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Our flight to Athens leaves at 4.00pm so we have a half day to kill and we slept really late, the staff at the hotel and just great and allowed us to check out whenever we wanted, so we walked to the spice market to get some Turkish Delight to bring home and went inside the new mosque while we were there. We returned to the hotel and sat around drinking coffee and cruising for an hour or so before our shuttle turned up. The usual manic trip to the airport was had and during the check-in a minor hiccup, it appears our travel agent booked us with no baggage allowance and we were politely told that we could not take our cases until we paid the extra 70 euro, somewhat peeved we had little choice. Then they changed the departure gate on us with no announcement so slightly frustrated but in good spirits we were off to Greece. We landed at about 5.00pm and then the real challenge began we had to find the number 96 bust. Well trip advisor was right on the money and it was right where they said, piece of caked and 10e later armed with
tickets we climbed aboard. The next issue was to get off at the right stop by the port of Piraeus, we had a map of the area but nothing looked right and the street names are impossible to read. After about an hour we got to an area that looked somewhat port like and getting worried I asked the driver, he told us it was the next stop. Perfect, he stopped and opened the doors and while we were getting our cases promptly closed them again and headed off. A good Samaritan in the seat next to us yelled out and the driver hit the brakes. Getting off a little like stunned mullet we had to find the ticket office to collect our ferry tickets from some maritime building, the streets looked nothing like the map but looking across the road we saw a Blue Star Ferries office, thinking this is a start but not convinced we could get our tickets from there. I was wrong and the helpful chap there promptly printed our tickets out explained where to catch the ferry and we were done. Now we still had to find the Hotel Triton so plan b comes into
play, get a taxi. Flagging the first cab we found the driver said no problem took us around the corner about 500 meters and charged us 5e, all good we were there. The hotel is, well as trip advisor notes ok for a night before catching the ferry and nothing more. The port area is somewhat typical of port areas around the world and is a dump, we walked the streets for a while and found this little tavern on a side street next to a fish market and what a little treat, it was rough, cheap and had an atmosphere that was truly what I expected a Greek Taverna should be like, I loved it. It looks as if the place had been there for decades and the photos inside backed that up. On a counter set up out the front was a grill where they cooked the fish and stuff and some 3 meters away was another bench set up with 2 litre bottles of red and white wine on the top. As the evening progressed people would walk, stumble or slide up to the counter pay the 2e for the flagon and depart, by the time we
had finished dinner most of it was gone, it was the local off licence. This place had no name but is located by the fish market next to the Triton hotel, worth a visit. The food was great and the beer cold.
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Zac
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Oh how I miss Istanbul. It's such a unique city. This is bringing back all the memories from 2012!