Loaded up waiting for the train.
Hello Greece Goodbye Lovely Africa
Flying into Athens we see the crystal blue Mediterranean. We land at Athens airport which is very modern and spotless. It’s the middle of the day, so we decide to take the metro versus a taxi, as it is modern, cheap, and stops about 6 blocks from our hotel. It is a great way to commute in Athens, and along the route we see the ocean and city on the horizon and of course we catch a glimpse of the Acropolis.
The weather is hot and humid and we haven’t had this type of weather in a very long time one thing we notice is a tremendous amount of graffiti everywhere. It’s a real shame as some buildings are just beautiful, hundreds of years old and they are covered in spray paint…
Our hotel is in a lovely old area and is very quiet and clean. As always the boys are hungry and notice a few shops selling gyros. You can pick the restaurants out that sell the gyros by the rotating towers of meat spinning and roasting away. Usually lamb, or chicken, they shave it off while it is cooking (with what looks like a giant electric razor) and put it in a wrap with yummy condiments. Back in Jordan and Turkey we ate loads of Shawarma (same thing…just variation of condiments) Canada sells but they are bargained processed meat.
Well the boys noticed many pita and doner shops along the ride to the hotel so we plan on hitting one for dinner. The food is fantastic here and we are looking forward to fresh calamari. The restaurants remind us of our favourite place back home “Pantheon” on the Danforth in Greek Town.
To say Athens is an ancient city is an understatement s settlers first arrived here in 3000 B.C.
Being in a modern city is a change for us as we have been in Africa for almost 2 months. Don’t get me wrong Greece is lovely but as we landed in Athens I secretly wished it was Entebbe Ugandans airport.
It’s a strange feeling to walk around and not see cows, goats and wild dogs wandering the streets. No crazy bodo bodo’s, overloaded buses and cars driving on any side of the road they wish to. Also the roads are so smooth here not what we have been used to.
We head back to hotel as we are all a little wacked out and grab a good night’s sleep as tomorrow its site seeing day.
