Ferry to Turkey

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We were very excited about the next phase of our summer as we began the journey to Turkey. Another early morning to catch a ferry from Athens to the Greek island of Chios. The ferry trip was 9 hours of heat, cigarette smoke, dogs barking and board games! It was certainly not the lovely, entertaining and enjoyable type of ferry we experienced last summer on our Baltic's tour. 

On our arrival at Chios, we found the next ferry terminal that would take us to Cesme Turkey. First we en-counted a small problem with our passports because the border security did not stamp our passports when we arrived in Greece.  Thankfully we looked honest and they let us through as our entry point being Macedonia. 

They let us board the little, old ferry that only took 10 cars to Turkey. We were all laughing hoping that we would make it alive. It was only a 50 minute trip to Turkey and we meet another family who were moving to Turkey from Sweden. They had a problem that all of their documents and money had been stolen, we also had a problem because our car isn't officially in our name so we all bonded very quickly knowing it might be interesting once we reached Cesme. 

As predicted everyone else went through the Turkish customs relatively quickly. As for us and them we needed lots of patients, stamps, checks and waiting. Eventually after 2 hours of paper work, our car was let in to Turkey. The other family were still waiting when we left. 

But we did get to see a lovely sunset from the port and arrived at our pension only a couple of hours late, around 10pm. A very long boring day, but we were all excited to be in Turkey! 

Athens Museums and Changing of the Guards

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Visiting Athens wouldn't be complete without visiting the Athens Museums. We knew it was going to be hot, so we started early!

Arriving at the Acropolis at 8.30am before it was scorching hot and the crowds not so big was a great plan. The site is extensive and was the main sacred and religious site in Ancient Athens. It was occupied since the Neolithic period, but had the height of its power in the 5th century. We spent several hours wondering around the various buildings, northern and southern slopes of the Acropolis and the Oden of Herodes.

By mid morning we were ready to tackle Hadrians Library and Ancient Agora. We literally took 100's of photos of the different statues, buildings and columns. Everywhere we looked there was something else to explore.

After a stop for lunch we headed to the Temple of Zeus, followed by a visit to the ancient pottery and cemetery city of Kerameikos.

It was heading towards the late afternoon, everyone was exhausted but we didn't want to come back into the city again. So after refueling with an ice cream we began to make our way to the parliament building for the changing of the guards. Our walk was very eye opening, we followed the gps through some not so tourist areas and saw shops filled to the roof with junk. These shop keepers sold their items on the sidewalks. There were also many homeless people.

Changing of the guards in Athens is pretty funny. The soldiers uniform has funny pom poms on their feet and they actually do this hilarious little march, step, point their toes routine. We decided it was to stop the enemy from attacking because they looked so silly.

We finished our day at 5.30pm. If you can imagine that at 8.30am it was already 36 degrees and quickly rose to 42 degrees. So after 9 hours of heat and walking we were all ready to go home, have a cold shower, eat dinner and go to bed!

Athens is a truly amazing place!

     

Rafina Beach, Alimo Beach and Lykavittos Hill - Aegean Sea

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Because the weather was so hot and the city so crowded we decided to spend a couple of days exploring some different beaches and little coastal areas. 

We drove to Marathon where the battle of Marathon took place and enjoyed spending time there and at Rafina Beach. 

The next day we went to the other side of Athens, a more popular and busy place and enjoyed swimming and playing at Alimo Beach.

 On the way to Alimo we stopped at Lykavitto Hill, a big hill in the center of Athens with a small white chapel at the top. The 360° view showed us how huge Athens is. It was a beautiful day and you can literally see all the way to the ocean from every angle. 

Athens, Greece

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We knew Athens was big, but we didn't realise how big! The population is slightly over 3 million and is a sprawling city of narrow streets and back to back buildings. Thankfully the main historic sights are all located in the Old Athens area and our home exchange was a short bus ride and metro trip not far from everything we wanted to see. 

We began our visit with a walking tour. Our guide was very knowledgeable and we enjoyed learning about Ancient Greece, visiting many historical sites and listening to the many legends of the Greek Gods. The Olympic stadium  above is made completely of marble. The weather continued to be stifling hot and we drank almost 10 liters of water between all of us! 

One of the things most noticeable is the change in culture. People are so friendly, the store vendors and people in the street love chatting and playing with Corban and Leo. When we walked through the markets the butchers would steal Leo's hat and play with him in a cheeky way.  There were plenty of Albania's who kept trying to talk to Corban because she was wearing an Albanian hat. When we explained that we were on holiday, they were so happy that we had visited Albania and wanted to hug her.