Athens

Athens

Temperature:  36 degrees

Weather:  Sunny

We arrived in Athens at 6.45am after a 23 hour flight.  We emerged to a gloriously sunny day with temperatures already at 25 degrees.  Our taxi driver spoke perfect English as he had studied his master’s  degree in engineering in Durham, UK!  We engaged/listened to a one sided conversation on the state of the Greek economy which sounded so appalling that our driver confided he was actually on his way to the Australian Embassy after he dropped us off to apply for a skilled work visa!

The Phillipos Hotel is located a very short distance from the Acropolis so we made this our first port of call.  At 9am crowds were already assembling and being led by banner waving guides.  We purchased our tickets and then enlisted the services of a personalised guide named Koula.  Two other Australian tourists joined us who had arrived from Toowoomba the previous day.

Koula turned out to be a leading authority on the Acropolis and indeed anything Greek.  She sprayed detail at the rate of a semi-automatic and delighted in telling us the Greek prefixes of many of the monuments.  I felt like I was in the movie The Big Fat Greek Wedding….I had to suppress laughing after the first half a dozen lessons.  I think the jetlag finally caught up and hysteria had set in.

The Parthenon lived up to our expectations in all its majesty high on the hill overlooking Athens. Some reconstruction is occurring thanks to money from the European Union.  I did wonder if they were reconsidering their monetary support in this endeavour as Greece’s dreadful financial crisis worsens.

The views over Athens were wonderful – a sprawling city of gleaming white, even heighted buildings which spread down to the Aegean in the distance. 

As we left The Acropolis  the tourist groups had grown considerably and we were glad that we had made an earlier start.  By the end of the hour and half tour the temperature had really soared and we tried to keep to the shady side of the streets as we made our way to the Plaka.  We stopped into the Theatre of Dionysus en route – a very quick tour as it was so hot. 

The Plaka is a myriad of streets offering up many tourist shops and wonderful little eateries.  Souvenir shops are abundant and waiters called for our attention to scrutinise their menus.  We eventually found a delightful little restaurant and were grateful to finally sit down.  An outside table was chosen  and Greek salads, moussaka, calamari and kebabks (what else!) were ordered along with chilled rose for the girls and Greek beer for the boys. 

We then concentrated on finding a travel bureau as we needed to book our tickets to Mykononos and Santorini.  That done we were flagging with tiredness and found a little café to recharge our batteries.  The boys succumbed to the Greek Alpha beers while Desley and I enjoyed great coffees.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon meandering our way through streets familiarising ourselves with the Plaka and purchasing some souvenirs for the grandchildren.  Okay, its day one but Desley and I couldn’t resist!

By four in the afternoon our energy had waned considerably and we made our way to the hotel for refreshing  showers, a change of clothes (at last) and fingers crossed that we could stay awake for an early dinner.

Photos:  At the Acropolis - The Parthenon (built 447 - 432 BC);  The Erechtheion (421 - 406 BC) and  Desley and David ready for our morning tour - our first glimpse of the world heritage site.

Postscript:  if this blog works it will be a minor miracle as the blog is in Greek!