Travel Log: Living the Dream... in STRIKE! (Prelude)

Destination: Greece
Duration: 9 Days 7 Nights (Oct 18~Oct 26, 2011)

Day 0: Penang -> KL & Random Rambling

A month ago during our VP’s visit from US, he asked us a question: “Are you living the dream?” We smiled and kept quiet to let the question slide as a case of “lost in translation”. Actually when he asked that, the only thing my brain could think about was: “I would be… in one month time!”

I have some friends asking me why I am obsessed with this place. I have no answer for them. It is just THIS PLACE for so long until I never even think about any reason at all.
Let’s see my logic here:-

-     My 1^st ever novel of my life was set place in THIS PLACE, I have been imagining the place when I read that in 1992 – and I read it countless times. It was “This Rough Magic” by Mary Stewart, of course during that time I was reading it in Chinese translation copy and I still own the copy.

-    I’m a geek – I love myths! I love novels and movies about myths thousand years before our time. They just seems strangely romantic and tragic to me.

-    My name is totally related to THIS PLACE! I can’t believe it never occurred to me when I chose this name – or did I do that subconsciously?

So where is THIS PLACE? HELLENIC REPUBLIC as local calls it or GREECE as foreigners knows it.

So how does Greece fit in my logic earlier?

-    “This Rough Magic” was set at Corfu Island – a Greek island where the novel describes the houses, the beach, the culture and the sea so vividly that I imagine the place in my mind since 1992.  Even though I did not step on Corfu Island in this trip, it’s a dream to step on any Greek islands.

-    Greece is full of myths - Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Athena, Aphrodite, Hercules… need I say more?

-    My name - Celaeno was one of the 7 daughters of Atlas called the Pleiades who were loved by Poseidon.

As we are too lazy to do a backpack ourselves, we’ve decided to join Reliance tour of 9D7N Gem of Greece (link) which consists of following schedule:-
Day 1: Arriving at Athens in the evening
Day 2: Leave for Mykonos by Ferry/Speed Boat – one of the Greek Islands
Day 3: Leave for Santorini by Ferry/Speed Boat – another Greek Islands
Day 4: Full day at Santorini
Day 5: Fly back to Athens for city tour
Day 6: Leave for Delphi & Kalambaka
Day 7: Visit Meteora Monastries & Back to Athens
Day 8: Full day Athens free at leisure until plane departure at 7.55pm

Few days before tour departure on Oct 18, 2011, we read that there would be a general strike in Athens which includes bus, metro, boat and all public sectors. We contacted Reliance and were told everything would be fine and the tour would go on.

Since the tour package started at KLIA, we had to find a way to KL by ourselves. We ended up buying Air Asia PEN-KL tickets as they were much cheaper than MH. It only cost RM253 for 2 pax for return flight while MH would cost around RM400 per pax for return flight. In order to catch the Oct 18 10.25am flight at KLIA, we took Air Asia on Oct 17 red eye flight at 11.05pm departure. Our plan was to arrive at LCCT and caught the last Airport Liner at 12.30am to KLIA to stay overnight.

We thought our plan was perfect… until Air Asia decided to delay the flight to 11.45pm! UGH!!! We reached LCCT at around 12.45am and missed the last bus! One thing we realized - LCCT was full of people even during this hour. You could see people sleeping on the chair or even at the floor just outside the arriving area. You couldn’t really know whether they were tourist or homeless as lots of them just sprawled on the floor.

We felt skeptical to stay around the area and came up with a brilliant plan – Coffee Bean! There was this Coffee Bean opening 24 hours near the arriving area so we simply walked in, bought a set of All-Day-Breakfast, sprawled on their sofa and stayed until almost 6am for the next Airport Liner to KLIA. From what we could see, quite a few people did that, they simply bought a drink or something and stayed there for next flight or bus. Some didn’t even have the courtesy to even buy a drink. But Coffee Bean did give you a sense of security (or was it false security?) as it was almost empty with little customer flow and a big surveillance camera on top. Guess this was the cheapest “Hotel” for overnight transit tourist. :p

The Almost Empty LCCT Coffee Bean during the Night...

Our "Hotel" + Meal (Egg & Salmon) only costs RM20.30

The Adventure Began (Click below link for day by day story):-
Day 1 - Arriving in Athens
Day 2 - Delphi & Kalambaka
Day 3 - Meteora
Day 4 - Santorini (Pyros & Megalochori)
Day 5 - Santorini (Island Hopping Tour & Skaros)
Day 6 - Santorini (Ancient Thira & Oia)
Day 7 - Departing Santorini to Athens - Athens Archaeological Museum
Day 8 - Acropolis & Museum before Departing from Athens
Day 9 - Transit in Doha