We are in Athens at the moment, arrived here at 6.30 this evening - only 24 hours after we left Bari in Italy...!!

So, from Florence we decided to book the sleeper train to Bari, which we turned out to regret! Left Florene at 10.30pm on the Monday night to go to Bologna. Arrived in Bologna at 12.00 midnight, and left at 1.00am. Got on the train, absolutely knackered, to find we were sharing a 2 metre squared space with 4 other people. It was mingin, as soon as you opened the door the smell of stuffyness and sweat just hit you. We had the bottom bunks aswell, which were held up by flimsy leather straps, and we kept thinking that they were going to fall down or something! We tried to get seats instead but that was all they had so we had to put up with it! Didnt get much sleep though.

We arrived in Bari at 8.00am on Tuesday where Jack's uncle Gino picked us up. We got a bit of sleep that morning, and had dinner with Jacks family. After that, Jacks cousin Francesco and his girlfriend took us out for pizza in Bari and we met up with Ally and Naomi - Francesco got lots of pictures of the thousands of Scotland fans that had turned up in Bari aswell!

On the Wednesday we went to the stadium to get tickets for the Scotland Italy game that night, but were told we couldnt buy them, so we should come back at 7 and we might be able to get in. So, we turned up at 7.30 and after Jack spoke some Italian to the police and the ticket guys, they let us in for free!!! Once we went in, we bumped in to Dave and Kev so we sat with them for the first half, then Ally and Naomi joined us for the second half as they had been sitting somewhere else. Unfortunately we got beat 2-0. Oh well, still got a chance to qualify....!!!

Yesterday (Thursday) we left Bari at 6.30 to ge the ferry to Patras, Greece. It was an overnight ferry which was fine. We played cards till about midnight, got some sleep and woke up the next day at 10.00am and we only had 2 hours to go! We got chatting to a nice American couple and had a drink with them at the port before we got our train to Athens at 2.00pm. The train arrived in Athens about 6.00 and we got to our hostel at 6.30.

Havent seen the Acropolis yet as its only open till 4.30. The hostel is only 5 minutes walk to it, so we're going there tomorrow. We've seen the back of it lit up though!

So far, Athens seems really nice and its warm!! We're going to stay here fror 3 nights then head to Thessaloniki before going to Bulgaria.

Jack and Linsey xxx