Golden Age Hotel Athens

... mostly only ruins, I really enjoyed the place.
There was just so much history there. I tried picturing what it would
have been like back in the day, but it was just impossible. Try as I
might, I just couldn't even come close to what it was probably
like. The highlight of the Ancient Agora, for me, was the Temple of
Hephaestus. I think I actually liked it a bit more than the
Parthenon. Maybe it's a tie. The Parthenon is very famous, and
situated on the big hill ...

... there are about 8 - 10 stops along the way. We have naps along the way. We get off in Athens, it is quite a small station. Len stays with the bags and I go looking for a hotel. Eventually found the Ariston Hotel, a newly decorated hotel, really nice. We are now into European prices too! It is not far from the railway station and the metro. The room is clean, sheets smell like hotel sheets and we feel very comfy here. We go out to look ...

Thanks to Blink Blink, we learned that the archaeological sites around Athens are free on Sundays now that the tourist season is over. We got up early to see the special parade for the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Parliament building. There were more than one hundred Evzone soldiers dressed in pom poms on their shoes, tights on their legs, tassels on their calves, pleated skirts around their hips, and ...

... Athens, it is just a concrete wasteland with a layer of smog on top. After decending the slope we saw a pace-gash, then decided to hit up a little restaurant we saw on the way up for lunch. It was relatively cheaper than the other places, with a pint for about £1.30 and kebabs for like £1.50. We just drank and munched for about 2 hours and decided to check out the shops in Plaka, its full of little ...

... bought spanacopida, a cheese pastery and a chocolate corrisant. We completed our walk hitting Syntegma Square and walking back to our hostel. Getting back, we got to go to the super market to buy the rest of the ingrediants for our greek salad dinner including a bottle of wine. Back to the hostel, we cut up our dinner and had a nice picnic outside on the balcony of our little dorm room and shared the bottle of white wine. The hostel had the internet and as we had not been able ...

... Parthanon, among many other ruins including the Theater of Dionysus, which had been brillantly redone with white marble and where they still hold performances. everything is so cool up here! we walked down the hill, left the Acropolis, and went to the remains of the Temple of Zeus, which has the tallest pillars i have ever seen. just down the street from there is the Athen's Olympic Stadium, where the first world Olympics were ...

Thought Athens deserved its own entry! Really warm weather (ongoing bush fires don't help) but well worth the climb to the top of the Acropolis to see the Pantheon. Awesome. Lyndal's physio is gonna kill her (she ain't meant to climb stairs... please.... that is all there is in Europe.... stairs everywhere!)

... you look! in fact I'm a damned tourist too!). As a good typical tourist, I take a small train (€5) that takes you for an hour through the surroundings of Acropolis. Sorry but the weather is so hot that we can't walk anymore! At night we stay at Plaka and we go to a cool bar called IceDog. It has a cute terrace in the street with sofas and it isn't expensive. You can have informal dinners as hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries, etc and sweet ...

... way is the business so we were ok. Had a few musacka and a beer then went up to the Parthenon/Acropolis. Am delighted that we got the chance to see this as it is amazing and makes you realise how old the world is, if that makes sense!... That's the culture out of the way!, now the match!, in short, we got there, that's Dave Barry and Myself by train. We arrived with about 20 mins to spare, and by ...

... 3) Just before leaving my hostel the last time before this happened, I had removed several valuable items from that small bag. It clearly could have been much worse, but it was pretty disheartening to have it happen on the first day. The next day was highly successful. I bought a new (and better) South America guidebook from the hostel and went to the American Airlines ticket office where I managed to get my plane tickets replaced, albeit with a $100 fee ...