WTF?
Had to change hotel in a hurry... could not get near the door of the hostel... about 10 or 15 African hookers tugging out of me looking for business! Holy God, its worse than the reviews on HostelWorld... in Hotel Parnas now... way nicer... hookers plying for trade on street outside... drinking Greek beer... like Czech Pilsners... very good...
It was like a scene from The Life of Brian where the guy races from the castle where the wenches try to seduce him, except all these ladies of the night wanted was my money. Could not see where the door was, so quickly made my excuses and left to cries of FOO-KER walking briskly back the way I had came... got the first hotel I could find.
As the taxi pulled up, all the girls got very animated, talking loudly, laughing and starting to scream. Honest to God, I now know what its like to be Russell Brand.
UPDATE
Idiot taxi driver thought I wanted to be dropped off on the street, did not understand I wanted the hostel. He dropped me the wrong end of the street - 200 yards from the hostel. Though according to the reviews its little better.
I beat a hasty retreat to cries of "FOOH-KER!" after making my excuses like a good "News of the World" reporter. I must be the only Irishman who can be dropped off at a bevy of African Hookers, and walk away without getting a ride! What am I like.
Seriosly though, I didnt know where I was, where the door to this supposed hostel was, and if there was pimps and/or heavies about... so I scarpered... and so the Cowboy lives to ride into the sunset another day! rotfl
It will inspire a few verses... heres a rough draft of one or two...
THEY DO CONTAIN SOME ADULT TERMS AND IMAGERY, SO IF YOU DONT LIKE THAT STOP READING NOW!
Poems written after being accosted by Prostitutes on Kapodisikou Street in Athens, Greece.
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As If a Pop Star
===================
The African girls smiling, even from the eyes,
And jumping, laughing screaming
And I, apprihensive knew I wasnt
But wished I was only dreaming.
Id heard about the hookers
Who done business outside the door
I did not know it was quite THIS bad
Id never seen the likes before.
Getting out of the car I dropped my Coke
Which one dusky beauty pointed out
I picked it up, careful to keep my balence
Checking was there any heavies or pimps about.
As I could not see the doorway
I decided for to flee
Firmly, slowly, steadily I went
To cries of "Fooker" echoing after me.
It turns out the taxi driver
He could not understand
I wanted the hostel on that street
He though Id other things planned!
He dropped me off the wrong end of it
And as the girls on my arms tugged
I though it best to get away
In case that I was mugged.
And sitting in a new hotel in safety
As I drink a cold Greek "Mythos" beer
I think the nights events quite surreal
But Im glad to be here.
I now know what its like to be a pop star
They all want you - yet they do not
they tug out of you to take them
So they can have what you've got.
And some of them were beautiful
They could be models in another life
There was a kindness in their eyes
Theyd make someone a nice wife...
Yet through drugs, or pimps, or poverty
Their trade all night they ply
And get exited, screaming and smiling from the eyes
At the sight of idiots like I!
Im the only Irishman in history
That a taxi driver can leave at a bevy of hookers beside
With lots of cash in his pocket
Who walks away, and does not get a ride!
=============================
Dusky Aphrodite of the Smiling Eyes
=============================
She was the loudest and the most beautiful
Her smile came from the soul
Through the eyes as much as through the mouth
A pout luscious and whole.
And I wondered what makes girls like her
Who fools like me nightly meet
Take her life in her hands
And sell her body on an Athens street.
There was a kindness about her
No cruellty, a kind of joy
I hope some day she sorts herself out
And finds herself a boy
Who till look after her and her children
And theat they will not walk the streets where she has been
The Aphrodite of the Smiling Eyes
Who at most was seventeen.
===========================
Like a Ghost She Walks the Streets
===========================
I look down from the hotel balcony
As a girl does her beat
And approaches cars who slow down for her
As she walks the street.
She has a figure to die for
For the cars they drive away
And so she tries another street on the junction
Drumming up business before the break of day.
And I think of the Curragh Wrens
Who lived, though poorer and poorer clad than she
Sold their bodies to British soldiers
Reduced to it by poverty.
Like a ghost she walks the streets
Its legal here.. she has the right
And I who pray little say one for her
As she dissapears out of sight.
========================================
No hookers or problems yesterday... things are getting dull!!!
Went out to Prieus yesterday, got a ferry out to an island, Ethena, walked around and had something to east. Lovely and relaxing.
It would want to be and the way I stressed myself out trying to get the boat... it was Flying Dolphin XV, and I found every flying dolphin bar the right one... hard to find as it had not docked yet!
When I got back, had to get the undergroud to Larissa Station, and needed to feed the fish beforehand. One small problem... no paper. Two cleaners were outside so I asked them for some paper.
One shrugged her shoulders. "Too many people, too little paper" she said. Carty was getting ratty by now. Bulling for a No2, no paper, and this bird doesnt give a shit and Im dying to and have no paper to wipe my arse. "What am I to use?" says I, "my fingers?" In hindsight I just wish John was with me when I said that line. The woman just shrugged. "Buy some in the shop" says she.
Used the jacks in a neighbouring chippers, was lovely and clean, was paper, got a quick wash and everything. Brilliant!
Then got on the train for a leisurly nights kip heading to Thessalonika... or so I thought. Well there was these two birds yapping on and on and on, and then two idiots with a telly camera filming other guys, standing beside me waking me up.
Finally fell asleep, only to be awoken by the loud snoring of a woman behind me, and a gigantic lady was sitting beside me, dead to the world and me needing the loo, and had to hold it till 5am as I couldnt wake her! Met the two camera lads in the canteen carraige when getting the breakfast.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
There he was yapping a spiel to another dude, and I waited until they were in full flow. Then I walked and stood in from of the camera, and turned to head back the way I came from, so he has to edit a fantastic shot of my nether regions! There was some classic Greek from him after that all right, what he said exactly I dont know, but I get the jist!!!
That felt good.
In Thessalonika at the moment, heading on to Skopje this evening. What joys behold me there I wonder?
===================================================
The Hooker Magnet strikes again... Zdravo from Skopje, Makedonia!
Just had a lovely kebab in a roadside joint near the Pristina / Kosovo road. 3.20, you can't beat that! Oh, and the hookers are after me again, this time a fine Macedonian lass.
I declined (shame on me!) and she was polite about it, as she could be!
Business was good, she was called by a trucker straight away! It must be the head on me or something that attracts them... either I strike them as a little bit sleazy, or they think I could do with a good time! (if the latter, maybe they are right!) rotfl!!!
Not that you want to be encouraging that sort of thing, but the Athenian African girls could take a tip from that girl. Forthright, but respectful, and didn't invade your space.
Getting a kip tonight, in the Wip Hotel (strange name, but nice place) will see Skopje tomorrow and head on to Nis then, and after that Vrsac.
Thessalonika
Famed in song, Thessalonika was less than I expected for the time that I was there. I called up by the Allied War Cemetry, both the Serbian and the French were closed, and apperantly the British dont have one in the area. I always thought they suffered heavy losses in that area... I must read up on it more.
I read onlne of the plague of fat and massive dogs on the streets of Athens and to pass no remarks on them, locals feed them and while they are not freindly as such, they dont attack either.
Well, I saw none in Athens, but millions in Thessalonika. And two dead ones as well, which gave a great impression of the urban hygine. Who is it had the sayng that where the dogs are treated as people, the people are treated like dogs? I cant remeber, and it would be a bit harsh on the locals, but their sense of indifference to people doing business never fails to amaze me.
Far From the Green Fields of France They Lie
Far From the Green Fields of France They Lie
Its far from the green fields of France they lie
Under Thessalonikas scorching sun
As many an Irishman sleeps for ever
Who on Frances fields held a gun.
And few know of their sacrifice
The humans behind the numbers of the losses
The fathers and brothers, and the sons
Who lie beneath those crosses.
Great grub in Thessalonika
The feeding was mighty in this eating house, the Neighbourhood Grill. Its along the quayside, and I had an American burger, with chips, and was stuffed after. Youd need to keep the feeding up its so hot, even though the heat would cost you your appitite. I will however shop short of writing an ode to the American burger... for tonight at least!
White Tower Not Much to Write About
A look at the White Tower in Thessalonika didn't leave much of an impression, and with the exhibit all written in Greek it went quite above my head. Ill have to look up the history online after, the lasting impression apart from the massive dead dog outside was the fantastic panoramic view from the top.
View from the topo f the White Tower, Thessalonika.
===================================
Charmed and Cursed... thats my lot it seems!!!
I seem to be both charmed and cursed in equal measure... sometimes when I realy need to communicate, I seem to be able to get by when the person has zero English, and then when questioned by the police as to who I am and why Im somewhere - I had a friendly chat with the local constabulary in Vrsac yesterday - the doubted I was Irish as I spoke Serbian.
And when I subbed in a few German words, sprechen, surig - phontec spelling: I think in Slovak German - mein freinden for freinds and suchlike as they didnt understand drugi when I said it and I though it better not to use that world as it might sound completely wrong!!! - they doubly doubted me.
Well that passport of mine has never been as well checked over as last night!!!
Then I went to my freinds mothers house, which was lights out... and that street has changed in the last five years or so. New shops and so forth, it took me quite a while to get my bearings, and Id forgotton theirs was AFTER the crossroads not before it... silly me.
So I stayed in Hotel Srbija - the old Hotel Hemofarm - last night. Reasonable at 26Euro ish.
Now, a lady on the bus was trying to help me at Vrsac, as I thought. Told me where to get off - I should have told her where to get off - and she had a taxi, belonging as it turned out to her boyfriend, who drove streets and streets and streets before dropping me at Hotel Srbija, and then charged ten euro. Thats twice the price of Tullamore, and a third of the cost of Vrsac to Belgrade. What can you do bar pay up and shut up at that stage?
Anyway, while we were in the taxi, these blue lights came up from behind and the cab pulled in and hece the chat with te local police force. It wasnt immigration - theyre in black, but the regualar criminal police.
Id trusted the lady, as an old man from the bus from Knes Selo to Nis, made sure I stayed on until I reached the entrace to the bus station, Paul had shoen me where to get off at the fortress gates and walk through the market to it. The old man was a gentleman, lovely.
The bus ride down was LONG. I got the bus no problem, though it was late in Nis, and it stopped at every tree with a birds nest in it or so it seemed. If your on the bus in Serbia, allow for this. A lovely drive, I slept through the best part of it, when you could see the countryside out the window and get a few nice shots. I woke up at dusk, when you could see sweet damn all! Typical!
So anyway, Im meeting up with pals at 14.30, confirmwed by text message, and will get a taxi or maybe the bus to Belgrade tonight and fly to Amsterdam tomorrow.
Zdravo!!!
Oh, and for the first time in my life Im early... the wine festival I came over for in Vrsac is at the END of the month!!!
