'Athens; The hustle and bustle of modern Greece'

We arrived in Athens late at night after a 8 hour ferry ride. The ferry ride isn't bad it's just the constant smoking which you cannot get away from even outside on deck. We managed to use the metro (underground) with some help from other tourists heading to the same backpackers and booked into our wee Aussie hostel. After a wander around and a glimpse at the Acropolis we headed home for some much needed sleep.

Day two Today we headed straight for the main attraction! The Acropolis! How exciting. It 's impressively huge. There aren't any informative signs up about the monument just crazy signs telling us that they're restoring it, aren't we great. We had left our guide book in our bag as we assumed it would be all sign posted, so for the first 40mins we walked around without a clue of what we were actually marvelling at and guessing from what we had read and learnt over the years, as well as trying to listen to the American tour. We finally found a wee shop with guide books and purchased one. This filled us in , in depth! The museum artefacts are amazing, there are a lot of holes in their collection as they are in the British Museum. It seems rather cheeky! We lost our ticket to get back in which we needed because we had been for a wander around the perimeter, the ticket also lets you into all the other ancient sites in Athens.

We managed to convince them that there was no other way for us to get to the perimeter without having already been in the main part and I offered to show them the photo's and footage we had just taken but they lets us in to collect our bags and we left.

We decided to do the Lonely Planet walking tour which was really cool. It took us to all to of the other main attractions and some of the lesser known places like the Ananfictika Quarter, which is a settlement that hugs the back of the Acropolis and is where all the workers were housed. The houses are colourful and the lanes tiny and crowded with over grown plants. it was lovely.

We managed to see the changing of the guards which was interesting. Those poor men must get really hot! They must wear pom pom hats and shoes, with miniskirts and white tights. They kick and stamp and swing their legs when they are about to change and after all of it another man in a modern military uniform comes and adjusts their costume so that it is perfect for their hour of standing stock still. It was hard to be respectful, to be absolutely honest it was very amusing. I understand people feeling that way about Maori culture but at least theirs is scary and sends shivers down the spine!We saw Hadrian's Arch, and library, as well as Zeus' massive monument which is falling down! It was really an area of massive pillars. We had to take pictures from behind the bars because we'd lost our tickets! The markets were pretty average to be honest, too many strange people follow you about with stolen perfume and they just don't take F'off for an answer!WE had a look at Tom's garden an Irish Hippy who has set up on prime Athens real estate a shelter with political slogans. We didn't see Tom but managed to be amused anyway!

 Athens was an experience, and once your familiar with it it's great but it's nothing like the amazing islands!