Athens, Greece 05/05

May 5 Athens

We slept on the floor in the lounge room as did Giannis, and the Mexicans had the bedroom. We were woken by a church bell, which is right next to the lounge room window, probably only 10 metres away. Giannis headed to work and the Mexicans reappeared as the bus took them an hour to get to the ferry, which was more than they had allowed, and they had missed the ferry.

Then we took off my cast. I still can't fully straighten my arm, or bend it all the way, or turn on a tap or pick up my laptop.

We headed out and about, it was shorts and tshirt weather but only just. Nice and sunny at least. We went to the supermarkets, which are very small and have a limited range and bought food for the next few days at Giannis' place. Went postcard shopping and found a touristy shop that has heaps of different types of Ouzo. I bought D'Artemis Ouzo, I had to find something Artemis being in Greece :) We also bought tickets for the ferry to Santorini (Greek Islands) on Thursday. It's a 7 hour trip each way and cost us 67 Euros each ($135 Au) so that's blown a chunk of this weeks budget away, so it is lucky we aren't paying accommodation and we bought food at the supermarket. If we keep spending down this week the reward is clubbing in Athens on Saturday night, which is apparently rather expensive (20 Euros/$40Au entry plus drinks). Club wise I really want to see techno in Greece and Portugal (Axel Karakasis and Goncalo M stylez)

Giannis finished work and got home at 4pm, and at 4.30 we headed out on bicycles to see Athens. We started at Giannis place near the Acropolis and rode all the way to the coast. We rode on the wrong side of the road with cars coming at us, ducked and weaved through little side streets and back alleys, past units, shops, everything. We had icecream and beer on the beach, the sand is a fairly dark brown and it's not like the beaches in Thailand or back home, but a beautiful view back to the city and across to some islands. Riding back we went through the area of town where there are little restaurants and cafes dotted through the really old areas, where there are ruins, one of them being the Acropolis - big white stone pillars and really old buildings that are still in tact. Most of the old ruins are considered archaeological sites, the buildings were built between 600 and 300 BC. The roads and sidewalks are narrow, everything is squished into a small area but it has a really homey feel to it, rather than a cluttered feel. It's a shame we're on a back packers budget because the restaurants were in such a nice area it would be good to go and eat there. I think going by bike we got to see so much more of the city than we would just walking around - our round trip was 3.5 hours! I'm so worn out I think I will sleep very well tonight. My arm took a few jolts but it was ok, hopefully didn't do anymore damage...

Steve and I are keen to open our house up for couch surfing when we get back to Australia. We plan to do plenty more of it where possible through Europe so it would be nice to do the same for others when we get home.

Ruth