Astor Hotel Athens

We had pre-booked what we reckoned we wanted to see around Athens, before we left Oz, so this morning was a half-day in the coach around Athens....firstly, to the stadium of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896; then to the wonderful site of the Temple to Olympian Zeus! From here, I was amazed at just how close the Acropolis was....it is clearly visible from many parts of the city.<br><br><br>Next, we were off to the most famous ancient ruins ...

... doing, talking about, etc. I wonder what they know that I won't ever know because I am more in touch with my intellectual side, rather than my whole myself (i.e. body, spirit, aura, essence, etc). I have a lot of learning to do outside of a classroom - and at times like when i was in the village, I wonder about the expectations I have for my life. Do I live too big in my quest? This conversation will have to happen in person, I am sweating too badly right now... 6 ...

... bus we neededd to take (had to wait an hour and a bit to get it, D'Arcy tried to sleep a bit sitting up while I browsed the pictures.) We got the 4:00am bus, it cost 3.20 E each. Nice and big, we were pretty tired, couldn't see that much but looked out the windows and saw several boats... then took a little nap. We were dropped off in the middle of a huge parking lot, no one told us what to do so we felt quite lost. Then a nice bus driver looked at our ...

I came into Athens on the overnight boat from Santorini and took the metro into the city. Just when I surfaced at a random inner city station Benny G rang and asked me where I was and i was of course at Monastraki. Luckily Ben was 2 minutes away from there on foot, which is crazy considering the size of Athens which I viewed from later in the day from the Acropolis. We went ...

... and I went to the Archeological Museum whish was fascinating. Most of the finds from the Mycenaean Kingdom, which we had visited a few days before, including the 14 kg of gold masks etc are stored here. Mark then took the kids to the produce markets...not something you really want to do on a hot day...up around 40C today. We all went to the pool before planning to go back to the Psiri area for dinner.

... was very rewarding as I crossed the finish line in the middle of the Olympic Stadium in much better time than I anticipated!! We waited and watched the others come in and then the winner of the marathon ran across the same finish line as me. Great day.

... too, were carrying luggage. When we made it to the street, we met up with another two travel parties. All of us marched in silence to the dock, struggling with our luggage on the cobblestone streets. I thought the whole scene looked like some strange version of a group of monks processing to morning prayer. The fact that we were all wearing long jackets with hoods over our heads only added to the impression. However, while there may have been prayers being said by the group ...