An eventful day in Athens

The day started out with a stroll up to the travel agent to book our ferry trip for tomorrow-no problem. We used our TravelCard to withdraw 450 eruo from the ATM. No problem. We caught the metro one stop to find on emerging we had lost our sense of direction – took a while to sort that out (no problem) but eventually we made our way up the highest of Athens hills to catch a cable car up the last 10%. Expensive tickets, a long wait, a crowded, cramped, stuffy wait for another 15 minutes when eventually it took off. 2 minutes later we’d travelled the 100 meters and we were at the top (yay!). The views were spectacular. The sun was hot, the wind was warm - yet refreshing as it was straight off the Mediterranean Sea. After waiting another ½ hour to catch the cable car back down we were thwarted by a large crowd and a faulty gate - and gave up and walked down the hill – ie. Problem with the cable car.
We then headed into Satan’s Pit (aka the Metro) in an attempt to get near some decent shops (the never ending search for the perfect summer dress continues). “The pit” is named as such by Dad – who upon exiting he realised his wallet had been stolen by demons, who are now in possession of a series of useless (quickly cancelled) credit cards, a drivers licence from Aus and the aforementioned Euros. Needless to say this cast a sense of gloom over the afternoon’s proceedings.
On the walk back we came across a new phenomenon. Greek Rappers – they had a huge stage, lot’s of equipment, a big sound, a big square – with surprisingly - no one in it watching – or seemingly interested. From now on this type of music shall be known as ”Grap”.
We now realise that even though the Plaka is full of locals ripping off tourists with extraordinarily prices, they are not at all like the criminals who frequent the subways . We will be having some fun over the next few weeks learning how to cope with our new found vulnerabilities. Targets we are – how to avoid being targeted is going to be challenging.



Disjointed, but determined to push on, we headed back into the Plaka and sat on a rooftop watching the setting sunlight slowly change the colours of the Acropolis whilst we drank wine and nibbled on Taziki and bread. This went some way towards healing the stress of the afternoon. It also helps being in the company of two bubbly personalities. We also discovered the wonderful financial healing powers of take away Gyros – great food – really cheap.
We now head off to the Islands – hopefully the trip to the port (via the Pit) is uneventful.....