Guess what?
We missed having our photo taken with the captain…. (they charge you 14 euro for a copy anyway)
because we were too busy winning last nights BINGO!
We won 140 euros, woo hoo, this will keep me in cocktails for the rest of the trip… *snigger*
I particularly like the cocktail with is like a banana smoothie with baileys….
but I digress….
We woke early this morning because the boat had stopped moving and had a lovely view of Athens at dawn from our balcony.
We left the ship early for a shore excursion to the Acropolis.
Below is the Parthenon, which was built in the 5th century B.C.
It changed denomination many times in its history, depending who was in power in Greece.
The Turkish used it for a ammunitions store which blew up during a skirmish with the Venetians.
Then of course Lord Elgin came along and souvenired bits of it, which are now controversially displayed in the British Museum.
The Greeks want them back….
Its built on a hill made of marble which is really slippery and must be treacherous when its wet.
Its a bit hard to judge a city when you are only onshore for 4 hours but here are my initial impressions.
Athens is jam packed with buildings, mostly apartment blocks.
And generally there is an air of nobody caring to do any maintenance on their homes.
No pride in their homes.
Unlike some other old cities were the houses are neat and tidy and have flowers in windows etc.
There is shabby chic and there is just pain grubby.
Also there is a layer of brown smog hanging over the city.
These impressions were not helped by the garbage problem.
I guess that as a result of the strikes and the other recent problems in Greece they have not had garbage collections for weeks.
Big mounds of smelly rubbish lined the roads, they were trying to collect it but its going to take them weeks to clean it up.
Add to the garbage the number of stray dogs wandering the streets, all large dogs like Labradors and collies.
(I guess little dogs don’t survive) Can you imagine the mess when you combine garbage heaps and stray dogs!
And, homeless people.
You see homeless people in all big cities but there seems to be an a lot of them here.
Anyway, I guess you can tell that I didn’t like Athens much…
We went back to the ship for lunch, I thought I’d have a little rest and fell asleep for 2 hours!
Then there was a sail away party at the pool.
Until next time, 
+019.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment