Tagged : transportation

in Travel

Scooter Hire on Santorini

Looking out over the road from the port of Athinios

Renting a Scooter on Santorini

Santorini is an island that is well suited to the two wheeled motorized scooter. Even on the crappy Typhoon model that I rented it was about 1 hour and 15 minutes from one end of the island at Perissa Beach, to the other at Oia. If you haven’t ridden a scooter or motorbike before, you might be best renting an ATV or Quad as they tend to be a bit more stable, although they are painfully slow!

My experience renting the scooting on Santorini was interesting to say the least. I had forgotten to renew my international drivers permit, which is basically  a piece of paper you pay your local auto association for that certifies you can drive in your own country. I honestly don’t understand why you need one, as there is no additional testing, but suffice to say you should buckle and get one as it will make your vehicle renting experience ten times easier while overseas. Those in Europe won’t need this, but Canadians, Americans, and everyone else will.

I went to several rental places and was turned down for any rentals including an ATV at the first place, and then offered an ATV at the second place. Determined to rent something with two wheels and not have to take public transit, I went back to my hostel in a huff. The main man there took a look at my Canadian drivers license and decided that I was indeed legit. 15 minutes later someone from the rental shop was picking me up and taking me to rent a scooter — oddly enough taking me to the first place that had flat out denied me. Continue reading “Scooter Hire on Santorini” »

in Travel
San-Francisco-Bart

Taking the BART Train to Fisherman’s Wharf

This trip to San Francisco I decided to take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train into town from SFO. While it doesn’t go directly to the Pier 39 area where most people stay, it does get fairly close. Take the BART to Embarcardero Station. From there you can cable car, bus, walk, or take a taxi to Fisherman’s Wharf. With all of my luggage I opted to taxi and was quickly approached by a waiting cabbie, even at midnight. The cab ride was about $10. The BART trip was about 40 minutes and just under $10. This route probably saves you about $30 over taking a cab directly to your hotel and takes about 20-30 minutes longer. Wikipedia is a good resource to determine exactly how to get from Embarcardero Station to Fisherman’s Wharf.

in Misc Bin

Why Vancouver’s Bike Lanes are a Good Thing

I don’t really advocate anything. That’s not meant as a political statement, I’m just not an advocate; however, after listening to people bitch about Vancouver’s new-ish bike lanes in pretty much every social situation over the past while, I thought it was time I became a bicycle advocate. To take immediate action I started this post, created a title, and saved it into my drafts where I leave everything I’m unsure what to do with. Several weeks later came my inciting incident, so to speak.

I was riding my bike along 12th Street in Vancouver just past Main Street when a Vancouver Police officer pulled up alongside me on his motorbike.

“VPD. You ran a red light,” the officer barked.

I nodded, still somewhat confused, and tried to figure out what he was talking about.

“You’re just like a car. You need to obey the law — just like a car.”

“Okay,” I said.

It’s strange to just say okay in answer to a question, but that’s all I could say without being flippant.

“Just like a car. $167 fine,” he barks.

“Okay,” I say again as I try to maintain eye contact with him while trying to maintaining forward momentum without skewering myself on some road borne obstacle.

“Just like a car,” he repeats again.

This is where I started to get annoyed. In some cheeky way I was tempted to pull into the middle of the lane, rather than off to the side, and ride at 20km an hour, which would have brought traffic along this busy road to a tortoise-like crawl. Instead I continued about my business stopping at red lights, just like a car, as the traffic cop followed along behind me. Eventually I got to a red, made a right turn, and left my cop stalker behind hopefully to wonder about my future willingness to comply with his Napoleonic request. Continue reading “Why Vancouver’s Bike Lanes are a Good Thing” »

in Snapshots
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Foggy Plane Delay

Foggy weather at YVR forces me to sit there for several hours waiting. I had already missed my flight to go back to Penticton after Europe because of bad weather and the Christmas holiday season. One of the pitfalls of flying in and out of a small town is sometimes you just don’t make it home!