Author: A Hap-pea Traveller

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A Greek Odyssey – day 31

It ain’t over ’til its over

After a day wandering the harbours of Piraeus – to be fair, largely killing time, there is not too much to see and do -a delicious final gyros for lunch and packing our rucksacks for the last time (I shan’t miss that, although now have it down to an art form: everything has its place) we set of at circa 6 pm for the 8 minute walk to the metro, to get the tube to the airport (9 euros each, a little over sixty minutes travel) for our flight just before midnight.

Two minutes out from the hotel, my phone blared that I had text. I paused to take a look, and my heart sank: “Sorry your flight is delayed, please check your app for details.” So I did. And my heart sank further – a two hour delay. We decided to press on, leaving Sophie (our daughter back in the UK) to investigate whilst we entered a wi-fi black-spot of the underground. From what she could gather, it was due to air traffic control problems – the outbound jet from Bristol was at the airport, and passengers were called to the gate.

By the time we arrived at the airport – fresh after a comfortable journey – the situation had not improved, and as the clock ticked on, the prognosis worsened – for no discernible reason (to us in Greece, anyway) the jet was not departing Bristol. I was beginning to suspect the flight might be cancelled. At the end of our odyssey, we don’t want to leave Greece, and it looks like Greece doesn’t want us to leave!

However, we still had to go through the motions of checking in our luggage, so I joined the back of the queue, reckoning by the time I reached the front either our aircraft would have left Bristol, or the flight would have been cancelled. Sophie was monitoring the flight on flight radar – as I progressed along the queue she messaged to say the flight status had changed to unknown – that sounded omminus. But a few minutes later, tracking the flight on the map, it began to move along the taxiway at Bristol airprot; progress and hope! As I edged to the front of the queue it was holding before final turn onto the runway threshold. But then it held, and held, and held. My hope began to ebb. I reached the front of the queue, as I looked at my phone to change to my boarding pass I saw the aircraft begin to move, its speed increasing: 40 knots, 70 knots, I couldn’t keep looking as I had to hand in my bags, but I knew she was taking to the air, and the chances of our returning home – albeit late – suddenly looked likely.

As I type, we should be an hour into our flight, but we still have an hour and a half before our (new) expected departure time. But we are coming home. The odyssey ends. Its been wonderful, I have loved every minute and would happily turn the clock back a month and do it all again.

Exharisto, Greece, you have been a wonderful host.

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A Greek Odyssey – day 30

Athens!

Athens – what a (great) surprise.

We hadn’t really intended to go into Athens on this trip – we have a couple of nights in the port city/suburb of Piraeus, built into our trip in case there was any problems (weather cancellations) with our ferry before our flight home tomorrow. We’d thought we’d spend a calm day mooching around Piraeus, avoiding Athens in the height of summer. But the hotel staff this morning suggested that there really wasn’t too much to do in Piraeus so we decided to head into Athens.

We hopped on the metro (7 mins from our hotel) which is the end of the line, so no problem bagging seats, and had a comfortable and cool 20 minute trip into the heart of Athens (a return ticket was circa 2.50 euros) and what a good decision it was – Athens was wonderful: not the hot, crowded, dirty, polluted city I had feared. We got of the metro at Monastraki, happened to look up, and saw the Acropolis towering over us from afar!

We headed into the Psirri region, which ended up being my favourite, a chilled, quirky part of the capital – quite probably recently “gentrified”, but still retaining a uniqueness and charm. Street art was in abundance, so Becky was in her element and we spent a couple of hours ambling aimlessly through its streets, taking in the ambience and culture, never feeling threatened or at risk.

We wandered from there through Plaka, and then up to into Anafiotika – a still lived in labyrinth of white houses and tiny alleyways

… and views:

This area was a fortuitous find – we discovered it whilst looking for more street art like this:

Whilst I do like a good story, and history is a great source of many a fantastic tale, neither of us are too much into ancient ruins (although that, perhaps, does not bode well for me: after a day traipsing the hot streets of Athens, I certainly feel like an old ruin) and after lunch, rather than visit Hadrian’s Library, The Agora or other sites of antiquity, we headed over to the Olympic stadium from the birth of the modern Olympics in 1896. The heat was immense, so we didn’t go in, but it was spectacular to look at from outside.

We wondered back through the cool green oasis of the National Gardens, saw Greek soldiers in their “fancy” uniform guarding the Parliament building before sitting down for a refreshing ice cream – it was hot, although I do think that a month “in country” has helped us to acclimatise and cope with the high temperatures in the city: it didn’t feel overwhelmingly hot, but that ice cream was welcome!

I really enjoyed our day out in Athens – it felt like a bonus day and the city itself was much “better” than I had expected. Very different from the laid back nature of the islands, but I’m very glad we went.

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A Greek Odyssey – day 29

A slow boat to China Athens

This afternoon we left our final island – Syros- and took a slow boat to Piraeus, the port of Athens. Not being in any great rush to get to the city we had taken the cheaper option of sailing on Blue Star Ferries – Blue Star Paros – a big, old fashioned roll on roll off car ferry rather than the sleek and swift catamarans of Seajets and Fast Ferries. The journey was fine, and certainly didn’t seem like four hours. Once we were on the boat, we did regret our super economy tickets (pretty much down in the bowels of the boat, with an oar each. I jest, of course. We were entitled to roam the middle and upper decks, sitting on cafe chairs, or plastic patio chairs) and found some super comfy “airline seats” that hadn’t been occupied. We sat in them, and waited to see if anyone would come and claim these numbered seats, they didn’t. There was then an announcement that you could upgrade your seats, so I went to see the Purser and for 14 Euros each we could claim our seats for the whole trip, I paid up, and we settled down to enjoy the trip. No-one subsequently came to check our tickets, we needn’t have paid the money, but for peace of mind and comfortable bottoms, it was worth it.

Arriving in Piraeus was a bit of a culture shock – after 4 weeks of chilling on various Greek islands, taking life at a leisurely pace, the noise, bustle and speed of this port city was an assault on the senses. It is a different world to the one we have lived of late – bright lights, rushing people and unforgiving traffic. We have a couple of days here, we will enjoy it but, I think, perhaps not as much as the sedentary island life of Sifnos, Syros et al.

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A Greek Odyssey – day 28

My Yogi would be proud

Some might say I’m snoozing, but I would contest that I am merely practising some yoga moves on the beach!

Twenty eight days in, and it has come to this: falling asleep whilst reading on the beach. Bliss – what more could you want from a holiday?!

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A Greek Odyssey – day 27

Syros – where the Greeks come on holiday

I’ve been enjoying Syros – perhaps I don’t have too much to write as the days have fallen into a lovely lazy routine of wake with the sunshine, across the road for a swim, back to the apartment for breakfast on the balcony, watching the world go by, another amble across the road to our favourite spot under a tree on the beach 5 minutes from our apartment, swim, chill, chat, stare out to sea, back to the apartment late afternoon for a shower, coffee (and possibly a snooze) before having to decide do we turn left or right to go out for dinner.

Today, we chose right, and had a delicious meal in a busy taverna. We arrived at circa 8pm and already most tables were full or reserved, but we managed to get a table, …

…enjoyed each others company, wonderful food, and the hub-bub of a busy taverna as the light faded to darkness.

Whilst there are a few other English holiday makers here, and a few other northern Europeans (including a group of young lads from Republic of Ireland who have annoyed Becky with their competitive bickering whilst playing “ball” in the sea) most of our fellow tourists here on the island of Syros are Greek – probably escaping the heat of Athens (into which cauldron we soon travel). And I can think of no higher recommendation than to go on holiday where the locals choose to go.

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A Greek Odyssey – day 26

Standards!

I will confess, as time on our trip has passed, it is possible that one’s standards may have eroded a little. We left the UK with clean, laundered and ironed clothes, T- shirts changed daily, cleanliness being next to godliness and all that. Now, a few weeks in, new norms have been established: a T-shirt does at least two days, then I take it in the shower with me to give it a rinse through – dry it in the sunshine and wind, and its good to go again.

For lunch today, we picnicked on the beach – a hunk of bread, an apple and some pretzels. I am told – although I fervently disagree – that I have “grabby hands” when it comes to crisps and the like, and I am forbidden for delving into sharing bags as I come away with a handful, too much, apparently. So denied direct access to our bag of pretzels, and with no bowls or plates to hand, one of my slider shoes was pressed into action as a plate for my pretzels. OK – perhaps standards are on the slide(r!) after 26 days of travelling, but it worked.

Later in the day, after a shower and a proper sit down meal with full crockery we continued our amble along the Posidonia side of the bay and came across a hotly contested game of beach volleyball that we watched for ten minutes or so. This was on the “trendy”” beach and we definitely were not in the age profile of the rest of the beach users, but it was fun to watch this great sport being played.

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A Greek Odyssey – day 25

Greek time

We are now well in to our fourth week in Greece and we have very much succumbed to “Greek time”: long, lazy mornings, lunch at around 3 o’clock and evenings that spill effortlessly into night time. It’s perfect. And whilst days begin to merge into each other, each day does seem to, unexpectedly, offer something new and surprising. This morning (it may have actually been the afternoon – who knows, or cares!) as we headed off to the beach on a patch of scrub-land near our apartment we spotted some cacti flowering. I’ve never seen these cactus in flower before – beautiful, big yellow flowers, and we weren’t the only ones enjoying the show, a great big bumble bee was taking its fill of nectar.

(And this evening, we shared our taverna with someone famous. Becky spotted him (I wouldn’t know him from Adam), a male model, dining with his wife and two young children. I won’t say who he was because a) I don’t really know who he was and, more importantly, b) just like us, he was enjoying his holiday on this beautiful Greek island and he has the right to do that in anonymity just like anyone else. (For the record our food was delicious – especially the grilled mushrooms – but we ordered far too much!)

Kalispera.

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A Greek Odyssey – day 24

Moving on

Today we upped sticks again, leaving Ermoupoli behind and headed to the other side of the island to a beach resort in Finikas bay, in the resort of Possidonia, pretty much slap bang in the middle of the bay – about 5 or ten mins wailk into Possidonia and 15 minutes into Finikas itself. We have a lovely apartment, possibly the newest, and design led. Its best feature is a lovely big balcony looking out to sea, but with sails providing the perfect mix of sun and shade.

We got here by bus (of course!) – the busses from Ermoupoli run in a circular route around the island (although nothing goes north of Ermpoupoli – our first host on the island told us there is very little there) and Possidonia is mid-way on that circular loop so it didn’t matter which bus we took, we’d still get here in about 30 minutes from the port! As it happens, we took the circular route – a direct transfer would have been quicker but we wouldn’t have seen all the beaches that the bus route visited on its journey – sometimes (often) travelling by bus is the best way to travel.

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A Greek Odyssey – day 23

City Break

Ermoupoli, the capitol of Syros, is a bit different from everywhere else that we have stayed – it is a city in its own right and is much less depenedent on tourism, giving it a different feel from our other destinations. We spent the day exploring the town (city does make it sound bigger than it is) and after breakfast under porticoes and an hour or so popping in and out of shops, we decided to visit the church on the hill that we hadn’t yet seen, the church that we originally though was in Ano Syros, the church that you see on all the photos of Syros.

Syros is on a hill, rising from sea level at the port and, despite a welcome return of a bit of a breeze, we didn’t fancy walking up the hill, so decided to take the free “mini” bus to the church at Anatasi. Now, I can’t complain as (other than exharisto, yassou and yamas) I speak no Greek, but probably because this isn’t just a tourist town, there is much less English spoken, and the routes and schedules of the busses do rely on a lot of local knowledge. Anyway, we got on a bus – but I think the helpful passengers all though we wanted to go to Ano Syros as, when we reached that stop they told us – almost forcibly ejected us – to get off, However, stood outside the bus we managed to explain we wanted to go somewhere else, and they let us back on. Using appalling pronunciation and a map, we manged to get them to understand where we wanted to go and, after a few more minutes, when we reached a T-junction they told us to get of and indicated right, as the bus headed left. I’m sure there where cheers from the passengers when we headed in the right direction – it was a lovely moment a group of strangers doing what they could to help two bemused tourists.

Anyway, we then had a ten minute walk – on the flat – to the church. It was worth the effort for the views over the city and up to Ano Syros.

We the walked down the hill – much easier than going up, but all those stairs!, still not simple – both of us commenting that it reminded us a little of Naples: its a town that has grown organically rather than being planned, and living and practically trump asthetics – but that doesn’t mean its not pretty, it is, and that the residents don’t care about what it looks like, they do (and the pic at the top is a giant mural, painted as part of a competition) but if a telegraph pole and wires need stringing up, they get put up.

The town doesn’t have a beach (but we are beach bound on the island tomorrow) but does have a fantastic swimming platform and we headed down from the hill, and plunged into the most beautiful blue, refreshing water.

Ermoupoli has been a bit different and I’ve enjoyed our couple of days here. And an added bonus, today I spotted both “Thunder” and “Blue Star Paros” – the ferries that brought us to and will take us away from Syros – in port at the same time.

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A Greek Odyssey – day 22

Thunder, but no wind

Thunder approaches!

Today we moved on from Antiparos (via Paros) to our next (and final ) island destination of Syros. Our ship for the journey was Fast Ferries “Thunder” – a magnificent vessel that took us swiftly and smoothly to our new home in less than two hours, including a stop to download and upload more passengers on Mykonos.

As ever, boarding was controlled mayhem – Paros as a port is busy, busy, busy (having arrived in the port about two hours before we were due to sail, we sat in a waterfront taverna for brunch, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself watching a fleet of ferries arrive and depart. When it was our turn to board we now know what to expect, strap on our packs, join the queue and head up the ramp when directed to do so. It is a great way to travel.

As one Blue Star Ferries ship departed, another arrived!

Ever since we landed in Santorini, a fairly stiff breeze has blown – good for making the heat bearable, not so good for stirring up the sea. Today, though, for the first time in three weeks there has been no wind. That made our crossing super smooth, with the sea as calm as a mill-pond, but it did mean that when we docked in Syros it was hot, hot, hot. After checking in to our apartment, we eventually dragged ourselves away from the air conditioning and went to explore the town – for 2 nights we are staying in the port/capital Ermoupoli, before we cross the island for our final five days. Bigger, and not so tourist dependent than anywhere else we have been, it is a pretty town, but with an architecture more Venetian than the whitewashed Greek houses we have encountered so far.

In the evening, at 7.30pm, we caught the free “mini bus” (mini because the journey is small, not the size of the bus) up to Ano Syros – a town on the hill overlooking the capital. I think everyone else had the same idea as the bus was packed (good job it wasn’t a minibus as we think of them) but after 10 minutes of standing we de-bussed in Ano Syros. But this wasn’t the end of the trip – we then had stairs, lots and lots of stone stairs to climb to the top and visit the classic cathedral atop the hill. If I’m honest, Ano Syros, and its cathedral are probably better seen from afar – when you are in the cramped, cobbled streets you can’t really see to appreciate its beauty. But as we descended from the top, we did see a magnificent view across the domed roof of another church, looking out to the calm sea, and surrounding islands, in the late evening haze. It was beautiful.

Rather than play sardines in the bus to come down the hill, we decided to walk back to our apartment – circa 15 minutes, all downhill, but some of the stairs were punishing on ageing knees! As the sun had set, the temperature had dropped to a manageable level and before long we were back in our apartment, wondering where the day (and night) had gone.