Wind and Water

Our last day in Athens was a long one. Well, no longer than any other day, of course, and half of it didn’t take place in Athens, but you know what I mean. I had booked a taxi to take us to Piraeus at 13:00, again via Welcome Pickups. Before then, however, there was time for breakfast, and another wander around, where this time we headed to the Roman Forum and the Tower of the Winds. Here’s another tip for you: go early to these places if you can. We more or less had the place to ourselves, including the exhibition of WWII photographs currently being shown in the old mosque on the site. As usual for Greek archaeological sites, there is plenty of information on boards in Greek and English, and entry wasn’t expensive. €6.00 each including the exhibition, the tower and the ruins of the old forum which is just below the Acropolis. Here are a few photos:

Back at the hotel, bags packed and bill paid, the taxi arrived ten minutes ahead of schedule. With this company, you receive an email to your phone when the car has arrived, but in this case, I could see it. You are also given a photo of your driver and her/his name, and vice versa, so there’s no confusion. Glykeria greeted us, put the bags in the boot and we set off. The drivers speak English so we had a good old chat on the way to the port and were delivered at my request to the ticket office so I could collect our tickets. We said our goodbyes, and off she went, only to return immediately and put Mother back in the car to wait, telling me off because it was too hot to be standing about in the sun. She then took us the 20 yards across to the boat where we checked in and decided to have lunch in the a la carte restaurant. I’m not usually a fan of food photos as they tend to come out looking like a science experiment, and my lamb roll does look rather dodgy here, but I wanted to share part of the menu with you.

And here’s another tip. Get yourself a Sea Smiles card from Blue Star Ferries. You need to have a ticket first, so a short trip from Symi to Rhodes will do it. Then you head to the Sea Smiles website and set up an account for free, using the ticket number as proof that you’re serious. That done, you print your own card and from then on, benefit from reward points and discounts. Our lunch of two courses, a bottle of wine, water and so on, came to less than €60.00 because of my card, and I also earned points.

The rest of the day was spent watching the islands go by until an early night was attempted. I had booked us a cabin each and paid a little extra to have what was usually a shared cabin as a solo one. If you book shared, you can find yourself sharing with a stranger which, although often the plot twist of romantic novels and thrillers, is not always a pleasant experience, and the cabins are not huge, so tend to be over-intimate. On this route, Piraeus to Symi, the boat docks at the islands from around 23:00 (Patmos, on a Tuesday) until arriving at Symi at 05.00 on Wednesday, so I was up most of the night watching the action.

Finally, we arrived back at Symi where we were met by the Village Hotel where mother is currently staying, and that’s another tip: make sure you have arranged transport. I have walked up to home with my rucksack and laptop bag, when I came back from Tills earlier in the year, but if you can pre-book someone with a car, it’s a much better experience.

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Athens Day three

My third day in Athens was warmer and less windy than the ones before, and the storm we had sailed through the previous Friday had completely gone leaving blue skies and warm temperatures. As this was a Monday, the museums were closed, something I should have thought about when I planned the trip. Instead, we wandered, and it turned out to be another six-mile day.

It started with a walk through the National Gardens, a large area of trees and plants, lakes and a café behind/next to the parliament building. We saw plenty of noisy parakeets, a few magpies and other birds including ducks and geese on one of the ponds. It’s easy to forget you are in the middle of a city, and it was a shaded walk.

We came out by the president’s residence (hence the guards) and on to the Stadium, the site of the first modern Olympics. The next day there was to be a presentation by the Greek Youth Olympic Gymnast team, or similar, and the team was warming up before a rehearsal. Speakers played music, we sat in the royal box – two marble thrones halfway down – and watched the warm-up, which was very impressive. There is no shade there though, and you should bring your own cushions if you are planning to stay a long time, so after a while we wandered back around the main road towards Plaka, again.

There, we stopped for a coffee at the Melina Mercouri café, a pleasant little place with a large menu. I can recommend the frappe with Kahlua, wink, wink. After that, we took a stroll above the Roman Forum, had lunch in one of the squares nearby, and later, ended up at The Arts Foundation for coffee.

The Arts Foundation in Monastiraki is worth a visit and not only for any exhibition that might be sowing. It is an exhibition space and café housed in what was once a prison. Some of the cells/rooms are used for meeting spaces, shops and small displays, it has another space upstairs and a shaded courtyard that’s popular with the younger, student set. It also plays good music and the prices are very reasonable. It’s not easy to find, being in one of the many side streets in the area, but you can search for it and use your Map-Ap on your phone to lead you there.

Our six-mile day ended with another festive occasion with Irene and her band (we went back because we had laughed so much the night before, and the food was good), and tempting though it was to get up and make a fool of myself dancing to Zorba, I stayed in my chair and went unnoticed.

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Athens Day 2 – The Acropolis Museum

I could fill a whole page or two with photos from the Acropolis museum and our second day in Athens, but I will try and limit myself. The day, a Sunday, started with a short walk up to the parliament building at Syntagma to watch the Evzones, the presidential guards. “The Evzones or Evzonoi, is the name of several historical elite light infantry and mountain units of the Greek Army. Today, it refers to the members of the Presidential Guard, a ceremonial unit that guards the Greek Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Presidential Mansion in Athens.” [Wikipedia] We were there to see them in their hourly duties, but at 11.00 on a Sunday, they also perform the changing of the guard in a more intricate ceremony.

By that time, however, we had taken the metro up to the Acropolis museum. The metro, as I’ve said before, is clean, punctual and not expensive. The display pictured below, for example, was at the museum station. There are uncovered ancient ruins in the concourse at Monastiraki station.

The museum itself (€10.00 entry) is large, well designed and full of history of the Acropolis and Parthenon including a life-size freeze from around the top of that building, discovered artefacts, models showing the development of the area, pottery and even uncovered archaeology still beneath the site. There is a café for a pit stop and a video display where you can sit and rest for ten minutes and watch the history of the place. You’re able to see the Acropolis from the windows. It was still windy outside, so we didn’t venture up to the summit itself, but if you’re planning to do that, or visit the museum, my advice is to go early. We walked straight in, but by the time we left, there was a huge queue.

After that, we took a walk through Plaka, had lunch and headed back to the hotel for a siesta. Later in the afternoon, we wandered down through Monastiraki and onwards to Thiseio (or Thissio), a neighbourhood bordering the ancient agora at the foot of the Acropolis, and one of my favourite areas in the city. As it was (still) Sunday, the ‘boot fair’ style street market was there, although there are craft and other stalls lining the main pedestrian street every day, and so we spent some time wandering the stalls and checking out everything from antiques to tat and from homemade jewellery to homemade leather-bound notebooks (I resisted as I already have four).

The walk continued until, before we knew it, we were back at the museum and halfway through a circular route which took us back through the Plaka towards Monastiraki and dinner. We walked six miles that day and ended up at a taverna that was very pleasant, not costly and looked awfully smart. It was all going well until the hostess, Irini, began her nightly routine of teaching everyone ‘kaliiiispeeeera’ and so on, and insisted those punters who wanted to, got up to dance Zorba, including the smashing of ‘plaaaayts’ as two very talented musicians played and sang. It was good fun, though we stayed rooted in our chairs.

You can have a bit of everything in Athens all in one day.

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Athens Day 1

The boat docked at 12.30 right on schedule and, as usual, there was a courtesy bus waiting to whisk away those passengers who didn’t have a car waiting. After being dropped at the main gates, it’s a quick walk across the road and around the back to the metro station. It’s the end of the line, and there was a green line train waiting. They go regularly, and there are boards announcing waiting times and destinations, in English and Greek, plus maps, so it’s easy to see where you need to get to. In my case, it was seven stops to Monastiraki, followed by a short walk to the hotel.

I checked into my 3-star accommodation and headed down the road for a coffee and a bite to eat as I had two hours to kill before heading to the airport to meet Mother. I’d chosen a hotel not far from Syntagma Square, a short walk to Plaka and Monastiraki, and very handy for the best of both worlds; sight-seeing and shopping. It was on a quiet street (until the roadworks started in the morning), and was decent enough and clean, though nothing glamorous. The main benefits of it were its location and price. There are other, posher hotels around the corner for twice the price, but out of budget.

I took the underground to the airport, though there is a regular bus service as well. Here’s a tip: If you’re making a short trip in Athens, you can buy a €1.40 ticket which is valid for 45 minutes no matter how many times you change or how far you go, except when the airport is involved. Then, it’s €10.00, as it is to leave the airport and come into town. There are other tickets too, multi trips and daily passes etc., and it’s easy to get them from the machines which are in a variety of languages and come with a charming voice to talk you through the process. The metro is also prompt and clean.

I’d booked a taxi in advance from the airport back to the hotel by using a site called Welcome Pickups. I’ve used them before and will use them again. You swap details and photos with your driver, so he/she knows who to expect, and you know who to look out for – very safe and reassuring, and Vasilis was there five minutes early. Flight landed, Mother collected, into the car and a sensible, comfortable drive followed with sweets and free water included, plus a Welcome to Athens bag and some tips and ideas from our driver for thing to do.

Into hotel, out for a walk, dinner, and a walk back and finally, a night’s sleep where I wasn’t sliding up and down a bunk to the tune of the announcements in the corridor. More to follow.

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All Aboard

The next few days will probably be taken up with photos of and chat about my recent trip to Athens, but if I hear of any interesting Symi news, I’ll pass that along too. I know the film festival is still running, but as I’ve only been back a day, haven’t had a chance to get to it. We went to Scena on Wednesday night for some mezethes, and very nice they were too, and well priced. Mother is safely housed at the Village Hotel who were kind enough to meet us from the ferry at five in the morning, saving a long, slow trek up a long slow hill in the ark. But, before all that…

Last Friday I went to have my teeth thoroughly cleaned and checked by Vasilis the dentist, or one of our dentists, and then, after a light lunch, came home to pack and be ready for my boat at 20.30. As this was the Friday ferry, it went via Tilos and Nisiros, the other Dodecanese islands and Fourni, which is next to Samos. On this trip, going either way, the boat calls into the ports during the night, making it sometimes a bit noisy, what with the vibrations and the announcements and people getting on and off. It’s always fun to watch the organised mayhem from the stern deck.

I woke around five to find the boat hammering through a swell. There had been a storm, and the sea had been left high and choppy. Lurching from cabin to the deck was a little like being drunk but without the expense, and I spent a good couple of hours out the back watching the waves and spray. I have to say, the Blue Star Patmos is very stable, and there wasn’t too much rocking, only the occasional fling across the passageway and sudden slam of bow into water, though some people were finding it tricky to move around the boat, bouncing from breakfast to barf time, you might say.

Another good thing about this route and ferry company is the free bus that is waiting for you at Piraeus. It saves a long walk to the main gates and the metro, which is where I was heading next. More about that next time.

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