Marilena Athens

... Australian guys from outside of Sydney that had spent the past month traveling through Italy and Greece. The 5 of us decided to head to a bar that is affiliated with the hostel and grab a pitcher or two of beer. It was really interesting to spend the night talking to the two guys about everything from traveling to politics to food to school and more. Though Australia seems so similar to the U.S. it was really interesting to get an Australian's perspective on life ...

... turned into a Christian church. Of course, when it's set up as a museum, the question becomes, which era to you present in the restoration of it? And further, when did these changes represent a simple progression, and when did they represent a complete break with the past? Clearly turning a pagan temple into a Christian church represents a complete break. But other changes weren't so clear. Another interesting site was the Temple of Olympain Zeus which temple's ...

... It's not a problem, I like dogs, I was just surprised that they were there. The Agora is certainly stunning but it is little more than a starter for the main course- the Acropolis itself. I walked up the hill towards it and soon found myself jostling for position at the entrance with hordes of people from what seemed like every country on Earth. Disgruntled elderly English couples, groups of middle aged Americans in Hawaiian shirts and of course hordes of suited Japanese ...

... hidden gem.

Athens-Volos:
After our hearty meal and not having been given a ticket for illegal parking, we started happily with our onward journey from Athens to Volos, a city by the coast on the eastern side of Greece, about 326 kilometers north of Athens.

The journey took us about 3 hours drive from Athens and we will be meeting more friends
there but most importantly, I will be meeting Argi’s family for the very first
time !!

... table being right up the front I couldn't resist trying to chat to her in-between songs. As the beer flowed we were getting more and more boisterous, cheering and clapping wildly. With our increase in volume came and increase in music tempo, as our enthusiasm began to take over the whole bar. At one point the guys started playing this traditional Greek song, the type you would imagine smashing lots of plates to. A few people even got up to dance around the bar in this chain, a kind of ...

... we had moments to slowly catch up with one another and our lives. Along the way, we passed street musicians, telling grafitti, cafes, and hundreds of Greeks going about their lives. At night near the hotel, hundreds of people gathered at outdoor bars to drink and talk before going to weekend night clubs. Among the culture both ancient and new, clearly Athens was a modern metropolis with good infrastructure, a thriving Euro economy, and relatively clean air ...

... the lights of houses extending towards it from the shore, with a three sets of lights halfway inbetween; which were the fire trucks moving around to try and prevent it spreading. After a couple of days chilling out at the beaches, ironically we saw less of the fires when we on the island than when we were on the shore, we moved back to athens to catch our flight to rome to meet our mum, our grandma and our oldest brother. this may ...

... ruins and a very well preserved theatre. Again i ran off on my own to make the most of the time available and got to see a lot more as a result. It was very cool. And then i was taking a photo of the Saronic Gulf on the way back in the bus and it was all over. That would have been one of the last photos i would have taken on the whole trip too, so it was incredibly bad luck that my memory card died then and i lost the last 3 days here in Greece ...

... happy campers after travelling so far only to end up in a place without proper amenities. But for $45 Canadian a night, you can't really expect anything more. So, after sleeping away the evening and night, our first day in Athens more than made up for the two days of travelling. We started off early at the Acropolis, and were very impressed. We then headed to the other ancient sites ...

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The Greek Tourist Organization office was on Amerikis, just as the guidebook said it would be. The staff there was incredibly helpful. We were able to get a list of all Hydra hotels and their phone numbers from them. We also got the address to the new offices for the Flying Dolphin ferry lines. They even called the Hotel Dina to confirm that the number on the form (and in the book) was the right number. I can’t recommend them enough to anyone who is slightly ...