Athens - Frankfurt

Our packing was finished fairly late last night so we wouldn’t be rushed his morning for our early rise at 6:30am. We slept in to 7am so on our way down to breakfast at 7:30am we organised a taxi to take us to the airport. Ev was feeling worse than yesterday almost losing her voice. Dan had another full breakfast and Ev only had fruit. We have really loved our stay in Athens and would love to come back for a 2 week holiday, particularly to see the Greek Islands on a clearer day. We have been blown away by the structures and the love and pride the people have for their city. It is definitely a highlight on this trip for us.

Ev took some quick snaps of the fabulous fashion hotel before we raced down to the cab which was a little early. His fare was cheaper than we had expected. Check in was really easy, no queues and customs was also a breeze and we were ready for our 11:25am flight by 9:45am. The departure lounge had free wi-fi so Dan watched the NRL Grand Final while we waited, but half way through connection dropped out. Ev slept for most of the wait after keeping herself and Dan up most of the night coughing.

The flight was really good, as was the in-flight food of chicken and rice and a lemon desert. Ev’s favourite part of the flight was overlooking the scenery below at the small villages around Frankfurt before landing. From the sky they looked like patches of houses placed in multiple groups surrounded by farmland and forest areas. We have a good feeling about Germany and are very excited to organise some day trips. The Luggage collection was a fair distance from the gate but we eventually found our bags and headed for a taxi. We thought of organising a car at the airport but it’s probably best to see the city first on public transport then get a car in a couple of days time. Our cabbie dropped us off to the hotel and we were greeted by a nice girl who was tired of her job. This sounds a little like Rome... We took our bags up to the hotel and took our time to come down. We’ve discovered that the only English speaking channels are MTV and CNN. They have really good movies playing, but they’re dubbed and we can’t work out how to get English subtitles on.

After unpacking a little we went downstairs to look for a supermarket after asking for a map from reception. She said that most of the shops are closed on a Sunday. (What’s with that in European countries?) She then rethought and remembered that this Sunday we might find some open, then sat back down again. Okay?! We headed out in the direction of where she suggested and found ourselves in the mall where hundreds of people were. Frankfurt is having their annual Car Show today, and yes there are lots of shops open. Feeling relieved we had a German hotdog with mustard and ketchup, and it was probably the best sausage we’ve ever had. We walked through the car yard kind of quickly because cars really aren’t our thing, then looked for a supermarket but all we could find were fashion shops. Finally we came to a corner store which had a very limited selection but we got a few supplies and headed home to watch some German TV and read tourist brochures. Turns out that Frankfurt is the Financial capital of Germany and is the 7^th most liveable city in the world. It’s a beautiful place if you want to settle down but from what we can see there aren’t many touristy sights. 

We’ve decided that 3 days in Munich just isn’t enough so we’ve booked a place just outside of the city so instead of staying in Frankfurt 4 nights we’ll just be here 2 nights. Tomorrow we’ll do the Frankfurt City Tour then the day after hire out a car and begin our drive along the ‘Romantic Road’ to Munich.

 

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Athens Rest day - Markets

Saturday 2^nd October

Ev is not feeling too good today so we’ve set time for some wind down today with a sleep-in and stroll to the markets down the road.  We would love to experience Greek dining, but at the moment with our tight budget, we are eating from the hotel looking at the lovely restaurants.  Someday, we will be back for a full dining experience.  Feels disappointing to have lovely produce right at our door step but no means to properly cook our own Greek-style foods. 

  

   
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Athens City Sights - Panathanaic Stadium, Arch of Hadrian, Temple of Zeus

Friday 1^st October

We’re heading into our 2^nd month of travel and we still have many countries to visit.  We were hoping to have some rest days in Athens but after exploring yesterday we think we’re going to run out of time here and are really keen to see more of this vibrant city.  Our hotel may also be influencing our perspective of the city, which by the way is one of the best fashion hotel fit-outs we have seen.  There’s a hive of activity on the streets and major landmarks can be seen all around on the mountains.

Panathanaic Stadium

We had a lot of fun imagining ourselves as patrons sitting on the marble seats and were victorious winners proudly walking down the tunnel to the grand entrance of the Panathanaic Stadium (or Panathinaiko Παναθηναϊκό στάδιο, also known as the Kallimarmaro (Καλλιμάρμαρο, meaning the "beautifully marbled"). 

The portable audio tours walked us around the stadium from the track to the highest seats which would have been made of wood back in 1896.

 

 

  and yes we did have a pretend race... and real ceremonious award photos.

 

 

In neighbouring streets statues have been erected to honour past athletes.

 

Arch of Hadrian and Temple of Zeus

We admired the structural gate of the Arch of Hadrian.

With great anticipation our next sight was the magnificent Temple of Zeus.  Construction began in 515 BC but the leaders were overthrown and construction resumed in marble in the 4^th Century BC but was devastatingly destroyed after invasion in the 3^rd century AD.  It was eventually completed 131-132 BC.  Of the original 104 columns deterioration set in the 5^th c. AD and was further ruined by earthquake and only 16 columns survived until 1852 when one of them toppled over in a storm and has been lying there ever since.  Elements of the structure were later used throughout the city as building materials, so what still remains today truly is magnificent and remarkable.  We could sense the history in the air as we slowly walked around the remaining structure.

We have truly been amazed by human capability throughout our trip.  How were these huge pillar cells perfectly aligned without the technology or mathematics we use and know today?

Inspired we finished the city tour past the Library and Omonia Square to the train terminal then walked the mall streets to find a bustling eatery only a couple of short blocks from our hotel.  The tour bus today impressed us with not only its rich historical stories and architecture, but it has a very young and modern culture through its mall streets and market places.  Life is great today.

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Athens City Sights - Acropolis

We slept in until 10:00am. The dark curtains made it feel like it was only 6:00am.

Breakfast was scrummy. Hooray for hot breakfast!! Bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs with tomato seasoning and also scrambled eggs with bacon bits, toast, mushrooms, cereal and some beautiful fruit. There was also a table of pastries and cold cuts. Breakfast was also very big.

We were off to see the Parthenon today at the Acropolis. For those of you playing at home an acropolis is a citadel or elevated part of an ancient city, but in Greek literally means ‘City on the edge’. Our afternoon adventure began at 12:30pm. We walked down the street of Athinas toward the Acropolis and on the way stopped into a Greek shop that sold clothes and souvenirs. We were tempted to buy a pack of Greek Sex cards but thought better of it. We both bought a shirt each and a calendar. We walked up the back streets past a cafe and weren’t sure where we were going. We though we were walking up someone’s driveway then saw stairs which led on to a stoned pathway where other tourists were. We bought ticket at the front desk not realising it would give us access to all of the sights day. Well worth the 12 euro each. It was a warm day in the sun and we forgot to bring water with us so we asked at the drinks stand for a couple of bottles but they didn’t have water, only fresh lemonade, Gatorade and orange juice.

Ancient Agora

We climbed the Areopagus also known as ‘Mars Hill’ named after Mars, the Roman God of War. The jagged stairs of red, green and white marble were slippery to walk on especially in rubber thongs. The view from the top of the city was spectacular and we still had the view from up at the Parthenon to go. We took some treasured photos of the city of Athens and the Acropolis and a kind vendor sold us two bottles of frozen water which quenched our thirst. We stayed on the hill for a good fifteen minutes before coming back down past the ticket box.

On 'Mar Hill' with Parthenon in the background

Areopagus looking out to Athens

We made our way up the and the first thing we passed was the Odeon of Herodes Atticu which was built in 161 AD by Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife, Aspasia Annia Regilla. The amphitheatre seats around 5000 people and is still in use today for live concerts. Workers were packing up equipment from a concert held a few nights before. Andrea Bocelli performed there a couple of weeks earlier. We were in awe of the beautiful white etched stones stacked on top of each other, another perfect time for a photo.

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

As we climbed the marble stoned stairs to the pillared entrance we passed the temple of Athena Nike built in 420 BC and the Propylaea built in 437-432 BC which form the gateway of the Acropolis which led us to the great Parthenon. The Parthenon was built between 447 and 438 B.C. to honour the goddess Athena Parthenos. This structure truly took our breath away. Still standing after a couple of thousand years and so well preserved we enjoyed the view, observing the finely crafted statues in the walls and other traditional Greek patterns.

Parthenon

We moved toward the Erechtheion which was built in 420 BC and is a temple dedicated to Attica, Poseidon-Erechtheus and Athena then took more photos of Parthenon.

Erectheion

Not far from the building we stood near a wall in the open to take in the city on the south western side. We could see the ocean in the distance with the city in between. This gave us views of Philopappou and Lycabettus Hills.


We walked along Dion Areopagitou to a street vendor near the exit and bought a book on Athens and some postcards and gave some money to some buskers playing wonderful Greek music on guitar and violin. Going back the way we came we continue on to the Acropolis Museum which has glass floors at the entrance to show current excavation works underneath the Museum. One of the archeologists were working. We paid our 5 Euro for entry and left our cameras and backpacks in the cloakroom. The Museum was incredible with many statues, antique cups and plates, coins, and stuff and some other stuff. The place was huge and deserved more time than we could allow.

Acropolis Museum

Ancient Agora

Temple of Hephaestus

We went back into the Acropolis and sat on the stands of the Dionysus Theatre which was an amazing feeling to in the ruins of the same theatre that saw tragedies and comedies written by Sophocles and other playwrights. We admired the detail in the statues on the stage front.

Dionysus Theatre

Walked to Ancient Agora which was the centre of the Greek Government. Saw Temple of Hephaestus and the Stoa of Attalos.

Walked back to hotel exhausted and had KFC for linner at 5:30pm. Tomorrow we’re going to see the Temple of Olympian Zeus.  Dan really with girled it up with Ev and watched ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’. Ev was pretty sure Dan had tears rolling down his porcelain like features at the end of the film. It’s a beautiful story of love and life in modern society which featured Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson and for some reason Justin Long as a ladies man. Sure, he provided comic relief in Die Hard 4, but a player?? C’mon!!...Dan’s words...True story.

Tonight news reports showed some footage that's making us reconsider our trip to the Galapagos Islands. Police are on strike and have taken over the airport and major streets are blocked from protesters. We are strongly recommended to ‘Reconsider our need to Travel’ by Trip Advisor and in other parts are advised ‘Not to Travel’ i.e. Peru. Good thing we have already cancelled the Inca Trail. Here is an excerpt from the website about Ecuador:

We advise you to reconsider your need to travel to Ecuador at this time because of civil unrest, the risk of crime, and the general threat of domestic terrorism.

A widespread strike and protest by police, including some military, is underway in Ecuador. The security situation, particularly in parts of the major cities, has deteriorated significantly as a result, with protestors seizing the airport and Congress in Quito. Currently the airports in Guayaquil, Quito and other major cities are closed. There is a high likelihood that the major transport routes into and out of the major cities will be blockaded by protesting police. There are reports that the land borders with Peru and Colombia have been closed. For more information see Civil Unrest/Political Tension below.

All in all, this does not sound good for Ecuador. If we don’t get to Galapagos, we’ll survive, but if we do and things work out very badly, well, we’d rather not take the risk.

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Athens Pharmacy

Today was a pretty quiet day of rest and recovery. We headed down for a delicious full breakfast then rested in the room while watched some TV. Ev was still not feeling well so around lunch time we went down to a Pharmacy to get more medication. She’d been putting it off for a couple of days because it was a very sensitive and embarrassing issue but her medication was running out. Ev decided that no cultural or language barrier would be too embarrassing if she spoke with a female Pharmacist. Deep breath!... As we walked into the small pharmacy a guy dressed in a t-shirt and shorts in his mid-20’s got up from the waiting seat and casually walked behind the counter with the four staff members in their late 50-60’s and a customer was already being served. There was one woman Pharmacist, few! We walked up to and counter and Ev asked the woman if she spoke English. She gestured no and called the young guy over. Inside Ev was shouting “Oh Shit. He’s not going to want to hear about this!! Shit!!” The young guy came over, so Ev took another deep breath and pulled out her existing medication and spoke about her ‘lady problem’ symptoms. As soon as Ev dropped the ‘V’ word, Dan was out the door and Ev was in it by herself. So the 20yr old was really helpful, but needed to consult one of the older gentlemen in Greek, who consulted with the older lady, who consulted with another older gentlemen who took a look at the medication Ev had shown to younger guy. It was so embarrassing! The ‘Team Meeting’ occurred as they all consulted their medication handbook then sifted through draws of medication boxes behind them and talking across the room with each other in Greek. That’s just Great! Now the other customer knows everything about Ev’s ‘V’ problem too! The younger guy translated that Ev hadn’t used the other medication properly and gave her some new stuff. She picked up the packet, looked at it and said “It’s all in Greek. How do I use it.” After satisfying her questions she bought the new medication and the 20yr old and put the box in a bag. The older gentleman gave Ev a warm smile hand handed her a 2011 Greek Diary and a couple of small tissue travel packets as a gift for her bravery. She kindly thanked the entire Pharmacy team and scraped Danial up from the seat he was well and truly sunken in to. Ev was really grateful the 20yr could translate but there is seriously nothing more embarrassing than having to explain personal issues to a 20yr old, let alone to an entire pharmacy team with a customer still in the store. Hopefully this will never happen again. Good new though, symptoms are less intense this afternoon.

ΕςΕΛΨΝ - Evelyn

Δανίαλ - Danial

 

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