Ray: Athens, Greece - big update
Trip Start
Dec 27, 2007
1
73
80
Trip End
Dec 28, 2008
Athens,
Attica,
Greece
Friday, August 1, 2008
We went to Edinburgh after Carlisle and made sure we watched Braveheart, Sarah's favourite movie before going. Of course a reference was made to the movie by our Scottish bus guide who said it was absolute crap and the only thing they got right was the fact he died in the end. It didn't affect Sarah's view of the film but she had to do a little research to check on facts and a lot of the story is correct but William Wallace probably wouldn't have looked anything like Mel Gibson, or is that the other way round.
We did the usual tourist things and learnt a lot about the city and its history. It was a pretty busy place. We stayed with a nice couple via couchsurfing. Funnily enough though an irish girl with her english boyfriend, in Scotland.
We really only went to Edinburgh Castle which had a wonderful view of the city and a tour on a hop on, hop off bus. Then we went to the Botanical Gardens to feed squirrels. It was the highlight of our time in Edinburgh. Haha. Not that the city isn't beautiful but it was nice and cruisy and the squirrels were cute and came right up to you for food. Cool, man. Two and a half hours later we left and tried catching the right bus home. An hour and a half it took. Not knowing where you're going can lead to a lot of wasted time as we've found out on this trip.
Linda and Dom, our hosts, took us out to a comedy club and that was a lot of fun. People who sat in the front row were picked on and humiliated but it was all in good spirit, kind of. The three comedians were all funny and I thought about a stand up comedy night back home for a few laughs. We'll wait and see.
From Edinburgh it was onto Inverness. We stayed in a hostel smack in the middle of town and it was great. We went to Loch Ness to see Nessie but she must have been on holiday. Still, great to see it and the museum out there. We also went to the Highland Games which was a little like an A&P Show. On show was Shinty, a form of outdoor hockey, stone (23lb) throwing, highland dancing, bagpipe bands, throwing a weight over your shoulder over a high bar and American Flag Football (?!) as well as other activities.
I also discovered chips and gravy. Lovely!! I think I'll start my own shop selling these things. Yum yum.
From Inverness to Glasgow for the day before our flight to Belfast. A very quiet city Glasgow and we didn't do it justice exploring it in one day. Nice enough though. The birthplace of Celtic and Rangers football clubs.
In Belfast we stayed for only one night because we'd been told many times to avoid it although there were day trips to other beautiful places nearby. We stayed in a hostel dorm with 20 other people! Woke up because of the snoring! No not mine. Next day it was onto Dublin via the train. Leaving Belfast we passed a lot of places where clearly there had been some conflict from days gone by and some districts still aligned themselves with one side or the other.
Dublin was great and very very busy. We stayed in a hostel next to O'Connell Bridge and the Liffey River right in the middle of town. I just had to do the Guinness factory while Sarah went on the first of her walking tours. It was well worth it and the "free" pint of Guinness from the bar on the top floor with a panoramic view of Dublin was awesome.
Sarah had a friend from Uni here so we stayed with her for a couple of nights. Speedy and her flatmate Alice were great value too. They took us out on the town which wasn't a huge night, thankfully, but the 7 or 8 pints of Guinness didn't do my tummy any favours. Haha. In the morning though we had gone to the Woolshed Pub to watch the All Blacks lose to the Wallabies. Bummer. I had a few Guinnesses to warm up and then drown my sorrows. Told you Robbie should have been coach.
Next day we went to a nice seaside town Howth. I sat in the cafe while Sarah and Speedy went for a look around. The sun was shining and it was hot so it was a very nice way to relax.
From Dublin we flew back to London and couchsurfed with Susannah again.
We really enjoyed the UK and Ireland. It had a really nice feel to it and the people were great. We would love to go back to Scotland and Ireland especially because we didn't spend enough time there to do it justice.
Now we're in sunny Greece. 30 + degrees. It was exciting thinking about this part of the trip and we kept looking at each other saying, "Man, we're going to Athens. Cool!" We caught a bus into the city and then a taxi to the hotel which apparently was in a seedy part of town. We didn't know this until the taxi driver pointed it out. Unfortunately he was a ripoff merchant and drove us through the back streets past all the prostitutes when we could have gone another way! We had to get out with our gear while they surrounded us. I had to wait by the taxi while he escorted Sarah to the Hotel. Well, during this time I was completely surrounded by women pushing their breasts in my face and asking me all kinds of questions, and of course asking the obvious. I politely declined, several times, and found the whole thing quite amusing. The driver came back and then tried to rip me off by saying it was such and such amount because of this and that! Welcome to Greece he kept saying. Dickhead, I thought.
Now we're relaxing with another couchsurfer host, Dimitris.
Just been crying about Sonny Bill going to rugby but I'm getting over it. And, I hope the ABs play a lot better this weekend.
The Warriors to make the eight.
Just bought tickets to the Rugby League World Cup hoping to see a Kiwis win. Always an optimist. Might have been good to have SBW there. Oh well. Move on, move on...
