Parthenon and on and on

We woke up in Athens very excited, Lily is arriving today. But not until tonight so we had a day to kill. The morning was just the usual, a bit of work and the girls sleeping it around lunchtime we headed out to see the sights. It was a hot day, what a surprise, but there was some wind which kept it feeling cool, so it wasn’t too bad. We hopped off the bus somewhere central and immediately there were ruins all round. Now we could have been incredibly cultured and checked them all out but to be honest, despite the barred fences around them all I didn’t get the feeling that I would have a better view if I paid the entrance fee and got up close, essentially a bunch of old buildings that had mostly fallen down. One of them was Hadrian’s Library, and given the state of his wall, it was no great surprise that it had mostly fallen down. We also checked out the Agora, which someone told me was the birthplace of democracy, though to be honest I wasn’t really listening. I did find it ironic though that it was swarming with Yanks, as far as I am aware half of them think the good old USA invented democracy, and the other half are awaiting the second coming so they can finish it off for good.
After that we headed fro Panatheneic Stadium, where the first Olympics were held. It is a very impressive stadium given its age and the fact that it is constructed out of marble. It also gave us the best view we were going to get of the Parthenon, please refer to my earlier comments if in doubt about why we didn’t venture any closer. We could see quite a lot of smoke though as well. At this point at the stadium we had two stresses at virtually the same time. First of all Lily messaged to say that her train was stopped because of an unspecified problem and then all our phones buzzed with an alert to say there was a fire in our area and that we should stay indoors and close all the windows. Needless to say we carried on with our tour. We had a bit of a race on the track, I came a creditable third and then we posed on the medal dais. We were getting hungry so headed back to the touristy part of town to find something to eat. Then, like the universe was giving us a message, a vegan cafe popped up on Google maps so we thought we might as well try there. What a good choice it turned out to be, some of the best vegan cafe food we have had in a long time, tasty sandwiches and salads, and they brought us out some cake samples to keep us going while we waited. After that it was time to head home, the heat had worn us all out, and we had to rest up for the main event.
It was quite the trek to get to the airport, the first bus was a no show so we had to go to a different bus stop, then we had to catch a train, buying tickets first from the most relaxed ticket office guy ever, he was just having a good time eating his watermelon and nothing was going to hurry him up. We negotiated the world’s second oldest metro system with little bother and got to the airport in good time. We had been in touch with Lily on her trip and knew that her flight was delayed so we were all waiting with our hand made signs but it took her ages to come out. It was a very happy reunion all round and the girls still haven’t stopped yakking. Jess is walking around with a big smile on her face, she is in her happy place. I am a man so I shook Lily by the hand, punched her shoulder playfully and grunted something non committal. It was a long wait for a train because of the airport delay and then a long train ride back to our accommodation and the tiredness started to set in for all of us. But all Lily had wanted to do since landing was swim in the rooftop pool so luckily it closed at midnight and when we got there no one was in there. The 4 girls reunited happily swam and messed about like no time had passed enjoying the amazing view of the Parthenon at night and the secluded roof top pool. Me and Jess sat and watched again just happy the gang was back together again. As nowhere was open to get food we feasted on chocolate biscuits and tinned dolmades. A big day ahead tomorrow as we are heading back to the islands, it will be our final one, Alonissos.Les mer