Athens & Olympia - 16 June to 19 June 2009

Athens
Junkies, Sweat Boxes, Squirrels as Pets

Well! What an arrival. We arrived at 11:00 at night after a 4 hour ferry from Ios to Athens, then trecked 20 minutes with our backpacks on to the train terminal, then 20 mins on a train to the suburb that our Hostel was in, then a 15 walk at 11:30 in 25-30 degree humidity to our hostel. By the time we got there we were knackered and our room was a 4 bed dorm, shared with 2 other people (obviosuly). They were asleep and were very aggitated by us knocking on the door to gain entry. The room was a sauna, so we payed the extra 4 euros to get some air conditioning, to the benefit of the other 2 backpackers (who later complained it was to cold).

After we arrived we were hungry and needed some water, so we got directed to take a left, then a right then walk straight and we would find some shops. By this time it was 12 at night, and we were hoping for places to be open, little did we know we were walking into Omonia, the most fucked up place in town. Within 30 seconds of walking down the street we saw 2 dudes drop a bag of gear and flip out looking for it, next we saw a hell cracked out bitch on a bench at a bus stop, then we saw heaps of black dudes selling drugs at the entrance to the subway. By this stage we were a little like "what the fuck" and scurried into a food chain, and bought a couple of pieces of pizza and 2 bottles of water and bailed. On the way back we saw a dude shooting up out of a baggy on a shop step and more junkies. Weird thing was, 20 metres away from the junky action was a 5 strar hotel!!!! How can a hotel gain a 5 star rating being in a drug fucked area? Surely if your customers cant leave the hotel that isnt 5 star?!?!?!??!

Anyways, i think we just got the bad end of the stick that night, because the next day we got up bright and early and planned to conquer Athens in a day. We spent he day trecking around seeing the sights and experiencing all that Athens had to give us. THANK FUCK, it all wasnt like Omonia!!! ... BUT! The whole city was Graffitied, not even good graffiti, just shit stuff like tags on everything that stood. But, amongst all the shit, there was some good. (see image)

Turns out every news stand in Athens contains some form of porn, even a gossip mag with Kylie Minogue on the cover comes with 2 free pron DVD's!!! ... I then.. becam a greek porn consumer... the magazine was terrible.. but the DVD's were wild! hahah

We went and saw the Acropolis and all the sights around it, trecked over to the 1800+ olympic stadium and went and cehcked out all the shopping in down town Athens... (or where we were in Athens at least) .. Suzies resisted all the temptations of all the retail stores, but there wasnt much temptation for myself...!!

Our hostel was ok, but wasnt the greatest, so we decided 2 nights and 1 day was enough and sorted out trains n shit to Olympia and spent the whole of the next day travelling to Olympia in the Pelaponnese.

PS: You can buy squirrels as pets in Athens!!!!!!

Olympia
The sight of the first Olympics

Lonely Planet told us it was a 2 1/2 hour train journey..... it was 5 1/2 hours and then a 5 hour wait for a bus from Pyrgos to Olympia hahaha.... damn!!!

Olympia was such an awsome place compared to Athens, its so layed back, such a small relaxed town! Such a breath of fresh air!!

We instantly liked the place and even tho we got in at around 11:30 at night, found a nice hotel for a good price with free wifi and breakfast and settled in for the next 2 days.

We explored the ancient ruins of Olympia, the birth place of the Olympic games and also chcked out the Olympic museum. Then after that, just spent our time relaxing around town drinking beers under the tree's and enjoying the quietness of it all!

.... yes i get sucked in, i bought a porno, the peer pressure of the news system made me do it... i swear... how sexy is it tho, hell racks n stuff... wait a second... is that chocolate on her lips... THAT ISNT CHOCOLATE!!!!

If you want to see the whole photo album, click through to the; Athens & Olympia Photo Album

Next stop, Bari, Italy!