Athens

We arrived into Athens in the early afternoon and managed to find our hotel in the middle of the city fairly easily.

My mate had booked ups a twin room. When we arrived we thought we got a double, but on closer inspection it was two singles pushed together. The room was as cheap as chips and was pretty decent. Once we separated the beds a little and unpacked we wandered off to see Athens.

We just walked about. I was interested in a couple of pairs of shoes and a watch, but we didn't see much either of us fancied. The weather was nice and warm without being too hot, although Ian, being a Highlander (and not on LL) thought it was boiling. I actually wore a jacket as I still have cold hands and a lower core body temperature than I am used to.

Once we'd wandered around and got our bearing we went back to the hotel. Ian knew I would not be eating and drinking and was happy to have a takeaway sandwich for his dinner.

The next day we decided we'd go to visit The Acropolis. This historic site is probably the most important thing to see in Athens. Since it was a good day we decided to walk from the hotel and soak up some sun. There was a lot of work going on as they are renovating the museum and repairing the sites. Here are a couple of shots of the Parthenon.





That was about as good as I could get without all the builders in the way.

In the afternoon we went to a restaurant so Ian could have some dinner. I munched a bar from my shirt pocket and had a litre of water. He had lamb souvlaki and baklavas for desert. I was jealous but not even a little bit tempted.

After wandering back to the hotel we decided to leave to go to the fotball stadium to watch the Aberdeen vs Panathaniakos match. On the way we passed many riot police with shields and well used batons. They also had what looked like tear gass grenades. It was very disconcerting. In the ground our support had a netted off area behind the goal, again it was very intimidating. The match went off without incident and although we lost 3-0 and took ages finding our way home it was a good night.

Back at the hotel I raided the vending machine for more water, mixed up my last shake and went to bed.