Dan woke really early today to repack all of our things and condensed the number of carry-on bags of souvenirs to 3 (we have bought way too much stuff!), plus our backpacks and day bags. We checked out and reception tried to charge Ev for hot water for tea we had organised last night, even though every other time it was delivered free of charge. We didn’t pay for that, but were happy to fix the bill for the internet. We have many movies now! But seriously, hotels should not charge for internet at all because they always get cheap rates and broadband downloads are unlimited throughout Europe so there is no download cap. Anyway, we ordered the cab for 7:00am and we were ready at 6:40am. We left as soon as taxi arrived. We couldn’t get out quick enough. The cabbie sped most of the way to the airport doing 80 in a 40 zone and 140 in a 100 zone, but hey, ‘When in Rome...’.
We headed straight to the post office in the airport to send Mickey and his friends back to Australia, but it didn’t open until 8:00am. In Italy bills can only be paid at the post office, not over the internet so we found a cafe for breakfast close to the post office to watch if a line was going to build up. We had breakfast then joined the queue at 7:45am. Thankfully they sold boxes so we purchased the biggest one they had as we had our toys, books from the Scotland Castles, Paris Louvre, Rome, Vatican city etc. and magnets. Boy we have a lot of magnets now. We’re going to have to buy a second fridge just to have somewhere to put them all. We were able to pack everything so Ev joined the post office queue again to weigh the box. The post office didn’t have tape to secure the box (of course they didn’t?!!), so found a newsagent and bought sticky tape (they only had thin tape) and wrapped it around the box. We were both concerned that we it wouldn’t make it all the way home, but we really just wanted it gone, so Ev went back in the queue ready to send it but they only took cash. We didn’t have enough cash on us! We went to the nearest ATM at the other end of the airport on the floor but it was only a cash advance machine which neither of our cards could do. Not again!! Dan’s card doesn’t have a pin and Ev’s was only a savings card. Ev went back to the post office to babysit Mickey and the books while Dan looked for another machine. There was one upstairs but with the same machine and same system. Oh well, looks like the box will be on the plane to Athens with us. Who’s holding it? We checked our bags on the plane and took the 11kg box to the Additional Luggage area where we were warmly greeted by an arrogant prick who had to finish reading the last paragraph of his newspaper before sniffing to us and grunted. We asked if this was where we checked the box in and he pointed to the x-ray machine then carried on reading his paper. Another staff member came in the room and sat behind the computer screen and asked if he could help. He scanned the box and Ev asked if he could put more masking tape on and a fragile sticker on the box (Mickey is a delicate gift). That was a real effort to explain. Once he understood what we were asking for he smirked and said ok, ok. We were left dumbfounded that we had been treated so rudely. It’s hard to explain but we both have the feeling we may never see the box again.
Once finding our departure lounge we stood for half an hour as we were a little early, then continued to stand another half an hour in the line as there was a delay. We and the other passengers were a little concerned and beginning to be impatient. Finally gates were opened and we boarded the bus and waited another 10 minutes in the bus before it rolled out to the plane where again we waited 5 minutes standing right next to the plane before we could board. It was such an unprofessional procedure. The Captain announced in Italian that the wait was because there was a shortage of ground crew. The English announcement came five minutes after that. The taxiing was terrible and we slowly rolled on the road for 15 minutes and as we turned the corner ready to take off we couldn’t believe the queue of 13 planes behind us. Again, this was incredibly unprofessional. It seems it is always like this. This is definitely one place we can say we are happy to leave. We will not miss Italy a bit.
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| Lineup of 13 Planes waiting to leave Italy |
Our flight was 1.5 hrs. The first thing we did was get cash out after our suitcases and the box were collected and we were relieved that Greece had started well. Finally we sent the parcel with Mickey in off to Australia without any dramas and sighed with relief. Ev asked for directions to the hotel. Unfortunately the train staff were on strike today and a taxi for a 20 minute ride was €61 so the public bus was in order for €3.50 each and would take about 95 minutes to the central train station then we’d work out the rest from there. The first bus we could have taken was jam packed so we waited 10 minutes and hurried on to get a seat to avoid standing the entire way. Ev had her suitcase on the floor at her feet and sat with her knees up to her chest most of the time while Dan cradled his luggage. It was comfortable but manageable. Athens seems fairly easy to drive in (We seem to have chosen the two most chaotic cities in Europe to try to drive in.) but thankfully we won’t be driving on this leg of the trip. We negotiated a cab fare to the hotel and it took him 15 minutes to drive there.
Baby Grand Hotel
We were blown away The Baby Grand Hotel. It boasts to be the only Fashion Hotel in the world. The reception front desk is a custom made converted Beatle car to table, and the waiting/bar area has mirrors and funky retro coloured walls with soft ‘doof, doof’ dance music in the background. Our room was really nice as well. Every standard room is decorated and ours was no exception. Strange to describe the creatures on our wall; they’re kind of like blobs with eyes a mouth and hair. Some look like sea creatures, another looks like a tooth with a mouth, one is just an eye with arms, and others look like hair with three legs, oooh there’s one that’s like the ghosts in packman. The drapes are thick black and white vertical stripes. We have a CD player, TV, fridge and free internet. Free Internet!! So we’re pretty happy with this room. We were given an introductory pack to read, and a letter from the organisers of our Greek Island tour tomorrow confirming our collection time and they gave us extra information about Athens and its sights. How lovely. Ok that’s enough about the room.
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| Baby Grand Hotel, Athens |
We were so hungry when we arrived to our hotel at 2:00pm so we asked for directions to the shops. We walked down the street for about 20 minutes and there were a lot of shops. Awesome fashionable clothes, very bright colours and the restaurants seemed very nice and well priced. We had a nice lunch at a cool cafe and we excitedly believe we are going to really enjoy our stay here in Athens. We were actually just looking for a grocery store but our afternoon stroll was still nice. We recognised a few sights by this point and realised we were closer to the train station than our cabbie made out and overcharged us. Oh well, it’s good to know we’re close. We had lunch at a nice cafe then headed back to the hotel looking for a supermarket. Turns out there is one right across the street our hotel. Cool.
Now that we have food, time for a bit of TV. Unlike Italy and France, the TV is in English and they just have Greek subtitles so we’re more at home than we’ve been for a couple of weeks. Sshhhh! Oceans 13 is on. Good night Athens.
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