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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Greek Islands

We woke up at 6:00am and just as breakfast opened we put some food in a breakfast box then our ride was ready to take us to the ferry at 7:15am. Today we're excitedly off to the beautiful Greek Islands. It took us about an hour to collected the other passengers in the lovely bus. The seats were perfectly moulded for Ev and very comfortable. Upon arrival on the ferry a jolly photographer was ready for our mug shots for us to purchase after lunch. We headed straight up to the top level and found a table next to the side rails. We were both still pretty tired from our early start but were amused as busload after busload pulled up to the three level ferry. We were a little concerned it would be very crowded but actually it was comfortable. We went to three of the Greek Islands: Hydra, Poros then Aegina and will be home at 8:30pm.

We are not really big on cruises because we love to be busy and ‘doing’ things so being still on a ferry just enjoying the world go by was a little difficult for us at the start of the day and we were bored by 11:00am. The views however were very nice, although it would have been better if the sun wasn’t hiding all day. Also it rained so unfortunately no swimming for us either.

Before our first stop, all English speaking guests were invited to the lower deck for a briefing of the day. We were really excited to be on the islands and were surprised by the amount of cats walking the streets. The housing colours throughout were beautiful and we were given enough time to roam the shops.

At the third island, Aegina, there were two optional extras: The Monastery of St. Nectarios one of the most important places for Greek Christian worship, or, the Pistachio plantation tour. We were psyched for the Pistachio tour, but decided that neither of them were as thrilling as actually relaxing on the beach. We’ve always wondered what Pistachio nuts look like after they’re packaged, but now we’ll never know. Our briefing was followed by some entertainment of Greek dancing with the audience. The keyboardist/singer was very entertaining. The crew made all announcements in Greek, English, French and Chinese so we were all informed of when to leave and return to the ferry at each stop.

We were served lunch at 1pm on the ferry. A tuna salad, main course was a lovely marinated pork and potatoes and finally lemon custard tart for desert. 

We did feel a little rushed to be able to explore the streets fully as it would have been great to walk a little higher to get a lovely 'Greek Islands' shot with the houses and water. Oh well, we still had a very relaxing time and was well worth the trip.  

Back in the hotel, hot water and ice are free and best of all, no complaining about bringing it up. We’re watching Harry Potter 3 or 4, not sure, we haven’t really followed the movie series so we’re a bit confused about the game when Harry saves people from drowning. Maybe we should watch them all when we get back from our holiday.

 


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Rome-Athens

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. 

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.

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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