Writer's Block: Bad trip.
May. 7th, 2010 12:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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I've had many that were bad, though the vast majority were good.
The worst was arriving in Greece during a banking crisis only to find, on the second day, that there were demonstrations against Americans going on in the streets of Athens.
Seeing the Archaeological museum with all its vast treasures, attending the sound and light show at the Parthenon on the first night, and recognizing the word Acropolis on the bus (I was twenty, but somehow the idea that the Greek buses would use the Greek alphabet hadn't really occurred to me.) were all wonderful moments for me and my sister.
Having to stay at an expensive hotel because all the banks were closed and the hotels would only cash traveler's checks for their own guests and holing up in the room after dark on the second night while we listened to the demonstrations, were definitely a bit scary.
I have ended up on the periphery of worse riots, but those were at home in DC.
Still, traveling with just my little sister in a country where I couldn't even figure out the language from cognates made me pretty nervous. Sis and I practically kissed the ground when we finally arrived in Brindisi.
(The cognates thing... I attended a Greek Orthodox service, many years after the incident above, with a Greek friend. The service was extra long that day, at least two hours, which she apologized for by saying, "and you couldn't understand one word." I said that wasn't true, I'd understood six: evangelicum, mysterium, eucharist, christe, kyrie, eleison.
Contrast this with arriving in Brindisi on that trip mentioned above and spending over an hour of the time between Brindisi and Rome translating, in both directions, a conversation between an American and a Neapolitan even though I don't speak any Italian because I could understand the French cognates.
Yeah, Greece made me nervous.)
I've had many that were bad, though the vast majority were good.
The worst was arriving in Greece during a banking crisis only to find, on the second day, that there were demonstrations against Americans going on in the streets of Athens.
Seeing the Archaeological museum with all its vast treasures, attending the sound and light show at the Parthenon on the first night, and recognizing the word Acropolis on the bus (I was twenty, but somehow the idea that the Greek buses would use the Greek alphabet hadn't really occurred to me.) were all wonderful moments for me and my sister.
Having to stay at an expensive hotel because all the banks were closed and the hotels would only cash traveler's checks for their own guests and holing up in the room after dark on the second night while we listened to the demonstrations, were definitely a bit scary.
I have ended up on the periphery of worse riots, but those were at home in DC.
Still, traveling with just my little sister in a country where I couldn't even figure out the language from cognates made me pretty nervous. Sis and I practically kissed the ground when we finally arrived in Brindisi.
(The cognates thing... I attended a Greek Orthodox service, many years after the incident above, with a Greek friend. The service was extra long that day, at least two hours, which she apologized for by saying, "and you couldn't understand one word." I said that wasn't true, I'd understood six: evangelicum, mysterium, eucharist, christe, kyrie, eleison.
Contrast this with arriving in Brindisi on that trip mentioned above and spending over an hour of the time between Brindisi and Rome translating, in both directions, a conversation between an American and a Neapolitan even though I don't speak any Italian because I could understand the French cognates.
Yeah, Greece made me nervous.)
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no subject
Date: 2010-05-08 03:34 am (UTC)To be honest, I've always wanted to see Turkey and Greece, and I've always been afraid to travel there. If I go, I'll take my best friend, who managed to travel for two weeks in Thailand without anything bad happening to her.
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Date: 2010-05-08 05:06 am (UTC)Turkey, yes, I'd like to go there some day.
Any place can have a bad week. I've come to the conclusion that the city of Florence hates me. The first time I went, Sis and I were trapped by a bunch of guys who touched us to get through the passageway to our hotel and the second time my skirt caught on fire. I've refused to try a third time. *G*
no subject
Date: 2010-05-11 01:36 am (UTC)My worst location has probably been Boston. I enjoyed some of it, but found the Bostonians in general unfriendly and pushy. At one point I stumbled and fell leaving the airport and no one even stopped to see if I was okay, they just walked around me, knocked into me, etc. But then I know two Bostonites who are nice people, so who knows.
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Date: 2010-05-11 01:34 pm (UTC)But yes, when my sister was going to grad school there, she smiled at someone on the street who sighed and said, "So. What. You need directions?"