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October 12th 2022
Published: October 12th 2022
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By taxi, by train and by plane, all modes of transport have lead us to Athens. And despite just about having to sell my kidney to pay the taxi fare from the airport I love it. Having visited years ago I had an impression of Athens based on that visit and on what I’ve read and gleaned and often and frequently the impression and the reality do not match. Here first impressions (after the airport in the middle of the night) do. The skyline from the rooftop garden of our hotel is the equal of any city vista I’ve seen anywhere. It is so evocative of so many concepts and I love it. It is truly inspiring. I’m eagerly anticipating a couple of walking tours I have booked and can’t wait to get amongst what the city has to offer.

As I mentioned we arrived late and in fact we arrived close to midnight. We knew that so no drama with that but we ’thought’ our travel agent had booked an airport transfer with our accommodation but wrong! This is the first time we have used an agent to book accommodation, no sorry she booked a night at Heathrow for us, and i don’t really know why we used her. I suppose it was easy but you lose control over what happens and this is an example. As such it was a late night taxi to the Plaka, along with loadings for after midnight etc etc. Consequently we are poorer and Lee is still asleep. I just made breakfast and it doesn’t happen often (we’ll never!) that I miss a breakfast. Our flight was booked via TAP, the Portuguese Airline but ‘star allianced’ out to Augean Airways which caused some check in concerns that my 2 words of Portuguese struggled with but we had tons of time and we managed fine. Aegean were good, offering some inflight services (basic meal, some drinks) but for a three and half hour flight basic services were fine. Their ‘electronic’ services are excellent, Lee received phone messages regarding gate numbers, baggage collection etc and after landing and getting to our hotel and establishing internet connectivity I received the same sort of information!

We are right in the heart of Athens. Minutes (and only a couple of minutes) from Syntagma Square and surrounded by both tourist and local shops. There’s McDonalds, Starbucks, Pie Face, ice-cream chains and pizza places but there’s also some charming small local shops so exploring should be quite rewarding here.

It’s almost midday so I’ll see how Lee is and go from there. I have a walking tour this afternoon, it’s another of those ‘free’ ones but I like them.
caio for now.


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15th October 2022
From our rooftop. Athens.

Athens
I'm looking forward to reading your blogs on your experiences in Athens. We have just returned home from a trip to Greece and have just started posting our blogs... unlike many others, Athens was a favourite for us :) Safe Travels. Cheers, Ren

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