Theoxenia Palace Hotel Kifissia

... ancient Greece until the early afternoon, when we headed to the train station to buy tickets for that night´s trip to Patras. After the train station, we headed across town to the Archeological museum, which lightened our wallet to the tune of 12 more Euros. After 3 hours in the museum, we Greeked out and headed back to the hostel to retrieve our bags and have supper. Following that, it was back on the metro red ...

... condition. Oh, and did I tell you this was a UK newspaper? Same everywhere. One of the "outrage of the day" stories is that the British comedian Russell Brand phoned up 78-year-old Andrew Sachs (Sachs played Manuel on Fawlty Towers) and harassed him on his (Brand's) radio show. I've seen Brand on TV, and he's not funny at all (Imagine a Goth Carrot Top), and Sachs is much beloved by us FT fans. He's apologized, but I think there will be more ...

... that we toured the Plaka area for some shopping as we made our way back to the hotel.  The day ended with the six of us meeting again on the rooftop terrace for a sampling of the local favorite, Ozuo.  So with a toast to adventures to come, in the glow of the lighted Parthanon, we said good night to our day in Athens.  Tomorrow we head to the ship, and our next adventure.  Chat soon.....Don

Greece is beating me up physically. I'm burned red because sunscreen just slides off in the first ten minutes of the daily broil. I've got a cold from breathing somebody's germs in the recirculated air of the plane. My knees are screaming and my calves ache from the orientation walking tour ...

... car but really to mess with our heads and make us feel even more uncomfortable so that we wouldn't balk when he demanded 20 Euros for the experience. Tosser. Ray of course got swamped with requests and smothered in breasts. He politely declined (you know Ray, polite to a tee.) When we mentioned this to our hotelier, he said, oh yes, we've complained about them but the hotel on that street owns them so we can't do anything about it. The ...

... new plane. They explain that they had to switch aircraft from an Airbus to a Boeing. There are no seats to be had in the tiny Santorini airport and I spend four hours leaning against a wall reading Nabokov's "Pnin." Then in just a little longer than it would have taken to drive from Seattle to Portland, we're on our way at about the time my connecting flight is taking off from Athens to ...

... one u want to feast your eyes on over dinner. Eating Had some fabulous meals. Have actually been spending big on dinner - need to cut back!! Greeks like their chocolate! Every dessert menu has either choc souffle, brownie, tart, cheesecake... Greek salad - if I never have another one it won't be soon enough Souvalaki/gyros - good cheap meal but so bad for you Baklava - yum! But the thought of all those calories =( Tzatziki - yum ...

... We took the bus back to Firostefani for €1.20 just in time for the rain which would last for the rest of the day. A kitten had come to our terrace on the first night and I fed her some cat treats from Canada until she started blanching at them and turning up her nose, so Pete gave her some salami. After our trip to Oia, I heard her squeaking (she squeaked rather than cried or meowed) outside. When I opened the door, just like in a movie she ...

... were concrete replicas. I mean, why not leave one of the originals out there? You have five other ones if that one breaks or gets ruined. The experience as a whole felt extremely artificial, and I feel that it could have been presented in a better way. Rain started to pour, and I set off for the Agora, a collection of ruins similar to those in Rome from the Forum Romanum (although older and not quite as spectacular). I also ...

... to Ios, but Toni hadn't so it was still exciting. I saw a couple of things I had missed the first time - Theatre of Dionysos, and some other things... After 5 minutes Toni was ready to leave, I made her stay a little longer and appreciate it, I think she just wanted to go somewhere air conditioned, good thing there's a little museum there that was - a chance for us to charge our camera batteries up too! Walked down to Plaka, still seedy like before, but ...