Athens

Took the shittily timed London-Athens flight, had a couple hours sleep on the flight then got in at 3 am and had to kill time till the 6:30 am metro. Quite a few people hanging around and food places open, but at the same time it was full of people smoking (welcome to Greece - I’d say they should blow smoke on your face when you walk off the plane or something to give you that really authentic greeting, except that you get that once you get into the airport). Getting to the hostel at 8 am (metro was easy but packed even at 7 am) but couldn’t check in til 1.30 pm so had to wander the streets. Wandered over to the national gardens - where I got my taste of Athens’ strays - cats, dogs and people. Maybe not the people but the cats and dogs are everywhere - I’m sure they are a pest, but they are so cute, I’m tempted to go feed them (actually on my last night I did, scrawny little buggers). Anyway I did my best to stay awake and read the newspaper but had to nap on a hard wooden bench in the gardens - there is no grass and all the paths are gravel. The gardens are pretty run down, even though there were lots of people doing work around the place. But there were weeds everywhere and growing in the paths, rotten fruit fallen from the tree and benches, pergolas etc in disrepair. Not hopeless by any means, but hardly an inspiration or place of pride. That said, I guess most of Athens is like this. In pretty bad repair. Still, it’s OK. Anyway by the time I got into my hostel it took all my energy to have a shower and crawl into bed for a siesta. By the time I woke up it was nearly time for the roof top bar to open, where I stayed from 6 to 10 pm. Great views, lots of people from Perth (the owners of this hostel are Perth Greeks).

Thursday I took a tour to Nafpilo the capital of Greece for many years. It is in the Peloponnese which is now technically an island after they completed the Corinth canal which we stopped for photos at (and one guy did a bungee jump). Our tour 'guide' was a local girl who clearly researched it all just yesterday, but it was good to go and see none the less. We walked around the castle ruins and then around Nafpilo town before a swim in the pebble beach (ow! hurts your feet so bad). Met two Canadian girls April and Jessica on the tour and we went out for dinner in the Plaka later that night, before heading over to the karaoke night at the hostel studios sports bar. Also dragged another girl from my room down to the karaoke and she turns out to be this amazing singer and put everyone to shame!

Friday hit the Acropolis as early as I could (OK it was nearly 10 am) which was nice before the real heat and sun came out. It is pretty impressive, though the restoration work they are doing takes the edge off as the scaffolding isn’t really very attractive and hides a lot of the structure. Once I got to the base of the Parthenon I was tempted to take the Brit’s side to keep the Parthenon marbles in the British Museum - you get a great view of them, and they are very well displayed and signed. The new Acropolis museum isn’t open yet so I'm not sure how well the Greeks will display it all. The Temple of Zeus is very cool - it is not on the hill with the other temples but near the gardens. My internet is too flaky to post photos just yet but I will soon.

Left Athens early morning on the Saturday for Mykonos - 6 hour ferry ride but it went in a flash.