Welcome to Athens home of the Olympics still...

The Odeon Theatre restored beautifully
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Our train from Turkey was considerable bliss compared to the train journey's we've experienced so far. The border guards smiled at us and all seemed reasonably efficient. Thats until we arrived three hours late into Greece's second city of Thessaloniki. Expecting a nice leisurely turnaround to Athens we instead had 10 minutes to purchase tickets and get to the platform before it departed. Given our lack of Greek linguistics or time we ended up with first class train tickets at a premium but all was well when we were served coffee and cakes like kings and queens.

My contempt at the populace
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The journey south was beautiful. The train seemed to be at perpetual altitude the whole time giving expansive views of the surrounding landscape, some of which has been blackened through the recent wildfires. It was only when we arrived in Athens that the scenery turned dour into that of a white concrete portait. We had been lucky enough to stay with friends from England for our time in Athens so we joined Nick and Sam and their children in their home for the next two nights.

Treasuring a nights sleep in a bed and having received home-cooked meals, Emma and I were battling to leave the confines of suburban Athens to go sightseeing. We did and on the tram we were privy to experience some of the Greek way of life that Nick and Sam warned us of. Although the Olympics are four years past you'd swear they're still going. Signs are still up, directions for athletes and spectators are still there and merchandise is still for sale at full price. Apparently the Greeks are so lazy that the airport which was disbanded 5 years ago is still being left derelict with no future plans for using the prime real estate for anything else.

Parthenon and scaffolds
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The tram whilst comfortable did stop every 50 metres and took forever. We arrived in Central Athens to begin some more trapesing around histroical ruins. Something we do in our dreams now. There was to be no messing around as we targetted the Acropolis early. We soldiered up the crag it sits on only to be greeted by a wave of people. Judging from the voices and the wide butts they could only be Americans and more importantly cruise shippers. We took the steps at snails pace itching to get our first glimpse of the Parthenon, perhaps the most famous tourist attraction in the world. We jostled and survived the slippery marble steps only for our first glimpse to be of a 50 foot crane sitting inside of the ancient ruin. It was only getting worse as all four sides of the Parthenon were racked in scaffolding. It seems the Greeks embarked on a restoration program 20 years ago and only upon completion, funnily enough at Olympics time did they realise they screwed it up. Now the job of re-restoration is beginning.

The changing of the guards
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The rest of our day only got better thank god. A nice stroll through the Plaka (Old Town) was met with some nice food, some gentile souvenir window shopping and a front row seat at the changing of the guards. Now we've seen some changing of the guard routines before so we weren't overly excited. However as the Greek soldiered started walking ala John Cleese in Monty Python we knew this could have us in fits of laughter. Ten minutes of gestapo marching, horse-hoof clomping and extreme sweating from concentration made it worthwhile. We finished of our Athens tour with a visit to the original Olympic stadium back in ancient times.

The ancient Olympic stadium
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Back at Nicks we were again treated to some wonderful food and plied with more drink than we could handle. On the back of this hospitality we have booked in for two more nights after we leave Santorini.