We arrived at the port of Pireas ( Athens) about 5 a.m. with very little sleep under our belts. We then caught the metro (I think the first train running for the day) to central Athens, a 20 minute trip. The train was mainly full of people from the ferry but our carriage had some suspect locals as well ( A gypsy women who sat next to us and 3 young men who had a sizable dog each - no leads or muzzles!).
We emerged at the central Athens station of Monastiraki and had a magnificent view of the Acropolis. A short walk to our hotel (Astor) where we could check in our bags but wouldn't be able to get to our room until midday unfortunately.
So after sitting in the foyer to about 7ish we headed to the main square of Athens, Syngmata, about a 2 minute walk away and had a light breakfast. Here we had to decide how to spend the morning.
Eventually we decided to catch the Hop On Hop Off bus and do a lap of the sites of Athens (90 minute tour) and then stay on it and get off at one or two of the sites. This is only second time we have done this - the other was in Budapest in 2009. Luckily we had done the big ticket items in 2009, like the Acropolis, Museum, Hadriam's Arch, Temple of Zeus, etc..
After the first lap we decided to get off at the 1896 Olympic Stadium, Panathenaic Stadium. A magnificent piece of architecture which was originally built in 566 BC. An audio guide explained lots of features of the stadium and it's history, also there was a small museum down the athletes/gladiators tunnel, originally a cave where the nymphs would dance nude for some obscure reason, unfortunately there weren't any today!
From the stadium we walked through the botanic gardens, which were looking in the need of a good soaking, and coming out at the Parliament House, passing through the metro station which is a museum also. We decided to go to the hotel with fingers crossed, to see if we could get into our room, which surprisingly we could. From our room and balcony we have a view of The Parthenon.
Andy decided to go and watch the Collingwood v Swans game at a local sports bar (actually used the Hop on/Hop off bus to get there) and let Kristin have a sleep. Although the result was disappointing, Andy had a few drinks and a light meal and chatted to some young Aussies boys while watching the footy.
When Andy returned, he was getting a bit weary, nothing to do with the beers, definitely a lack of sleep! So Kristin let Andy have a nap and she went shopping.
We went out for dinner initially to the Psirri area. We stopped at a little square and had a beer sample of 6 beers and appetisers samples of 3 dips and stuffed vine leaves at a very hip place called Beer Time. All was very good. We decided to walk around the Psirri area which had a few more cafes and bars and nearly every building had graffiti on it. Some of the graffiti looked great but most made the area look dirty and messy (in fact all of Athens is like this).
Luckily we had the appetisers, because later when we sat down to eat at a restaurant near our hotel, we had a bit of a problem. After waiting close to half an hour for our meal ( it was 11 pm and the place was not busy), both our meals arrived cold. We told the waitress this and she said would fix it but having been up for the best part of 36 hours we decided not to eat the meals and left to come back to the hotel and sleep.
A very long day, Athens has some wonderful tourist sites but the city is very dirty and looking 3rd worldish not a vibrant European capital disappointingly. Anyhow only a stopover for us as we begin the journey back towards Australia tomorrow.
Cheers,
A & K
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