Arethusa Hotel Athens

... had to laugh at that as they of course are great Greek suburbs of Melb.

Back to the blog... the weather was forecast to be rainy but yet again it held good for the time we were in town.

Athens was crazy as expected - the traffic was nuts & it was all go! The Acropolis popped up everywhere as we drove around. We passed the original Olympic stadium and stopped there for a quick photo of the stadium and even better back to the Acropolis.
Athens, Attica, Greece glees99

... mind. we carried our own luggage this time because we didnt want to get charged but we later found out that it is the luggage you get charged for not the handeling of it. duh?! o well we arrived and the guy at the reception was very kind and helped us check in. we unfortunatly were at the second level and had to climb two flights of stairs with our luggage but owell. life was good that we found the place and had a place to sleep. by this time it was 1130.

... that was pretty much my stay in
Athens. I must say, the city has grown on me. When I left Athens I
thought, 'ok, I don't really need to come back - maybe for the
Acropolis', but after writing this blog and revisiting things in my
head, I've decided - I would like to come back. It's been an
interesting place to visit, and I've enjoyed my time here - the
good and the bad.


It's just over a week until I'm
coming home, so see you soon!

... in large numbers around the christmas tree and pedestrian mall. so at least my photo is now genuine. look for me on the AP greek story regarding athens resembling a police state now. i didn't say that i had just come from israel and am used to it, but 'twas fun all the same. tomorrow will be ancient sites day, and at night olympiacos versus some team that will lose badly. fingers crossed for no rain. nap time now.

... the tiny reception area. We ended up sitting on the stairs and watching with him for awhile. He would explain what the announcers were saying and we enjoyed watching some of the events. Athens was great to see, and we are so glad that we were able to visit. We have a flight to Cairo in the mornign and must be up by 4:30am to catch a bus to the airport. We are super excited for Egypt tomorrow! Bring on the PYRAMIDS! Hugs and Love, Dana and Trevor

All the trains from Bulgaria or Turkey were supposed to stop at Thessaloniki. My guide said there was a good museum there, but I had no time, because of the flight schedule. I tried to transfer to a train for Athens immediately. Unfortunately I couldn't take the train without a reservation. When I arrived in Athens, it was two in the afternoon.

First off, I looked for a hostel available and tried Athens Backpackers, but no reservation, no accommodation. I thought late June ...

... to tell which as none of the parked cars are facing the same direction! You also find unusual sights like 50k Beamers parked next to stationwagons missing doors and covered in graffiti. Anything goes here. They park so close together that once your in, you would have to ram-raid yourself out. They are all crazy! haha. There is a huge number of dogs just lazing around on steps and in the street. So i finally got to the hostel and was too early to check in, so i left my pack there ...

... just take us all the way over to Toronto because we would probably get there more quickly in the taxi than in the airplane. And so our Greek adventure was over. We saw many memorable sights, had our appetite for knowledge of emerging and vanishing cultures strongly whetted and shared good times with people whose company we enjoy. A good deal for a keen shopper.

... pretty exhausted by this point so we decided to take the front entrance way back - surprise, they did have a NICE front gate entrance to this place! It all made sense now! So we headed back to the hotel for a quick break (Power and A/C were back - thank God!), and then got ready to go out and explore the nightlife in Athens. The guy at the hotel directed us to Monastiraki and told us his favorite restaurant. The place was packed with people - a lot of Greeks and a lot of ...

... but your lungs, throat, mouth, nose, even my tongue was on fire. We make our way to an area where we can find the bus. We saw riot police running towards a group of people chucking rocks at them, and so we moved to a different spot so that they would leave us alone. We found the bus and headed back to Porto Rafti. On the bus, I took out my contact b/c my eyes were still burning. My right eye was okay, but I scratched my left eye ...