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Evzones
Change of guard which was excellent! Greece
Very good! Was nice to step out of hotel and wander around feeling safe, no hassle shopping, green gardens and parks, warm weather which is a nice change, having little free touristy things like change of guard and tourist information boards for little extras. People are not overly friendly or Greek looking for the matter but just go about their business. They are good at jumping queues if you don’t be very assertive. Countryside is beautiful! Olive trees everywhere, beautiful winding country roads on flats and hillsides.
Athens - awesome. Saw change of Evzones at Parliament House which also has tomb of unknown soldier. Change of guard was 10 times better than Buckingham Palace. Drill was better and just way different with legs swinging everywhere, goose step marching and fists eye socket height. Then wandered through national gardens which was nice and then to 1st Modern Olympic Stadium 1896, all marble, seating 70000 and tablets there with all hosts written in Greek which I could read some. Then kept wandering till we got a view of Acropolis, Parthenon, Zeus’ Temple and Hadrian’s Arch. Then came across old buried roman baths with tourist information which was cool - like
our own little treasure we found J Then couldn’t resist going back to watch another change of the Guards. Last night in town watched sunset and lights come on at Acropolis from coffee shop top floor of Hondos Centre.
Mykonos - 6 hour ferry trip after not much sleep isn’t nice. Water is flat calm though. Excellent view from our room. Winding cobbled streets are awesome. They were built to stop marauding invaders but didn’t lose us. We had practice just getting to our room which is a case of turn right out of reception, go 20m then down about 20 stairs, right turn, another 10m and down 10 stairs, hard left, left again, right, down 15 stairs, right down 5 stairs, 5m then turn right up 5 stairs, 2m left turn, 4m, up 5 steps, 20m and you’re there. Good thing is the hidden fitness, after only 3 days my spare jeans that didn’t fit now do!
Santorini - beautiful on approach, whitewashed buildings on cliff tops actually looks like snow capped islands. Can see why that ferry that sank 20m off coast is now 150m deep - very steep cliffs. And more stairs! Wandering around Fira and Oia
Zeus' Temple
Couldn't do a blog without this I suppose. was ok, but climbing the volcano Nea Kameni, and that afternoon the stairs from port to Oia I wouldn’t class as fun. Sunsets were ok but local pork souvlaki/gyros was awesome! Hired a scooter which was cool - adapted to driving on wrong side of road easy. Actually saw a video from Australia and thought they were on wrong side of road! First bike was bad and we had to do the flintstones to get started and Joanne had to get off to go uphill. We had a horse laugh at us because he had more horsepower! Petrol was ok at €1.10 per litre.
Corinth Canal - not used much nowadays mainly tourist cruises but still awesome none the less. 6km long, 23m wide and 8m deep although gorge is about 80m deep.
Epidauras - mainly Theatre we saw was still like new. Built 400bc, 14000 seats, awesome acoustics and another awesome view.
Mycanae Acropolis - was pretty cool, Lion Gate was good. Best thing though was Treasury of Artreus Tomb of Agamenon across the road that was built into a hill and once inside was shaped like a beehive.
Olympia - awesome little town of 1600 people. We were
told 3 hours at Zeus’ Sanctuary which sounded forever but was awesome and seemed like ½ hour. Saw Temple of Zeus where his statue was, one of the 7 ancient wonders of world. The old Olympic Stadium where I ran the 192m. Temple of Hera, Zeus Mother where they always light the Olympic flame still with sun and mirrors. The Archaeological Museum with some pretty awesome statues and artifacts. This is really the first tour I’ve ever done where I feel rushed.
Delphi - The countryside is awesome again. Delphi is another small town of 1400 people stuck up above port and aqueduct still used to feed Athens. The Sanctuary of Apollo was pretty cool. Proved the benefit of a good marketing agent even in ancient times - there used to be a Statue of Apollo that was 17m high made of gold and ivory, same as 12m Zeus, but didn’t become an Ancient Wonder of the World.
Different things - like I said, hassle free shopping. Actually had to find someone to pay for ice cream and had finished by the time we paid. Could look at postcards without having prices yelled at you - actually prices were
Mykonos dining visitor
Just sitting there having dinner and up wanders this pink pelican. even marked - AND… at full bottom line price, not plus this for me, that for government, some for a tip and a little bit more in case you can’t keep up with the adding up.
They use commas for decimal separator and full stop for thousands separator which is a bit weird.
In Mykonos guy sun baking naked with his shirt on. Actually he was doing more than sunbaking!
Ouzo - lets just call it metho and if you’re lucky you get a dash of aniseed!
Showers at both Santorini and Mykonos were less than 2’ square - very uncomfortable. On a good note though, sea waters were absolutely beautiful, crystal clear, deep blues and aquas.
Nescafe frappe - thicker than thickshake coffee, but not that cold, with ice cubes in it. Nice though.
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