UADarthmaul's Travels: Greece 1: The very slow start

My trip to Greece has had many aggravations that began nearly as soon as I made my flight reservations and lasted into the first few days of my actual trip. I do not want to dwell on them for a long time, so I will just give a quick summary. I booked with Air Canada, which ended up dropping out of my departing airport, and handed it over to their partners, United Airlines. 10 hours on the phone and I thought I had it all sorted. I had, at minimum, 10 changes made to my flights by the airlines total over the two months between scheduling and actually going. When I arrived at Charlotte Airport for my first flight, we boarded the plane and we were initially delayed an hour. Weather in Chicago thwarted both the departure and the possible alternative routes which involved planes that were inbound from Chicago.

My flight was delayed a day, so I had to stay for a night near Charlotte airport. The United worker who rescheduled my flights was nice enough to give me upgraded extra room seats, which I did not find out about until I had sat down on both of my flights. My ten hour flight also had an empty seat next to me. When I arrived, the amazing rate that I had booked for my three week car rental through Budget Rent a Car refused to be honored by them. They actualy had the nerve to double my price and neglect to even mention the rate change until I noticed what it rang up as, right as they were swiping my card. They stated that since I was more than twelve hours late, they would have to rebook it fresh, as if I were booking it that day. Talks with two supposed supervisors yielded very little ground. Exhausted, I took the car, with a slight discount to the initial exorbitant price. Even getting a receipt for this new price was not easy, and I am not convinced that this scam company will honor the new deal. I pray that they do not alter it any further. The money for the first location, which was closer(in Corinth), was forfeit. Normally, I always get travel insurance, but this time I decided to get a full year of coverage(up to 60 days of travel within 365 days) that covered all international travel only. I do not know if any of this qualifies through that insurance because the delay was caused in the United States.

The car did not have a "P" option with the automatic gear. In order to park the car, it had to be placed in neutral and then the parking break applied. No one told me this of course, but I found out when I tried to fiddle with the car upon first sitting down. It also did not have a "D," with an "E" instead. I began my two hour drive to Nafplio, a port city that is near a few archeological excavation sites and has a beautiful old town, which I would be staying in. One of the first things that I noticed while driving, was that it seemed like every few miles there was another bathroom rest stop. These are not rest stops like you would find in the US. These were tiny pullovers with room for maybe five cars lined up along the curb to park, with a small bathroom. Although I have yet to use one of these bathrooms, it was still nice to find. Additionally, there were frequent toll stops, costing about $2.50 each time. A google search stated that the tolls are on the main roads from Athens most likely to hit tourists.

Once I reached my hotel, I quickly went straight to bed for a few hours. The two hosts at the hotel a man and a woman, of indeterminate marriage status, were very friendly. I ran my dozen memorized Greek phrases past them to make sure that I was pronouncing them right. The room was large, with a small air conditioning. The bed was fantastic.

I needed to sleep late in order to catch up a bit. Unfortunately, around 8 AM that next morning, construction work began in the half of the building and this lasted through noon. Forcing myself eventually out of bed, I left the room around 2:00 PM. My first stop was the archaeological site of Mycenae.

At first I did not think it was too hot, but once out of the shade, I had confirmed to myself that it indeed was very hot. I walked around the entire site and into the very small museum. There was one small tour group of maybe 6 people. A fifteen second drive away was the Tomb of Agamemnon. Inside was a group of four that quickly left me to myself.

I continued up north, driving up a mountain, to visit Acrocorinth, what looked like a substantial sized fort, just above the town of Corinth. Unfortunately, it had closed at 3:00 PM. It was about 4:30, and so I did not think anything would be closed at this time. I took a quick walk around and then drove down the mountain and into town.

I parked in town and then accidentally walked straight from parking into what actually was the exit for Ancient Corinth. After walking to the correct spot, I first entered a fairly nice museum and then into what was a mostly absolutely crumbled Corinth.