Overland 1972 - Day 27

---

Day 27 - Thursday 9th March

We decided to change Youth Hostels and move to Athens No 3 which was considerably cleaner - unfortuantely it did mean that we had less time for sightseeing. After the mandatory trip to Poste Restante, the first tourist area was the flea market, which was full of cheap junk shops with nothing worth buying - moved on quickly.

Theseum - the Temple of Hephaestus the God of Fire and Blacksmiths. However there were more attractive ruins on the site Agora including where St Paul had preached a famous sermon about the Unknown God. A lot of the excavations had commenced post war. Next stop was the Acropolis which was free to enter. The temples, the pillars and other monuments were just amazing with their beauty further enhanced by the bright sunshine. The site also offered good views over Athens. The site overlooked an open air theatre and I sat here for a while just enjoying the atmosphere. A guy was playing a flute and the sound was just so magical further adding to the warm glow of this place. I met a group of Canadians, English and Irish who were also heading for Australia but they had no specific plans. The Irish lad stayed with us for the rest of the day.

We walked to the Temple of Zeus - alas it was closed- and then the stadium which was used for the 1896 Olympic games.

The final task of the day was preparations for the journey to Istanbul. The original plan was to travel through the Greek islands and then by boat to Izmir and then by bus to Istanbul. However it was now clear that this trip would be too time consuming. The revised choice would be train and bus back via Larissa or by boat or maybe just to speed everything up and fly - cost versus time - too hard for an immediate decision !

Dinner was a traditional moussaka with stuffed cabbage but alas it was poor quality and lukewarm. At least the cake was perfect. Back to the hostel, do some washing and consider the options.

---