It's All Greek To Me

We've had a whole week of wandering around, looking at ancient ruins, going to museums, eating greek salad, and meeting some awesome people. Since the last post we went to the National Archaeological Museum, which is filled with statues and bronze casts and dug up treasure from the area. We walked through the neighbourhoods and got a bit lost, which was great because we saw a lot of the non-tourist areas.




In the evening we went with our new friend Steve the Canadian, and his mate John the Aussie, to Lycabettus Hill to watch the sunset over Athens. The view was spectacular! The city has a lot of solar panels on the top of houses and hotels, so they all gleam in the sunlight.






We then went to the Olympic Stadium, and for a bargain 3 euros we got an audio tour of the place, which was pretty informative! I feel sorry for the poor lady handing out the audioguides though - she had to stand all day out in the sun with no shade to hide under!





The next day we wandered over to Kerameikos, the ancient graveyard, which was quite cool, but by now the ruins are all just kind of looking like a bunch of rocks, and our interest was waning - sorry Greece! There were a few pretty disrespectful tourists there, which made me realise why the guards there are usually so shitty at tourists, one guy even pulled a rock out of the wall - I mean Come On! It's an archaeological site!






We headed over to the roman agora, and the temple of Zeus. It struck me how little information is given at each site. Each place is basically old ruins cordoned off, with some guards to make sure you don't touch anything. That's why the acropolis was quite good - if you go, make sure to go to the acropolis museum first. It explains each part and has the statues and adornments that were originally on the site, and has a video showing the building and the eventual destruction of the Parthenon.







We had a day off to chill out and play computer games (I love WiFi!) and then we went on a tour to Delphi. Delphi was pretty amazing, it's about 3 hours drive from Athens. We went with a group of about 30-something, It was around 14 odd tourists, and a group of 20 USA university students who had been studying in Spain and decided to make a jaunt over to Greece. We quickly formed a little group, Me, Stace, Maggie from Boston, Eva the Puerto Rican DisneyWorld Orlando event manager (coolest job ever!!!), and Lily the Calgarian. The three girls were all solo travellers in various stages of their journeys.












On the tour we were taken to the Delphi archaeological site, the delphi museum, and then we had lunch (which was PRIMO! deluxe bakery rolls - aubergine and feta with tomatoes and lettuce!) overlooking the canyon just outside Delphi town. After Delphi town we were given some time to wander through a nearby ski village, and then we had the long 3 hour bus ride home. It was such a great day!

Today was exciting....
LAUNDRY DAY!
We spent over 2 hours at the local laundromat, and I met a couple of girls who live in Calgary! What a small world! Today we're just bumming around and relaxing as we've seen pretty much all of the sights of town, and then at 6am tomorrow we leave to catch our ferry to Mykonos! I'm pretty stoked because Lily and Eva might meet up with us on the islands!

till next time
xx Laura

Is that an old ruin, or just a rock?

Wow Athens is beautiful! I wasn't expecting too much because everyone I've met that's been to Athens says that its a bit crusty, but they're WRONG! Our hostel is right next to the Acropolis, so we went there early yesterday morning before the masses of people. The views were unbelievable! It's so weird to be standing amongst the stuff I've read about in text books for so long! They have a multi-sight pass, which, for 12 euros gets you into the acropolis, the ancient agora, agora (there's two), hadrians library, temple of zeus, and something else.





After that we joined up with a walking tour group that our hostel put on (woop woop only 5 euros!). Our guide took us around for about 2.5 hours and we went to the temple of zeus, the stadium, parliament, national gardens, the agora, hadrian's library, through the marketplace, around behind the acropolis through these teeny little streets that are designed to look like the greek islands because a whole lot of islanders came to athens for work and made the neighbourhood like home.






When the tour finished we wandered around town, and spent time at the ancient agora which is a really big complex, with its own little museum and a good lookout point where you can get great views of the acropolis. Its amazing how every turn in this city brings you to another ruin or church or something great to look at.







more later!
xx Laura

how do I get to triangle A circle-with-line-through-it N H?

Wow, so after a full day's travelling we finally made it to Athens!! It's been a while since I updated, so let me dust off my typing fingers!

firstly thanks for all the comments! Its good to know I'm not just blathering off into the ether, and that someone's reading this!

secondly... South Africa... *wipes away a tear*
We did so much stuff! I cant really talk about everything or we'd all be here for days, but here are a few pics to summarise:











And the highlight (apart from hanging out with family of course :D) was going shark cage diving with Stace and Gail!!! It was so amazing! I definitely want to give it another go!







The whole time in South Africa was so amazing, I cant do it justice with words, but I will definitely be going back!

Thanks to everyone over there who made us feel so welcome and took us out and showed us around! We really appreciate it!

I promise I will write a better blog next time, but my brain is frazzled!

xx Laura