Hot, hot...
Tuesday 19th of June
It’s astonishing! Athens in real life looks just like it does in the books! It’s hard to believe it’s real!
The first job after breakfast was to get ourselves a new room. We inadvertently ended up in a smoking room and it STANK! It’s easy to forget that the rest of the world doesn’t have stringent smoking laws like New Zealand does. There’s no view of speak of in this room, but it’s quieter, has a jug and best of all, smells…. clean.
We have spent today meandering around the touristy parts of Athens- mainly around Plaka (the old city) and Monastiraki (the flea market). The stall owners in Monastiraki are ‘insistent’ at best… you have to have an iron-strong will to resist the elderly lady who pretends to shake hands and then hauls you into her shop“…but for you, just…”
It’s hot. Have I mentioned that already? It’s certainly over 30 degrees, but it’s not unbearably hot and we have not found ourselves feeling overwhelmed by the heat. Most of the shops, even the smaller ones, are air-conditioned and you don’t have to work too hard to get out of the heat.
We have been constantly astonished by the fact that there are ancient ruins everywhere you go. We even stumbled across the odd archaeological dig. Being in Athens certainly gives you a real perspective on ‘history’.
Marty is getting a bit nervous about his talk tomorrow- he has just spent an hour going through it and making sure that he knows it properly. It is, after all, the point of the trip. In preparation for his talk, Marty asked the man at the front counter for an iron to iron his shirts and he looked at him as if he was completely barking. Of course you can’t iron your own shirts! Of course we will do it for you! Of course we will charge you the price of a moderate meal to do it!
It’s astonishing! Athens in real life looks just like it does in the books! It’s hard to believe it’s real!
The first job after breakfast was to get ourselves a new room. We inadvertently ended up in a smoking room and it STANK! It’s easy to forget that the rest of the world doesn’t have stringent smoking laws like New Zealand does. There’s no view of speak of in this room, but it’s quieter, has a jug and best of all, smells…. clean.
We have spent today meandering around the touristy parts of Athens- mainly around Plaka (the old city) and Monastiraki (the flea market). The stall owners in Monastiraki are ‘insistent’ at best… you have to have an iron-strong will to resist the elderly lady who pretends to shake hands and then hauls you into her shop“…but for you, just…”
It’s hot. Have I mentioned that already? It’s certainly over 30 degrees, but it’s not unbearably hot and we have not found ourselves feeling overwhelmed by the heat. Most of the shops, even the smaller ones, are air-conditioned and you don’t have to work too hard to get out of the heat.
We have been constantly astonished by the fact that there are ancient ruins everywhere you go. We even stumbled across the odd archaeological dig. Being in Athens certainly gives you a real perspective on ‘history’.
Marty is getting a bit nervous about his talk tomorrow- he has just spent an hour going through it and making sure that he knows it properly. It is, after all, the point of the trip. In preparation for his talk, Marty asked the man at the front counter for an iron to iron his shirts and he looked at him as if he was completely barking. Of course you can’t iron your own shirts! Of course we will do it for you! Of course we will charge you the price of a moderate meal to do it!
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