Sunday, May 20, 2007

D'Athenes a Knossos

Etonnament, l'Internet n'est pas aussi accessible en Grece qu'il l'etait en Asie, et il est plus cher, alors on y a moins souvent acces. Mais voici les nouvelles depuis la derniere fois.

I visited Athens with a rather sick stomach, but I was still able to appreciate the Acropolis, the Parthenon, the museum, as well as the theatre of Dionysius, where so many of the plays of Euripides, Eschyllus and Aristophanes were premiered. ACK! For lack of any words (I was feeling rather speechless!) it was soooooooooo cool! (Sorry, I honestly can't find words to express what I felt seeing this theatre)

J'ai aussi vu l'aerophage, ou les Erinyes ont amene Oreste pour qu'il se fasse juger! Je n'en revenais pas! Malheureusement, par le temps qu'on y arrive, je me sentais tellement faible que je regardais surtout par terre, pour ne pas glisser sur le marbre inegal.
Nous avons ensuite visite l'Agora, ou je me suis assise devant le temps d'Hephaistos pendant que Nico en faisait le tour. Au moins il ne faisait pas trop chaud, et puis j'ai pu admirer sans avoir a marcher.

During our five (!) days in Athens, we also got to see the temple of Olympean Zeus, but not the archeological museum, because we spent too much time either being sick or trying to find the hospital (see Nick's blog about this). Luckily, we found a pharmacist who gave us some pills which we're still taking and which are helping greatly. We can now eat Greek!! (Finally, we were down to eating at Subway's! - which, incidentally, had a Sens' hockey stick on display!) It also means we weren't feeling too bad on the night ferry to Crete.

Le traversier etait incroyablement luxueux, surtout apres ceux qu'on a vus en Thailande. Des escaliers roulants, un bar, un resto, une discotheque (fermee pour la nuit), une piscine (fermee aussi). Nous n'avons pas achete les billets plus chers pour des cabines, nous avons donc du dormir dans une grande salle avec des sieges separes par des accoudoirs qui ne se levaient pas, ce qui veut dire que tout le monde dormait par terre, entre les bancs! Pas tres confortable, mais j'ai quand meme assez bien dormi.

Our hotel (which we booked online, hooray for the Internet!) is very nice, appartment-style, which means we can eat at our own table and (kinda) make our own food! It feels so nice not to be stuck in a tiny hotel room. There's also a pool (though the beach is really close by, and it's a little cold: 25 degrees:P) and a nice restaurant. The owner is a friendly old Greek grandfather. And it's all within our budget, too! A lot more expensive than Asia, although the "fancy" hotel we paid 100$ for in Agra wasn't that much nicer than the 30 Euros/night one we're in now. It's 4km from the city (we walked most of them on our first day here, but now we wait for the bus!) in a little touristy spot, which means there's Internet, little supermarkets, and a cinema where we saw Spiderman 3 last night! I couldn't believe it: There was an intermission after 1 hour into the film! And the kids who were there were sooo loud, no adults to keep them on a leash. Anyways, maybe they're just as bad back home and I've forgotten.

Comme il pleuvait hier, nous n'avons pas fait beaucoup. Nous avons marche longtemps, nous sommes alles a l'office de tourisme, ou la fille au comptoir a pu nous dire que le musee etait en renovations, mais n'en savait pas beaucoup plus, et puis nous avons essaye de nous rendre a l'aquarium. Je dis essaye, parce que les bus ici sont tres mal organises. Sous la pluie, une foule de gens essayent desesperement d'entrer dans un bus qui, ils esperent, se rend ou ils veulent aller. C'est la folie furieuse! On a finit par abandonner et, apres avoir jase un peu avec un couple de Gatinois (!), on est retournes a l'hotel.
Aujourd'hui, par contre, il fait tres beau et on a pu visiter Knossos, le meme que dans l'histoire du Minotaure! Pas de labyrinthe ou de Minotaure, mais le palais lui-meme ressemble assez a un labyrinthe. Nicolas etait tres heureux de retrouver le decor d'un de ses jeux d'Indiana Jones! Puis, cet apres-midi, nous avons visite le vieux fort venicien a Heraklion. Plein de vieilles choses!

Tomorrow, we're leaving for Santorini, a very beautiful island, apparently. I can't wait to see it. It's pretty incredible how much we've seen in the past months, and to think how much we'll see in the months to come!

1 comment:

Devika said...

Hey Elise,

Glad to hear you are starting to feel a little better! I hope you enjoy Santorini! I loved it. I was a little frustrated with the transport, but I also had only a few days and wanted to see everything! Don't forget to have a quick dip in the mineral waters there! But take off any jewellry b/c my silver tarnished!