Travelling Back in Time

  

First to pick up on the cliffhanger of yesterday.  Alarm went off at 5.15, we walked down the beach at 6.00 and a little red ball began to emerge on the horizon from 6.15  Sunsets pah ... Sunrises are the way to go.  Also meant we had the coolest if not most comfortable of runs on this trip. (lack of comfort from enjoying life a little bit last night)  What I could then do was throw myself in the Aegean to cool down which is not a bad way to start a day?

Also at that time in the morning the roads and place was relatively quiet. I make mention of the roads as for a small Island where you feel everything is quite relaxed there seems to be a lot of traffic, fast and furious driving, and not enough pavements to my liking.  Just a comment, keep your eyes and ears open when walking around.

Our breakfast continued to be fairly poor quality in this latest abode (the coffee so weak I couldn't bring myself to drink it and is the only time I have seen Chrissi drink coffee as this was not coffee!), but in all other ways, it has been a nice enough place to stay, and the host, Ritsa, an absolute gem and provided useful information at every turn. We did manage to eke out something positive from breakfast, and make use of some freezer bags Chrissi dug out of her rucksack (what were they doing there?), by appropriating enough food for our ferry trip later in the day. So quality low, but quantity, less low.

And so it was time to almost literally retrace our steps for the rest of the day, and revisit Athens, see how the old place is getting on. We actually took a route that stopped off at Naxos and Mykonos, so very much felt we were on a trip rewind.  I make reference to the map below that gives you a broad sense of what we have been doing these last few days.  We have hit another couple of Islands so seen them through the window, today that included Ios.

Was a packed ferry for the 5 hr trip but passed relatively quickly, reading, snoozing and munching on the freebies from our airbnb in the main part. Turns out the Seajets are the quickest ferry service in Greece and we were on one called World Champion which is the absolute fastest. Also a Grand Prix theme with a Formula 1 Car on board which all felt rather surreal.  It was so fast it left pot 5 mins ahead of schedule, so don't assume these beasts are always late. (all the others have been a bit)

And so back in the port of Pireas from where it all started.  Not the same bay so we were somewhat lost for a while and took in a couple of sites. Not the Olympiacos stadium who are based here for football interest.  Realised we were 20 mins from the metro we arrived on but as we walked towards that we actually came across the station that was at the end of that line so a good result and we were on our way back into central Athens.

Our final hotel in Monastiraki , a rather funky and buzzy neighbourthood, lots of street art, cafes, and a very odd disney themed cross roads called Little Kook. The garish colours hit you like a brick, but we did hang around a bit for a pretty good smoothie and a pavlova trifle thing that I've already got carys researching the recipe for that! 

It had been a long day, so we took a mosey on back through the backstreets and side streets, picking up a chicken and vegi gyros (under 10 euros for 2) to have a couple of beers on the rooftop bar in our hotel (over 20 euros for 2). Very conflicted, but a lovely view as the sunset on Athens and sleepy, grumpy and dopey were all vying for control of my personality.