As hot as Hellas

We were heading for the smoke today so it was an early start. But before I get to that I need to finish off yesterday’s edition, I am fairly surprised I managed to finish it if I am honest. When I was a younger man I was taught a little rhyme to keep me out of trouble: Beer before wine, you’ll be fine, wine before beer, you’ll feel queer. Unfortunately nobody taught me anything about beer before wine, followed by some ouzo, chased down with some wine and topped off by some more ouzo. Not sure how it would start but it would end ‘lying in bed, spinning in the head.’ Despite all that I bounced out of bed this morning fresh as a daisy and we got sorted for our day of travelling to Athens, packing done, sandwiches made, sorted. We had to drop the car off first, which meant dealing with the 12 year olds again, quite painful. We got to the port and there was no sign of our ferry so we just needed to wait, it was quite a windy day so it was running a little late. We were going to be onboard for about 3.5 hours so we were quite keen to get a good seat indoors, like we had last time, but it seemed like there was going to be a bit of competition as the crowds inched forward waiting for the starter’s whistle to signal we could board. Then it sounded and we were off. The Olympics have nothing on the sweaty backpack carrying race for the good seats and I feel like all my training was paying off. I didn’t know if the rest of the family was keeping up, there was no time to look back, but if they weren’t then I couldn’t help them. I would go into loads of detail about the rest of the race but it all passed in a blur, needless to say I assumed my usual position in the comfy seats and the family was right there with me.
The trip on the boat was quite rough due to the wind and Allegra was not enjoying it. Jess and I used some of the time to do some work but I couldn’t cope for long, staring at a screen and riding the waves, after the beer, wine, ouzo combo was not much fun. There was Greece and Spain in basketball on the tv so most of the passengers were watching this and cheering away which was quite cool, it was close right to the end but sadly Spain won. The waves actually got worse and Allegra was feeling like she might be sick, so Jess took her outside for some fresh air which seemed to help her a bit. Once the boat arrived we were straight on to a bus and taking the winding road across towards the mainland and this is when I really started to pay the price, I promised myself I would not drink again, or not drink again until tonight, whichever came first. Eventually I had a 20 minute nanna (power) nap and I came good. Then it was Athens, still not a massively appealing place, and we needed to catch two buses to get to our accommodation, the first one pulled up just as we got to the stop, easy. Then a short walk to the next stop and as we got there the next bus pulled up, easy. Although not so easy, it was packed and there was no way we were getting on with all our bags. The next bus was not going to be for a while so we had a choice, wait or walk 30 minutes. It was 34 degrees so there was really only one choice, a walk it was. It was easy at first but by the end it was pretty tough, the bags got heavier as we neared our destination but we made it. As we rode the lift I could see my reflection in the mirror and my face was dripping in sweat so I commented that I was glistening, accenting a hard ‘t’ in the middle. For some reason the girls found this very annoying, given my tiredness this suggested to me I should repeat it several times to wind them up, I was then told in no uncertain terms I should fu** toff.
We were all absolutely knackered by then but nothing that couldn’t be temporarily resolved with a shed load of chocolate, biscuits and chocolate milk. Time to relax for a little while but then dinner needed to be prepared, not toasties or pasta salad tonight, I thought I would whip up a regular pasta surprise. At the supermarket I found some interesting things I could add, that we haven’t seen before on our travels, I believe they might be called vegettables. Whatever they were, it was tasty. We don’t have much idea what we will do in Athens, but I am sure at some stage we might get our Parthenon. And of course, there is only one sleep until Lily is here.Læs mere