The day ice-cream on a cone didn't brighten my day
After breakfast, we called up a few hotels and were surprised that they were all booked during this time which was supposed to be low season. We managed to find one at Pan Hotel which was much nearer to Syntagma Square and pretty decent too. I'm amused by the dog sleeping at the hotel entrance.
Took the metro to Omonia Station and transferred to public bus 051 which took us to Bus Station A where we bought tickets for a 2.5 hr coach ride to the pretty Venetian town of Nafplio.
Blue skies and mountain view from coach bus windows.
I copped out on tackling the 999 steps up the Palamidi Fortress and wandered alone along the streets of Nafplio instead taking rather uninteresting pictures along the way. Nafplio wasn't turning out to be the beautiful romantic old town the guidebooks were proclaiming.
Lunch after walking around town where the only pretty thing that really struck us were the gloriously red bougainvillas aplenty on almost every facade. Some even formed an arch overhead the cobbled streets.
Cute little black cat sitting by our table during lunch.
Was looking forward to the italian gelato by the waterfront that the internet travel forums raved about but it didn't save poor little Nafplio from being a disappointing day trip out of Athens. Other than this however the rest of our trip was great! In retrospect, we could possibly have done a 3D2N trip to Delphi-Meteora to see the magnificent monastries instead.
We changed our tickets to an earlier bus out of Nafplio instead of taking the last bus out at 8pm and headed back to Athens where we had to spend another night cos Nafplio and Delphi were 3 hrs away from Athens in opposite directions!
Day 04 - Tues 13 May 08 - Delphi
The lazy cafe day where we ate, lounged, ate, lounged, and ate some more...
Cabbed with all our backpacks to KTEL Bus Station where we took a 3 hr coach ride to Delphi via Arahova. Checked in at Hotel Sybilla which was down the street from the Delphi Bus Station. We were told that the Archaelogical Sites and the Museum close at 3pm and it was already 1.30pm. We deferred lunch and bought a combined 2-day admission ticket for both the Sites and Museum for 9 euros and decided one hour was about right to visit the Museum so we would have more time at the Archaelogical Sites the next day.
The Archaelogy Museum, which needed less than an hour to complete.
Trekked back slowly to where the cafes and hotels were and took in some of the beautiful scenery along the way. Its not like you get to be surrounded by layers and layers of beautiful steep mountains on an ordinary day.
Lunch at a relatively empty restaurant but our food took ages to arrive. We watched in hungry anticipation as our plus-sized waiter crossed the street countless times to the kitchen but always emerged empty-handed. Greek salad, Moussaka and Chicken Souvlaki above formed part of our staple menu in Greece.
Lounged at this cafe over ice-cream and coffee for the rest of the entire afternoon until the sky turned dark and we suddenly realised we'd spent the afternoon hopping from lunch to coffee to dinner, without much activity in between. But it was rather nice spending the day just relaxing and hanging out and enjoying the splendid view while catching up on the past and discussing the future with good friends.
Day o5 - Wed 14 May 08 - Delphi
The only day in Greece where it rained
Headed back to Hotel Sybilla to take shelter from the drizzle which turned into rain as we were having breakfast across the street from our hotel.
Half an hour later the rain stopped and we headed out in slight drizzle to visit the Archaelogical Sites in Delphi. I enjoyed the hearty morning trek up to the highest point where the stadium was and even perspired a little from the climb in the cool after-showers weather. Like the guidebooks say, there is a meditative atmosphere surrounding the peaceful windswept ancient Delphi.
We followed the Sacred Way and arrived at the Temple of Apollo the centrepiece of the Delphic Oracle site.
The Theatre was built further up the hill from the Temple of Apollo, giving spectators a view of the entire sanctuary and the valley below. It was originally built in the 4th century BC and its 35 rows could seat 5000 spectators.
The Stadium was located even further up the hill, and was originally built in 5th century BC and could seat 6500 spectators.
Treasury of the Athenians, built to commemorate their victory at the Battle of Marathon.
We passed the ancient gymnasium on the way down to Tholos which was a round building used for an unknown purpose. It consisted of 20 Doric columns, of which only 3 remained.
Had yummy pizza at Cafe Astra while waiting for the 1.30pm bus out of Delphi back to Athens, which would put us back in Athens by 5pm and we were hoping to take the last ferry from Piraeus to Mykonos.
Alas there were no more ferries going to Mykonos when we arrived at Piraeus so we bought the earliest ferry tickets for the next day. We comtemplated finding accommodation in Piraeus but Lonely Planet said don't even think about it cos this area was pretty dodgy so we took the metro back to somewhere nearer town.
Eventually we settled for Athens Backpackers' Hostel in Omonia, which was two stops from Syntagma. It cost us only 14 euros per person per night but check out my view above from the lower deck of my bunk bed. Nice drawing of the Acropolis but never again. Even though i've always been the backpack kind to stinge on hotel cos really all you need is just a bed to sleep in. The mattress stains suddenly grossed me out a bit and the room kinda smelt funny. I think it's about time i treated myself better haha.
Thanks to Rayvees' craving for grilled meat at this quaint little sidewalk joint we saw on our way down from Lykavittos Hill the other day, we took one metro stop to Evangelismos and waited nearly half an hour for a table cos this couple were hogging a 4 seater table long after they'd finished their drinks and were smoking away. But it's nice that in Europe they don't hurry customers. You can tell by the number of pictures i really love this quaint dinner place. Plus the guys running the place were quite yummy too! :)
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