Athens 2015

We planned for an adventure in 2015 and Greece won the dart toss. Where better to go then Athens? So we booked our hotel, our flights and we were set.

Departure day was upon us and we loaded all our stuff into 1 small suitcase and then we stuffed that into a bigger suitcase. 2 carry-on bags and 1 suitcase and off to the airport. We left Victoria and first stop was Heathrow. We had to wait there for 8 1/2 hours...A full day lounging about 1 big crazy building. We ate at the Brit pub and then snooped thru every single store in the airport. The one thing that blew my mind was the 50000£ watch at the Rolex store. That equals $102000 Canadian dollars! The way I wreck watches I had best avoid buying one.

We finally left Heathrow and then off to Athens airport. I was clever and prebooked our ride from the airport to the hotel with an amazing service which I would highly recommend. The service is called Welcome pickup.. Here is the website  http://www.welcomepickups.com/  This is an amazing service, they are waiting for you at the airport, they bring you a welcome bag and some fresh waters and whisk you away to your hotel. Super friendly and super knowledgable!

Our hotel was right in the city centre, about 100m from Syntagma Square. This square is where all the riots, debates and action happen that we see on TV here in Canada. The hotel we stayed at was the Pan Hotel   This hotel was small, quaint and nicely setup. It comes with a yummy breakfast each morning, A/C in the rooms, TV and small fridge. When we got to our room we were tired, it was a long trip and most airplanes are not designed for my log dancers legs..hehe.. We got into the room and there we see 2 single beds!!  I am all a twitter but to freaking tired to care at this time. In the morning I will go and get that changed. We closed the blackout curtains, figured out the A/C and hit the sack. Sleep was glorious and hot!!  OMG was it hot, 32 when we got there and it would drop to a bone chilling 27 at night. Even with that A/C on full blast I was still sweating like a turkey on thanksgiving. Sleep came and neither of us argued.

AC !!!  

Morning came and we both of us agreed that single beds were the BEST THING EVER! I am a human furnace to start with, throw me in a bed with my wife and we generate enough BTU's to heat a small country. We would have died!! Spontaneous human combustion would have been the headlines I tell ya.

We started out by walking around the side streets looking for grocery stores and markets to get our snacks and stuff. We were in luck, ever kind of store we could ever want was within 500 meters of the hotel. I would personally recommend the Pan Hotel and I would stay there again if I returned.

We are not big on tours and like to experience the area for ourselves, but this time round we wanted to see some of the Greek Islands and Delphi. With the help of the hotel we booked our 2 trips and proceeded to snoop out Athens. 

Athens and Rome share a common theme, roads that make no sense. OMG lost and spun around. You ask for directions and people would say "follow the road and go left", but they would motion right with their hands. Hows that for confusing the heck out of you. 

We wandered all around the side streets and discovered Monastiraki Market. This was the world famous market for everything you could imagine. There was all the trendy tourist shops, olive everything stores and a section full of antique shops that was mind blowing. The shop owners would get items from the local junk collectors and they would then refinish or re-purpose the items to sell. The craftsmanship was amazing. If I was able to ship stuff home I would have for sure.   

Food was everywhere and it was super affordable. You could easily over eat on 10 euros a day. In the plaza across from Syntagma Square was the only McDonalds and KFC we saw in all of Athens. Yes I had to indulge in a meal from each and they were very similar to our North America ones. McDonalds sold the "Royale with Cheese"!!  I laughed and laughed... I thought that was a myth thanks to Pulp Fiction, guess not! 

The one restaurant I would highly recommend was The Greco's Project . The food was delicious, the staff amazing and the choices superb!

Okay back to the city... One thing you will discover is that if you use cash you will get a better deal. The economy was hard hit and the shop owners took huge pride in their stores. If you made it easier for them to get paid immediately for the stuff you purchased, you would get a better deal. We enjoyed the shopping for sure and the experience of watching the shops at work was pretty kewl.

We discovered the neatest tour ride ever... the HAPPY TRAIN!! It was a small car made to look like a train engine and it was pulling 5 cars behind it. They drove this thing everywhere! I would have troubles driving a peddle bike in some of the areas they drove this thing. I loved it!!  

We then hopped onto the Hop On Bus. You pay for a day pass and off you go. You can get on and off that bus at any of its stops throughout the city. We used this to get too many of the major cultural sites and museums. 

The first trip we booked was to the world renowned city of Delphi. We loaded up on a bus and off we went. We traveled for about 2 1/2 hours thru the country side before we reached our destination. 

Words cannot describe Delphi. So I took about 1000 pictures! You could feel the energy and the history as you walked around. We saw where the oracles would share their prophecies to those who traveled high up into the mountains to ask for knowledge. There were many columns, a huge theatre and an arena. After spending a couple hours touring the historical site we wandered off to the museum. So many amazing relics and the art work was insane. The work they did in gold, silver and iron was mind blowing. To have those metal working skills would make you a very famous person in this day and age. 

After we left the museum we went to the small village of Arahova. This was a quiet village that has a huge tourism influx in the winter for the skiing, we had enough time to snoop the shops and buy some items to take home. I ended up buying a carpet. Don’t ask.

Ancient writing

 

The next day we were off to the 3 Greek islands of - Hydra, Poros and Aegina. Again we loaded up on a bus and headed to the harbour to hop onto one of those infamous Greek ferries, yes the ones you hear that flip over and kill everyone on board. There was a lot of us on the boat, it was a nice vessel and the oceans were very calm that day. It was a beautiful sight watching the Greek coastline as we motored to the islands. 

After around 3 hours we arrived at the island of Hydra. This was your quintessential Greek island. Donkeys out front the stores, white plastered buildings with blue doors and trim. English was scarce on this island but that did not slow us down on spending money. We walked around the little village looking at the eons old shops and houses. 

                              

From there we sailed to Poros.. This was a more modern island with cars and buses, the shops were fluent in English and again we had no trouble spending our money.  

The final island to be visited was Aegina. This stop afforded us 1 of 2 options. We could either travel by bus to a newly constructed massive cathedral or we could hit up a beach to take a swim and play in the ocean. We opted for the cathedral tour as I left my swim gear in Canada. The trip to the cathedral was nice and again the history was so rich and full it was overwhelming. The cathedral was built with no thought of expense. It was beautiful and huge. 

 

Back on the ship we went, they fed us a nice meal and shipped us back to Athens. 

That nice meal on the boat was anything but for Bear. OMG did she get ill from the food she had on that boat. She was down and out for a solid 3 days and an additional 5 days of recovery. What a fight with that tourist company we had about the food poisoning. In the end they ignored us completely but Visa was happy to cancel the payment to them and reimburse us for Bears portion of the tour. 

After a few days of in house relaxing and my occasional venturing out Bear was well and off we went to see more sites. The Parthenon was top of my list and Bear was feeling a lot better so off we went. We climbed the hundreds of stairs and long winding pathways up to the top to see the Parthenon. It was super-hot that day, 32 easily and when your 500 feet above the city on giant rock with 2000 people it gets even hotter. I was in awe!! What an amazing, MASSIVE building. If you only see 1 thing in Athens, see the Parthenon!

We heard that there was a Syrian refugee camp not too far from our hotel so I was curious to see this and off we went. Well karma taught me to be a better man and not go out of my way to see the plight of others if I was not going to try and help. I was robbed on the subway, luckily all they got was my cell phone. Small price to pay for a humility lesson. 

We found the camp and we walked thru. There was a limited police presence and you could see the different levels or class of people staying in the camp. The families that had some wealth or power had a decent tent and several people helping. The lesser class were under tarps on cardboard mats. It was surreal if you have never seen such poverty, plight and a disconnection from their old lives. 

I found out very fast that North America heavily manipulates the news from the world to suit their needs. I actually cancelled my TV service when I returned and went to getting my programming from the internet. 

Athens was an amazing city, the people were very kind, except for the turd who stole my phone, and there was a lot to see. 2 weeks though was 11 week to long in my opinion. 

Happy Travels and always more adventures to come...