'Escape From LA' Has a New Home and a New Name!!

Hi all! I have finally begun to take this blogging thing seriously and put some effort into making something of it. So, I've jazzed things up a bit, moved its home and crowned it with a new name.
You can find the new home at Chrissy Travels.
There is s sign up box on the site where you can get email messages whenever there is a new post.

Come read the latest posting: People Keep Asking Me To....Should I Kiss and Tell?

Thanks for all of the support here at my Blogger home. I am now the proud owner of a Wordpress blog.

Happy Travels!

The stats are in! The Best and Worst List of the Past Year Around the World

The statistics are in. I have tallied the details from my travels the past 12 months.


Here are a few stats from August 2010 to August 2011:
20 countries
60 cities (not counting repeats)
85 cities (counting repeats)
12 currencies
38 planes
21 trains
10 boats
1 cruise ship

Itinerary and course of travel for the past year:

Leg 1 drive across the US beginning August 16th, 2010:
Los Angeles, California 

Grand Canyon, Arizona

Lake Powell, Nevada 

Bryce Canyon, Utah

Route 12 through Utah 

Aspen, Colorado 

Denver, Colorado 

Des Moines, Iowa 

Chicago, Illinois 

Cincinnati, Ohio 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

New York, NY

Leg 2 European train tour:
Paris, France

Brussels, Belgium

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Cologne, Germany

Berlin, Germany

Prague, Czech Republic

Vienna, Austria

Budapest, Hungary

Milan, Italy

Venice, Italy

Rome, Italy

Naples, Italy

Pompeii, Italy

Assissi, Italy

Betona, Italy

Berlin, Germany

Paris, France 

London, England

Back to US to repack: 

Cincinnati, Ohio

Leg 3 South East Asia:
Singapore, Singapore

Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia

Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

Singapore, Singapore

Krabi, Thailand

Koh Phi Phi Islands, Thailand

Phuket, Thailand

Bangkok, Thailand

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Singapore, Singapore

Leg 4 Middle East, The Mediterranean:
Dubai, UAE 

Abu Dhabi, UAE 

Sharjah, UAE

Los Angeles, California

Rome, Italy

Betona, Italy

Perugia, Italy

Cosenza, Calabria, Italy

Leg 5 Back to the US for the holidays:
Cincinnati, Ohio

Miami, Florida

Boca Raton, Florida

Del Ray Beach, Florida

West Palm Beach, Florida

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Leg 6 Spring, Middle East,  N. Africa, Mediterranean:
Dubai, UAE

Sarasota, Florida 

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Hamptons, Long Island

Cincinnati, Ohio

Marrakech, Morocco

Essaouira, Morocco

Madrid, Spain

Formentera, Spain

Ibiza, Spain

Los Angeles, California

Cincinnati, Ohio

Leg 7 Summer Mediterranean Tour:

Barcelona, Spain

Valletta, Malta 

Palermo, Sicily, Italy

Naples, Italy 

Pompeii, Italy

Sorrento, Italy

Positano and the Amalfi Coast, Italy

Rome, Italy

Pisa, Italy

Florence, Italy

Corsica, France

Ville Franche, France

Monaco, France

Barcelona, Spain

Sardinia, Italy

Rome, Italy

Athens, Greece

Mykonos, Greece

Delos, Greece

Mykonos, Greece

Finish:
Back to Cincinnati August 11th, 2011

The Best and Worst List of the Past Year:

Favorite countries:
Italy and Greece

Favorite cities:
Prague, Czech Republic; Mykonos, Greece; Siem Reap, Cambodia; Dubai, UAE; Barcelona, Spain

Favorite foods:
Dubai (Lebanese) kibbeh nayeh, any Southern Italian cuisine, Greek horta and tyropita

Least favorite food culturally:
Cambodian; Czech Republic, Dutch

Favorite drinks:
Moroccan tea and the ouzo cocktail "Plomari Splash" at Solymar restaurant, Kalo Livadi, Mykonos, Greece

Most bizarre drink:
Luwak poop coffee in Bali, Indonesia

Most fun had:
Dubai and Mykonos

Most eye opening experience:
Reading the book 'Somaly Mam' on my way to Cambodia then visiting the kids in the Cambodian school for orphans (see Siem Reap, Cambodia and The Smiling Mom )

Most peaceful time spent:
6 days at the Hostal La Savina in Formentera, Spain; 2 days in the Riad Mimouna in Essaouira, Morocco; any day I am in Mykonos, Greece

Most touching moments:
Receiving an email from Rodrigo, the waiter in Madrid (see A Special Encounter in Madrid ) ; looking into the eyes of the poor and begging children in Cambodia; having a romantic interest tell me the song "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" is what he thinks of me and standing in front of the site where a terrorist bomb ripped through a tourist cafe a week earlier in Marrakech.

Most terrifying experience:
Being harassed in German by a vagrant in the subway late at night in Berlin

Most beautiful spots:
Formentera, Spain; Mykonos, Greece; Phi Phi Islands, Thailand; The Amalfi Coast, Italy, Route 12 through central Utah, USA

Most beautiful water to swim:
Sardinia, Italy; Formentera, Spain; Mykonos, Greece

Favorite sightseeing spots:
Phi Phi Islands boat ride, the opulence in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the Gaudi architecture in Barcelona, the Kasbah in Marrakech and strolling along the city streets of Prague

Favorite cultures:
Greek, Italian and Moroccan

Least favorite culture:
German

Best beaches:
Formentera, Spain and Mykonos, Greece

Best bargain hunting shopping:
Any open air market in South East Asia

Best bargain for a hotel:
Hostal La Savina, Formentera, Spain; Sea Side Studios, Kalo Livadi, Mykonos, Greece

Cheapest places to visit:
Bali, Indonesia; Cambodia

Most expensive places to visit:
London, Paris, Madrid and Mykonos, Greece (during the month of August)

Best spot for singles:
Mykonos, Greece and Ibiza, Spain during the summer months

Worst place to be without a hotel room:
Amsterdam, Holland (see Amsterdam, Holland )

Place I liked the least:
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Most difficult place to maneuver without knowing the language:
Sardinia, Italy (and I even know a little Italian)

Most pleasurable language to listen to:
Italian

Most unpleasant language to listen to:
German

Most difficult place to learn your way around with or without a map:
Palermo, Sicily

Best public transport system:
Barcelona

Number of countable romances this past year:
5

Number of opportunities for more romances: 
Countless

Amount of money spent:
I don't want to think about it, but not as much as you may think

Value of the experiences had and people I have met: 
Priceless

Mykonos, Greece

The town of Mykonos

My island ride

Let me take you on a tour of the island I have fallen in love with.......

A church in the center of town. One of 365 on the island. One for each day of the year.

One of my favorite spots, Little Venice

The famous windmills

Platis Yialos beach

Elia beach

Kalo Livadi beach where I stayed most of my stay.

The view from my villa

Capari beach

The Emerald water

The water taxi headed to Paradise Beach

Headed out to Agio Sostis

Agio Sostis

Sunset at Little Venice

Dusk

An authentic home cooked Greek meal

Horta! One of my favorite traditional Greek foods

Full moon party at the Santa Marina Hotel

I'll bet this guy was a whole lot of fun last night

Happy to have some American company

My three favorite Bulgarians 

Dancing the night away

How she walked on the cobblestone roads with these shoes, I'll never understand

A day at Kalo Livadi beach with my friends from Los Angeles

The dancing on the tables begins at Solymar

But, he's not impressed

A day at Psarou beach and the famous Nammos restaurant. This is Nammos before lunch....

Nammos during lunch

Nammos during lunch

Nammos after lunch

I have finished traveling for one year and I have ended in the place I wish to stay for a while......Greece!

Athens, Greece and the Week of Anti- Austerity

I took the ferry ride from Sardinia to the Civitavecchia port, caught the first train into Rome and headed to the airport to board my flight to Greece. I will be entering my 20^th country in the past 11 months and one I have only dreamed about. 

I didn’t know much about Athens or anything about Greece for that matter. I did not do my homework. I just knew that it was a country full of rich history and overdosed with a plethora of islands. What those islands looked like, I didn’t know except for the blue topped white buildings you see in so many postcard type views.

I arrived in Athens late on a Friday night with an offer from a new friend to pick me up from the airport. I booked a hotel room a few subway stops away from town and knew as soon as we pulled up, I may have made a mistake. It was horrible. The room was a shoebox and the neighborhood had a lot to be desired. I am so tired by now of handling the bookings while on the road. You could never imagine how much work it is to do the research, to find the right place, in the right part of town, for the right price when you don’t know anything about the city you are going to.

I had a friend from the States arriving on Saturday. She was enjoying an island hopping cruise with her boyfriend and another couple We coordinated the timing of our arrivals. I couldn’t wait! I was so excited to have an American friend in Athens to enjoy the weekend with.

When I awoke Saturday morning and I was able to take a look around, I had decided to get online and find another hotel to book closer to town where my friends were staying. I found the journey into town from where I was not as simple as the hotel promised. I gathered my things and began to search for the nearest bus and was met with an insurmountable frustration at the hoops I had to jump to get a bus ticket. I decided to cave and call a cab. 

Twenty minutes later, my bags and I were on our way only to be stopped just short of the city limits due to the police barricading all traffic from entering into the center of town. The Greeks were protesting in the city streets and no one was allowed in by car. The cab driver didn’t speak a lick of English. After a much aggravated attempt at severe body language, he opted to drop me off, bags and all, at the nearest subway stop. I would have to lug all of my luggage down to the subway and into the center of town to fend for myself. Thank God, the subway dropped me off right in front of the hotel where my friends were staying.

It was hot that day. Stuffy and brutal. We met up in the afternoon and began to plan our sightseeing adventures in and around Athens. They were staying at the 5 star Hotel Bretagne in the heart of Syntagma Square. Their balcony over looked the square and you could hear the protestors throughout the day and into the night chanting their call to Parliament to stop the austerity measures that were imminent to come down after the planned vote on Tuesday.

Their messages rang throughout the whole weekend not causing much trouble to us and our planned visits to the Acropolis and the Parthenon. It didn’t even interrupt our evening enjoying the symphony orchestra at the beautiful and ancient Odeon theater, but we were warned that come Tuesday, if the measures were passed in Parliament all hell would break loose. The city workers had planned to strike on Tuesday which would shut down the airports and stop any ferry traffic to the islands. I had better start making plans for a quick exit to the islands or at least get out of Athens before, for fear we may not be able to leave for days. 

Athens is a city to see for two, maybe three days. You can see what you need to see in a short period, other than that, it’s really not worth staying unless you are somewhere on the coastline away form the city center.

My friends were scheduled to leave Tuesday morning just before the strike was about to take place. I decided to book a room on the outskirts of town close to the beach area and wait for the strike to lift. I really wanted to take a ferry over to the islands to get a feel for the geography. I wanted to watch as we pulled into each port. 

Tuesday came and the strikes were in full effect. The city center turned into a quiet war zone. Marchers and chanters were calling on bull horns rants to be called back by the followers, (In Greek) “First you beat us, now you smile at us”. They screamed and danced and made as much noise as they could. It wasn’t until mid day on Tuesday when the vote had passed that the scene took a turn for the worse and became violent.

A war broke out that lasted several days. The streets had become a deadly place to walk and gas masks a necessity to survive. The people were uprising and riot police were called to arms. Buildings caught on fire as the crowds threw molotov cocktails into store windows and trash cans.

The 5 star hotel balcony where were my friends stayed just the night before had turned into an opportunity for news crew to set up impromptu studios overlooking the scene down below. It was chaos that I watched on CNN from my safely, removed hotel room by the beach. It lasted for three days before the fighting and citizens war began to settle.

I was ready to get out of this hell hole of a city. I felt for the Greek people. They held so much passion inside of them and wanted to have some control of their destiny that seemed to be slipping through their hands.

Although my time in Athens held a fun filled, sightseeing weekend with friends, the cities energy the last few days was draining. I couldn’t wait to get on that ferry. I booked the very first ferry leaving at 7 am when the strike lifted Friday morning. I had to be out the door and ready by 5 to make it to the port in time, but it was well worth it. I wanted on that boat and on that island….fast!

Happy to have met up with some American friends

My friend, Vanessa with the Acropoils in the background

The Evznoes changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier 

The Parliament

The Odeon theater

We saw the Philharmonic Orchestra of La Scala, Milan

Overlooking the Odeon theater

The Parthenon

Acropolis