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Published: September 7th 2014
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I don't like to leave a day out when travel blogging but there's not so much to write about our final day. We flew out Kos at 6.30am to Athens where we had almost a day to spend there. The thing was that we'd spent three days in Athens only last year and had already seen the big stuff and previously wandered around many of the streets.
Had I planned in advanced, I would have booked us on the Alternative Athens Graffiti tour, but trying to book on the way there was leaving it too late, they did respond at least but were booked up. We had also hoped to research online from Kos about things to do that we hadn't before but our hotel wifi didn't work.
Having gotten up at 4am we were tired in Athens and went for breakfast in Monastiraki where many places were not yet open. We found a place with fans and wifi and looked up new places to go. We then went wandering and got lost in the seering heat amongst hoards of tourists. The new places that we found turned out to be places we'd been to before. One thing I
Wild tortoise in Church grounds near Cemetery.
It appeared to be stuck so Glyn helped it move. did notice was that there were far fewer cats than last year, I was worried, had they been culled? I really hope not.
After carrying our hand luggage up many hills in the heat, we decided to go on the tourist happy train, mainly for a sit down. It took us to places we had been before but it was nice enough for 5 euros.
We then had the idea to go to the Observatory as Glyn had read that there was an exhibition there. A lot of climbing uphill later, we found a new location from which to shoot the Acropolis, but no way in to the Observatory. The free map we had found didn't help and after walking in many circles we gave up.
Next thing we located on the map that we'd not seen before was the National Museum. We stopped for lunch on the way, where local young people smoked all around us which seems so strange these day. The cafe had a cat which stole customer's chairs when they went to the loo. Then it suddenly began to rain and very hard too. I wasn't expecting this in Athens! Despite the heavy
rain, we got to the National Museum only to find it had just shut at 2.30pm. Sigh.
So we headed back to Parliament to see the Changing of the Guard, only they didn't do the funny march - I guess this was because the marble floor was so slippy due to the rain. By this time we were exhausted, Glyn more so, as unlike me he'd not even slept on the plane in the morning. We went to the park to find a shady spot to relax. We came across a covered circle of benches with a variety of Greek people just sitting there or sleeping flat out. One guy had his two dogs snoozing by him until one of them decided to lunge after a passing child. The father of the child started kicking off and shouting in Greek and the dog owner was unbothered. Another guy joined in and the dog had another attempt. Glyn and I were stuck in the middle of all the yelling and snarling dogs, not knowing what to do. Eventually the dog owner gathered up his newspapers and trundled off grumbling to himself, with both his big dogs walking loose next to
him. We saw him not long afterwards as it turned out he had a book stall beside the park and his dogs were just hanging out at the bus stop, maybe waiting for another kid to harass.
We were both hot, tired and couldn't face more wandering about so headed back to the airport a little earlier than necessary. Lesson learned here was that if you re-visit a place you have recently been to, plan ahead so your precious time is not wasted!
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Inga
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A tip for next time
Hi Claire, I like your blogs (and Glyns too), very funny. Just a tip for next time you are going to Athens and want something different. Take a taxi to the Kaisariani monastery. You can easily do that from the city center (metro station Evangelismos would be a good starting point). Would take about 15 minutes, could be more depending on traffic. It is an ancient monastery on the Hymettos mountain. It is now a museum with a small entrance fee (probably closed on Mondays), surrounded by ancient cypress trees. A lovely spot, very peaceful. There are paths where you can walk further up to some other old churches, with great views or just enjoy the forest. To get back it is not very far to walk down to the Kaisariani suburb, where you can get a taxi or bus down to the centre. There are cafes and tavernas for a meal or coffee and Kaisariani is quite a nice residential area.