Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 20:17:15 -0700
Reply-To: Zoltan <zol@FOXINTERNET.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Zoltan <zol@FOXINTERNET.NET>
Subject: MALCOLM & PAT, Cairo Report: Pilgrim's Progress #2
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
There is a little town at the bottom of the Peloponnesian Peninsula. It's
name is Finikundas. Well, after you have visited Olympia and Sparta and
all, go down there and have a look at the old man fixing his fishing net and
another splashing an octopus on the rocks an other painting his old
classical wooden boat, while you are sitting at a restaurant table on the
beach sand, the water runs up to the table legs almost and you are the most
important visitor yet no one is bothered too much to serve you fast. It is
a couple of centuries behind time there. Every few miles there is a
constant running water out of a wall for you to drink out of. The tourists
are not killing each other to see anything in particular. Its only you and
Greece with its people of slow and low cost life. No flashy advertisings,
no businesses, banks, shops, car based life, only the little hills with
strictly olive trees, dry abandoned places. Finikunda is a very peaceful
little place with the lovely beach you can park on and look at the sun down.
It is the real Greece at its best, totally uninfluenced. You will not leave
with ease as you rushed out of Athens.
If you go through the waters into Italy, you will miss some of the nicest
parts of Europe in southern Yugoslavia on the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
You might want to see Sicily with it's old Greek temples and other remnants
to make up for that loss. Naples is good to miss, but not Herculaneum or
Pompey.
There is the Isle of Capri, and later Tuscany with its magic. Maaaan.....,
I could go there right now. And I will, since I bought that high top
Vanagon in Germany, now is parking not too far from Frankfurt International
Airport, in top condition.
I might just finish this letter and go to the airport straight...
Stay as long as it is humanly possible. Here we are just fine without your
help for a while. But let me know how do you do it, keeping us so well
informed from a Vanagon. What is your system that allows you to be part of
this cyber world?
It is always nice to read your reports and looking forward to the next one.
Zoltan
Send us a picture of the Corinthian channel with your Syncro, if you can.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Malcolm Stebbins" <mstebbins@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2001 5:59 AM
Subject: Cairo Report: Pilgrim's Progress #2
> This is to update you all on our progress. As I write this we are in
> Athens, Greece: 30 days into our trip and about 7,500 kms so far. I
believe
> that I reported in just after having water pump problems in Turkey. Well,
> the water pump has been working fine; we did have some drip, drip, drip,
in
> the front of the van, and I was able to trace it to a loose coolant hose
> connection that had been exacerbated by a wire clamp that holds the
coolant
> hoses up against the underbody of the van. This wire clamp had come
loose,
> allowing the hoses to sag and that caused a weak link at a joint. That
was
> fixed and we have had no more van problems to date.
>
> One story of note is that as we were about 15 kms outside of Istanbul,
> driving into Istanbul, while we were going slowing up a long hill on a 4
> lane divided highway, a kind motorist pointed to the back of the van in a
> bit of a panic. Well, all of you vanagon owners - and especially me -
with
> all of our coolant problems - took this seriously. I pulled over and got
> out of the van to see what was the matter. The kind motorist stopped and
> gestured (he was speaking Turkish) for Pat to rev the engine while he
> indicated to me to look at the rear of the van. As he and I were at the
> back of the van looking for what he gestured were sparks, he went back up
to
> the front of the van, reached in and grabbed my fanny-pack (Pat being
> distracted as well) and ran and jumped into his BMW and sped away. Now!
it
> was my Syncro Westy against his BMW going up hill from a dead start; in
> about 15 seconds we had lost sight of him as we "raced" up-hill to
"catch"
> him.
>
> We usually are fairly careful - but he hit our "Achilles heel" as most of
us
> vanagon owners are a bit paranoid about van problems. Usually I keep my
> neck pouch separate from my fanny-pack, but I became lazy and I had my
neck
> pouch IN my fanny pack. So, the thief got my (Malcolm's)Passport, both
M/C
> Debit Cards, $1,500 in AmEx T-Cheques and about $300 worth of cash, and my
> Nova Scotia and int'l driver's license and varied and sundry other items.
> Pat's fanny pack and neck pouch were hanaging from the arm rest; had he
> stolen hers too, we would have been in bigger trouble.
>
> We were a bit prepared for getting ripped off, We have photo-copies of
our
> passports and the T-Cheques #s and Phone numbers for M/C. So we
immediately
> drove to a restaurant and called M/C to cancel our cards. Several VERY
> helpful folks at the restaurant were instrumental to us getting through
on
> the phone. The next day we spent getting my passport replaced and the
> T-Cheques replaced (AmEx earned that 1% fee). We are having our Credit
> Union FedEx new Debit Cards to us here in Athens and we hope to pick them
up
> soon. All in all the lost cash and fees will be about $500 or so, not to
> mention 2 lost days of our vacation while we chassed around Istanbul
> putting my identity back together again. We will be more careful in the
> future.
>
> "Other than that how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?" Turkey in
> general, and Istanbul in particular, was a very delightfull surprise.
> Istanbul is a low-rise city that seems to work. In addition to dealing
with
> post-robbery hassles, we had a delightful 4 days there seeing the sights.
>
> Another problem with my stolen passport is that it had my Turkish entry
> visa and van particulars written in the passport; so as we left Turkey
(into
> Greece) we had to do a bit of convincing of the border patrol as to WHY I
> had no entry visa or van particulars in my NEW passport. However, they
were
> very understanding and let us pass without much of a delay.
>
> Athens is not much of a city to "write home about". If it were not for
the
> Parthenon on the Acropolis there would be little reason for tourists to
come
> here.
>
> It is interesting to SEE culture change: the style of dress, language
and
> customs. We have travelled from religious states (Egypt, Jordon, Syria)
> where the human body is considered sinful and required covering (complete
> covering for many women), to Turkey (a secular state but still 99%
Islamic),
> where religious control is a bit looser, to Greece, where our second camp
> site was (at least by some taken to be) a nude beach (I admit I looked).
We
> can really feel the freedom here.
>
> From here we are off to Crete and the Peloponnese and then off to Italy
> where I hope to be able to send an email that says "an uneventful drive".
> Oh well, we can always dream. Malcolm & Pat
>
> _________________________________________________________________________
> Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
| 
