Italy & Greece Vacation
7. Athens and back home

These pages relate the personal vacation experiences of two South Africans, Debra and Matthew Perks, in Italy and Greece during September-October 2001.  The site has the following pages - the Introduction Page (includes Rome), a Page on San Gimignano, Pisa and Florence, a Page on Venice (and the ferry trip to Patras), a Page on Piraeus and the ferry to Santorini, a Page on Santorini Island, a Naxos Island Page and finally this Athens Page.

The trip back from Naxos to Athens was as calm and restful as all of our other ferry experiences, although the "Express Santorini" is showing her age, and isn't quite the ship that "Aretousa" and "Blue Star Ithaki" are. As before, we saw a number of other vessels plying their trade in the beautiful Aegean. Traffic increased as we approached Piraeus, our destination.

Athens Metro service got us back into town where there was still time to take an evening walk (pictures above). We were again to be disappointed with Athens accommodation by the "Student's and Traveller's Inn" in the Plaka. We decided that the problem might be that establishments that cater for dorm-type accommodation in an OK fashion, offer really bad double rooms. Another crappy sleepless night led to the decision to book into something a bit more up-market. Nearby in Kodrou St. we found the Adonis Hotel where the manager was super-helpful.  This place also has a great breakfast balcony with a view of the Acropolis. We'd go there again.
Recommendation:- avoid entry-level budget accommodation in Athens. For a couple of thousand extra Drachmae the quality rises dramatically.

The obvious "must-see" in Athens is the Acropolis and  its museum. We bought the guide book and enjoyed the morning. How many feet have trodden those rocks underfoot now worn to a smooth glassy finish?

The Acropolis museum is not to be missed. The artefacts and remnants of the past give the ruins outside a different perspective. The art that remains from the buildings of the Acropolis (apart from the bits that weren't stolen by Lord Elgin) reaches across the centuries from its creators to us.

Below are 3 pictures of Acropolis highlights. The first 2 are of the Erecthion, and the 3rd is of course the Parthenon. The scaffolding inside is part of the restoration work going on, one imagines, for the 2004 Olympics.

We left the Acropolis and went down the hill to the Ancient Agora area below. Here too the museum has fascinating relics of Athens of many centuries ago. The old market area and ruins deserve more time than we had, but we enjoyed the experience. The 11 Century (restored) Byzantine Church pictures below is worth the visit, especially to view the exquisite art work within. The middle picture of that art inside the small dome is included, even though it is blurred. We had lunch at a sidewalk restaurant abutting the Ancient Roman sector, where the Tower of the Winds (below right) stands. Appropriately the best Spaghetti Bolognese of the trip was served.

A visit to the chaotic but fascinating Sunday flea-market around Monistiraki followed. The array of goods has to be seen to be believed.

And suddenly the last evening of the trip arrived, just when Athens was beginning to feel OK and, forewarned by this experience, we will know what to do next time. A few days extra will be needed for the sites that we missed as well.

The last 3 pictures of these pages are all about our crappy flight(s) home thanks to SWISSAIR. We had heard in Naxos that we wouldn't even have flights home at all. The management tried to blame the US events of 11 September, but it was clear from reports that the ship had been sinking for a long while. The actual SWISSAIR staff on the ground really tried their best, but we eventually spent over 2 days in airports and on planes getting back home. The lesson?: never assume that an Airline is being run properly, and always take out extended insurance to cover failure of the company to deliver on booked flights. Luckily we only landed up paying for our last leg from Johannesburg to our home town Port Elizabeth - at one stage it looked a lot worse. 
The memory of the flights will of course fade long before those of the trip itself. We had a great time. Considering Italy and Greece? Go - you won't regret it.

Zurich Airport : Cancelled flights in Red 

Jolly Swissair customers stuck in Nairobi

SAA flight out of Nairobi

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Information on the pictures:
Pictures taken using a Fuji Finepix 2400Z using a resolution of 1200x600 pixels and a "Basic" compression setting. Thumbnails on these pages are 150x150 and the larger images have been generated at a width of 750 pixels to keep file sizes small enough to load. Copies of the original full size pictures are available (File size +- 300Kb) for those interested. 
Mail Matthew Perks with any request.
Copyright 2001: Matthew Perks