Day 25 Saturday 5th January 2013 Athens (Beatrice)
Today we woke up at an agreeable hour of 8.30am and went
down to breakfast. The breakfast consisted out of the usual things, except it
had Greek yogurt- boy can I tell you, that tastes amazing!
Since there is a bit of tension between Greeks and Germans
my father said we should only speak English. To some this might not seem hard,
but for my brother and me to talk to my father in English is just wrong. For me
at least, as soon as I see my father I unknowingly switch to German, making
this exercise immensely hard.
We wanted to find a launderette, so Daddy in preparation first
took what he thought was a pen and drew a big circle around the area we were
living. In fact it wasn’t a pen at all, it was my eye liner, which misleadingly
says “skinny eye marker”. While Daddy went to locate the launderette, the rest
of us got ourselves ready for the day.
Finally we were all ready and we were off to the Acropolis.
In comparison to Italy it is really warm and blue sky was above, not to mention
that everywhere we went was some form of green. Orange trees all along the
pavements and sacred olive trees near the monuments. (Olive tree is the symbol
of Athena, the God of victory in war and wisdom).
Once we arrived we bought tickets and Alex and I got free
entrance for being students of the EU, which is always nice. The ruins were
amazing! Yet some were sadly hardly recognisable. Athena’s Temple was still
standing (it was built 480BC!) and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus was splendid.
The Parthenon was partly covered with scaffolding, but was still spectacular
and of course all the other 18 ruins were fabulous. It all is situated on a
hill making the view incredible. We then walked down along to the Hill of Mars
(which is Roman, since they use planet names instead of in this case Aries).
From then on we went through the beautiful green to the Ancient Agora (Ancient
Market). There we saw a Museum about the ancient Greek lives, which was really
good! There were still tons of ruins which I would love to mention in full
detail, but won’t, not to bore you but I do still want to mention the Temple of
Hephaestus, which still stands strong in all its glory.
Next on my list was the Plaka with its long roads for
walking, which are covered in shops. We browsed nicely and went into a shop to
look for puzzle rings (Mummy had promised us that she would buy us one, when we
were about 8 years old) The rings were quite nice and I put a few on. Nightmare
scenario, one didn’t come off - Alex thought this immensely funny- but
eventually I got it off, though my finger was very red afterwards. The shop
keeper thought this was amusing too and therefore did not stress about it. We
went on to a musical instrument shop where Alex was fascinated by the Mandolin
or Bouzouki or some type of other guitar, which actually isn’t a guitar, anyway
Alex enjoyed himself and I thought the instruments looked cool.
After walking to the end of the street Daddy couldn’t find
our location on the map and refused to believe that Alex and I had already
found it. After asking a few people he gave in. We decided to split up. Mummy
and I would go to H&M, Alex to get a pin and Daddy to look for a good and
cheap gyros kebab shop. We met back up outside H&M and saw an amazing
puppet, that was being moved by two people- a little girl near me could not
decide if she thought he was real or not.
We ate the gyros in a square where Sponge Bob balloons were
being sold (we can’t escape him) and some West Africans were playing the drums
with a humungous crowed around them, also there were thousands of pigeons
everywhere! The square was very lively but we moved on and walked past the
Roman Agora and the Tower of Winds to the New Acropolis Museum. But on the way
we decided it would be a good idea to find a supermarket- that was a long trek!
Asking about 5 people for directions and always walking past it and about after
30-40mins we found it and decided to buy our needed stuff now before we can’t
find it again. So we bought food for supper and headed home to load everything
off. But not to relax, no, for I still had a schedule to keep up!
So off we
were to the museum and it was really amazing, so amazing that Mummy told us
every 5mins how amazing it was, but yes, it was very well.. amazing and I
recommend anyone to go there. It has glass floors where you can see a ruin of a
grand house from ancient Greece just under your feet and all the marble statues
and the pottery are shown in a modern and fantastic way. But there was too much
stuff and I unfortunately couldn’t look at every object. There was a good short
film on the 3rd floor about the fight between Athena and Poseidon
over Athens - Athena won - hence the name Athens. We had some warm drinks on
the 2nd floor on the veranda, where we could see the Acropolis and
especially the Parthenon lit up with lights.
Eventually we went back down and
back home. Alex looked up how to get to the Hard Rock Café Athens on Google
Earth , I planned what we would do the next day, Mummy went to the launderette
(where she made as she calls it, a Greek friend) and Daddy made salad.
After everyone was back we had supper and the parents
decided that tomorrow they wanted to do some things first and so on, so I had
to restructure the entire day. Alex helped Daddy on the laptop and soon we went
to bed.
Day 26 Sunday 6th January 2013 Athens (Cathy)
My launderette friend had warned me that it would rain today
and indeed it did. With the rain came quite a drop in temperature. Beatrice has
approached her organisation of the Athens leg of our tour as if it were a
military campaign and therefore had sorted out our alternative itinerary for
today bearing in mind the exigencies of the morning. These were; Alex HAS to
find the Hard Rock café to buy his Athens pin otherwise his entire world will
crash around his ears; Chris has to confirm our pick up tomorrow morning with
the tour company that is taking us on our Classical Greece tour; we need to
find a nice restaurant for supper this evening and SOMEONE must visit the
Keramikos ruins or Beatrice will possibly explode with frustration.
We divide the tasks accordingly, Beatrice and Alex will
journey to the back of beyond to satisfy Alex’ craving for a Hard Rock Athens
pin and Chris and I will do the rest. We will all meet at the Plaka square for
lunch.
Alex; Well we
were on a quest and that was to find the Hard Rock Café, Athens. The previous
evening when I actually had intended to go looking for it, I had researched the
location of the Hard Rock and had worked out the route I was going to take:
first the red metro line, northwards, to the end station, then walk a bit, then
take the 25 tram to one station before the end; then walk along a road and then
I should be there. I had written down all the names some even in Greek, just to
be sure, but then I decided that I would go the next day with Beatrice.
So off we went, a quick walk to the metro station, bought a
very cheap ticket, that allows one to go on all types transport, and then we
had to wait. Not wait too long, but it was still annoying that we had to wait
to board a train long enough to become slightly annoyed, as it often is with
metros. Then onto the metro and a quite short ride to the end station. Just to
make sure we asked the ticket lady and she told us it was possible to take the
25 trolley bus, not tram, to the station, but she didn’t know about the Hard Rock Café. So we first couldn’t find the
trolley bus, then eventually found it and off to the station we wanted, just
that the station never came and the trolley bus driver couldn’t speak English.
Eventually the whole bus recommended us to get of at a specific station,
because to stop the bus one had to ring a bell, and I didn’t recognise any
names of roads.
Once off the trolley, we walked along a road someone pointed
out and once becoming unsure asked a man in a mini-market if he knew where the Hard Rock Café was. He had never heard of the
Hard Rock Café, which was strange since it was supposedly very close to him,
well he did recognise the street that it was supposed to be in. Thus he pointed
us in the right direction and low and behold I recognised the street’s name. We
followed my directions and at the place where it should have been was a normal
house, I must mention that we were deep in the suburbs and not a very wealthy
one at that, which I already in the hotel had thought peculiar, not a usual place for a
Hard Rock Café.
We searched far and wide for it but with no luck, then on
our way back with heads hanging, we happened to raise our heads to see a young
Asian man, who looked lost and definitely out of place. We neared him and asked
what he was looking for, he showed us his phone on which was the location of
the Hard Rock Café, we just laughed and said that we were looking too.
Then on the way back we got on the exact same trolley bus,
with the exact same driver and the same old man who had gotten off with us,
quite a series of random events. Then we took the metro to the Plaka to meet
our parents, but were disappointed, mainly me, but Beatrice said that she never
fails quests and that this wasn’t fair. Google Earth must be wrong!
Cathy again;
while Alex and Beatrice’s drama was being acted out Chris and I went to look at
a restaurant whose name Beatrice had been given by a woman she had chatted to
at the airport. Beatrice had warned us that the woman was wearing a fur coat
and so the restaurant might be expensive. From the menu outside it looked
reasonably priced but somehow it lacked allure. Next we went to the hotel where
the tour company, Chat Tours, has an office. We arrived somewhat bedraggled and
were looked at somewhat askance in the well groomed reception area. The
receptionist said that nobody from the company was on duty at the moment and we
should go to their office around the corner. Needless to say, being a Sunday
the office was closed. Back to the hotel, a little damper; was there any way to
communicate with the tour company? We left copious messages both in writing and
on the answer-phone. The receptionist defrosted a bit and advised us to phone
them tomorrow morning early. So we had done as much of that errand as possible.
The hotel was near to Hadrian’s Arch, rather a pathetic effort compared to
Hadrian’s other monuments in Rome but we spent little time there, after all it
is on Beatrice’ itinerary for this afternoon! We passed a bus with a sign for
the airport on the front, the number of the bus is X95 and the driver tells us
that the buses go every 10 to 15 minutes from Syntagma square and cost 5 Euros
per person. This is useful information, we will take this bus!
We walked back through the Plaka area which was a bit less
lively that yesterday it being a) morning, b) Sunday, c) wet, d) cold. However
there was what seemed like an extended car boot sale going on along the road
that we took to the Keramikos and we were amused by some of the wittier
graffiti along the way as well as the more eccentric offerings of the pavement
stalls. Is this market something that has always happened or is it a
manifestation of the current economic troubles here? Hard to say but the
atmosphere was good humoured rather than desperate.
So Beatrice; we made it to the Keramikos and yes, as
expected it was a load of old ruins although with the back drop of the
Acropolis but the museum was interesting, they had unearthed a very lifelike, very
large, very intact and very well endowed bull among other treasures. The rain
had stopped by this point and we strolled back to the Plaka to wait for Alex
and Beatrice who with teutonic precision arrived on time and regaled us with their
story. By this time we were all a bit footsore and it was still pretty cold and
so we went to the restaurant where we had bought our gyros yesterday but this
time took a table inside to warm up a bit. We certainly warmed up! The place
was humming, packed to the rafters, mostly with locals, and the prices on the
menu were four times the price of yesterday’s takeaway - ha! We sat next to the
musicians, bouzouki and guitar, playing popular Greek melodies and singing
popular folk songs. A few older ladies nearby had obviously had enough lunch to
relax them nicely and were dancing in their seats and waving their arms in a
Greek kind of way, in a very good humour; where were we from? I gave up and
just said ‘South Africa’, with the noise level and the levels of relaxation
longer explanations would be a problem. The owners appeared to be brothers and
had framed photos of themselves at various ages with various celebrities all
over the walls, the waiters wove around the tables through narrow seemingly
impossible gaps and brought our meal of Greek specialities very smartly. Our
lunch experience was far from relaxing and not for the nervous eater but also
very enjoyable. One could hardly complain that the place lacked atmosphere.
After lunch we went through the little lanes of the Plaka to
buy Alex’ T-shirt presents for friends, an Athens pin (NOT Hard Rock) and a sew
on label for Greece for his rucksack. Then under Beatrice’ guidance we started
to mooch through the back streets to find Hadrian’s Arch and the temple of
Zeus. Then we ALL got a surprise;
Alex; we simply rounded a corner, our heads
busy, because Beatrice and I were playing mental rock-paper-scissors. A poster
caught my eye, one I have gotten to know quite well over the past few weeks, can
you guess? . . . drum roll . . . .it was the Hard Rock Café!!!! We immediately
went in and bought a pin and took the picture, but first I had to complain
about the internet location of it and the man assured me he would look into it,
I hope he does for future reference. After being all happy about finally finding
this, one thought occurred to me and that was if the Asian man had ever found
it or if he would, I do hope he does though. One thing I recommend though to
those who are ever brave enough to venture into the suburbs of Athens, learn
Greek!!
Cathy again; so
all’s well that ends well I suppose! We made it to Hadrian’s Arch which as I
have said is a bit uninspiring compared to Rome but the temple of Zeus nearby
is quite impressive, at least you can see how it must have been before it was
attacked and raided and robbed for its marble. Enough remains to give an idea
of its former grandeur and there is a fallen column that lies on its side like
a sliced marble Swiss Roll. We walked through the National Garden for a bit,
marvelling at how many of the exotic species proudly cultivated there live
happily in our garden at home. One person’s exotic is another’s every-day.
We went next to the Panathenaikon Stadium, a restored
ancient stadium that actually held the first of the modern Olympic games, it
was very impressive but we didn’t go in, fortunately you can see it very well
from outside and by this time we were all a bit tired and Alex was emotionally
exhausted after his day’s experiences! Beatrice had another couple of places
for us to see and was still fired with the zeal of leadership but we voted with
our tired feet and returned to the hotel for a rest.
Both the kids were out for the count after a short while and
had to be woken up to go out for supper. We went up towards the new Acropolis
Museum, there is a whole row of restaurants nearby and we chose one which was
friendly and welcoming. Our meal was very good, a selection of starters washed
down with Retsina to bring back memories for Chris and me, followed by pasta
for Beatrice and lamb for Alex and me, Chris shared our lamb. We finished with
four glasses of raquis and Beatrice even finished hers, wow! Beatrice had never
fully woken up after he nap and so she and I returned to the hotel while Chris
and Alex walked around a bit in the direction of the Acropolis. Tomorrow we
leave for our tour, they have already telephoned to confirm that they will pick
us up tomorrow at 7.45. Classical Greece here we come!
Day 27 Monday 7th January 2013 Naupila (Alex)
Well at bleeding 6:30AM
the alarm clock of my parents rang waking every one and annoying me, it’s
far too early I complained, but my parents didn’t want to hear it and told me
to go to breakfast. We were at least early enough and all the pastries etc.
were still available, then a quick rush into the shower, then pack my bags, in
the midst of zipping up my bag the tour bus arrived at our hotel, 15 mins too
early, may I add, and thus even more of a rush.
The tour bus was quite smart and we discovered that we were
only going to be 11 passengers, plus the tour guide, so not packed. We did
still drive around Athens picking up more of the other 7 passengers from their
hotels. Then we picked up our guide, who is called Daphne and then we were off.
We drove via the marina of Athens and saw the 2004 Olympic
Volleyball arena, meanwhile Daphne moderated everything and gave us a insight
on what we’d be doing on the trip and what the plan for today was, along with
background knowledge about temples, ruins, battles, Gods etc. We left Athens
behind us and drove on a quite decent highway in a western direction along the
coast though, the view was spectacular, mostly towards the south, the ocean
view.
We then crossed a bridge, if one wouldn’t concentrate, such
as my sleepy self, one would miss it, but luckily we stopped and got out to
look at the bridge that crossed one of the oldest canals in the world, the Corinth
canal, which connects the Aegean sea to the Corinthian gulf.
Here was also a
café/shop and here we bought some refreshments and used the facilities, as
Daphne puts it. Then further to Epidaurus, nicely situated in the hills of the
Peloponnese, very green and lush. Here we all disembarked the bus and our guide
bought tickets and we were off to see our first ruins of the day, the temple of
the god of medicine Asklepios, this was kind of like a hospital/rehab/detox
clinic. Here people from all over Greece would come to have a vision and a
miracle from the god, firstly the people had to detox and cleanse their body
and soul for 10 days, then they would sleep in the temple on the ground to have
a vision with from the god. They said it worked, but I’m not so sure it was the
god that gave them the vision, more like brainwashing. There was also a running
arena for games to be held in honour of Asklepios every 2 years and a temple of
Artemis to guard unmarried women and children.
We then had a look into the museum and saw many sculptures
and columns and the usual thing one expects in a museum next to the ruins of a
temple.
Then we moved onto the big
one the piece-de-resistance the Epidaurus Amphitheatre: absolutely brilliant,
it was big all made from limestone and marble, used by both Greeks and Romans
as a place of entertainment. I can’t imagine how many people actually would fit
in but over 2 thousand for sure. The greatest thing about it though was that it
has brilliant
acoustics: one can whisper in the centre of it and even at
the very top/back one can hear it as clear as if it was only 4m away, we were
treated to a song by one of our tour companions and she sang very well and
especially in this theatre it sounded brilliant. When I stood in the centre I
didn’t sing, but whistled and clapped and it echoed magnificently.
Then it was another one and a half hour drive to our next
site and that was the ruins of Mycenae, but first Daphne had a surprise for us,
in sight of the citadel ruins we stopped, got out and went the opposite
direction here we found, just like one in Egypt, a tomb going into a earth
mound, unlike the Egyptians though the tomb was round and domed, but was very
big and after seeing photos of its discovery, very beautiful. But for us with
our Egyptian experience this was more quaint than awe inspiring.
Then up a bit more and we were at the citadel of Agamemnon
or also named Mycenae, this was a very grand structure or rather town, for it had
a big wall all around the ruin, for defence. The view was absolutely breathtaking
from the top and to Beatrice’s displeasure we saw more snow capped mountains in
the distance. For the others the view was probably the best, but for me and two
more from our group the “secret passage” was the bees knees, because it was
seemingly, never ending stairs, with no light to speak of. We did have
torches/cell phones with us and this illuminated our descent, we went down a
couple flights of stairs and wanted to keep going, then in the distance we hear
two women shouting for us to come back, one clearly my mother’s and the other
the mother of one of my spelunking companions. Thus we were forced to start
climbing back up again, to the relief of the mothers. We would have really
liked to have carried climbing down.
Then a quick diversion into the museum at the citadel, a lot
of relics and so forth. What is still
interesting to note is that this was built quite a long time before the rest of
Greece caught up and by this time the city wasn’t really used anymore and
because the rocks that were used to build the citadel were so big the Greeks
believed they were built with the help of Cyclops.
It wasn’t far until we hit the city of Nauplia, our
over-night stop, but still had time to investigate the town and have lunch, at
3pm may I add. The Town has a big castle at the top of a hill but it was closed
along with basically everything else, because all archaeological sites close at
15h00 in the winter, that is why we had had to rush all day. We had a walk
around then had a spot to eat from the supermarket taken to the marina, where
we ate. Then at 17h30 we drove to our hotel.
Our hotel is built for about 600 occupants, at the moment
there is our group and 2 others, just a sign of how the tourist industry in
Greece is collapsing – or is it just off-season? I must still note though that
at all the archaeological sites today there were very few people. We had dinner
at the hotel at about 20h00, nothing really to write home to mother about
though and then bed, for we have another early start tomorrow.
Day 28 Tuesday 8th January 2013 Olympia (Christof)
Early start in the dark by alarm clock, but to our relief it
is neither raining nor is it excessively chilly. Self-help buffet breakfast
with, for the first time on this trip, fried bacon. Start with a 3½ hrs drive across a beautiful new
mountain pass (a toll road) not far below the snow line to the west to the
Ionian Sea. A while north along the coastline, then inland east to Olympia.
Where ever there is flat land and olive groves compete for space with orange orchards.
Looks absolutely stunning!
Olympia is the place where the Olympic Games first took
place in 776 BC and allegedly took place for almost 1,200 years (in the 4-year
cycle valid till today). Then they were only resumed in ‘modern times’ in
Athens in 1896. Alex and Beatrice had a race (somehow unequal) along the very
intact 212,54 m long stadium that used to accommodate about 45,000 people. Alex
was reprimanded for sitting on an ancient stone by an over-zealous warden. Most other buildings and places in the huge
area have been destroyed by Christians and
periodic earth-quakes in turn, but have been restored to some extent and
certainly been fully recreated as a scale model in the excellent site museum.
Again we are very lucky in that there are virtually no other tourists, as is
normal for this time of the year. Even our package tour consists of only 11
people, which at other times of the year would be 2 40-seater buses. A very impressive and
worthwhile visit!
Afterwards, we have a ‘supermarket lunch’ in the lovely
sunshine, after a succession of attempts at purchasing the ingredients. Then
it’s off for a further 3½ hr bus ride due north to Delphi,
which we will reach after dark. On the way we cross the ‘new’ bridge connecting
the Peloponnese peninsula with the Greek mainland at a town called Rio. It is
over 3 km long, high enough for any size ship to pass underneath and purported
to be the longest and biggest bridge in Europe. It was finished just in time
for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
We take a beautifully winding road east along the north side
of the Corinthian Gulf with a stunning sunset. When it gets dark and all the
lights are on it has even more charm. In the end we wind are way up a narrow
road to Delphi, where we are checked into our Amalia hotel. Relaxed
waiter-served dinner (included in the package price). Then the kids are surfing
the internet and updating their Facebooks, before I complete this diary.
Day 29 Wednesday 9th January 2013 Delphi (Beatrice)
Today we had a fantastic sleep-in and therefore woke up at
7.30am! We woke up with an unexpected wakeup call from the reception, ripping
us out of our slumber- but yet it was needed, for we would not have woken up
without it.
Then we went to breakfast and had a very similar nice
breakfast to the one we had the day before. We snuck some food out for lunch
and went to the bus.
Off we were through the little village, that had been moved 1km from its original place, for the archaeologists to be able to excavate the ruins. And to these ruins we went. First we stopped off at the sanctuary of Athena, of which 3 big columns and parts of the walls are still very visible. Also interesting is that there are stone walls marking the boundaries of the sanctuary, that were built to keep the earth out, which is what comes from building on a slope. Nevertheless the walls are quite skew now and some believe it is due to the olive trees growing bigger and their roots taking up more space. The walk down to it was beautiful, everything being a brilliant green and there being no cloud overhead! Yet in spite of the sun shining, it was quite chilly and I wore my thick jacket. We took a group picture and headed back up the winding path we had come down and were off to the sanctuary of Apollo. Outside the sanctuary, there was a stream coming from the mountains, that still flows steadily, into a big tub.
Off we were through the little village, that had been moved 1km from its original place, for the archaeologists to be able to excavate the ruins. And to these ruins we went. First we stopped off at the sanctuary of Athena, of which 3 big columns and parts of the walls are still very visible. Also interesting is that there are stone walls marking the boundaries of the sanctuary, that were built to keep the earth out, which is what comes from building on a slope. Nevertheless the walls are quite skew now and some believe it is due to the olive trees growing bigger and their roots taking up more space. The walk down to it was beautiful, everything being a brilliant green and there being no cloud overhead! Yet in spite of the sun shining, it was quite chilly and I wore my thick jacket. We took a group picture and headed back up the winding path we had come down and were off to the sanctuary of Apollo. Outside the sanctuary, there was a stream coming from the mountains, that still flows steadily, into a big tub.
There the - wait let me rather start with the tale. it goes: There was
a humongous water python in the village and it killed loads and frightened all,
so they prayed to Apollo and asked for help. He came down from Mount Olympus
and defeated the snake, yet he was so upset that he had at all killed, that he
went away for 8 years to cleanse himself from his deed. When he came back he
made a few rules for the sanctuary, that one has to follow to go into the
sanctuary and so get the Oracles guidance. The first being that no person who
has committed murder may receive guidance and the other (this is where the
stream comes in) that one has to wash thoroughly and so cleanse one’s soul.
Then we went in and up to the ruins. On our way we saw
dozens of human metal outlines. With was an artistic statement of the Greek
artist Georgios Xenos, which was very interesting. His exhibition which we saw
later on is called “The Passers”, which says that people come and go but the
traces they leave on the earth last longer than a life span of a human.
On we walked and saw an odd half oval which was supposed to
resemble “the navel” (the centre of the world). Then we saw the treasury of the
Athenians, which has the first sign of music on it from the ancient Greeks. It
had a song written on the stones with a small sketch of Apollo. Next we saw the
actual temple where the oracle of Delphi sat. The oracle was a local woman over
50 who was moral and who sat on a stool, munched on bay leaves (the symbol of
Apollo) and then was supposedly possessed with the gift of seeing the future,
to answer the questions of the travellers. Nowaday’s one knows that she was in
fact high on fumes and that the priestesses reassembled the words the “oracle”
had said into a riddle.
Such as:” Will I survive the war?” Answer: “You will go
come back not die in the war.” depending on where one puts the comma the
meaning completely changes, so that the oracle is never wrong.
When we reached the theatre, we asked Sarah to sing, so we could compare the sound
with the theatre in Olympia, yet the security guard said it wasn’t allowed. To
me this does not make sense, since Apollo was the god of (amongst others)
music. Anyway! Some of us walked up the steep hill to the stadium, where every
8 years athletic competitions were held. (8 years, the same time Apollo took to
come back to Delphi).
Down again through the magnificent green and to the museum,
but before to the bathrooms, where I saw in the ladies bathroom the name
“Richard Brock” (also my cousin) written on the door, I thought the coincidence
was quite bizarre.
In front of the museum, there was a brilliant mosaic floor
and inside the museum one could find loads of amazing sculptures. One of them
the Greek sphinx, the ivory Apollo with golden jewellery and the bonze chariot
rider. It was very beautiful! And the exhibition of the “Passers” was very
good, too. Then we had to say ‘bye to some of the passengers and also Dafni
which we followed by going to the post office to send my postcards.
For lunch we walked around the town of Delphi and sat down
on some steps to eat. A stray cat kept hoping we would leave something, but we
only had a bit of bread, with which it was not satisfied. Eventually we went
back to the Amalia Hotel and waited for the new bus with an different guide and
some other people. Finally we were off after a couple of hours back to Athens.
I slept part of the way and then read. The new guide talked a bit about myths
of which I had already heard and so I didn’t really pay attention. Then
suddenly Daddy shook me and told me to look out of the window and boy was I
amazed to see field and mountains covered with snow! It was amazing! And I am
sure I took way more pictures then necessary!
We stopped shortly at a bakery where I found a bit of snow
in the flower pots and was amazed at how soft it was! On the last bit of the
road to Athens the guide told us all about the Greek crisis - which was
fascinating. And soon enough we were back to where we started. We got some
drinks in the supermarket and had a starter of dips with carrots and pita
bread. Then Mummy and Daddy went off to get some gyros and souvlaki. With the
occasional power cut we had supper and went to sleep.
Day 30 Thursday 10th January 2013 Part 1; Athens (Cathy)
So today we left Athens, quite sadly, we have had a lovely
time in Greece but it was time to move on. We walked up to Santagma square which took us about 15
minutes but was worth it for the saving of 20 Euros per person. The X95 bus
took us to the airport for 5 Euros each but not without a small frisson or two;
were there two airports? What was this Marco Polo place on the road signs? Were
we going in the right direction? But everything was fine.
Alex got our boarding cards from the automatic machine and
we queued to check in our luggage. The young woman who checked us in asked me
whether I had a visa for Turkey – no – I had been told by the travel agent that
I could get one at the airport. Then we went to passport control which was
quite a distance away. The others sailed through passport control, I was stuck
in the aliens queue. Looked like a half hour wait.
Ten minutes into queuing I
heard my name called out on the PA system. It was with Greek pronunciation but
it was definitely me. I left the queue and asked an attendant to find out the
problem for me. Could I please return to the check in desk? I did so. The same
young woman asked me whether I had proof of being booked on a flight out of
Turkey. Well Chris did but he had gone through passport control already hmmm. I
assured her that I will be able to prove that I have a flight out of Turkey.
She checked my passport, checked with a colleague, it will be OK she was sure
(ha!), I rejoined the queue for passport control and sent Chris an SMS to tell
him all was fine. Eventually we were all back together again and sat and had a
coffee while we waited for our plane. Chris went to spend some last Euro coins
on sweets and was asked by the check-out clerk if he was sure he wanted to go
to Turkey! Still no love lost between the Greeks and the Turks. As we were waiting to board the plane a woman with a small baby arrived. Alex' face fell; he is not fond of small children since they tend to cry loudly and unpredictably e.g, the child in the lift in Dubai etc. Beatrice laughed and said that she bet that they would sit behind Alex ha ha! We were all very amused to find that they really were in the seat behind Alex. All except for Alex that is! The flight was
uneventful, not even a crying baby, until we neared Istanbul and saw that the land was blanketed with
snow! Beatrice was so excited, she took loads of photos and hoped fervently
that there would be some left on the ground in Istanbul! Little did I know that
this flight was the calm that comes before the storm!!!
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