Thursday 16 May 2013

                               21st June 2012


Debs:
  When we looked at this hotel we noticed that it said ‘ The hotel is easily accessible to the centre of Athens through the motorway or by train, which is 14 km away from the hotel.’  
What they failed to mention is the 2 mile walk to the railway station along a busy main road, often without pavements, add that to a 36C hot sunny day and that there is also no direct bus link to the railway station and you have a flavour of how the day started.

Let's start at the beginning - the journey across was fairly easy until we got into the Athens suburbs and the temperature began to rise alarmingly. Dolly behaved herself and we soon found ourselves parked in the Hotel driveway, so far so good until we found that the owners Father was in charge of the desk and his lack of English was only matched by his patience levels. His hands went up and eventually we found our own room, air-con and porno TV appeared standard.. but after a shower and unpacking we set off on the 2 mile walk to the station.

Hot and weary we jumped on the train to Piraius not knowing at which station to get off for Athens city centre, but had half decided that we’d carry on to the end of the line and watch the boats and have a drink there. After about 20 mins we got off with the idea of getting a coffee and then rejoin the train afterwards, however when we came out of the station we found ourselves right in the city centre!

Wandering around and generally looking in the shops we were besieged by the shopkeepers anxious to make a sale, but first on our list was a cold beer and small fish! After a great meal (and perhaps another beer) we set off to climb the Parthenon and view the Acropolis - sounds good huh? Then followed about an hour of winding through the maze of narrow streets and alleyways before we finally arrived at the entrance to the Parthenon, but with the exposed site and under a fierce sun we agreed it was just too hot to carry on, so we walked gently back down to the station and the 2 mile drag to the hotel… 


You know what?  We enjoyed our day out, it may not have happened as we planned but never the less we had a good time. Off tomorrow to Thessalonica..

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