Rishi Sund

Saturday 24th of June we arrived in Greece after 23 hours on a plane.  Greece is very beautiful, rich in history, and has a very unique and ambient vibe. We boarded the bus from the airport and ventured into the city. As we neared the city, the amount of vandalism increased, no different to Punjab. WIth the economy not being in an ideal state, I realised that the government cannot afford to conveniently clean up their city. After around 40 minutes on a bus, we arrived in the city centre and got off. The heat in Greece was overwhelmingly hot. Shady Moroccans and lurky locals gave us weird looks as we roamed the city. Either because they were looking to pickpocket us, or perhaps because we were carrying our suitcases throughout the city of Athens from site to site. The Government building was the first site we looked at, and the soldiers marched no different to the ones from North Korea you see on propaganda videos. After around 1.5 hours in the city, we arrived at our hotel. The hotel was located in the Flatbush equivalent of NZ. Although the rooms were small and tight, the stay was nice. We didn't spend much time in the hotel, our day activities started from around 8am and finished at around 7pm. Later on that night, we went for a hike up Mount Lykevittos, most of us were knackered before the hike even started because the temperature was around 36 degrees. The view of Athens at sunset was very nice from the top of the hill, still not as nice as the view from Mount Hobson however. Surprisingly they did not have any Gudwaras in Greece, but we still went to heaps of Greek Temples and churches. 

After 4 days in Greece, we caught an overnight cruise to Italy. However, the cruise was nearly a cruise, in fact I'd call it a substandard ferry. The service and hospitality was poor, and all their facilities were either broken, or not in use, Despite this, the experience on the overnight cruise was still enjoyable, and the views were swell. The ferry arrived in Italy late by 5 hours, meaning we missed the regional overnight train to Rome that departs at 7:30pm. Therefore we had to wait until 3:50am until the next regional train to Rome. We all slept outside on the train station floor. After around one hour of sleeping, the Italian police came and woke us up and told us to move. Only being in Italy for around 2 hours, I noticed there were heaps of Indians and Bangladeshians around. I spent around 40 minutes talking to them, then decided to go catch up on some more sleep, away from the police. The regional train finally arrived and took us to Rome. The Journey was 4 hours, so we arrived in Rome at 7am. Rome was a very historical city, and the atmosphere felt like the one in Queenstown. The roads were all perfectly pieced, made put of individual bricks, and the footpaths were perfectly paved. We checked into our hostel, and began our day activities straight away. As we walked down the street to Santa Maria Maggiore. Pesky italian and indian waiters and vendors approached us, and kept asking us to enter their restaurant or shop. Rome felt no different to Pagwara last year. Rome was just as clean as Dubai, but had a more historical and vibrant mood. We explored at least 20 churches during our time in Italy, but I haven't been to Satsang in a while so I felt this made up for it. Once you've seen one church you've seen every church. Similar to when you go to one zoo, you've been to every zoo in the world. The Churches were breathtaking, filled with gold, marble sculptures and intricate paintings on the roofs and walls, that depicted scenes from the Bible. On our second to last day in Rome, we went to the Vatican. I told the guard to tell the Pope to come out and say hi, but apparently he was busy or something running the Vatican. The Vatican was around the same size as Dera in India. The layout was also similar to Dera but consisted of marble and gold churches instead. Italy was very nice, much nicer than Athens and everyone agrees. Plus the railway system is a lot more conveniently over here, way better than Auckland Transport. If anything, Phil Goff should learn a thing or two from the Italians, and hopefully make our trains and buses a bit better, at least ensure they arrive on time.