As soon as I got off the ferry I was hit with chaos. Thousands of people, in the port, in the streets, spilling out of coffeeshops, flowing through the metro station. I queued up for a ticket and people are bustling, pacing, impatient. I bought a 2-trip ticket because I couldn't see 1-trip right away and the press of the line behind me was too much to linger. I took the metro and the rattle of every day life was like a slap in the face. Back to reality. I walked out of the metro along a road and the stench filled my head. The traffic roared, the city was screaming at me. I hate cities. I was after 10pm, I had no food in. I walked 15 minutes to a vegan cafe, ate spanakopita and hot chocolate, late night on a Sunday. I was welcomed by smiling, warm staff. I walked past bars, alive, filled with happy people and art and hipster decoration. The streets were lit, I felt safe. I was too tired to get groceries, but I could've. I love cities. Already I feel like the last two months of island life were just a dream. I miss the sea.
Current status: Willow Smith is the most beautiful human being in the world and nothing else matters.
Bought dinner and breakfast on this ferry. Living the INDULGENT life. (by which I mean, I didn't bring enough food and paid a lot of money for some slightly aged fruit this morning.. but still, the coffee is good)
how many greek people does it take to restart a router In this particular story: 4. One to lock us out of the house with the router in, one with a key to the house but no English, or transport to get to the house, one to call and speak Greek the one with the key for me, and another to drive the one with the key to the house.
Greek people who work in customer service roles are invariably genuinely pleasant and helpful. I'm observing this in Greece far more than in any other country I've spent time in, I think.
A couple of days of trying to acclimatise to city life again. Some sun, some rain. Then Jane came, and we ate loads, including lukamades (fried dough balls).
Amy added 41 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201902-athens/
Jane and I walked through the National Gardens to the Museum of Cycladic Art. Lunch at Veganbeat, and then a walk through the main market, where we bought far too many olives. In the evening we climbed Filippou Hill and watched the sunset over this sprawling city. We had a picnic of olives, tomatoes and fake feta. Later we went to pick Felicity up from the airport. Everything was delayed. The day/early hours of the morning concluded with hot chocolate and vegan marshmallows.
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Jane, Felicity and I woke up late, and went to see the Temple of Olympian Zeus (Olympieion). There weren't many people around, which was nice. We had lunch at Peas, then spent the rest of the day in the Acropolis Museum. There were a lot of things to read and old stuff to look at. It's easy to spend hours. There's also a small reading room with childrens books about Greek Myths. I learnt a lot. We went home and ordered a variety of vegan junk from Pizza Bite and waiting two hours for it to arrive having received no confirmation from the website (which was all in Greek) was in no way stressful.
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The temperature dropped and drizzly clouds descended; Scottish weather had caught up with Jane and Felicity. We went to the Acropolis. There's lots to see, even though the North Slope was mysteriously closed. Having been to the museum the day before made it more interesting. Then we walked around Exarchia, and had lunch at Mama Tierra. We relaxed in Anglais bar, overlooking Monastiriki Square and the Acropolis for a while, before wandering home via the nighttime views of the Acropolis.
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We visited most of the rest of the archaeological sites that are included in the combined ticket. Including the Ancient Agora (and museum), the Roman Agora, Hadrian's Library, and Aristotle's Lyceum. We spontaneously dropped into the War Museum, which was a little incoherent and found slightly too much glory in Greece's participation in various wars. And we perfected our interpretation of the Athena-is-sick-of-this-shit stance. We ate lunch at Veganbeat and dinner at Veganaki.
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After lunch at Healthy Bites, I dropped Jane and Felicity at the airport bus. Then I wandered around in the sun (returned, since J & F were leaving) in the Kerameikos ancient cemetery, and saw some tortoises. It was a nice peaceful place to lurk.
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Climbed the magnificent Lycabetos Hill to see Athens sprawling in every direction. It was a gorgeous day, and I saw interesting wildlife. Then to Exarcheia for lunch.
Took the tram to Glyfada and wandered along the beach. Lunch at Avit. Stopped by the Radix hacklab in the evening.
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Moved into a nice hostel, and pizzapizzapizza.
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Met the Syros Hiking Team today and went for a walk and a clamber in the north of the island. The distance covered was short but the elevation was pretty varied. Some vertical rock scrambling up and down to cross the valley. We stopped at the Kastri, a 4,500 year old set of ruins; walls from a bronze age settlement, an ancient castle, and tombs. There are artifacts from this area in museums all around the world. GPS trace on Runkeeper. Then we had lunch in a tavern by the marina. On the way home I stopped by the ruined building at the bottom of the hill in Lazareta; it has been a prison, a quarantine for people with contagious diseases, and an orphanage. Now it's falling apart and overgrown, except a tiny bit of it is a church.
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It was a hot sunny day and the wifi went out, so I went for a wander around a bit of Ermoupoli I hadn't been to before, around the coast to the north. Also stopped off at the Archaeological Museum, which was very tiny and took under 10 minutes to read everything, but only costs €1 and there was nobody else there.
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I squeezed in a final hike with the Syros Hiking Group. We went to Ano Meria, the north of Syros, and hiked from Kampos to the western coast. We visited Marmari beach and Amerikanou beach. The latter is the only beach on the island with trees, planted by an American visitor in the 70s. He also built a couple of houses up there; it's pretty remote. We ate lunch in Black Sheep, by the Ermoupoli port. Vegan souvlaki! Mushrooms and grilled vegetables on skewers, and fresh homemade fries. Pretty solid end to my month on Syros.
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Packed, cleaned, and vacated my fancy flat in Lazareta. I caught the ferry from Ermoupoli port, and it was about 4 hours to Athens Pireaus. After checking into my new place in Koukaki, I went out again for some late night spanakopita and a great hot chocolate at Veganaki.
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Took the bus from Athens to Patras, walked an hour to the ferry terminal, then the ferry from Patras... (stay tuned for arrival. Underslept and underfed and kind of sad to leave Greece but also.. wow it's been almost 3 months.
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The night ferry from Patras to Bari was really nice. It was very empty. I had deck passage only, but an entire segment of seats to myself. There were plenty of places to sleep. Not only that, but there was free wifi and power outlets all over. Probably the most well-resourced ferry journey I've been on thus far. I ate at the ferry canteen, which was mediocre, but there were a bare minimum vegan things. Vegetables and chips and salad. The staff were very friendly, because they were Greek of course. Naturally it all went downhill upon arrival in Italy :) The handful of foot passengers had to pass our bags through security, and the Italian border guards squinted at my passport for ages. Eventually they asked "tourism?" and I said si and they let me go, but they held onto it and discussed it for way longer than they should've. I had a day and a night in Bari. When I arrived it was raining; I chilled out in a vegan restaurant for most of the day, then went to my hostel in which I was literally the only guest. Good night's sleep. The next day was sunny; I got up early to walk around the water front and old town, grabbed more food from the vegan restaurant, and caught a Flixbus across the width of Italy to Rome. I anticipated the most traumatising part of the journey to be changing from Rome Tiburtina bus station to Rome Termini train station, and built in a lot of buffer for the ostensibly 15 minute metro ride. It was fine, actually, not too busy and though the ticket I just bought failed to let me through a barrier the station staff sullenly opened it for me without question. I bought an onward train ticket to Civitavecchia from Rome, then almost missed it because the station is fucking huge and the platform was as far away from me as it could possibly have been. The train was pretty busy. I arrived at sunset, and the sky over Civitavecchia was gloriously on fire. The one vegan restaurant in Civitavecchia I planned to stop by was inexplicably closed (no surprise really, this is a hallmark of my experiences in Italy) so I skipped dinner and went straight to the port. Civitavecchia is confusing to navigate as there's a big ol' wall in between the old town and sea front, and all the stairs and arches that let you cut through it were locked up when I got there. So I used up all my buffer time, then discovered access to the port is not possible for pedestrians anyway; but there's a free shuttle bus. I went through another security line, behind a coachload of kids, and eventually boarded the ferry. This trip was over 20 hours, so I'd splashed out and booked a shared 4-bed cabin. I was the only one in it, which I kind of expected. Though I would have been able to find a place to sleep with deck passage, the ferry was pretty busy with loud Italians, so I'm glad I didn't. I spent the journey reading the Rebooting Web of Trust topic papers and eating mediocre very overpriced ferry canteen food, and sometimes sitting out in the sun on deck. I arrived in Barcelona a couple of hours early.
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Hearing the ferry horns and knowing the time #islandlife
Hiked to Kini / Delphini / Varvaroussa. Did work on BODS docs and VC spec. Listened to a lot of Jaden and Willow Smith. Read, snoozed. Hiked around Kastri in the north of Syros.
Went for a wander around the north of Ermoupoli. Did some work.. but had pretty much a straight week of headaches. Finished Colony. Packed and cleaned. Hiked in Ano Meria. Caught a ferry to Athens.
Settled in in Koukaki, then Jane came. Visited the Museum of Cycladic Art, and climbed Filippou Hill. Felicity came. Saw the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Acropolis Museum. Went to the Acropolis, and Exarcheia. Visited Ancient Agora (and museum), the Roman Agora, Hadrian's Library, Aristotle's Lyceum, and the War Museum. Ate loads. Obviously.
Jane and Felicity left. Went to Kerimeikos ancient cemetery. Walked up Lycabetos Hill. Got back to work on BODS internationalisation stuff. Wandered along the beach in Glyfada. Met cool people from the internet in Athens. Ate pizza. Went to a party in the hackerspace/squat. It was chill. Took a bus to Patras, and a ferry awaaayy..