Arrival in Athens saw us nut our way to the train station and get ourselves into town. On arrival to Syntagma Square a kind lady put us in the right direction and so we arrived at the Achilles Hotel. This was nice and close and we could walk to most places.
That afternoon we went for a walk and got mixed up in the demonstration/riot and took refuge at the underground station as we became overcome by teargas. All the Athenians took off home on the train and so we stayed with staff until they checked if it was safe for us to go up. I think there will be more demos in the near future as they are not happy with the economic situation.
We visited the Acropolis, Parthenon, Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Zeus. and then walked to the Panathenaic Stadium - the stadium that hosted games for many centuries and where the first Modern Olympics were held in 1896. In the 2004 Olympics the archery and the finishing line of the marathon were here as well. ( an interesting tour)
We took a tour to Delphi the next day which overlooks the Gulf of Corinth from the slopes of Mt.Parnassos and there we saw more ruins. The drive up and back was quite scenic and relaxing.
Next day we set off to catch the ferry to Santorini and due to getting lost as we came out of the hotel, changing trains and a twenty minute trip we missed the ferry by 3 minutes.( you can laugh as you picture me dragging a suitcase along the platform while running and then falling over) Not to be deterred we set about working out how to get there. Air tickets were nearly $300 each and so the man at the terminal booked us on the ferry for 7.00pm that night, so we went all the way back to the hotel and got our washing done and went for a walk. We then left 3hours before we needed to and sat on the boat and waited for departure.
After missing our comfortable seats on the morning ferry we had to sit it out until 12.45am and then organise a taxi to get there. That was no problem, but when we got there no one was around and what we thought wa a code to get in turned out to be a phone number and as our phone was not working we had to sleep on the verander of the guest house until someone turned up at 8 o'clock the next morning to get the breakfast. Needless to say by that time I had a headache and was a bit emotional. (There was no charge for that night)
Later that day when we recovered we went for a walk and got lost amongst all the little laneways and blue roof whitewashed churches. Now I can understand why artists paint pictures of the little doors, they are fascinating. The next day we caught the local bus up to Oia and walked around there and then came back to view the sunset from our balcony which had spectacular views. The first night sunset was fantastic but the second night people would have been disappointed with it.( we also saw the red full moon on our first night, not that we were pleased about that) Anyway we are in Mykonos and enjoying just resting and wandering as it is a bit cold to be at the beach.
On these two islands people ride motor bikes and quad bikes, it is strange to see old people getting about on the motor bikes. Jack and I are not game enough to get on these as the driving around these islands is an art in itself. I think I would run over someone or crash into something. Some over the alley ways are about 2metres wide but the bikes still go down them. In the busy season it must be chaos with all the touirsts riding them.
Anyway time to eat again, next update will be from London
Love C & J
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