http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Greece , Attica , Athens en-us Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:11:51 +0000 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:11:51 +0000 I had a problem with the photo updater so only a limited number of photos appear here. More will be published in a separate blog...sorry about that. One of our shorter flights on our trip was the three hour flight from Cairo to Athens. Short flights are greathellipyou get everything a long flight gives you except a numb butt. Athens was where we will be spending Christmashellipnot a white http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-465358.html We had a 13 hour layover in Athens. Sadly the city center of Athens is over an hour drive from the Athens airport. We had a 6am flight so it was risky and expensive cab rides to go to Athens City center. There are only two hotels near the airport that are VERY expensive being called 4 and 5 star hotels. We were not excited about spending 13 hours in the airport and another 22 hour day travelin http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-464415.html Unsurprisingly we all slept in until about 11am this morning We raced upstairs to get breakfast before they finished serving. Alice had a huge headache and wasnrsquot feeling all that great today and decided to stay in bed for a while and rest. Not sure how we ended up with so much dirty laundry already but it was really hot and humid and we were changing clothes often. Someone told us tha http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-463955.html Hello Everyone some of you may know this already but we have a new Travel Blog in addition to this one. The link is below and you would need to subscribe to it like you did with this one. Dave and Andrew are embarking on an expedition. A walk across Europe starting in Athens. I am currently in Athens Greece having seen them off and the walky talky boys are now on their trek. To read m http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-463951.html We decided that the first thing we should do is go to the Acropolis. We walked back through the Plaka the way we went the night before only to find out that we were on the back side of the Acropolis and need to go around to the other side to the entrance. Well I think that we actually had a pretty intimate tour of Anafoitika which is the cluster of small houses built on the slopes of the Acropo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-463949.html I'm considering this day 2 as we left Boston on June 5th Day 1 We booked the portion of our trip from Athens through Santorini through Fantasy Travel of Athens. I'll say it now and get it out of the way we're so happy we went through a Greek travel agency All the arrangements they made went like clockwork. Arrived in Athens at 400pm. We're met at the airport by the Fantasy Travel Agenc http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-463948.html Well folks I finally got around to writing the next installment of my travel blog on Greece albeit I have been to Mykonos got over the flu back to London now batching it in Amsterdam and now Berlin........So I am going to preface with something I read in a mag on the ferry over to Amsterdam utter luxury just quietly and only 77 incl cabin..... 'There are no foriegn lands it is the traveller http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-462530.html Touchdown to Athens Greece. Named after Athena daughter of Zeus Goddess of wisdom the birth place of democracy the staging arena of western philosophy the epicenter of art and culture which has been replicated time and time again stands as one of the oldest cities in the world dating back to 5000 BC. There are excavation sights throughout the city some gated off and others open to the publ http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-454125.html Just a short one before we pick up Vic from the airport and see Greece So after Skopje we headed south to Stobi an ancient Roman city which is still being excavated unfortunately all the mosaics where covered with feet of sand to protect them from the winter weather Caroline waited in the Duk and pissed and moaned about the rain. Raining for about 4 days now without stopping.Had to pay ext http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-453579.html The bed I found so great compared to a coach seat on Delta wasn't as great as I remembered. The highlight of the night was Kelly coming out of the bathroom with the lights off thinking her reflection in the full length mirror was an intruder and screamed. In the dead of the night that had my heart racing for a while.Luckily we have internal clocks that wake us up early we don't use alarm clocks a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-451985.html Athens was the start and stop for our trip. We departed from Atlanta on Aug 31st on a direct flight overnight to Athens an 11 hour flight.The airport was easy to navigate and we soon caught caught the Metro Blue Line for euro6 each to Syntagma Square where we walked to our hotel only a few blocks away. The ride was probably close to 45 minutes the last 15 minutes the bus was filled with peop http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-449446.html After getting in late last night morning came a bit too soon. I showered and packed up my things to store since I have to change rooms today. After leaving my things in the storage room I checked in at the front desk and found out that there was a walking tour organized by the hostel that would leave at 1030.About 20 of us joined the tour mostly college aged girls many of whom were likely stu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-448124.html I left Ios today to return to Athens. Before I caught the ferry I went down to the port for lunch. As I looked around at the sea and the surrounding hills I was still surprised how beautiful and how grotesque this island really is. There are gorgeous white homes spread out intermittently all overlooking the clear blue sea below. But there are also barren wastelands full of rocks and dead vegeta http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-447814.html Today I left Budapest for Athens and the warm weather within it. I got to the airport and made my flight without a hitch.When we arrived in Athens we disembarked onto a stairway and were treated to the warm weather immediately while we waited for a shuttle to take us to the main terminal. It felt like 75F here wonderful after the 30s and 40s the last week and a half.I caught the metro from the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-447453.html Ok it wasnrsquot so big and it wasnrsquot so fat a holiday but it was a brief two day out of the ordinary one Flight to Athens Well let me start about telling you about Amsterdam. Why cuz I wanna boast of course. So what if I didnrsquot go to Amsterdam I did go to the Amsterdam airpo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-447442.html NO where near enough time in Athens unfortunately. Enjoyed a quiet dinner with Tioby and Caitlin and saw the Acropolis by night amazing then headed back to the hotel. The morning after we did a tour of the Acropolis and then headed straight for our island cruise. Acropolis was something to see under restoration which has taken away some of the appeal I prefer the Italian style of no restora http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-441562.html September 29 2009Today our cruise departs from Athens. Our driver was coming at 3 p.m. to pick us up so we had some time left in Athens to explore. Judy and I wandered over to Syntagma Square to buy some postcards and stamps. There were plenty of shaded benches in the square to choose from to write the cards. We realized that we left our map back at the hotel and opted to try the fancy hotel on http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-441041.html Hello926 Morning of 926 we took a bus back up north to Athens. We were a little sad to leave our great setup in the beautiful town of Kardimylia.We arrived in Athens and found the city bus we needed pretty quickly. After taking a metro train to our intended area we discovered the hostel no longer exists and no others were in that area. Back on the metro to the Acropolis area we were sure http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-440787.html I awoke early to catch the sunrise. While pretty it was not that inspiring and probably not worth the effort. Sunsets are much better at least from our hotel vantage point. With the Parthenon now bathed in sunlight. Judy and I headed out to knock some things off our shopping list. We found the equivalent of a Target named Hondos Center here to pick up some toiletries. I also was able to find a el http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-440552.html Our first full day in Greece started with a nice hotel breakfast before heading out to the Monastiraki to visit the market. What an amazing collection of stuff from David Hasselhoff vinyl records to vacuum tubes. Judy managed to find a couple of trinkets to bring home regardless. Next up was the changing of the guard at the Parliament building. What a site. The high stepping guards were cool but http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-440550.html