20 minutes of the bus ride I am standing up and being eye balled by the guy who threw the bags like I am the most worthless human being on Earth.  Meanwhile Tanner is having a pleasant conversation with a local on the best coffee shops in town.  WTF???

We eventually get to the Couchsurfer's location.

Day 12 Thessaloniki

Our Couchsurfer is an incredible host and we are in a great location in the city (which is about a half million people).  Tanner and I have decided to order a shipment of ties which should be sent in about 3-5 business days and plan to sell them in the streets of Thessaloniki and Athens.  Time for some more fundraising for this trip!

 

 

Day 13 Thessaloniki

 

 

Did some sightseeing.

 

 

 

 

 

Days 14 and 15 Thessaloniki

 

 

Not much going on, just waiting for the ties to come so we can sell them! We found a chill bar called Café Columbia and we're becoming regulars.  The owner loves us and has given us great travel advice.  Also when people ask us where in America we are from we say near Chicago since no one knows where Iowa is.  Right away everyone says "Michael Jordan!" and "Chicago Bulls!"

 

Heading to Athens next week then taking a ferry to Italy.

 

 

 



On to Greece

Day 8  Istanbul

Last day in Istanbul so we decided to do some sight seeing.

 

 

Day 9  Istanbul > Turkey/Greece border > Alexandroupolis, Greece

It is time to leave Istanbul,Turkey and make our way over to Thessaloniki, Greece.  We have plans to stay with a couchsurfer there.  The plan is to hitchhike the 8 hour car drive from Istanbul to Thessaloniki.  Neither Tanner or I have hitchhiked before.

 

 

 

This was a crazy experience and takes a lot of patience.  We found out during hitchhiking that a lot of people are just going an hour or two down the road, not a straight shot to Thessa.  So our first ride was an engaged couple from Turkey who were incredibly nice.  They didn't necessary speak great English but they bought us lunch and gave us water/snacks.  They took us to the edge of town. 

 

Our next ride was from an English teacher who took us about an hour to the border of Turkey and Greece.  This is where the fun begins.  We were allowed to walk out of Turkey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 You can't walk across the border into Greece by foot, you have to be in a car.  Of course we tried it anyway.  We waited about 4 hours to try to get someone to drive us across the border.  Seems simple, but with crossing a border being stressful enough,  do you really want to pick up 2 complete strangers trying to get across?  Finally, Tanner pulled some strings and 3 guys brought us across the border to Alexandroupolis. 

 

It was late in Alexandroupolis so we just had them drop us off downtown and look for a hotel room.  The bad news is, all the rooms in town were booked.  So we slept at the train station on park benches.  This isn't exactly how I envisioned our trip to Europe.

 

 

Day 10  Alexandroupolis > Xanthi > Kavala, Greece

 

Tanner and I got up the next day with some optimism that we would make it to Thessaloniki no problem. Turned out it was a long day with a lot of rejection by cars.  Some dude gave us a ride from Alexandroupolis to Xanthi which was about an hour away.  Then we waited on the highway for about 5 hours for someone to pick us up!  Even a police car drove by and stopped and asked what we were doing and if we were ok.  Eventually someone pulled over and said he could get us 20 minutes closer.  In a point of disperation, we took whatever we could get.

 

He dropped us off at an overpass in the middle of nowhere.  Another 2 hours went by with no luck.  At this point, we have hit a huge low in the trip and going home to some office job sounds somewhat desirable.  We are both tired, hungry, and not really big fans of each other.  After about 8 hours of waiting for cars we have only traveled about an hour and a half.  Then finally another guy comes and picks us up.  He says he is going to Kavala.  We don't care, just somewhere with a hotel!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We get to this town and it's incredible!  Kavala is like what you see in brochures of small town Greece.  Old houses on a hill, a castle, and everything is sitting on the Mediterranean .  In the matter of 24 hours we just experienced the highs and lows of traveling.  We went from sleeping on a park bench to staying at a 4 star hotel in a resort town in Greece! :) 

 

Still in Istanbul

Day 4 Istanbul

 

Things I don't like about Turkey:

1. Public restrooms are hard to find and sometimes they charge you to use them.
2. You are not supposed to drink the tap water. It's been only a few days and I'm tired of paying for water.
3. No streets signs/easy to get lost...
4. The food hasn't been sitting well
5. You want an ice bucket challenge? Take a shower
6. They don't speak English and learning this language is pretty rough.
7. Everyone talks like a used car salesman and people try to cheat you.
8. You have to pay attention to what things cost and make sure you aren't over charged.
9. The cup size of coffee/tea is like you what you would give to a baby.
10. Did I mention I'm not really into the food?


We did stay at a cool Hostel though.  We met some really great people from all over the place.

Here is a conversation with a band member from American Authors.

Me: what's the name of your band?
Guitarist: American Authors
Me: cool. You guys on YouTube or anything?...
Guitarist: uh yeah, you should be able to find us.
 

*** They only have about 30 million YouTube hits on the song "Best Day of My Life".***

The band members were super modest and we talked to them for about 2 hours.  They are touring in Europe right now.

  Met a guy from near Amsterdam.  We'll nickname him "Stoner".  Stoner gave me some great hitchhiking advice as he has thrown out thumb from Amsterdam to Istanbul.
I
 

Day 5 Istanbul

We took the Ferry today and went from the Europe side to the Asian side of town.  Have I mentioned how massive this city is?  Spent a good 6 hours of our day just walking around somewhat lost and somewhat amazed at how spread out this place is.

Tanner is buying clothes because he still doesn't have his bag.  That's right, it's been 3 days and we are still waiting on it.  We went out to celebrate his birthday at least though!

Day 6 Istanbul

We met this girl we have nicknamed "Princess Warrior".  Here name is very similar to Zelda.  Hopefully you remember the Nintendo game "The Legend of Zelda".  She has offered to let us stay at her place.  So we left the hostel day 5 and now are crashing at her apartment.  She is very nice and hospitable!  I have been sick with a cold and she gave me medication.  I initially bought some medication on the street that a vender told me it was for colds.  Princess Warrior told me it was actually for low blood counts.  Ohhh nooo!!!




Day 7 Istanbul

Tanner finally got his luggage from the airport!!!  I smelled all day. Bad!  On Day 5 I washed my clothes then hung them in a closet.  They ended up getting mildew on them.  As I stood in crazy transportation all day, I saw other citizens look at me in disgust.  One guy smelled his shirt thinking it was him, then looked at me and turned away.  Princess Warrior wants to get a hose and spray me down.  It's been an up and down week but we are exciting about hitchhiking to Greece around Day 9.  :)