Thursday 26th of Feb.
This afternoon Kelly, Vaughan Josh and I flew to Athens. Josh didnt sleep all day so that made for an interesting 3 hour flight.
We stayed in an apartment a short walk to the main shopping area of Athens.
The thing that suprised me about Athens, was
1. the taxi drivers who were absolutley mental and drove so fast all the time.Then they would slam on the brakes to stop!
2. How dirty the city was. there were stray dogs everywhere, rubbish and general dirt!
3. Parking - the cars would park next to each other in the street and block each other in. and only 1 car could fit down a road (which should fit 2 cars!)
The Acropolis CLOSED cos of strikes!!
Friday, February 27, 2009
Today we went out for breakfast just to a local cafe, was strange smoking in doors, kinda gross too!!
We caught a taxi to the Acropolis only to discover that it was closed due to a protest. So instead we went to the Agora which was the ancient Greek market place. Walking around it was easy to imagine how it once was. We also went into the museum and checked out the artefacts
Later we went and had a platter lunch and walked around the Old Plaka district and walked past the Roman Forum and Tower of Winds also where I bought a fake Prada handbag for €15.
Was funny to bargain with the african guys who sell all that stuff cos as soon as they see the police coming they will sell it and run!We walked back to the apartment stopping at the temple of Zeus and the Kallimarmaro (Olympic) Stadium.
For dinner we went local and walked down to one of the restaurants near our apartment
(Temple of Zeus)
(Map reading "how do we get back)
Saturday, February 28, 2009
So this morning we got up and went to the same little place for breakfast coffee! Our apartment was quite noisy and they cleared the bins every morning at about 4.30am so none of us got much sleep!
We went into the centre of Modern Athens and watched the changing of the guards. Then we went and walked around the shops until the boys got bored - so we went and got some lunch then walked through the big markets -the fish ones were smelly!! And Vaughan reminded me to watch my bag!!
We then headed towards Lykavittos Hill - where we walked up hills and stairs and then reached the gondola which took us the rest of the way up! Had an awesome view from the top and there was a cute little (old) church at the top. Was definately tiring and hard work!! Thank god we took the Gondola i dont think i could have walked all that way - Josh had it easy - he slept the whole time!!
Saturday night we went out into Plaka area for dinner. We shared a variety of stuff and then tried shots of ouzo! Which were disgusting - the shots were about twice the size of normal shots and were so hard to drink. I think Vaughan was the only one who finished his!
We also went for a walk and took photos of the Acropolis at night - was such a beautiful site at night! Took us a while to find the perfect place for the shot. At least it wasnt cold.
The weather was really nice today too - think it got up to 16'
Sunday, March 1, 2009
So today we went BACK to the Acropolis and it was open!! YAY! We spent the morning there checking out all the ancient Greek monuments. Seen the Temple of Athena (the goddess of victory)
The Parthenon which is probably the most recognisable monument out of all of them, also went and seen the 2 theatres which held festivals, competitions etc.
Its crazy to think that many of the buildings were built 6th millennium BC!
Sunday afternoon we walked through the national gardens then caught a train down to the coastal harbour of Piraeus. Where we went for a walk along the waterfront and seen all the different cafes and restaurants where on one side of the street there was the kitchen and bar area then on the water front the actual seating area was. Very different!
Sunday evening we walked and got a little lost but we eventually found the restaurant we had walked past on the way home. we had to ask the police for directions!
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