Greece Trip - Day 15

10 July, 2009 – Naxos to Athens

It was time to leave the lovely Cyclades Islands and head back to the main land today – back to Athens. When we were on our way to the port, the rope holding the back door to the van and holding our luggage in broke and our luggage all fell out onto the road!! The guys quickly jumped out and re-loaded the van, tied another rope down and hoped it wouldn’t happen again. Donnal and I were in the back seat, so we held onto some bags to make sure they didn’t fall and push the door open again. The driver stopped at their office in the town before reaching the port and gave us all a little keepsake – a magnet that was a pair of flip flops with a painted scene of blue and white churches and islands in the background. It was very sweet and fit into our theme – we had the naming of the footwear battle - Australians call them ‘thongs’; English and Canadians call them ‘flip flops’ and New Zealanders call them ‘jandals’.

The ferry trip back to Athens was a slow one and took 5 hours, so Sheeba, Donnal & I snuck into the reserved seating area and hoped that we wouldn’t get kicked out of these comfy plush seats. The ferry stopped at Paros Island on the way to Athens and the boat got really full; one lady said that one of our seats was hers but then she went down a few rows to where her friends were, so we were lucky with that one and could enjoy our seats all the way to Athens. I had a snooze on the ferry, wrote in my travel journal and listened to my ipod to make the time pass. When the ferry was approaching Athens, we set off down the inner stairwell towards the lower deck as our bags were in the lowest level in the cargo hold. The door opened and a group of us headed out around the trucks and got our bags. There were only a small number of us down there, so I don’t think we should have actually got out so soon, but oh well – it was too late now. It was quite hot and stinky in the car area, so we opened the door into the hall area that was at the bottom of the escalator and right at the exit – we would be the first ones off the boat. The doors opened at the top of the stairs and 3 boys came running down and came to a sudden stop when they saw us standing there – the eldest one said “how did you get here?”. Linda tapped the side of her nose and said “secret women’s business” and we all just laughed.

When we got to our hotel in Athens, Donnal and I took the metro to go and see the New Archaeological Museum near the Acropolis. The museum had only been open a few weeks and was only €1 entry fee until the end of the year. Parts of the flooring were made from transparent tiles so you could see that were found under the ground during construction. On the second floor of the building they used the same see-through flooring in some of the areas, so you had to be careful if you were wearing a skirt as the people on the lower floor could see up it! The museum was really interesting and was full of sculptures and set out in the groups according to age. They had walls that were full of jugs, plates, bowls, utensils, figurines and jewellery from various eras. I find it intriguing to see such decorative items being used in such an archaic time and wonder what their lives were like back then for them to have time for celebrations and festivals and to be able to adorn their houses with such lavish ornamental items. The most interesting thing I found in the museum was a reconstruction of the east and west facades of the Parthenon. They had a small recreation and then had drawings and explanations next to the actual pieces that were on display. I found it sad to hear that many pieces of Greek history are still in British Museums in London; and that the Brits won’t return them to Greece, so they have plaster renditions of those pieces with a note in the bottom corner stating where the original pieces are being held.

It had cooled down a little and clouds were covering the town when we came out of the museum, so we decided to walk back to the hotel. It was a nice walk along the pathway past the Acropolis and Thissio, past the olive trees and mounds of ruins. It was our final night dinner that night, so we went to a restaurant in Plaka that Donnal had been to when she first started the trip. I went with totally traditional food as it was going to be my last dinner in Greece – I had lamb souvlaki. After dinner we all went to an ouzo bar that was close by; two walls of the bar were full of shelves that were lined with different coloured bottles with a backlight and then the other wall had wooden barrels with old taps on them – it was a trendy little place. We decided to go with random flavoured shots, so Donnal picked out flavours for us – I had a melon hot, it was very nice – she picked well. After the bar, we strolled through the shop lined streets and then went to Syntagma Square and watched the guards perform their routine in front of the Parliament building.