Athens and Mykonos

August, 9 Mykonos, Greece

Went to beach today.  This time to different beach.  I had to first catch a bus to a small village and then catch a boat.  There are roads but the buses do not go there.  Nice beach, but more small pebbles than sand and very busy.  Lots of nice hotels and house up the hill.  

And then usual food hunt!  Been having some great Greek Salads!  Lots of feta and olives!

Very hot so after the walk up the hill to hotel, went for a swim.  Ended up talking to the only other person there.  He is from Portugal, in the army with special forces as a paratrooper.

Interesting.  His English is very good and he has lots of relatives living in Canada.  He said is leaving the army after 10 years in October, but not really sure what he is going to do.

He seemed to be working on finishing the bottle of rum he had!

August 8, Mykonos, Greece

Went to beach today.

Later into town to find some food.

Walked by a couple of the clubs later in the night!  They are side by side, and seemed to be a competition which could have the loudest music!  Hilarious as you could not really hear either one!

Turns out there are other places just like that.   But then it is the party island!!!!!!!

August 7,  Mykonos, Greece

Went to beach today, so nice to be on a sand beach.  The water is amazing!

Did more wandering around the town.  Figured out that all you need to do is really just have a general direction that you want to head and you will get there!

An area called Little Venice is really quite nice.  A line of restaurants with tables right along the water!  Looks nice, but not sure if I would eat there as there is a steady stream of people walking by as it is part of the sidewalk, and it is really not that wide!

August 6, To Mykonos, Greece

Up very early to catch the 7.45 am ferry to Mykonos, and it took almost 1.5 hours to get there as part of the metro line to port is shut down!  But arrived in time to have the first coffee!

The trip took about 4 hours and very nice, passing through many of the islands and stopping at Syros, Tinos and then Mykonos.

Shared a taxi with a woman from Argentina that is only here for 1 day, never did figure out where she was going!

So tired that I just spent the afternoon by the pool!  Was great, and then had a nap.

Headed out to wander around the town in evening!  It is beautiful!  Everything is whitewashed and some of the street are so narrow tough walking and meeting another person.  Other streets are a hazard to your life and 2 cars can barely meet, and yet there are scooters and quads parked on both sides of street and then you have the pedestrians!  Just another challenge, not to get hit by a mirror.

The streets in the town are are stone with the grouting painted white.  Very nice.  Lots of very expensive shops and souvenir places.  Oh yes and I forgot about the streets of restaurants!

I have a map of the town but it is useless as none of the streets seem to be named, on the streets anyway, on the map they are.

But just wandered around, not that big as saw the same place about 3 times!

August 5,  Athens, Greece

Met up with the UAE guy today and we went to 3 museums.  Talk about over dose on that!  Funny as I was his personal photographer.  He is in about 80% of pictures he took and he took a lot!

He followed me around like a puppy!  So much so that if I stopped to quickly, he would bump into me.  Nice guy though, I think he was just lonely.

Went to the National Archeological museum, the Acropolis Museum and the Benaki Museum.  The Acropolis museum opened in 2009 and very impressive with the glass entry way and the glass walkway up to the first floor.  Also on the top floor they have reproduced the various sculptures that are around the outside of the Pathenon.

The Benaki Museum was actually a private collection donated to  Greece for public display.  Amazing the amount of stuff he had collected.  4 floors of a large house.

Beat, so had ice cream and headed back to hotel.

Talked to the guy that has been at front desk every time I have left or returned.  Turns out he owns the hotel with his brother.  Very interesting as they bought the hotel in May 2010.  He said they need 12 of the 18 rooms full on average.  They rent the building.  In Greece the price of hotels is similar to that of 10 years ago!  Price of food has dropped a little, but wages have not.  The waitress did say that the price of a beer has dropped to half of what it used to be.  Taxes, 11% on hotel rooms, 23% on food, plus another 5% municipal tax.  

Good thing I told him that all the staff had been great!  He owns, and wife has been serving breakfast each morning!

August 4,  Athens, Greece

Today a slow start.  Did a lot yesterday. 

Headed towards the Temple of Olympian Zeus.  This place is another amazing place.  I saw it from the top yesterday.  Wandered around here for a bit.  A guy asked if I would take his picture in front of the temple.  Ended up taking several and then he stuck with me for the rest of the day.  Nice young guy, 25, from UAE.  So we went to the Panathenaic STadium.  Originally built in 120 AD and completely restored in 1895, this was the site of the first modern Olympics and also the site for the 2004 track events.  Amazing.  All marble and seats 70,000.

Wandered through the parks close by and then had lunch.  Was a restaurant, but really turned out to be fast food, Greek style!  Not 2 minutes after ordering we had our food.

He had heard that there were some nice restaurants along the beaches area south of the city so we caught the tram and headed off.

Beach was quite nice.  Sand on the beach part but the water part was rocks, many very slippery.

Went for a swim and then went to restaurant for a beer to watch sun set.  The place was much to expensive to eat.  Left and caught tram back.  Was close to 10 by the time got back to hotel.  Starving so had a very good dinner of cookies bought at an all night stand just outside the Metro station.  Walking back to hotel was interesting as all the seemed to be out were the hookers!

August 3, Athens, Greece

Up fairly early and up to roof top terrace for breakfast.  Very nice place but is fairly noisy with the traffic down below.

On to the Metro and to the Acropolis area.  This place is huge, and built on top of a huge rock!  Did not realize but it is actually a group of temples.  

The first place was the Theatre of Dionysos, small but very neat.  Then came to the restored Odeon of Herodes Atticus.  This place actually has live performances, but they are done, so missed out.  Would have been something to see here.

Continued up the hill.  Yes had to walk up the mountain.  The Temple of Athena Nike was something else.  This is really the entrance to the top of the Acropolis.  What amazes me is all the marble!  Everywhere!  Beautiful.  On the very top you have the Parthenon, which is the structure you usually see in pictures.  Very impressive.  Then there is the Erechtheion.  This is very impressive as well and the sculptures along the top are so detailed.

Made my way down towards the Ancient Agora, which is the old town centre.  Shops and administration.  Huge actually.  The Temple of Hephaestus was really something.  I am running out of words to describe.  Considering most of these were build in the 4 and 5 century BC, quite the wonder.

Off wandering around and ended up in the Keramokos.  Which is another town, but this is more of a cemetery.  Here the dead were buried, some which huge monuments.

Also a museum here and I read one comment that said most of the dead were buried with their heads facing north.  I asked why, and ended up with about 6 different people trying to figure it out.  In the end, no one knew.  They did suggest that I come back the next day as they will ask the archeologist.  

Wandering again, and this time ended up in the Athens flea market.  Well this is the most up market place I have seen.  Permanent shops with flashy lights and music.  More like a shopping mall!  Still very interesting as you can buy anything you could want here.  Not sure what impression I am giving but go hit up a couple of times that I should have a closer look at the shisha pipes!  

Walked by Hadrian's Library but did not go in.  Need to save ticket for Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Museum.  Here you buy 1 ticket, 12 euros and is admission to 6 different sites.  The best deal I have run into.

Went into the Temple of the winds.  Part of the Roman Agora, built in 1 and 2 century BC.  This was interesting as the Temple of Winds is actually an octagon!  The construction of these sites just amazes me given the times!  And they were built to last.........

The weather is very hot and a waiter was telling me that so few around as too hot!  36 or 37 but humidity is fairly high.

Headed back to hotel without incident on way either.  Went up to terrace and had a beer.  The Russian girl that is a waitress told me that I looked like and tourist and that I should be taking a taxi everywhere!  But have heard they are the ones to watch out for as they will rip you off in an second!  Just like everywhere!