We arrived in Athens AGAIN and thanks to our British friends we were picked up from the airport, fed a delicious chicken dinner, and taken to our next crash pad. Unfortunately, this new crash pad was home for the flight attendants and everyone else's luggage. After a bottle of wine and a few hours of trying to fix the heat and toilet we finally fell asleep. The next morning we were well rested and started cleaning the apartment as well as repacking our recently collected stored suitcases. We now had a total of 6 suitcases and one suit bag. Hmmm! After a few days of soaking up the sun and defrosting from London, we deceided to travel to the city via train. I have always loved the trains except when you are harrassed by the gypsies and their very loud accordians. It gave a new meaning to the phrase "b***** off." Our first site we came to was The Temple of Zeus. The structure was so enormous I thought I would never see the top. Some of the columns had fallen down and you could see how big each section was and how much effort must have been used to build this. We continued on through the main streets of the city trying to dodge cars, taxi's, buses, and scooters. We finally managed to reach the entrance to the Acropolis. Finally, after several visits to Athens I can see the most important part. I never knew how advanced the ancient greeks were. The Acropolis was not just one structure but a complete village with organisation. We climbed through the trail that lead us to the Theater of Dionysis Eleuthereus. Over looking the theater, we could see the Temple of Zeus just below and the smaller ancient village remains. We finally arrived at the top to view the Parthenon. Being so far above the city was a nice opportunity to see just how big Athens was. We ended our day with a greek style lunch at the markets below. The next day reality set in and we soon knew we had to plan our trip back to Sydney. We crammed into our friend's unreliable, falling apart car and drove to the city. Yes, we knew the moment we left we were tempting fate by driving ourselves with only a map to guide us. Maps are so easy, if only the street signs were posted and the ones that are posted are traslated correctly on the map. After an hour of arguments and painful navigation we found our destination, Etihad Airlines. After pleading our story about our failed airline and begging for mercy to have our luggage transported to Sydney, we left with only a business card and hope that this would all work out. When we arrived back at the apartment we opened a few bottles of wine, all six suitcases and began sorting our belongings. After many tearful moments, all from me, we ended up with four suitcases and one suit bag. To this day I still think I sacrificed more shoes for someone's dive gear. That morning came early and we loaded the car with our belongings and crossed fingers. We strolled into the airport with our two checked bags and half packed carry-on bags. As luck would have it, we were approached by the gentleman Etihad had recommended to us. Fortunately he understood our situation and checked our two bags that were a few kilos over the limit. After everything was checked in we took our carry-ons outside to our parked car and started to shove the rest of our items including our dive gear and two wetsuits inside. I really didn't think the zippers on any of those bags would hold. We ended up with two carry-on bags, one suit bag (full of dress shirts, a suit, and dive suits), and two computer bags. With total disregard for the one carry-on policy we boarded the plane and took a sigh of relief, next stop Sydney.