Let Me Tell You About Our Day

We thought we had it rough getting into and out of Cordoba. We thought trains in Italy were a mess. Today made those days look like cake walks. In the park.

We were traveling from Patras, Greece, to Kalambaka, Greece. We bought tickets for this route almost a week ago with the aid of the hardest working train employee in Greece (in all seriousness she was amazingly helpful and did a lot for us). As it was, it already seemed far more complicated than we had expected: a bus to Kiato, a train to Ano Liosa, a connection to Larissa Station in Athens, a train to Palaiofarsalo (say that five times fast, or even just once slowly), and there a connection to Kalambaka.

Well, that sounds awful but really isn’t bad. We already had to do all of the first steps in reverse to get from Athens to Patras, so all that was new was switching trains in Palaiofarsalo. Not too bad, right?

Well, it wouldn’t have been had there not been a strike today.

We got on our bus and made it to Kiato in okay time despite a hellish bus ride, and we hiked up the stairs to settle in at the platform and wait for the next train to leave to Athens via Ano Liosa. A minute or two in Loren suggests I (who was rummaging around the food bag simply for something to spend my restless energy on) go ask the ticket people when the train was coming. This is at 10:30am.

After finding someone who spoke English (I can scrape by in Greek, but it is usually much less painful for all involved if there is an English speaking employee), she informs me that the next train leaves at 13:25. (The trains should run once every 10 minutes or so.)

…. Our train to Palaiofarsalo left Athens at 14:18 and the trip to Larissa Station takes 1.5 hours. No can do.

So we taxi to the bus station in Kiato to catch the 11:00 KTEL bus to Athens, which takes 2 hours. We made sure it would drop us at Larissa Station, then started loading our bags in and before Loren even had a chance to load hers, the bus starts moving, with my bag on it and the two of us and Loren’s bag not. Thankfully he heard us start yelling and stopped, and I gave him an angry fist shake (more of a “what the hell!” shrug and glare in reality), and we boarded up.

Then we got to Athens, and ended up at Kifissou Station because **** YOU THAT’S WHY, where all KTEL buses go to hang out and laugh at any poor soul trying to use them. Kifissou Station is the best kept worst secret of Athens. It is in the middle of nowhere and nobody seems to know it exists. Thankfully we had wrestled that bear weeks ago and knew which bus to take to get to the metro station that would get us to Larissa (51 to Menandrou, walk to Omonia Square, red line to Larissa).

Well, we get to the metro station after the worst bus ride ever through truly unbelievable traffic… and everything in the station is roped off. Can’t get to the platforms. That’s when we see the sign that says there is a metro strike today.

I assure you that the words spoken at this point were neither ladylike nor polite.

Okay. Okay. Fine. We will get a %&*?#@! taxi to $*&?+#! Larissa Station.

Nope. We spent a solid 20 minutes trying to hail a taxi. All full.

Finally I remembered my phone had a map of Athens cached. We looked up the route and walked it. Down Aghios Konstantinou, across Metaxourgheio square, up Theodorou something-or-other street… all this with our 10-12 kilo back packs on. With just a hill and maybe a kilometer left between us and Larissa Station, we had 10 minutes until the train left. And we saw a bus, a 1 trolley, and it was stopped. We ran. We asked “Larissa?” And the guy said yes. And we got on. And we made our train with 4 minutes to spare.

Hours later the transfer in Palaiofarsalo went smoothly and now here we are in Kalambaka. Our hotel is nice, the receptionist super great and helpful, and a nice day in the mountains planned for tomorrow. Also we found this while looking for food:

No, we didn’t have hamb baby chops for dinner. A shame, I’m sure, but we found a Mexican place and how could we not?