We arise circa 8am, it's Saturday and the streets seem quiet. We decide to stick on the BBC world channel. They're telling us that the leader of the Golden Dawn Party has been arrested...and it's over to their correspondent in Athens...there's a picture of the young man as he speaks urgently over the telephone, next to his picture there's video of a riot going on ...with the words "Library Pictures", just to let you have a feel of the place. We go out for a walk and the BBC impression is utter nonsense. Everyone is doing their thing, the same stuff most of us do on a Saturday, enjoying the day off, shopping, sitting at cafes and generally taking it easy. We walk miles around this city, I'm sure that somewhere there' some excitement going on, but it's certainly not where we've been.

We've been up the Acropolis, Parliament and round the more affluent areas and also skid row, which we came about by accident. It,s to the west of where we're staying. We dont get any hassle, just pass drug addicts who are zonked out on the pavements. A sad sight. healthcare has suffered since the economic problems and we find this out as we visit a pharmacy to get some vitamins and other stuff, we mention Minadex and the pharmacist tells us that they can no longer get hold of this. I'd read somewhere that some pharmaceutical companies had not been paid by the state and as such the credit lines have been closed. This may be the case as the shelves were not exactly brimming with goods. Think about this next time you're getting you're free prescription back in sunny Wales. What we did get was pretty expensive.

We've booked our tickets to Samos, but there's only 3 ferries a week from Piraeus, so we have to wait until Monday afternoon for the next available ferry. We're not too bothered. The weather is glorious and Athens is an interesting place. There's far worse places to be for the weekend. Athens seems to have a bit of a siesta around 3.30 to 4.30pm and we are doing likewise, having a bit of a rest after walking for miles and seeing real life. One place went to today was an eye opener. We visited the Meat and Fish market, no cellopane and polystyrene trays here...like you get in disinfected British Supermarkets. As one German Philosopher once said - "There is no feast without cruelty".