My plans were to do a quick reccy of the historical sites in central athens, then go for an afternoon trip to the coast and then back for a meal and traditional greek dancing extraveganza, but as they say the best laid plans.
I walked to the nearby tour agency that I spotted last night, and asked about going on a couple of their trips however the night time dancing program from the brochure that I had picked up was aparently not on tonight and so they I could not book it.
I was more than a little surprised that the salesman made absolutely no effort to arrange a substitute or interest me in anything else and just went back to reading his newspaper, leaving it to his newly arrived assistant to point me in the direction of the Plaka, a region where I could turn up to a local taverna and see some if I wanted to do it on my own.
Once booked I headed on foot to the Acropolis, after buying a map from a street vensor who then had the cheek to upsell it to me for double the price saying "sorry my english is bad" but no matter how bad your english is you know the difference between one and two euros! It was only that I was in a good mood, and partly that I momentarily forgot that the exchange rate was now so bad, that meant I didnt tell him where he could shove his map and demand my money back.
Enroute to the Acropolis, which is easy to spot from downtown as its the big lot of famous ruins on the tall hill in the distance, I passed a few other archaeological sites and decided to buy a one ticket visits all sites entrance ticket for 12 euros which I dont think saves any but at least you get a nicer ticket stub as a keeper.
Having already been to one or two tourist sites I was shocked at how many people were here, as it was probably the most crowded of places I have ever seen. The place is impressive and not exactly small, but it was swamped by hundreds of tourists as bus after bus disgorged its charter of passengers and everywhere I looked they were there, and what is worse is as it was up a hill the slower ones were blocking up all the steps.
The Acropolis was magnificent and offered an unrivaled panoramic view overlooking the city and it was easy to cast my imagination back and think of how the city elders must have felt as they cast their gaze down at the domain over which they ruled.
Sadly I did not have enough time to summon forth the mighty zeus as I was on a deadline to get back to the tour office by 2pm, but I did have time to take a quick walk through down some of the other sites that I spotted from the top. It was a pity that I missed going to see the stadium as it looked very impressive, but I hope that the postcard I picked up will be some consolation.
Walking back through the city I passed a erotic cinema, I think only the third I have seen travelling all around and clearly a dying breed. The advertising fliers showed very cute girls and the price was only EU $5 but judging from the look of the building it had clearly seen better days and besides I have never liked an audience for this sort of thing so I passed it by and just noted it down for posterity.
As I walked along the road to my hotel I was stopped by about six armed police who demanded to see my documents and I so I figure that perhaps some of the locals had objected to the tarts in the area, but they didnt wait around for long and by the time I had dropped off my stuff in the room and changed my camera battery they had gone, and in their place the tarts had returned.
Despite being told to meet at the tour agency at 2pm we spend an hour going round in circles picking up passengers from various hotels and it was not until after 3pm when we finally left the downtown area and headed off towards our destination.
Many people have commented about Amsterdam, LAs Vegas and Bangkok as being places known for their sex industry, but after already noting the explicit porn magazines and dvd's on display at street venders and of course the erotic cinema, I was surprised at how many stripjoints and hotels with entertainment lounges there were on the route from the downtown area to the beach
And even if I hadn't spotted them for myself I would not have been ignorant for long as our tour guide took a weird delight in repeatedly mentining that this area was noted for its lively night clubs and more!
I would suggest that if anyone is going to take the coach to visit the temple of Poseidon that they sit on the left side of the coach as it was an hour journey and the aegean sea view is were far better on that side than the boring right hand side which is nothing but barren fields and rocky hillsides.
My big mistake was not getting something to eat before joining the bus as I was famished by the time we arrived and I was almost ready to eat anything no matter the cost when I finally arrived at the temple and my enjoyment was marred by the fact that I wanted to visit the place as quickly as possible to return to the restaurant at the hillside entrance to quieten my stomach.
Poseidons temple is much smaller than I had expected, but its location could not have been more perfectly chosen as it sits atop a high outcrop almost raiased from the seabed for exactly this reason.
Apparently the first temple was built of stone but was burned to the ground and so it was rebuilt by later Athenians and this time in marble. I often wonder how anyone managed to set stone on fire, with enough heat to make the very stones shatter and crumble, but I guess that they found a way.
Out stop here was only an hour, not even the same time as it took to take us here and with the entrance fee only being US $2 per person ( free for students ) I take it the EU $40 we all paid was just for a brief tour and to be transported from and to downtown Athens.
About now I felt that a visit to a cinema, a game of ten pin bowling and a trip to a Greek night club or strip club to sample theri particular brand of eroticism was very much in order but I had not been keeping too close an eye on the old pennies and so after paying in cash for the cinema and bowling I didnt have much left so took a trip to the ATM and was denied even taking out EU $40.
I wracked my brains trying to find why, as I didnt have my cellphone on me to call and ask why it was declined, and then I suddenly remembered that my mortgage, telephone bill and the erergency hotel in Cairo had all been paid through my debit card within the last few days and so I must have reached or exceeded my limit.
I knew that I still had some on my credit card but only to use for direct transactions and no longer for cash advances, and I didnt want to start putting night club drinks and entrance fees through my card so I just jumped on the metro and headed on back to my hotel.
The cough syrup that I had bought was having littlle effect, being not much more than honey, lemon and paracetamol and I knew that one of the first things I have to do when I get back to the UK is take a trip to get some antibiotics from my doctor to clear my now present chest infection.
I finally fell asleep around eleven with my alarm set for just after 5am in order to reach the airport for my 9am flight to Rome tomorrow morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment