Johns Hotel Glyfada

... friezes. This was in one of the corners of the Agora.

On the southwest side of the Acropolis is the Philopappus Hill. We climbed right to the summit, and we sort of guessed our way up, but we found it. It was definitely a spectacular view. It is across from the Acropolis and probably has one of the best views you could get of it because they are both about the same height. We had to stop a bit and take in the view there. The Monument of ...

... just outside Fira, one of the main towns on the Island. The hostel has a cute little pool and an adorable décor. Again, we had our own room and bathroom for only 12 euro a night! George got us coffee (juice for me) and bread and got us started on planning our time there. He pointed us to the travel agent to book a tour to the volcano for the next day while he made arrangements for us to book ATV's the next day as well. Then ...

... what I was thinking. Downloading takes forever on this rather rattletrap computer the university lent me (I'm very grateful to have it, but it can be a bother), and music was low on my priority list and I ran out of time before I left. I knew I've been missing music, but now as I sit here typing with a little Dragonforce (if Dream Theatre and the PlayStation had a baby, it would be Dragonforce) playing in the background, it really hits me just how much.

... 5 from the station down the road from the ancient stadium. Ok, we found that pretty easily. But we noticed that the trains departing from that station seemed to be going in the wrong direction from the beach. So after walking around a lot and conferring, we found what we hoped were a set of tram tracks going in the opposite direction. We followed those tracks and eventually found another little station (after doubling back a few times, we really had no idea what we were doing). Ok ...

... revealed that the Doric order columns are actually slightly curved on the sides which gives the structure a feeling of lightness and gracefulness even though it is composed of the most massive and masculine of the classical orders. We were lucky to have seen the Parthenon's paediement sculptures at the British museum which were taken from the site by Lord Elgin in 1801. We also had the opportunity at that museum to see digital colour reconstructions ...

... Our flight to Athens was at 9.40am the same day...we talked to an airline agent and she tried to arrange for the bag to be put directly onto our plane for Athens, but she wasn't sure and she said to come back after 8.30am...when we came back at 8.45am, she told us no one wanted to transfer the bag to our plane to Athens, so we had to run down to baggage claim, collect the bag, and then check it in....well, all that took us 15 minutes, and we were at the gate at 9.15, the allotted ...

... We started looking for Plaka (the old and nicer part of town - explained by Sharm) but parked Millie wherever we could as we could no longer stand the sight of her. After a 10 euro buffet and realising we were very close to Plaka we started our search for somewhere to sleep for the night...and shower for the first time in 3 days. We stumbled across a beautiful hotel - Hotel Phaedria - for quite a reasonable price so decided to ditch our booked 8 bed dorm at some ...

... hall where there is shopping, food, and waiting areas. We spend courple of hours there and then our flight is called. It all went smooth as silk and we saved a lot of frequent flier miles by buying $300 return tickets Athens to Cairo to Athens through Travelocity. They overnighted hard copy tickets to us in the states and they were accepted by everyone at the Athens and Cairo airports. It's nice when things work properly.

Finally, it was time to experience Athens in the daylight. A quick espresso and pastry and then a scenic 30 minute train ride and voila, the beautiful smog and craziness known as downtown Athens. Naturally, as we only had a day to tour, we hit the tourist circuit; Accropolis, Parthenon, Ancient Agora, plus, the areas of Plaka, Kolonaki, Psiri, and Montasariki. Definitely a ...

... it. Getting into Athens the next day, the first thing i did was visit the Archeological Museum, one of the best in the world. And whilst it was a little dissapointing that some of the exhibitions were closed (including the Egyptian, Damn!) it was very good indeed, even for someone who's knowledge of all things ancient and Greek amounts to a whole lot of not much. My favourite statue was of Aphrodite with her sandal in hand, poised to slap a rather randy Pan ...