From Athens to Mytilini port

Having foregone the big A due to sunstroke the previous day, it was rather important that we got back up the hill on our last morning in Athens. Our wonderfully peaceful hotel room had cocooned us until 10:30 – so it was quite a rush to get out the door.

First stop was a proper tour of Ancient Agora. It was interesting, and I couldn’t get enough of the Temple of Hephaestus:


However, there was only so much time, and these crumbly ruins were nothing compared to the monolith awaiting us further up….

I was impressed but disappointed by the construction going on – the pixies were very busy! It meant there weren’t to be any ‘perfect’ photos, but I felt I had seen the Acropolis often enough in news and documentaries that the real thing was smaller and less impressive than I expected. Still, there were a few cool things around:








Hot enough after an hour in the midday sun, and not wanting a repeat of yesterday, Lucy and I clambered back down the hill and found the central market. Feta and salami gave me the first chance to really use my numbers, although we did just end up getting 100gms of everything (that's A LOT of olives!). I stubbornly refused to let a dodgy man sell me three mushy bananas, but my phrase book couldn’t tell me what he thought of that (yeah, right.).

Athens had taught me not to overlook the strange corners of the city, and I was rewarded for my curiosity with an ancient crumb of a church, tucked between a motor mechanics and a fishing shop on the main road back to the hotel. The churches in Athens are so beautiful inside, and this was no exception. I thought the gold crescents on the ceiling were some cool moon mural, but they are actually circles of real gold surrounding the heads of painted saints - but you can't see the saints because centuries of incense smoke and ash have faded the paintings. The atmosphere is breathtaking:




We then had a quickish stop to pick up our bags from the hotel before we headed to Piraeus port by Metro. Soon enough, we were onboard our Ferry learning what ‘economy’ means in Europe – find a spot on the floor and spread out. At first I thought this was just for gypsy families and solo truck drivers, but after trying all the alternative seats, I realised the floor was pretty much the best place. Lucy’s lack of reserve got her talking to the children, but I just kept to myself. Eventually, one of us fell asleep:


Not so fortunate, I just bummed around the ship for twelve hours. I was pretty tired as I watched the sunrise, but it was worth it.

Just in time to catch the gorgeousness of it all, Sleeping Beauty found me, and we took what I think will be my favourite ever photo: