Going Slow in Greece

  Athens, Greece
Sunday, May 13, 2007

We arrived in Athens Airport at about 6:00am this morning, tired, hungry, sick, and confused, trying to shake off the last of our Ramses Revenge from Egypt and struggling on two hours sleep that we managed to get on the flight from Cairo to Athens.

In our feeble state, we actually managed to make it through customs and got our bags and even, thanks to a map from hostel world,  got on the proper bus - yay!!  We got to see another sunrise (about 4 in a row now) over the hills of Athens this time, pretty cool but we were too tired to properly appreciate it.

We eventually got off the bus and onto the Metro, then walked a bit until we found our hostel (yay) and checked in through dodgy front desk guy.  He tried to hit on Gabrielle, and ignored Dan while he kept us there for ages, pretending to have lost our reservation.... Dan had pointed it out to him three times in his book.  Eventually got checked in with him and immediately went upstairs and fell asleep.

We emerged feeling much better and ventured out for some food.  It turns out that the neighbourhood our hostel is in, Monastriaki, is quite a funky place, lots of markets selling fruit, veges, fish, bread, nuts and sweets, as well as another hippy market selling jewellery, clothing, art, and just about everything else.

We eventually bought cheap Gyros (just like Kebabs in Turkey, Doner in Syria... and Shwarma in Egypt and Jordan!) and wandered on sunny streets by old men playing accordian and guitar by side street cafes.

Streets of Athens

We ate lunch in the shade of an old church, and decided that, despite our general fatigue, Greece is definitely growing on us.

We are slowly adjusting after the Middle East.  Apart from being shocked at how expensive everything is now that we are paying in Euros, we also noticed that there are actually women on the street here... very wierd after the Middle East, where they either just weren't around, or if they were, they were covered head to toe.  Greek women are much more.....liberal with their fashion ideas, but it all of a sudden seems shocking after being surrounded by burquas for the past month to see so many little strappy tops and short shorts.

While the toilets are much cleaner here, unfortunatly you still can't flush the toilet paper.  At least we haven't come across any squat toilets yet, and there are no dodgy looking guys trying to charge you for peeing.

It is Sunday here, so most things are very quiet.  Definitely an early night for us, possibly Acropolis and Museum tomorrow.  We are still both feeling a bit sick, so some rest is definitely in order.

All our best from Greece

Dan and Gabrielle