ATHENS

Day 20

So we arrived in Athens at 5am after one of the longest, most drawn out pain in the arse journeys known to man. I will now forever resent Turkey and Bulgaria for their lack of decent travel modes and connections. We were that close to just grabbing the nearest donkey and pointing to the horizon, at our most desperate, it seemed the easiest option. Anyway, Athens, 5am. We'd had very little sleep on our train from Thessaloniki and it was still pretty warm. To top things off, we hadn't booked anywhere to stay yet. There was a coffee shop in the station which for some reason was open at 5am and had wifi. We stayed there for 4 hours, after which we put our bags in the storage at the station and went off to do some sightseeing.

A short metro right away was the Greek parliament building which had a few sights nearby and from there we set off to the Panathenaic Stadium. On the way we happened to walk past the Temple of Zeus completely by chance so decided to explore and found out all of the sights in Athens were free for students. Cue some pretty swift talking so I could use my expired student card.

It was around lunchtime when we'd looked round that and the stadium, which was pretty simple but still interesting considering it had been there for around 2000 years and hosted the first modern Olympic Games.

After we left we found out we had finally found somewhere to stay. We then walked down to the Akropoli area to get some lunch, which was absolutely incredible. We had Gyros and Souvlaki and both came with pitta bread and loads of tzatziki. Spot on.

We then decided to go to where we were staying, which was more complicated than it seemed.

We first had to go and pick our bags up from the main station, then catch a metro and then get a cab to the right street as we had no clue where to go. As it turned out, neither did our cab driver 15 minutes and a phone call to our host later. We eventually made it to the place Rach had booked on Airbnb and it was really nice, although considering it was 5 in the evening and we had yet to go to bed for 2 days we slept and it was glorious.

Day 21

We got up fairly late after missing the rest of the group who were staying with us going to the Acropolis. When we eventually made it out we decided it'd be a laugh to walk up Lycabettus Hill. It was not.

In 38 degree heat we somehow managed to scale this absolute beast after much panting and whinging about feet hurting. 1 guess from which one of us.

It was so worth it when we got to the top though. We had panoramic views of the whole of Athens and the surrounding area all the way to the hills and down to the port at Piraeus. To help take it all in we sat down with a well deserved pint and realised wr could have caught a funicular train up instead of walking. b******s.

We managed to walk back down and over to the Acroplis to see one of the tourist sightseeing train rides about to depart and for 3 euros each, could we afford to miss out? As it turned out, probably yes but for the time being it was all aboard the Athens Sunshine express. If nothing else, we got to familiarise ourselves with the area.

We had a bit of a walk roubd after and Rach managed to mortally offend a shopowner by trying pretty much every single dress on but not buying a single one. I thought it was time to beat a hasty retreat when this woman started muttering Greek profanities under her breath so we went to find somewhere to eat.

After a bit of a walk we foubd a place with views of the Parthenon and Acropolis which was pretty cheap. What we didn't bank on though was tourist after tourist taking pictures with flash photography. I swear I was pretty much blind after we'd paid and left again

When we eventually got back to where we were staying our host, Eva, greeted us and brought us some biscuits her mother had baked in the day and cake. Boss.

Day 22

Today we got up really late and had planned to do so much.

After 3 weeks of solid travelling we were knackered and after a lazy breakfast decided chill for the day, we needed it.

So there we are, sitting in the yard of where we're staying having a drink and a chat when a baby pipes up screaming the street down. At which point I voice my disapproval and apparently parents aren't keen on people doing that. Next thing we know we hear a splat next to where we're sat and as it turns out, someone had not taken kindly to my constructive criticism and thrown their baby's poo from the balcony at me, narrowly missing.

In the evening Eva arranged for us all to go to an open-air cinema which was cool but a bit odd knowing we were outside. The film also left a fair bit to be desired but we were allowed to bring our own beer in, so obviously Rach and I stocked up with bottles of beer and a bottle of Greek red wine which was kept in what looked like a plastic olive oil bottle. Olive oil would have probably tasted nicer too.

Eva took us down to a bar near the house after the cinema which was nice and 3 or 4 of us had a few drinks before heading back around 2am.

Day 23

This was easily the low point of the trip.

Both Rach and I were sick as parrots and although we'd planned to go and see the Acropolis, we weren't really capable of it.

Toward lunchtime I felt a bit brave and went out for a but of food and to find a pharmacy to help Rach feel better. Bad idea.

The food I ate ended up coming back up and I felt even worse than before.

We both began to feel a bit better by the evening and got a salad to eat in the centre of Athens.

Day 24

Today we had another massive trip ahead of us.

We caught a cab to the station and got a train from Athens to Kiato for midday. After an hour we had to get off the train and change to a bus to get us to Patras. I latervfoubd out that this is because the Greek government got as far as Kiato building the trainlibe and ran out of money so couldn't go any further.

The bus took 2 and a half hours to get to Patras and en-route it became really obvious that a lot of Greece is pretty deserted and half finished, presumably because they were too skint.

We got dropped off in the middle of Patras 2km away from the port and had to share a taxi with a pretty strange German couple.

We eventually got to the oort and booked ourselves onto the ferry to Bari which left at 6pm.

Once we eventually boarded, there was a bit of confusion as to where we were actually allowed to sit with our cheapskate interrail ferry tickets. As such we found a couple of seats in a bar area and decided to stay very quiet for fear of being kicked out.

Instead if what we should have done, scramble to find the nearest sofa seats and defend them like a territorial animal like our lives depended on it, because it was a 16 hour journey.

As we set off we had a bit of a walk around and got some food but as the evening drew in we spotted a room full of reclining seats which was pretty empty and decided to snaffle some seats while they were there. Again, bad idea.

We were both shaken awake at 1am by a decidedly greasy and seedy looking Greek steward and told to get out because we hadn't paid for them. b******s.

We had to scrabble about to find seats to sleep on in the bar. It was almost as if the ferry company had deliberately chosen those particular seats as they were so difficult to sleep in comfortably, just to punish people who didn't fork out a bit extra. Worst night's sleep ever.