Day 414: Quito hop on hop off bus tour

We left Spanish class an hour early this afternoon in order to ‘hop on’ the hop on hop off bus for tourists in Quito. We weren’t necessarily planning on hopping on and off throughout the day, but wanted to ride it around to get a different perspective of the city. I was pleasantly surprised when it circled up to the top of El Panecillo and stopped for thirty minutes for passengers to walk around the Virgin Mary Statue overlooking Quito. We did end up hopping out to see the interior of the Basílica del Voto Nacional and before we were ready to leave the skies broke open unleashing a torrential downpour on us. Who knew that Quito would be so cold (thanks to the altitude) with such temperamental weather (in October)? We didn’t. And I was cold a lot of the time. We had plans to walk around Quito, but the cold rain canceled those plans and instead we spent an hour trying to flag down a taxi back to our guesthouse instead.

We hopped on the bus at the Mariscal stop and rode past the El Ejido, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, and past La Basílica, which you can see below. For some reason Quito’s hop on hop off bus experience seemed a little different than those in other cities that we have been on one of those buses. Maybe because it seemed like there was less to really see and take in from the bus? It was still interesting, but just a little different. I most enjoyed the sprawl of the city because the buildings were so colorful and seemed to stand out against each other beautifully.

We drove around and up to El Panecillo, a volcanic hill where a statue rests at the top overlooking the city. It’s a beautiful view, and if you are feeling risky, you could walk up to the peak, although it’s not recommended as it has a reputation of being the most dangerous area of the city. The top is calm and other tourists milled about. My favorite part? The empanadas that were made to order. I have to say after nearly two months in South America, this was the first time I’ve had a fresh empanada and it was pretty life changing. Lightyears different than an empanada that has been sitting in a bakery for a few hours. Oh my yum. Go try one. Figure out how to make one. You must try one.

After El Panecillo, we rode back down through Quito, through the Plaza Grande and then we hopped off at García Moreno Park to check out the inside of the Basílica del Voto Nacional. It’s a huge, yet rather dark church. There’s a smaller alter, or if it’s possible another basilica within the church itself? I’m not sure of the technicalities of it all- but contrary to the rest of the church, it was beautiful and much more ornate. Unfortunately there were a few “no photo” signs throughout, and I abided by them.

We tried to wait out the rain. We even ran down the street in the middle of it to get a hot chocolate to try to wait it out even more. It was relentless. We gave up. Everyone else in the historical center must have given up as well, because it proved impossible to catch a cab. By the time we made it back to our equally cold guesthouse, we discovered a leak in the ceiling, one that was dripping water directly on our bed. One not so quick room change later, we were tucking into a bowl of mac and cheese and watching The Walking Dead. Yes my friends, we found mac and cheese in Ecuador, and it was glorious. Ok to be fair, I think the water messed up the noodles a bit, but I didn’t care. And next to it, cheddar cheese and crackers. Because obviously we were going for a well rounded meal. Oh right, and we miss cheese.

Day 409: La Ronda by day

La Ronda, more specifically known as Calle La Ronda is more popular at night. It offers a vibrant restaurant and cafe scene with live music and more. However, as we were in the area, walking around the historical center of Quito, we decided to check it out by day and planned to return another night. By day, La Ronda is quiet. It’s quiet in a good way and feels peaceful and safe compared to other parts of the city where it’s practically unthinkable to whip out your camera to photograph a door or the façade of an ice-cream shop.

La Ronda is one of the oldest streets in Quito. There are explanations set up along the street about who lived there, what shops were operated, and how the street came to be. It’s interesting, and would have been even more interesting if more of the cafes were open so we could have sat down for a warm cup of coffee in the surprisingly cold city only thirty minutes away from the equator. We ducked into a couple of art exhibitions, (above is a piece by Carmen Davila Falconi) walked the entire length of the calle, and looked forward to returning to a more vibrant night scene next week!

Day 269: Thessaloniki, a walking tour

Success is waking up before the front desk calls you to make sure you don’t miss breakfast. Success might not be drinking an Amstel after breakfast because leaving it behind in your hotel room refrigerator would be wasteful.

We began our walking tour from the post office (an expensive adventure I’ve finally come to terms with), making our way to the furthest point where the Lonely Planet walking tour began.

“Don’t look to your right.” Andrew demanded, as he held up his hands to shield my view.

“Is it on the walking tour?” I asked, already trying to look.

“Yes! Don’t look!” He insisted.

We made our way up the hill to the Kastra, basically a fortification of the city in ancient times. It provided an exceptional view of the city, and the sea below. There were a few chambers inside that you could climb up and read about the history of the walls and entrances. One room featured a lock and pulley gate system that would trap unwanted visitors below. The same room also had a couple “murder holes” which they would pour boiling water on the captors below. Andrew declared he would like a few murder holes of his own just so he can be like “Yea, this is my murder hole.”

We walked to a monastery, and then to a couple of churches. One monastery had a huge cage of peacocks outside. I counted at least thirty. I recognized their wails before we knew what kind of bird they were. Andrew rolled his eyes, but I was proud of myself and told him of my Grandmother’s neighbors who had a few peacocks when I was growing up. Aside from the outdoor cage of peacocks, everything else was closed.

To be fair, Lonely Planet advised to start the tour at nine. We started it at two.

We were able to go into The Church of Hagios Demetrios and walk through the crypt that was surprisingly not creepy at all. It’s pretty impressive, but what struck me more was the idea of a time when Christianity was illegal and its followers worshipped underground (in the crypt) in secret. Every Friday you can partake in a mass in the crypt at the church to get a feel for what those times would have been like. I expected it to be dark and a little bit morbid, but it was well lit and comforting in a way. More comforting than what seemed cold in comparison upstairs.

Then, not on the tour, but along the way was an old building that was either a mosque or a building that accompanied the mosque. (The security guard didn’t speak English and our Greek isn’t exactly up to par.) It was rather beautiful nonetheless and somewhat surprising that it stood in pretty good condition, but not being used, or so it seemed to us.

By the time we made it down to the same point where Andrew previously insisted I couldn’t look, I was tired. Cobblestoned hills, flip-flops, and a bum ankle don’t exactly go together and I was ready to sit down. And so we did, first for a snack that ended up being one of the more epic salads (aside from another pretty great one in India) of this trip and then later for a Greek coffee. I saw them everywhere during our walking tour. Glasses of what I expected to be foamy coffee goodness. It was just as good as I expected it to be.

And with a seemingly amazing combination of sugar and caffeine, it has kept me awake until now, 2:53 am, typing away on our overnight train to Athens. I may as well stay up until we arrive in the Greek capital in two short hours. What is it with these overnight buses and trains keeping all of the lights on during the night though? Why hasn’t someone introduced night-lights to these overnighters? Is it so no one misses their stop? The Turkish buses had attendants with everyone’s departure written down and they seemed to personally warn you when it was your turn to jump ship, er, bus. I guess the trains are too big to deal with that, at least in our class it was.