Greece in Winter (Brrrrr!)

---

Hi all.
Hope you are managing to keep up with our travel journal, & that it hasn’t been too much information for you just yet. We just returned last night from Greece, & although it was a bit of a cold trip (the weather was nice & sunny but the wind was a bit cold), we had an excellent time. We didn’t confine ourselves to Athens specifically, although we never really got out of Southern Greece. It was the kind of trip we really needed - to get out of dark rainy London in the wintertime, & I think Vaughan especially enjoyed the break from work. While he is back at work today, I have a break for the rest of the week, while school is out for mid-term, & it gives me a bit of a chance to catch up on things, like making this journal entry. Here’s the lowdown on the excitement that was Greece……

Day One - We flew into Athens in the evening, & arrived when it was already dark. We didn’t realise that the metro (subway) had been extended all the way to the airport, so we took a taxi to the hotel instead. Unfortunately, the thing Greece is most famous for is it’s overpriced taxis & argumentative drivers. While we did end up getting the rough end of things, we took solace in the fact that even the locals have trouble with their taxi drivers, & as it was raining, even a walk from the metro to our hotel from the closest stop would have been a wet one, so it worked out in the end.

Our hotel was very basic but it did the trick. We stayed in an area called Omonia, previously known to be very dodgy, but it has had a clean-up since the 2004 Olympics, & really was not half as bad as we had anticipated. Omonia Square is one of the four main corner squares that make up central Athens (the others are Syntagma, Monastiraki, & Ambelokipi) & is within easy walking distance of the main attractions of the city. We went for a quick walk to a central street nearby & got some dinner there. We had decided not to look around too much in the dark, as we didn’t have a map at the time, & had very little knowledge of the area. Our dinner was great however, & Vaughan enjoyed his Pork Gyros (like pork souvalaki), while I tried some Mousakka. We then had an early night in anticipation of visiting the Acropolis in the morning.

Day Two - We were a bit worried that it would be raining when we got up, so we had loosely made plans to go to the Acropolis. Luckily it was a beautiful day, & we set off to walk there at 9am. It was nice to see everything in daylight, & the city was quite impressive. The buildings were more white than I had imagined (everything is white - doors, walls, roofs, etc), & I was really surprised at the number of cats & dogs running around the streets, especially dogs. None of them look too mangy, but they are absolutely everywhere. They just plop down anywhere they like for a rest, even in the middle of the road! Kind of funny.

We walked down the main street & got a sense of the different areas. We found that Omonia was perhaps not as nice as other areas, but only because it possessed neither the quaint cultural ambience of Plaka (the main tourist area below the Acropolis), nor the Westernised ‘high street’ stores (chain stores). In fact, it was full of tiny mish-mash stores & markets - dingy but cheap, so it’s good if you want to buy rip-off shoes & clothes.

Moving down the main street we came across Monastiraki Square - it was at this point that we could see the Acropolis between the buildings. I had never imagined it to be up such a big hill! It really towered over the city - there’s no way you could miss it & it was much closer than I had thought. In fact, it took us perhaps half an hour to walk from our hotel to the base of the hill, so everything we needed was incredibly close. We went around the side of the hill & followed some other tourists up a steep path. It was only afterwards that we realised there was a gentle incline up the hill at the back, but it was great exercise. Luckily for us, entry was free for all cultural attractions during that weekend, so we didn’t have to pay anything. We walked around the Acropolis site, visiting the various amphitheatres & ruins inside the grounds. There is far more to the Acropolis than you think, including a large grassy area at the base of the hill, containing the buildings of Ancient Agora. You could easily spend several days just looking around that area if you were into that kind of thing. We just stayed for about 2 hours & then went for a walk back down to the Panathenaic Stadium (the first Olympic Stadium), but it was closed for the quiet season, although we could still see it well from the outside.

From there we walked through the tourist district of Plaka & had a look at all the local tourist stuff for sale, as well as all the nice restaurants which was quite enjoyable. Athens has a lot of tourists at any time of the year, so you don’t really get much attention for being different, which makes it much easier when you’re in a foreign country. Most people spoke fairly good English, so there were no language barriers.

On the way back to the hotel we walked back across to the base of the hill that the Acropolis is on, & visited Ancient Agora, & it’s various historical buildings, including the impressive Temple of Hephaestus. Going back up the main street we saw that Monastiraki had a huge Sunday market in full swing, which had not been there when we walked through in the morning. We had a look around there for a while which was a bit different, before having dinner in one of the many restaurants very close to the square - more great food this time as well!

Day Three - Today we decided to get out of Athens. We managed to catch the right bus to a large terminal where you could take tour type buses to other parts of the country. We weren’t actually on a tour however, so I just researched a couple of nice places to go that were nearby, & we jumped on a bus headed for a place called the Peloponnese, which is on a large ‘island’ (it’s not really an island as we know it), to the West of Athens & the mainland. It covers quite a large area so we were not able to travel around it in one day, & instead chose to spend our time in a small town, called Nafplio(n). It took about 2 ½ hours to get there & it was quite an interesting trip. On the way we went over the Corinth Canal, carved into the Isthmus of Corinth by Jewish settlers, to link the Ionian and Aegean - it is 6km long & 23m wide. The most impressive aspect of it is that it is over 90m tall. I didn’t get a photo of it, but if you would like to see one you can click here.

One the way to Nafplion we also passed through Piraeus (the port for Athens - quite a large place), as well as Mycenae & Argos on the Peloponnese itself. Argos was quite large, but neither was anything special. The most amazing thing about them both were the citadels located on the mountains behind them. They really looked like something out of the Lord of the Rings. The one behind Mycenae in particular was very impressive - the walls surrounded the entire mountain-top & must have been spectacular up close. Unfortunately they were actually some distance from the towns, & up far too high to jump off the bus & go for a quick walk!! There seemed to be many orange trees growing in the countryside, as well as some kind of trees that we thought may have been olives. It was nice to see different kinds of agriculture compared to what we are used to. The roadsides also had many small shrines along them. They were everywhere - all sizes, all colours, some in the middle of absolutely nowhere. We even saw roadside stalls selling them, if you wanted to stop off, buy one, & then put it on the side of the road. Most had pictures & candles inside them - quite interesting!

Eventually we made it to Nafplion, which was far nicer than the other towns we had passed through. The New Town & Old Town were quite different, & I really enjoyed the ‘Venetian’ style of all the buildings in the Old Town particularly. Nafplion was a beautiful, well-kept seaside town, with steep, towering hills offering incredible views. Above Nafplion are two citadels as well, one quite close to sea level (which oddly, you can use a lift to get up) called the Akronafplia Fortress, & we went up here for a look around. After walking back to the town, Vaughan decided that his trip to Nafplion wouldn’t be complete without climbing the impressively steep steps (apparently 999 of them) to the Palamidri Fortress which towers over the town. I wasn’t really game enough (or fit enough), so I had more of a look around the Old Town & another look at the Bourtzi Fortress, which lies just off the coast on it’s own island - very cool. Vaughan completed the climb quite quickly, although could not reach the very top due to the fortress being closed to visitors at 4pm. When he returned we jumped on a bus back to Athens - a thoroughly enjoyable day! We had an excellent dinner yet again, & would like to thank the people of Greece for having such yummy traditional food!

Day Four - It was our last full day in Greece & I had really wanted to go to one of the islands nearby. We got the metro to Piraeus, where there are hundreds of both small & large tourist boats, as well as the commercial port trade. It was quite impressive in the docklands area. Initially I had thought we could get to an island called Poros, but we arrived too late to catch a ferry which would give us a decent amount of time on the island. We decided to go to Aegina, which is the closest island to the Greek mainland & had many more ferries per day. It was also a fraction of the price. We were able to get on a ferry straight away, & it took us about 1 ½ hours to get there. Aegina is one of the Saronic Gulf Islands - there are so many Greek Islands that they have to be classed in different areas. On arrival we saw that while the island was largish, the towns on it were quite small, so there were plenty of wee places to adventure around.

We arrived in Aegina Town & walked around all the small fishing boats & along the waterfront, which was really nice. After having yet another nice Greek lunch in one of the waterfront cafes, we hired some scooters so we could go buzzing around the island, as much of it was quite barren & mountainous. I had never been on a scooter but suddenly found myself in command of my own one, which was a blast after I got over the jitters of driving on the opposite side of the road. Thankfully the off-season there is quiet & there were few cars for me to run into, although the roads were steep, tiny & windy. It just made for more fun as we tore around the streets & climbed our way up into the hills. My scooter went a lot faster than Vaughan’s (I’m not surprised, considering his poor scooter was dragging around 120kg of rider) so I had endless fun overtaking him when he least expected it. I only wished my horn had worked so I could have tooted as I went by.

When we got up into the hills we came across an impressive monastery called Moni Agiou Nektariuo - it really was quite spectacular, especially being in the middle of nowhere. Just a few minutes up the hill from there we came across a small church & ruins of a small town on the hillside, which you could walk around & investigate for yourself, called Palaiochora (Paleohora). I think that blew me away the most - the view from there was spectacular & it was fascinating to look around these places that had so much history but were so remote. It was crazy to imagine what once may have been in the spots that are now in ruin. The small church was still in use however, although I’m not sure who uses it. A really nice place to stop! From there we headed over to another coastal village on a different part of the island, which we could see when we had been up the mountain. We had no idea where we were going so we just scootered all around the place, looking for this particular old temple, although we never found it. By that time we had to head back to catch our ferry back to Piraeus, but saw some smaller temple ruins on the way. It would have been easy to spend several more hours riding around on the scooters & investigating the island further, but it was quite windy & cold being up in the mountains, & Vaughan did not have the luxury of a scarf & gloves (& crash hat) that I had to keep me warm. Silly boy!

From there we headed back to Pireaus/Athens & went out to a nice ‘taverna’ for dinner which we had seen several days earlier. We had a selection of 6 Greek dishes - so yummy, & it was at an incredibly reasonable price. From there we walked around Plaka & the base of the Acropolis for a while (the Acropolis has huge spotlights for nighttime viewing which is quite something to see in itself) & then headed back to the hotel.

Day Five - We were glad to be in Athens for another day, but felt at a loss as to what to do for the day, considering we had to leave for the airport at 4pm. While there are many museums & archaeological sites to visit in Athens, many sites have their own small museums & stuff, so we did not pay a special visit to the larger ones. The impressive thing about Athens is the amount of ruins that are just lying around the place. They have fenced them all off & they end up being in the middle of anywhere - a street, a park, a city square, so there are endless bits & bobs to look at for free. The streets are also lined with orange trees, which was nice & bright. There was also a lot of impressive colourful graffiti over many abandoned buildings (of which there seemed many). We just walked around again, had lunch in Plaka, went to Syntagma Square to see the Parliament Building, walked through the National Gardens which had a miniature zoo inside it, went back through the Monastiraki markets & then went to the hotel to pick up our bags & head to the airport. The flight back was fine although a lot longer than the one over to Greece, especially as you always have to circle Heathrow about 5 times before you can land which takes an extra hour or so. We got home quite late but were very glad of the adventure.

So that’s it - this is an incredibly long journal entry & if you are still with me then you are doing a great job. Thanks for listening! Will let you get back to whatever it was you were doing probably 2 hours ago. Miss you all heaps. Please email us - we would love to hear from you!
Love Toni & Vaughan xxxxx

---

Comments

[Mum]

what a great trip
Hard to believe how much you managed to do in the time you were in Greece, no mention of ouzo Vaughan. It's Bill's dream to be lying on a beach somewhere in Greece drinking ouzo. Can't wait for the next adventure.