Yasas All,
Surprisingly Athens is not overly tourist friendly despite having held the Olympics’ in 2004. The was no tourist information at the bus station but thankfully a friendly and attractive lady in diamante incrusted gumboots from our bus helped direct us to the local bus. We caught a bus into the city but had no idea as to where to get off the bus as we had no map. It was pure guess work but after about 20 minutes when the entire bus started to empty we thought that we had better get off as well. Thankfully we spied a sign in the distance that looked like it may just be a metro/subway station so we headed off in hope. Luckily metro is indeed a train line so after consulting the metro map we jump aboard a metro train and you guess it was going the wrong so at the next station we got off the metro trudged up the stairs and crossed the road the go back down a different set of stairs and onto a metro going in the right direction. Found the appropriate metro station for the hotel that we had booked and even found the hotel that we were looking for. Unfortunately our room is located on the top floor which is about 5 floors up and ten flights of stairs and you guess it no elevator. Good aerobic activity for the heart I guess!
We think that the Greeks seem to like their food and don’t appear to enjoy exercise as there are a lot of generously proportioned people.
Day 1
Read any literature about Athens and the first “must see” destination is bound to be the Acropolis and the Parthenon Temple which stand high over the city .It was with great anticipation that we rose early to walk to the Acropolis to beat the tour groups.
Street dogs and collared dogs escorted us to the site often stopping and looking back almost to say come on it is this way and it was true. One even entered the grounds with us.
One word can sum up visiting the Acropolis disappointing. Why? Scaffolding and cranes for a start. There is scaffolding all over the acropolis and to make matters worse it is being rebuilt to some extent. However when arriving to Athens a couple of days later the Acropolis is an impressive sight.
We sat on the steps at the entrance to the sight and could hear what sounded like a pile driver working away. Then a small group of soldiers appeared marching through the grounds of the temple taking small steps and stamping as they stepped. The pile driver walked pasts with a smile from the last soldier.
The Ancient Agora and Agora museum. Nice building and a nice place to stop and eat a block of chocolate.
It seems that Jean Paul Gautier wasn’t being overly original when it came to designing perfume bottle as the Perfume bottles of ancient times also feature the human form with maybe just one or two noticeable differences …….
The Plaka is the oldest neighbourhood in Athens and is now where you can get all manner of kitsch souvenirs. We didn’t stay long.
Athens central markets. Just when all hope for this city was gone we found the markets and something new. Skinned sheep heads and meat of every description even skinned bunnies with fluffy tails still intact hung off hooks. There was a large fish market with very cheap salmon and it had us trying to figure out how we could cook some on the burner without destroying it. Unfortunately we didn’t find a solution.
The national archaeological museum. Stupid French students had spread themselves across the entry steps making it almost impassable and I had to resist the urge to step on one to get through but there was just enough space to tiptoe through their baguettes and scattered snail shells. This was supposed to be one of the worlds greatest museums and after initial disappointment it did turn out to be a good museum with perhaps too many items within it. We got into trouble for posing with the heads but had taken the image already so didn‘t mind. Very serious staff indeed.
The museum houses the worlds largest collection of bronze statues and the usual marble heads without noses amongst the collections of statues, vases and jewellery. There was a fantastic section with treasures from round 1600BC which showed that the tribes at the time were very skilled in metal work and the women indeed did love their bling even in those times. We left worn out again. Too much for one day.
Fruit and vegetable markets. Our relief. They were quite well priced and despite no being allowed to taste the olives at one shop, and consequently taking our business elsewhere, the rest were friendly and welcomed our business and there was plenty of finger pointing to purchase the ingredients for our greek salad. We got back to the hostel and made our home made authentic greek salad, ate crusty bread and washed the lot down with some Spanish Wine.
Day 2
Didn’t do a great deal today wandered around the back streets of Athens. We hoped that the acropolis museum would be open but it is still incomplete so we had lunch at Hadrians arch then headed to the parliament for the change of the guard. This has to be one of the strangest guard of the guards you are ever likely to see with moves more suitable for monty python or a circus rather than the military. The pom poms on their shoes were a nice touch.
We spent the rest of the day attempted to plan the next leg for the adventure back to the greek islands but found the information was particularly difficult to gather. A simple ferry timetable would have been good but alas that would have made it too easy.
Bad news. David thinks that his arms must have somehow shortened in the last few months as he can’t seem to be able to hold papers far enough to be able to read the fine print as clearly as he once could. Or maybe he simply needs to see an optometrist !!!!!
Day 3
Headed down to the ferry port to catch the next ferry to somewhere only to find that the next ferry was late in the afternoon. I had a look at the information and surely enough it told the same story. No good gathering the information and not using it! We headed back into town then to the bus terminal A and caught a bus to Nafplio in Peloponnese.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
