Step 1: have Dennis the taxi driver pick us up in kefalonia at 5:15am
2: Allow a bunch of European travelers to drive you absolutely insane because of their lack of "first come, first served" and/or "this is a line, get to the back of it ass hole" mentality.
3: leave you luggage at the airport baggage storage for the day
4: prepare for 100 degree weather, or in our case, don't prepare and walk around looking like tomatoes for the rest of the day
Thanks to our early morning flight we had all day to see the sights in Athens. We were told to not go to the acropolis during mid day because of the crowds and the blazing sun, but we had no time to spare. We started with a stroll through the National Gardens, basically a Central Parkish feel in the center of Athens. Whether due to lack of sleep or true boredom, we spent about 5 minutes in there before moving on. We happened to see the crossing of the guard outside the royal palace...basically guys in over the top uniforms resembling a high school girl's kick line dance team. All the major sights were pretty close together, so we moved in a circle around the gardens.
Sights:
1. Original sight of the first modern Olympics...now used as the finish line for the Athens marathon and was used during the 2004 summer games. Anyone who knows me and my love for the Olympics knows how cool this was for me.
2. We saw the remnants of an old temple and arch, where Amanda thought she was going to barf. Lovely.
3. Walked up a huge hill to grab some lunch and head into the Acropolis grounds. Mind you, by this point it had hit 100 degrees and we had sweat coming from every pore of our bodies.
4. Made it to the top to see the Parthenon and all the other temples at the top of the mountain. One would think that knowing you will be doing so much hiking you would wear tennis shoes...you thought wrong. At least we aren't like most of the women here wearing high heels all day every day. If you think we stick out now, just add heels to Amanda and I to make us 6'2.
We continued to walk the grounds taking in the amazing views and scenery, despite the restoration projects that left scaffolding at a lot of the buildings. We had some cold brewskis at a cute cafe where we met some Greek/Americans from North Carolina that were taking time off from the Greek restaurant they own. Good conversation and a free round of beers. We decided it wasn't a good idea to be in Athens at night while waiting for our 4:25 (eek!) flight to Spain, so we headed to the airport.
Update on what we have been doing the past 18 hours: slept on Athens airport floor, had nasty McDonald's because it was the only thing open, flight to Barcelona, slept on Barcelona airport floor, arrived in Malaga. Against all instincts, we listened to people at the information counter telling us our bus to Algeciras port to get to morocco would pick us up at the airport, not at the city center as indicated online. At 12:23 I took matters in to my own hands and cried to a taxi driver to get us to the bus station by 12:30. We didn't get there on time, but luckily the bus was late. That being said, I'm still not convinced the bus we embarked upon was the bus we actually had tickets for. Nevertheless, we made it and are currently on the (swaying) ferry. We changed in to long pants and jeans to prepare for the conservative culture of morocco, much to the dismay of the Moroccan men who loved our shorts.
Amanda booked us at the Intercontinental Hotel in Tangier. It's not the Ritz Carleton, but it will have to do. We are very excited for the rooftop pool with the lions head fountains spouting water, though I told her that based upon our misadventures thus far, the pool will probably be empty and the lions head will be cracked in half. Bring on the camel riding...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment