One column or two?

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After a teary farewell to family in Cyprus our home for the last month, we boarded (much to Zoe's fear) Olympic Air bound for Greece. The last experience of Greece's national carrier included the spilling of coffee, bad food and scary Cruella de Ville-esque air hosties. Granted there was no spilling of hot beverages and evil stewards but alas the food is still just as crap.

Landing in the out skirts of Athens we put on our world explorer faces and made our way to the bus into town and hey we survived the x95 into town. To be honest, it's one of the easiest airports to get to and from - go the Greeks! Driving into Athens is quite an experience, it's busy, busy, busy and you forget how big the city actually is. With around 5 million people it feels crowded and constantly on the go.

This trip was literally a whistle-stop one, a brief visit to give us the chance to see Athens most famous sight, the Acropolis. Getting up early on a cloudy morning we made the trek up to the site and it didn't disappoint, another one of those places where you think to yourself 'How on earth did they do this?'. The location, the size of the buildings and the intricate designs all help make it a must-do on anyone's travel list. But looking at the images of the place in the summer I would get here at opening time to make sure you can have a photo without 10 million others in the background - nothing like a photo of you in front of the Parthenon with Bob for Birmingham in his union jack hat and socks and sandals behind you! We were lucky, thanks to it being low season we shared the whole place with one other tourist for a whole half hour before the tour groups arrived.

After the obligatory photos we moved on to the opposite hill, 'The Hill of Muses' which was deserted and has even better views of the city (and a better place to take photos of the Acropolis.) As the rain began to fall we were left with no other option but to visit the brand, spanking new Acropolis museum. The new museum is an architectural masterpiece and as opposed to the many badly sign posted areas and information pamphlets, it is elegant, informative and fascinating.

Looking out onto Athens it feels like a huge sea of white apartment blocks based in a basin surrounded by hills. I don't think anyone could class Athens as a beautiful city but it definitely has charm. Wandering around the back streets without a map would be the best way to go, at times you feel like you have stepped back to the 1950's with the same small workshops and coffees shops selling to locals, walk a bit further on and you're back with ancient Greece as you will inevitably bump into more ruins.

Unfortunately the area around the Acropolis suffers from the similar fate as parts of Cyprus - it solely caters for the tourist dollar. But if you can look past the 'Spartans do it better' t-shirts and dirty mythological playing cards - Athens is a fascinating place.

Before we came here we were constantly warned about the risk of strike and riots thanks to the now kaput Greek economy. Thankfully there were no protests and we only saw one march in support of illegal immigrants on hunger strike, but it was interesting that even walking the streets with the locals there is definitely a feel of social unrest - the divide between the old and new generation of Greeks is easy to see. In one sense Greece is one of founders of modern society and is currently one of the stalwarts of the European union, but on the other it is still being held back by its traditions and ties to the older, slower and bureaucratic way of life. As the birthplace of democracy it'll be interesting to see how these Greeks get on in the future.

Next stop should be interesting, whilst we have sat amongst the passionate, fiery and protesting Greeks we're off to the Netherlands - land of conformity, dykes and lots and lots of canals.

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Comments

[Jenn]

Great Stuff!
Hi to you both, great to be able to travel with you - keep up your good work - oh oh wish I was with you! loadsa love from Jenn. xx

[Ads]

Greece
Ah Dykes and Canals... Just like Elwood!