It’s Important to Type the Name of Your Desintation Correctly

by Martha Edwards on

I recently came across this story about three Norwegian tourists who planned a trip to Rhodes in Greece, only to end up in the French town of Rodez instead. They booked their trip through the Internet, you see, and made a mistake when typing the destination. Despite efforts of Rodez locals to make their stay pleasant, the confused tourists promptly returned to Norway.

But while Rodez probably doesn’t have beaches, at least it’s still in Europe — I think the mistake could have been much more profound. They could’ve ended up in Rhode Island, or maybe even Greece, New York. Imagine the shock if they had booked a trip to Paris, France and ended up in Paris, Ontario? I’m sure the Canadian town is lovely but it’s not exactly a bustling metropolis. Or say you wanted to visit family in Memphis, TN, and ended up in Memphis, Egypt?

The point it, there are wayyyy to many similarly-named places in the world. Consider this fair warning an be careful the next time you book a trip online.

Greetings from Crete: Santorini Is Therapy for the Photographically-Challenged

by Iva Skoch on

Seriously. If you want to boost your picture-taking self-esteem, head over to the Greek island of Santorini. I am convinced it is not possible to shoot a bad photo of this place, which is essentially a rim of a volcano. Even I was able to score a few good ones and I am a really impatient photographer.

The white buildings against the deep blue sea, the shocking cliffs, colorful fishing boats, wrinkled men on donkeys, broken pottery randomly placed on ancient staircases, old women in black gossiping on benches… It is almost as if they staged everything perfectly in place just for your picture-taking pleasure. (Which, they probably do just before the cruise ships dock there each morning.)

As beautiful as the island is, I can’t honestly see spending more than a day or two there. And that’s not just because my new favorite coffee drink–frappe–costs $5-6. Ouch. It’s so damn picturesque, it’s kitschy. There is only so much beauty one take take before longing for the comfort of ugly chaos if you ask me. Still, the fast ferry from Crete today took only about 90 minutes and cost about 30 Euro, which made it a great day trip.

Greetings from Crete: 4000-Year-Old Flush Toilet No Longer Flushing

by Iva Skoch on

If you can handle waiting in line for tickets for more than an hour, you shall be rewarded: the largest and most famous Minoan palace, Knossos (just south of the city of Iraklion, on Crete) is well worth the trip. It’s a Bronze-age palace excavated only in the last century, and holds many interesting features that still tell us relatively little about the Minoan culture or lives. It does reveal one hugely important fact: they knew the value of plumbing.

It turns out that they may have the oldest flush toilet in the world, dating from between 2500 and 1500 BC. According to the tour guide, they had three plumbing systems in the castle, one to collect rain water, one to provide drinking water, and the third to eliminate the results.

And the terracotta water pipes, looking almost exactly like today’s pipes, are intact and can be seen on a visit.

It appears to scientists that they used a wooden toilet seat, even. We’re just not sure if the furry seat cover originated then, or later.

Greetings from Crete: Driving a Fiat Like It’s a Ferrari

by Iva Skoch on

Coming back to the hotel last night, we passed by a major traffic accident: a head-on collision involving several small cars. One was flipped over and crushed, and at least one other was completely destroyed. All in all, we counted six involved cars.

I’ve found that there are exactly three rules of the road to driving in Crete:

1) Ignore the speed limit

2) Ignore the double center line and pass at will

3) Drive off the side off the road, to allow faster (much faster) traffic to pass. Everyone straddles the right-side line or drives on the shoulder to let others pass.

Undoubtedly, the accident we came upon was caused by any combination of these three rules.

I’m reminded of a recent article saying that the deaths of most tourists were caused by traffic accidents, not heart attacks, shark bites, sucking leeches, crime, or malaria. In fact, the WHO estimates that over 1.2 million tourists are killed in traffic accidents every year, with 20-50 million injured.

You know how they say that the majority of car accidents happen within two miles of home?

Photo of the Day (09/03/07)

by Iva Skoch on

Great photo of Athens, Greece by Jan Pulpan.

These are the happiest damn pig heads I have ever seen in my life. I am not sure if that makes eating them easier or harder. Not that anyone cares. I also find it interesting how much more “visible” men are than women in Greece. Men are the ones you can see hanging out in cafes as well as meat markets. And, of course, cafe-turned-meat markets.

If you’d like to contribute a Photo of the Day shot for consideration, please visit our Gadling Flickr pool and upload your favorites.