Listening to your body in Athens, Greece

I knew when I went looking to see the belly dancers in Cairo that I was burning the candle at both ends but regretably they didnt start til 01:30.

I knew I would regret my caffeine overdose at 1am the next morning when the airline booked the flight for the wrong day but I was too awake to get any sleep.

I tried to have an easy day on the last day in Cairo, I dozed in the airport and again on the flight over to Athens but I could not deny that my body needed sleep.

My body was fatigued, my head ached and my intelligence dimned so when I finally got a room at 9am the first thing I did was strip and fall asleep, not waking up til around 5pm.

Hunger and thirst drove me to go out into the city and find sustinence but I knew still felt rough and frayed at the edges so it was nothing more than a quick pit stop before returning to my hotel room.

By now my brain was clearing up and starting to work, but my body couldnt match it, so I used the laptop to record the most recent ideas and thoughts, thus emptying my mind of anything it needed to remember or think about and then went back to bed.

It worked as I then slept from 10pm right through to 8am.

Regrettably this means that I have been delayed or slept through almost my entire time here in Greece, one of the places that I was really looking forward to visiting before my arrival as fewer places are deeper in the history, culture and philosophy that has shaped my life and imagination since a small boy, but on a trip such as mine there will always be casualties.

Today, after a shave and a shower I hope to venture forth to see as much as possibly if the rain keeps off before an afternoon tour to Cape sounion followed by an evening show with folk dancing, bouzouki music and a meal thrown in. All in all not a bad days itiniary by any means and considering my condition, circumstances and time I woke up I doubt that any save a local could do better.

I also need to try and find a chemist so that I can get something for my cough / cold as I fear it is developing into a lungs / chest infection.