Athens. at last

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You wouldn.t be dead for quids.
this was the view from our balcony when we eventually arrived in Athens last night.








our train left Istanbul at 8.30. Our "sleeper" was designed for people of limited stature. anyway we managed to get ourselves and our luggage in. The motion of the train meant that we were soon asleep (well i was anyway). We awoke to be asked for our passports at the last station in Turkey. We sat for 45 minutes while they wrote the details sown in longhand - in pen and ink - in triplicate no doubt.
we went back to sleep. and awoke in Pythion where the Greek police checked our passports. unfortunately the engine and driver to take us to Salonika hadnt shown up so we sat, and sat and sat. i fell asleep to be awoken by Liz at 8am cause the train was getting to Salonica at 8.20 wasnt it? Well at 9am we arrived at DRAMA still 2 1/2 hrs from Salonika. and we dont know how they did it but our carriage which was at the rear of the train was now at the front.


We missed our Athens train at Salonika and had to wait for another. We had our first decent meal (a sandwich) for nearly 24 hours.

We couldnt get seats together on the train to Athens. Liz was in car 5. i was in 6.
i struck up a conversation with 3 young greeks: two students doing a phd and an actress. They were delightful company and as soon as i find the piece of paper with their email address i intend adding them to this blog. Eventually there was a spare seat and i was able to get Liz to come up and join us.
we eventually got to our hotel at about 8.30pm, a full 24 hours after we left Istanbul. Next time we fly.

Today we went to the ruins near the Acropolis. we also did some housekeeping like booking ferries and planes and also re-organising our car hire for the pelloponese. it now has GPS.
we have decided that we are going to reduce the pace a little over the next fortnight. We are starting to feel a little tired and the occasional bit of homesickness.

One interesting sidelight on my last post from Istanbul. After i did that, Liz and i decided to have a farewell turkish tea (I have learnt to drink tea without milk) in Sultanahmat before we left. we went to the cafe where we had the pottery casserole bowl smashed at our table. The owner there has been very friendly and always said hello even when we passed him and ate somewhere else. when the waiter brought our tea he mentioned that he was a Kurd. I started talking to him about Kurdish history and the problems inside and outside turkey. The owner came up later and we had a really good discussion. He put his case so simply: Why can't i hear my own language? why can't i sing my own songs? I don't want to leave turkey but i want to celebrate my kurdishness. It appears that Hansonism has taken on in Turkey as well. Let us hope the Kurdish question can be settled peacefully.
Tomorrow we are going to the Acropolis and in the ewvening we will watch a good friday parade of "jesus coffin" around the streets near our hotel.

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Photos

Times have changed
This is the very poor cousin of the OE