After returning my rental car and spending one obligatory night in Córdoba, I jumped on a plane to Argentina’s far northwest. I’ll be starting in the city of Salta, but this post will be about all of Salta Province. It looked like the weather was going to be quite nice for my stay, 70°’s mostly, but on my main exploration day the thermometer jumped all the way up to 98°! Yowza! It was a sweaty day. I also think I…
After one quick night in very non-touristy San Luis, it was a relatively short drive west to Mendoza, the gateway to the Andes Mountains. Miraculously, I found a place on the street to park the car just a half block from my hostel. Awesome! I checked in, got settled, and then decided to walk a few miles to the Monument to the Army of the Andes high up on the hill in Parque General San Martín. If you guessed that…
My flight from Puerto Iguazu to my current stop of Córdoba was quick and painless, though the change in weather was another brutal shock to the system. The hot humidity of Iguazu was suddenly cold again, even colder than Buenos Aires. Luckily, as the days wore on it warmed up a bit, but the first couple of days took some getting used to. Anyway, the city of Córdoba was founded in 1573 by this guy, Jeronimo Luis de Cabrera. I’ve…
Hola and welcome to my latest adventure, Argentina! Get comfortable, folks! If all goes well and I see this trip through to the end, this will end up being the longest trip I’ve ever done. Argentina is a really big country, so let’s get started. I arrived pretty early in the morning, which means day one’s struggle is to try to stay awake to beat the jetlag. I checked in to my hostel and decided to stay relatively close today…
After a ridiculously short flight of fifty minutes, I’m now on the island of Rhodes. This particular group of islands right off the coast of Turkey is known as the Dodecanese islands. Flying was a much better option than an eleven hour ferry. Rhodes is best known for its almost completely intact medieval old town. Most of what you see in Rhodes today was built by the Knights Hospitaller in the 14th century. It was a very important base of…
My next and final stop in Crete is in the largest city on the island, Heraklion. This is also where I’ll be ringing in the New Year. The Christmas music hasn’t stopped unfortunately. Anyway, this post is light on sites, but rich in hostel drama. Excited? Don’t be, it wasn’t that big of a deal, but here we go. Heraklion has a pretty awesome Archeology Museum. All the cool artifacts from most of the ancient sites ended up here. I…
Making my way east across Crete, my next stop is the town of Rethymno. This city was built almost entirely by the Venetians in the 13th century. Even though it’s a bit sprawling, it feels like more of a small town to me. There’s not a lot going on here, but there were some interesting sites in town. My first stop was the Archeology Museum. Right outside was this, what I assume is a Venetian Gate. There was no information…
The ferry times to and from Milos are not at all convenient. I left at around 2pm and arrived on the the next island at 7pm, checked into my hostel, grabbed dinner, and got ready to explore the next morning. Now, welcome to Chania on Greece’s biggest island of Crete. I’m starting my exploration of Crete on a Sunday, everything is usually closed on Tuesdays, and it’s Christmas week, so I’m making a mad dash to all of the places…
I had quite the odyssey getting from Eleusis into Athens. I don’t know if the traffic is always like that or if it was bad luck because of an accident, but holy crap! There was a lot of sitting still, eventually an illegal U-turn and an epic reroute (thanks to my excellent map skills), driving every crazy residential back alley in the suburbs, until I finally finished my twelve mile drive in just over three hours. Whew, I don’t ever…
Leaving Ioannina my first thought was that it was nice to be driving on a straight road for a change. Ha! I left early and drove for about an hour to the ferry port in Igoumenitsa, then drove my little car that doesn’t smell like it’s burning onto a very big ferry bound for the island of Corfu out in the Ionian Sea. After about an hour and a half I was in Corfu Town. It was still early when…