Where to start! There were no ecafes in Greece that we could find and it has taken two days to find this one. Very quickly There was a heat wave when we reached Greece and the temperatures ranged from 40° - 45°. I have never been so hot in my life and felt I was going to expire several times. We reached Greece to have one of the girls leave her passport on the plane so were delayed an hour before we could leave the airport. We then went by bus, driving on the right hand side of the road to the hotel. The traffic was phenomenal - think Auckland peak hour and you would have some idea. Motor bikes with people riding them with open toed shoes, no helmets and short sleeves. There were white and pink oleanders planted all along the side of the roads every where in town. The entire time we were in Greece I never saw blue sky as it appeared as a grey/milky haze everywhere. We arrived at the hotel at about 9.30am, dropped our luggage, threw lighter clothes on as we changed in the downstairs toilets and off we went to the Acropolis on the bus. Our tour guide was called Eva who was Greek but bought up in Turkey before her family came back to Greece. More about her later. One of the things that immediately struck me was the housing, lots and lots of apartment blocks, with lots of plants in pots on verandahs that looked very colourful. Driving up to the Acropolis was amazing, it dominates the landscape from a variety of points around the city. This was the 40° day! Eva told us in the bus that we could not take drink or food on the site so we dutifully left it all on the bus. Just a warning for any other intrepid travellers out there - every ancient monument in Greece (and so far in Italy) is on top of a bloody hill!!!!!! (restrained language at that!!) So, by the time the organisation for tickets has occurred we have been waiting outside in the sun for about 1/2 hour. Eva gathered us up and told us about the first part of the ruins as we stood in the sun up two flights of steps which was a theatre. Another flight of steps and another chat in the sun and then through the archway and there was the Parthenon!! By now we had observed every man, woman and child also visiting the site (95 buses from a cruise ship in that day) had bottles of drink with them! Another chat in the very very hot sun by now and then the temple beside the Parthenon (am having a ruin mental blockage here). By now I was feeling not a little distressed through lack of anything in my system since 7.30am and it was now 1.00pm. I took heaps of photos and tried to soak up the whole atmosphere before going back to the bus where we were all to meet. I managed to find a little drink shop down the road and bought two bottles of water, a fizzy drink and a lemon slushy. One bottle of water did not touch the sides, nor did the slushy. Fortunately the bus was air conditioned and fell back into in like a dead thing. Of course, by now the heat had affected our legs/ankles and other extremeties. Me ankles have continued to resemble something like Byan williams thighs ever since. The bus stopped briefly in town for us to buy lunch - a spinache pie and a coffee slushy and then off to the National Museum. This was absolutely amazing and gots heaps of photos. More water bought as we headed back to the hotel to check in properly and to have dinner. We did a bit of a drive around Athens on the way and saw other places of note - more photos. Being a budget hotel the meal was not exciting - it was spaghetti with tomatoe sauce, very salty dry chicken with greek salad and water melon for desert. Because we were in GREECE and did not want to waste any of our time there, several of us caught the metro after dinner to Paraeus - the end of the line one way, which is a port, and had a coffee, then caught the train back. Have to dash now for dinner so watch this space - like Arnie, I will be back. Love to all.
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