Back to the mainland

The day was pretty much spent travelling back to Athens. Breakfast comprised of pastries from the local bakery, we were driven from our balcony overlooking the Mediterranean sea by the heat and the glare of the sun streaming in. Another wild bus ride, this time down the switchback road inside the caldera to the port, the inevitable long waiting around that seems to be par for the course when travelling and then onto the ferry.
Due to time constraints and full economy class – we ended up on the high speed ferry (impressive machines – great billboards) in Business class. This was a treat as we were actually inside and in the non smoking section. Not up to economy standard that the airlines set – but at least we were not as uncomfortable as the people down the back of the boat.
Our sojourn back through the Pit proved to be uneventful – maybe because we were vigilant, maybe because we have overly zealous paranoia running through our veins, maybe because it was actually quiet for peak hour (Monday afternoons are apparently a designated quiet time in Athens). So we made it back to the same hotel (we had changed this from the planned youth hostel a week earlier after being ripped off on that side of town) and actually ended up in exactly the same room. With the same faulty shower head and the same dripping air conditioner. It all seems very homely.
Not letting a good tradition setting opportunity go by, we went back to the same roof top for drinks and traditional Greek nibbles before heading over to the other side of the Acropolis to see what it looked like under lights. The walk took 10 minutes, the wait for twilight to finish took 2 hours (seemingly). In the mean time we got to see some locals at play in their home space. The middle generations socialising in the cafe’s whilst the kids kicked balls around the street with the older generation standing guard.
This is just a stop-over on our way to the next stage of the history lesson – so it’s goodbye to the land of white concrete and cheap Gyros, tomorrow another country and a whole new language to learn.