ATHENS

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Day 71

I arrived in Athens airport at 5.30am to find out that the buses were on strike until 8am so I was going to be stuck at the airport until services resumed. Well I can now officially tell you that airport benches are definitely not made for sleeping on!!! Anyway I somehow managed to pass the time until the buses arrived. Well because there were so many people waiting I missed the first two and spent my time chatting to an English couple. We finally got onto a bus by a quarter to 9 and were finally on our way into the city centre.
It was well after 10 before I made it into my hostel and when I was finally there I couldn’t wait till I hopped in the shower. It was then that I met Becky! She came bursting into the full of energy and promptly invited me to go walking with herself and another guy called Rami. I agreed as long as it was after my much deserved shower. We spent the afternoon taking in the sights of the city, an old Russian Church, Parliament, the National History Museum, before I ended up calling it day to catch up on so well deserved rest.
That night I then again met up with the two of them for dinner. Afterwards we took a night time stroll and I managed to keep us from getting lost by my superb map reading skills. They were becoming better by the day! Becky and I then spent the rest of the night chatting away to our new roommate Sharon who was from the states.

Day 72

Today the two girls woke up before 6 to go on an outing to the three of the Greek Islands and at €99 I decided that it wasn’t worth my while and promptly fell back to sleep for another few hours.
That morning I met up with Rami and we headed off to visit the famous Acropolis. Along the way we stopped off at the nearby hilltop peak to catch a look at the fantastic view of Athens city. We soon moved onto the Acropolis and lucky for us it was free entry for the day. It was magnificent and hard to imagine that they managed to bring so much marble up to the top of the mountain. The view from there was also fantastic and we looked down on the Odeum of Herodes, where they have previously held several concerts and the Theatre of Dionysos. We then wonder on down to the Theatre and had a closer look at it, sitting in the seats, a place that would definitely have had your bum sore within the hour. From there we moved onto look at Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Olympian Zeus! Again I was amazed at the size of the marble columns that were still standing. The area also contained a variety of other ruins such as public baths and other buildings. Before long though we needed to move on as Rami had a plane to catch.
That night I went to dinner by self which was a rather lonely experience and on my way back I bumped into Becky and we then spent the rest of the evening chatting and organising the next part of our travels. Becky was heading off to Mykonos while I was heading off to Santorini with Emma and her friend Lauren. The two of us then agreed to meet u pin Plakias down on Crete. I had also heard from my cousin Emma and arrange to meet up with her the following day.

Day 73

I was at Emma and Lauren’s hotel by 9.30am so that we could organise our plans for the day. As I had already been up to the Acropolis we decided to do things the opposite and visited the Ancient Agora, the Agora and the surrounding markets, in the mourning and then leave the afternoon for us to go our separate ways. There was also a museum and other ruins including an old church. After a very expensive lunch I went on to visit Hadrian's Library, the Roman Agora, Aerides and the Fetchigie Mosque. From there I then strolled back up through the Plaka Markets before heading back to the hostel.
That night we had arrange to meet for dinner and had a lovely meal in one of the local restaurants. As we needed to be up early the next morning there was no adventuring that night.

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