Faros 2 Piraeus

... this picture. You'll get to our other pictures and our recipes. <br><br>We couldn't get fresh octopus, so we made up our own variation - Mock Grilled Octopus.<br> <br><br>The next day we made it down to breakfast. There was the usual European spread &#8211; cold cereals, sliced meats and cheeses, breads, yogurt, coffee, and tea. Before breakfast ended our taxi arrived.<br><br>Our taxi driver got us to the ferry on time ...

... a meal is a very long process. We often referred to it as doing &#8220;the dance for the check&#8221; Greek meals are very long and not hurried. They do not rush you to leave and don&#8217;t understand the concept of you being in a hurry to pay. We found that in the islands it was not unusual for it to take as long as an hour to get the check after first requesting it and there was a commonly followed process for getting it. Generally speaking you would request the check the first ...

... me patiently that her name is not the Greek word for basil, it actually means "royal." But I'm still going to call her Beautiful Basil here on the blog. I got to return the favor of the language lesson by answering Basil's questions about American slang. She has been studying English since age 7 (the American educational system that doesn't start second-language instruction until high school when our brains have ...

... Athens, so we had a lot to squeeze it. We went to the Kerameikos Cemetery first thing in the morning, in theory before the heat became oppressive, but the heat was already overwhelming even then. We managed to keep going. We were interested in the Dipylon Gate, the main entrance to Athens in the Classical Entry but Karen was continuously moved by the scenarios portrayed on the grave stellai. Around noon, we got to the National Museum where my friend ...

... parthnenon using concrete. Today it is not holding up and it is covered in scaffolding as they rebuild it with marble. Unfortunetly the Greek work ethic is much more laid back than ours and it will likely be this way for years to come. We were told the average greek work day consists of opening up shop around 9 or 10, staying open for a few hours, closing up for siesta between 2 and 5, reopening when they feel like it then closing at some point. This made it difficult on several occasions ...

... sting in it - got to almost 40 by late afternoon! We moved on to our lovely Hotel in Toulon - the best yet, with a crystal clear swimming pool and stunning rooms. Enjoyed a long cool dip in the pool then sat in the shade drinking long cold beers before having a good 4 course Grecian meal at our hotel, finishing a thoroughly lovely day. The following ...

Well, it took a few days but I finally made it to Athens! We had to take 4 trains from Interlaken, Switzerland to Milan, Italy. We stayed to night in Milan since we wouldnt make it to the ferry in time. The next morning we caught the 6:05am train to Ancona, where we caught the ferry at 1:30pm. 11:30am the next day we arrived in Patras, Greece where we caught 3 trains to ...

... the night receptionist, and when I explained the obvious and told him who sent me, he flew into a rage. He had apparently told the other guy that they were also full, but I could sleep on a mattress in the hallway for 12 euros. Tired and angry, I had little choice but to accept, and found the skankiest mattress I had ever seen and sat on it in the deserted hallway, trying to find the humour in the situation but couldn't. My spirits lifted when I was joined by two kiwi girls (Keesten ...