Advertisement
Untitled Friday (traveling day)
From Kuala Lumpur I flew to Dubai (United Arab Emirates) in the Middle East. It was a six hour layover in the airport. The good thing is that Emirates Air has an outstanding business lounge. Lots of food, plenty of comfortable chairs, and SHOWERS! They don't have squat toilets, but they did have the hoses. No, I still don't know what you do with them without getting everything wet, and it's not the kind of thing I felt comfortable asking the receptionist about. So if you're interested, you'll have to look that one up on your own. If you find out anything, let me know.
Another interesting bathroom mention is that the water in the toilet is hot. I felt like I was sitting on a teapot. Maybe it's the ultimate sign of decadence. Dubai is an amazing place. These two French men told me that 60%!o(MISSING)f the city is under construction. And of course they're building the world's "tallest" building.
On the flight from Dubai to Athens, I noticed a common house fly buzzing about. What is it going to think when it gets off the plane, I wondered?
The
Weekend in Athens-
The plan was to hook up with my friend Bruce flying in from the States and tour Greece. Our flights were only 30 minutes apart, so it worked out well. After hello's and grabbing something quick to eat, we rode the train into the city. We didn't have too much trouble finding our hotel, the Acropolis Select. Bruce did a good job of finding this one. It was convenient and most importantly it had AC. After checking in, we strolled around the Acropolis, and the Parliament building and its gardens. There were a few ruins to see near the gardens.
What can I say about my first impressions of Greece. HOT, HOT, HOT!!! A few times a day I'd grab a shower and a nap. Lots of walking even though we took the train often.
On Saturday we ventured to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon at the top. Guess what? The Union of Workers at the site were on strike Saturday and Sunday. Those happened to be the only two days we were going to be in Athens because we were leaving for Mykonos early Monday morning. Thanks guys!
For the next two
days we wandered the Plaka (the old area at the base of the Acropolis) negotiating windy, narrow streets; visited Omonia and Syntagma Square; meandered down pedestrian walkways; patronized Starbucks (of course) and climbed more than a few steps. We rode in a "choo- choo" tram around the Acropolis (pic below) because it was too hot and we were too tired to walk. We ate lunch in a square with misters, spraying out water on customers. It felt great! Gotta get me one of those things. Found out that all the big shopping centers are closed on Sunday. To end our visit to Athens, we climbed Mars Hill, the hill across from the Acropolis, to take in the great views.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.169s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 54; dbt: 0.0787s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb