Athens - the ruined city...

Scott and I flew into Athens airport after our palaver of plane trip. It wasn't all that bad- we had full bellies consisting of all the snacks available on the menu because we were so ravenous. Perhaps overkill, although we enjoyed our chocolate, chips, cheese and crackers, pepsi's, soup and hot chocolate very much. Oh- Scott had a bacon baguette too. The runway was interesting... We landed onto it and taxied along, *above* the motorway- very odd to see cars driving below! We found our way to the bus to our hotel quite easily, and ended up in Syntagma Square. From here we needed to get onto another bus, but didn't really know where from. We were soon pounced upon by two taxi-men who proceeded to tell us that the buses and trains stop at 10pm- so we ended up forking out the €25 to get to our hotel. It was the following night that we realised we were done- public transport goes until midnight. Fail! 

Our hotel room was nice - interesting decor, but nice! It had an Arabian sort of flavour with its reds and oranges and draped fabric, but there was a bed and clean towels. And our own bathroom. Happy :)

In the morning we casually got up at about 10am, showered and headed out for something to eat, do and see. We were waiting to cross a busy street and there was a random old lady standing in the middle. When it was safe to do so, we crossed to the centre- I was standing next to her. The next thing I knew, she was grabbing onto me and muttering something or other, so I offered her my hand for support to get across - whilst she rambled on in Greek and I smiled politely. When we reached the other side, she went on her merry (but painfully slow) way and I caught up to Scott- opening up my bag to get out a travel antibacterial wipe. Scott laughed about that, but I didn't know where the old bird had been and her hands were slimy. Germophobic Some things never change. 

We realised there wasn't much around where we were staying so ended up buying a baguette and some brie cheese - the cheese only cost 90€ cents- but that's probably because it was bitter and 'orrible!! We then needed to find somewhere to sit and eat- Scott mentioned he found a park nearby... not sure if that's what I'd call it! Barren and brown... And dusty and full of rats of the sky (pigeons, shudder!) but it did us fine. 

Scott turned into a giant holding his Coke Zero...

The playground... hmmm. 

From there we needed to find something to do or see, and by about 3pm we had finally worked out where the city centre was, and had worked out where the Acropolis was, which was the one thing I really wanted to see in Athens. Athens is an interesting place for tourists. Very little signs in English if and when there are any signs! The trains are quite hard to work out at first, because the signage is so bad- (slash: non existent) but once you know your way around and how it works it's fine. I think that once you have lived in London and mastered the underground system, anything else you come across you pick up quite quickly. 

Oh the things you observe on the train. There are always interesting things that happen on the train, and I'm not referring to the random Greeks who would walk up to Scott and speak in Greek. To be fair- his wooly black hair, olive toned skin and aviator shades do make him *look* suspiciously Greek... I'm also not going to elaborate on the men who seem to think that rearranging their nut-sack any time, any place is acceptable. No. This time I'm talking about the homeless person trying to sell packets of tissues, the woman with the hairiest arms who then decided that raising her arms to hold onto the rail, baring the hairiest armpits I've ever seen on a woman that I've ever seen. Then there was the man who unfolded a piece of paper and rambled on about who knows what, before finishing his can of Red Bull, opening the window above me and throwing it out of the train. I was shocked. I wanted to say something but obviously didn't. He then threw his friends can out too. Clearly they don't care so much about the environment - which is terrible... it is filthy dirty. Rubbish is everywhere - it seems that people see a space and decide to fill it with rubbish. Yuck. It's not a patch on Egypt, mind you!

Anyway. Back to the blog. We emerged at Akropolis station and followed the signs to the Acropolis. You can't miss it, really. It is huge! We paid our €24 for two and entered the grounds- ready to embark up the hill. I mean mountain. In the blaring heat no less, Scott saying over and again "God it's hot! I can't cope" and me laughing about it- it was most definitely hot- 37 degrees at one point, but I didn't seem to be doing too badly. We reached halfway up the Acropolis and came to the theatre of Dionysos Eleuthereus, which we had a sit in and were quite impressed with, although it is quite dilapidated. 

Theatre of Dionysos  

Pondering...

Continuing on, Scott moving onto; you guessed it, "Shit, it's hot!" we came across a second theatre. This one was a thousand times more impressive than the last - and more complete. It even had light and sound equipment installed so was clearly in use. Breath taking. Scott and I decided we should do a show there. This one was called the Odeion of Herodes Atticus. 

The view from the Acropolis 

Odeion

Onwards up the hill and up some huge marble steps, through a passageway and BANG! There it was. The Parthenon- the thing I had wanted to see since learning about it in sixth form Classical Studies. Amazing. It is being restored so there is a fair amount of scaffolding there, which will be there for years to come because basically- it's falling down. A bit sad really- and bizarre standing in front of something that finished completion in 438BC. I have stood in awe of so many places this year- how lucky I am to add this to my list of things I have seen. 

Amazing! There it is!!!

Just add it to the list of AMAZING sights I have seen this year...

After we had looked at be view from the top of the Acropolis down on the city of Athens and talked about how insanely dense the city was with hardly any green patches at all, we ventured down the northern side to the streets below and went back to the hotel to get showered and dressed to go out for a meal. 

We easily made our way back in the town (now that we understood the rail system) and went to The Hard Rock Cafe, which was very nice although we ended up ridiculously full because we had a starter and then the main came out with no time for a breather... Whoops! Full up to dolly's wax we decided to go home and lie on our beds. It was then that I explained to Scott that in ancient Greece and Rome, the wealthy would gorge on food, then use a feather to throw up again after so that they could eat more. We considered this. Briefly. 

More food than I could eat... but so goooood.  

At the Hard Rock Cafe 

It was so hot in our room that neither of us could sleep and Scott kept proclaiming that "It's too hot- I can't cope!" so we talked rubbish for a bit before drifting off. I woke at about 8am- but we stayed in bed and finally got up about 10:30am- plenty of time for our 12 o'clock checkout! By 11:50am we were ready to leave, as I put my watch on, glanced down and noticed it was reading ten to two. 1:50pm. No way. It couldn't be. I checked if the battery had stopped- nope! My iPhone was still on London time- whoops! Auto time update? Umm? Fail! Luckily the girl downstairs didn't say anything- although we wondered why they hadn't called us to see why we hadn't checked out yet! Must be common to wake up and check out late with the Greeks. 

Now we are on the ferry, Santorini bound- we are both excited about the next few days as we intend on doing nothing but eating, drinking and swimming. Bring it on!

Cheery bye :)