Laundry was the order of the day today, but we saw an ad that said they would do it for you, for the same price as doing it yourself (later we were to find out that it was 24 euros), so that freed up our day.At a loss as to what to do, we wandered through the city centre and found a rental place where we hired a 150cc quad bike for only 20 euros. Armed with this and a complimentary map, we set out to the monastery at the highest point of the island, where we had ...

Today, we were up fairly early so that we could get a daylight photo of the cliff we were viewing the night before, and get some breakfast before our tour of the caldera (active volcano), hot springs, Thirassia, and the sunset at Oia. Breakfast ended up being something picked up from the bakery as we ran out of time for a proper sit-down meal.The meeting spot for our tour, as well as which bus we were on, wasn't as obvious as the rude woman at the travel agency m...

Today, on the advice of some people we met at the bar (who work at the hostel), we took the metro to Evangelismos and climbed the stairs to the foot of the Hill of Lycabettus.After that exertion, we opted to take the cable car to the top of the hill (instead of walking) and had to wait 20 minutes for the next one (almost the time it -apparently- takes to climb to the top.At the top of the hill, we visited the church of St George and took many photos of the amazin...

After a (very) early night, we set out just after 9am for the Acropolis. First, though, we stopped for breakfast near the base of the hill. We started out on the southern slope, and our first photo opportunity was the Theatre of Dionysos - the partially ruined amphitheatre dotted with brilliant red poppies. G decided to go up the hill ahead of me, missing the chance to take photos of the carved half-wall behind the stage area, and the steps empty of people. He d...

After two fairly long flights (Sydney-Abu Dhabi - 14 hours, and Abu Dhabi-Athens - 5 hours), we finally arrived in Greece at 1:45pm. From the airport, we took the metro to Monastiraki, an area in the middle of Athens. When we emerged from the station, one of the first things we noticed was the magnificent view of the Acropolis from Monastiraki Square (though I was very disappointed by the amount of scaffolding around it). Our hostel, Athenstyle, was only a two-...