McLays in Europe

We needed to travel back into mainland Greece a day earlier than planned to enable us to catch our plane to Paris. We departed from Syros via the 4pm ferry and arrived in Athens around 9pm. Although we planned to catch the metro into the city and find a room it was getting late so we decided to find one near the ferry terminal which was some 30 km out of Athens. We walked over the bridge and were not really that comfortable in this district. It was a bit sleazy but the first reasonable looking accommodation house we came across offered us a room for 50 euros so we decided to take it. The man was as suspicious of Ian as he was of him (asking Ian if I was his wife) but eventually we took the room. It was pretty basic and smelt very strongly of stale cigarette smoke but we survived the night. Everyone seems to smoke in Europe. Even chefs are holding a fag while preparing the meal - will have to get the EHO onto that one.

Next morning we set off on the rail to the city mindful that we had to catch the plane to Paris at 5pm so had limited time to discover Athens. Initial feelings of the place were that we weren't really enthusiastic about discovering it anyway. We got off at a station where we had to change trains for the airport and thought 'oh well it looks ok and there might be something to see, so lets lock our bags at the station and have a wander. We didn't even get out of the station before we found a major display where they had found old Roman sewerage channels under the station when renovating it for the Olympics in 2004 and then some more interesting displays up the road. Alison asks the ticket box lady 'how much to go in?' and she replies '4 euros or 12 if you want to see the Parthenon'. 'The Parthenon' we both said with surprise, 'is that nearby?' 'Oh yes, look up there'. There on top of the nearby Acropolis (sacred hill) sat the magnificent Parthenon, so off we went. On reaching the Acropolis we were suddenly confronted with hundreds of tourists queuing to go up to see the Parthenon (this was our first experience of huge crowds of tourists.) One could only imagine what it was like in high season!!! There is a huge project under way here to relocate the museum to a new site at the base of the Acropolis by lifting marble sculptures, some weighing 2.5 tons. The view from the Parthenon, perched up above Athens, is beautiful giving views over the huge city.
We found an Irish Pub on the way back to the station and immediately enjoyed having a discussion with an English speaking person so much we gave her a nice tip and enjoyed a great Irish lunch. The lady was very chatty and told us that every time they go digging in this area to build something new, they dig up some old relic from the Roman era, and the general view was just don't tell anyone and cover it up otherwise there is enormous discussion over desecration of old Roman sites - reminded us of sacred sites back home.

Anyway, we had a good time in the end and felt like we had seen something extra we hadn't planned for.

We stepped off the plane at Athens and quickly caught the train to the city centre to collect the tickets for the ferry to the island at 5pm. Jumping on an empty train we carefully packed our suitcases in a rack and took nice seats about 5 metres away, but before too many stations the train was absolutely packed and our cases out of sight. When we both were becoming worried we were not going to be able to get off at Athens with cases in time, a lady sitting nearby and obviously listening to our concerns,said 'no problem, they all get off here', so we had time to snaffle the bags and follow them off. Athens was kaos, no traffic lights and cars, mopeds and people darting everywhere. Tickets in hand we dragged our bags back to the rail to get to the ferry. We reached the ferry with half an hour to spare and immediately felt comfortable, as it was the same type of boat as the one we had travelled to Tasmania on some years ago. Alison who suffers from sea sickness took 2 Kwells tablets and spent the next 3 hours spaced out! Didn't feel sick though so that was good!
On arrival at Syros we were met by George & Aria who look after the house in which we were staying. They drove us around to the other side of the island and there was this lovely villa on the side of the hill directly overlooking the sea. Although it was too dark to appreciate the sea, the inside of the house was very Mediterranean and comfortable. Kitchen,dining and sunken lounge on ground floor and two bedrooms upstairs. They left us and we were not long out of bed. Next morning we flung the doors open to gaze around at the spectacular view of the barren but beautiful island in the middle of the Aegean sea. Other Greek Islands were visible on the horizon. We had been told that a regular bus service was available just around the corner and so set off to catch the 11am bus back into town (where the ferry had left us). We were starving by the time we reached town and quickly found a Greek Restaurant (easy as they were all Greek). Then ordered beer, fish and salad. Easy enough we thought,why make things complicated! Well the beer was greek 'Mythos' and ok, the salad or 'salata' was also ok, but the fish was a bowl of little fish with heads, tails and guts, just like the blue bait Ian had used on his hook when fishing as a kid back in Geelong. The next day the weather was not so good - blowing a gale so we stayed inside and Ian read his first novel for many many years! Over the next few days the weather improved and we had many lovely walks around the island which is a very Greek orientated place (as against tourist orientated) with a large number of apartments all locked up for winter now. We imagined this place a real lively place during those periods and we understood it to be a place where Greek people like to visit. Our attempts at hiring a car ended in despair and when we gathered that there was no clear insurance cover over the vehicle that would cover us for a low level of liability in case of an accident. We were backing off but when the car was going to come with no fuel , Ian had no option but to turn around and hand them back the keys. We thought even better to walk away without our 50 euros than take the risk, but eventually as we stood there he flicked a fifty euro note back over the counter and we walked away happy. No car but the bus service was good anyway. Tuesday we walked right up back of town to mountain top through all the winding streets and were amazed at the Syros residential area that has been built up the mountain side over many years. Lots of very old houses being modernised and rebuilt and a place to walk with caution as at any moment another moped would speed around the corner and scare the hell out of you.
Our language barriers here were hardest of all but we did some home cooking after the fish ordeal and as the villa was great we had a nice rest by the sea for a few days. We did find another restaurant later in our stay and enjoyed a couple of meals there. They had some interesting things on the menu including giant bees!
Today just entering this blog in internet cafe over the road from ferry terminal as we wait for 4pm ferry back to Athens for quick look around tomorrow then onto Paris.