It was with some effort, that we (now Phil, Louise and I) packed our bags and boarded a bus from Nafplio to Athens. Partly because we had such a fantastic and relaxing time in Nafplio, no one wanted to leave. Partly because we knew Athens was going to be scorching hot. And not least, partly because we had a bus-booking fail.
Ahhhh... Nafplio.
Despite staying a mere 4 minutes walk from the bus stop and ticket office, we left it until midday to book the 12.30pm bus - "sorry, full". Whoops!!
Fortunately the 2pm bus had seats, and our next airbnb host was relaxed, so it was no drama. But it gives a sense of just how relaxed (*borderline comatose) we had become in Nafplio.
It was a slightly overbooked and under-air conditioned 2.5 hour bus ride, followed by a metro trip to get to our Athens apartment, so we were pretty thrilled to have a lovely place with three air conditioners and a welcome bottle of wine - woo hoo!!
We spent our first night walking to Athens ancient centre, Plaka for dinner. It was packed but atmospheric and gave us our first glimpse of the Acropolis.
Plaka! No Acropolis in this shot...
Since then, we've checked out the Byzantine museum and Acropolis museum - both very impressive and an absolute bargain at €4 and €5 respectively. They had oil lamps at the Acropolis museum that were from 2000BC. As in 4000 years old!! That completely blows my mind...
Ruins - cos it's Athens. This is the temple of the Olympian Zeus!!
Sleepy Athenian kitty
Is Greek, is delicious
We have eaten well in Greece and Athens is proving no exception.
We followed our airbnb host's advice last night and tried a local restaurant for dinner. It was completely abandoned when we arrived at 9.30pm and we weren't sure if we were early/ late/ in the right place??
Turned out we were possibly early - two more tables filled up around 9.45pm - and definitely in the right place. It was the best Greek food I've tried (and that is saying a bit - we've eaten well here)!!
Two salads and anchovies
Mushrooms and yoghurt pie... Plus there was a squid dish - on the house - and drinks for... €33. Not each.
Phil declared it the meal of the trip. Louise forgot to drink her wine. It was that good!!
From the sublime to the ridiculous
As I've mentioned in previous posts, we've spent a lot of time walking around. And as the weather has warmed up, I've noticed some bits and pieces of... a tan!!
This is exciting for me because I'm not a great tanner. I burn super fast and tan very erratically. But because of constant exposure, my usually lily white legs even have a bit of colour.
However, I've still managed to pick up some quite ridiculous tan lines over the past months.
Behold:
Foot tan is thanks to my campers... This is going to be with me for a while!
And more recently, a day riding the Nafplio open top bus wearing this:
Nafplio hop on hop off bus was totally worth the effort, taking us to the top of the Palimidi fortress which is where I took the first photo of this post
Resulted in this:
In addition to looking really strange, it also stings...
And next??
After two glorious weeks, Louise jets off tomorrow leaving Phil and I on our own in Athens for a few days. We've had a wonderful time with both Louise and Lex in Greece and will miss them heaps!!
Tomorrow, we're moving to another (smaller) airbnb apartment which comes with... two cats. I can't wait!!
And on Sunday, we're taking our first flight since the beginning to Istanbul to meet my mum for a week!! Having never been to Turkey, I am pumped. Plus, we're celebrating her birthday, so I foresee some shopping too!!
Til next time...
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