Pióro

Rhodes—the biggest tourist trap since Cinque Terre with half the charm. Sure, there are ancient edifices. The old town looks pretty cool with its narrow streets and small squares, all within the old city walls. The place is rammed with shops. The ones selling stylish chess sets or carpets or pillows add to the flavour [...]

From Athens it was just a hop, skip and a jump, and we were on yet another night ferry, this time for the Cyclades. Naxos was our destination, an island that the Lonely Planet describes as the biggest, greenest and perhaps most beautiful of the whole archipelago. I have no idea if they are right, [...]

I left Athens full of retsina and having been kissed by a man. The hostel we were staying at had a bar and the bartender was George.
“I’m George. George Bartender.”
I doubt his last name was actually Bartender, unless he shortened it from “Bartenderopolous.” This guy was all about the party and he’s been at if [...]

Something brushed against my foot.
I woke to see a guy in the door of our train compartment.
He apologised. My first thought was that he was just checking to see if there was a seat free, and when he saw us sleeping he apologised for disturbing us. But when I looked on the floor and saw [...]

So we’ve been pretty silent so far. Since Barcelona anyway. After that amazing town we left the Iberian Peninsula for the Italian one. We stayed in the tourist trap of Cinque Terre, five small villages in a national park. Although touristy, the place is gorgeous: pebble beaches and hiking trails through green mountains.
Then it was [...]

9 July 2002, 6:10 am
Mar woke up.
“Where are our bags?”
Our day-packs were not on the floor where we had left them. We were on a train somewhere between Foggia and Bari, coming up to the eastern coast of Italy. The train was minutes away from pulling into some small town.
We had a booth to ourselves, [...]

At long last, you can see a small fraction of specially selected pictures from our trip. These were cooked up and prepared for the Web in Granada. Many thanks to Jean-Claude for the use of his laptop. Just click on the Pics link to the right and enjoy.

There’s nothing like driving from Granada to Barcelona in a Citroen C5. You feel like a rock-star with the Hives blaring on the CD player. To keep up with traffic you hold an effortless 150 km/h. The highway is much nicer than the town. It’s much better than getting lost in the Albayzin, Granada’s old [...]

If you ever again, or for the first time, go to Granada, please stay at Rambutan. It is in the Albayzin, the old Muslim district across the Rio Darro from the Alhambra. Worlds cannot describe how wonderful it is … well yeah I guess they could, but more than I am prepared to write in [...]

So our lonely planet has been helpful, don’t get me wrong… it’s just that I’m not so sure about their idea of a shoestring budget. Either that, or the prices have gone up in the past year. We haven’t had much success, or enjoyment out of the places that the book recommends, accommodation and mostly [...]