A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 40
Posted by Cathy Birchall, published on 21-11-2008
The day, as it usually does, began with the checking of emails as we are still waiting for word on the Iranian Visa. We did not expect any reply from our complaint to the British Embassy several days earlier regarding the treatment and dismissive attitude we received. Lo-and-behold an email winged its way into the in-box with, once we had read it, a satisfying 'clunk' - we were issued with an official apology from the Embassy.
Once we sifted through all the emails and replied to the British Embassy we turned our thoughts to our plan for the day.
We had set aside today for visiting a Greek Visual Impairment organisation. The one we were aiming for is The Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece which was formed in 1946. It operates under the umbrella and supervision of the Ministry of Health and Welfare from which it draws some of its funding.
A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 39
Posted by Cathy Birchall, published on 13-11-2008
So today we psyched ourselves up for a further approach to the embassies. After our experiences with our own embassy we felt a little fragile about approaching others but we worked ourselves up and set off.
A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 38
Posted by Cathy Birchall, published on 13-11-2008
Little did we know when we woke up this morning how long we were going to spend trying to pay the Iranian company for the visa application process. Needless to say it wasn't easy! There was a long and torturous financial route we had to follow involving transfers through British third parties in order to circumvent American embargoes on dealing with anything Iranian! We tried transferring the 125 Euro fee through electronic means and after several hours of problems we gave up. Over to plan B.
A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 37
Posted by Cathy Birchall, published on 13-11-2008
I woke up to "Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you......" and I had a whole sense of déjà vue.
If you have ever seen the film "Ground Hog Day" you will know what I mean where the days keep replaying and replaying until the desired outcome is achieved. So it was with Bernard who said "Today is your birthday, or tomorrow, or the next day until you have a nice day!" I must admit sometimes he really does make me laugh. Actually he makes me laugh such a lot and he can be very sweet at times like this and so began our concerted assault on Visa-land.
A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 36
Posted by Cathy Birchall, published on 05-11-2008
I woke up to "Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you........." and Bernard said "It's not every woman who gets taken to Athens for their birthday is it?" I did convince him to stand still long enough for me to hit him which he obligingly did!
We had decided the night before we would visit the British Embassy today to seek some advice and assistance in terms of our applications to the Pakistani, Iranian and Indian embassies. We plugged the address into the sat nav and set off into the traffic.
A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 35
Posted by Cathy Birchall, published on 05-11-2008
The big move from 'nearly en-suite' to 'completely en-suite' went without a hitch even on a fully loaded bike. It actually took longer to pack the bike than to ride the few blocks to the hotel. As we pulled up amongst the Greek cars, I heard a motorcycle pull up close beside us and a voice said "How do you find driving in Athens?" Bernard's reply consisted of three words "Madness, absolute madness!" The sound of laughter came across the gap between the two bikes and then I realised the voice belonged to the Red Indian owner of the day before and he then identified himself to me and said "You going all around the world?" and Bernard confirmed the fact. "A dream of mine to do such a thing, a real dream" and the lights changed and we parted with Bernard shouting "see you later" as we set off.
A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 34
Posted by Cathy Birchall, published on 03-11-2008
We set off to begin our embassy trail today with Pakistan and ended up bashing our way through compete mayhem within the Athens traffic to the other side of the city only for the locals to tell us there are "no embassies here." So off we went again back in exactly the same route but reversing everything, as Greek drivers blast their horns at everything in sight; at us quite a lot it seems.
The cars race from lights to lights and it is really interesting to listen to Bernard's description of what is going on around us. Motorbikes weave between the traffic at speed with inches to spare between themselves and the buses, cars and trucks, and there is a grudging admiration from Bernard at their skill at navigating through narrow gaps. He does think they are all suicidal though and based on his descriptions, it is no wonder Greece has such a high accident rate; higher than anywhere else in the EU according to the statistics. Until we can re-check the address of the Pakistan embassy, we decide to head for the Iranian, and we reach the road it is supposed to be located in and ask several people about it. "No embassy here" seems to be the common response but we walk the district.
A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 33
Posted by Cathy Birchall, published on 03-11-2008
The next morning, we ate everything in sight, as we were starving after our foray out the night before and we decided that when we left we would go back to the fish restaurant of the previous night and take a picture of the kind owner. Heleni gave me big hug and kissed me three times on the cheek as we were leaving after Bernard went and found her to say goodbye and to thank her. Both she and Panos (her husband) waved us off as we set off back down the road to capture an image of the man who fed us for nothing.
A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 32
Posted by Cathy Birchall, published on 29-10-2008
The next morning, we left and discovered the border was only a few kilometres away from the hotel, and during this short trip I tried my hand at videoing with hilarious results. We have had problems with using the video for some time now as it fails to record when Bernard tries to run it on the bike (strapped onto the front). My first attempt on this short run ended up showing a beautiful blue sky (and nothing else) while my second attempt showed a very nice view of the tarmac. It seems that my new career as a camera-woman is getting off to a wobbly start! Perhaps this is a ground-breaking career move for me although Bernard thinks that the DDA may well not cover this profession for blind people? You never know, it could be a first perhaps?
A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 31
Posted by Cathy Birchall, published on 29-10-2008
We decided to stay at the hotel for tonight to give us a chance to catch up on emails, cataloguing the photographs taken so far (of which there are hundreds) and catching up on the update for the web. The day was put aside for catching up really.
While sitting on the terrace writing, Peter approached us and introduced himself and asked if he could take pictures as he had seen the bike and he was intrigued by the messages on the panniers about ‘A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles.’
recent posts
- A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 40
- A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 39
- A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 38
- A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 37
- A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 36
- A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 35
- A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 34
- A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 33
- A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 32
- A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles - day 31
