Athens

My impression of Athens... It was very interesting to see The Acropolis and the Parthenon, as well some of the other ancient sights, but the city itself was quite rough. It was very dirty and virtually everything that could be graffitied, had been graffitied.

We had a local guide, Nina, for the Acropolis tour and she came on the bus for the city tour as well - she was fantastic, easily the best guide this far! She looked and sounded exactly like the mom from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, plus she was extremely knowledgeable!

We had the afternoon free for whatever... One of the girls had a Europe travel book and 14 of us decided to try a recommended restaurant... As we walked there, the area seemed to get dodgier and dodgier, but there were a lot of us and it was the middle of the day. We finally found the place - not an easy feat because it was downstairs (yes, I had to duck to get down) and there was no restaurant signage. We didn't actually order anything, they just started bringing out dishes for the table to share - everything was quite oily and not a top pick for me, but it was definitely an experience! We made it out in tact; also, it's 24 hours later and I'm no worse for wear!

We visited the flea markets, which is basically a huge number of shops selling the same touristy crap. I'd imagine it would be tough to know where to buy something because everyone has "best price"! By the end of the markets, the group was half the size and my continent stopped for a couple of gyros each on the easy back to the group meeting point - excellent idea because they were the second best gyros after Corfu!

That night we meet the 10 new group members joining for the second half... A couple Canadians, Americans, and South Africans; of course the rest are Australian. There seem to be some great folks and I look forward to getting to know them over the next 25 days!

Tomorrow, we leave Athens for one night in Kavala and then on to Gallipoli, Turkey. It is a pretty big deal for Australians and New Zealanders because of a WWI battle that took the lives of many soldiers from those countries.Read more