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.. or, everything is near Monasteriki, except you can't get there or it's ALL SHUT!
Today was the day that demonstrated why they were so reluctant to give Athens back the modern Olympic Games..
Essentially this is the city where NOTHING works. Or at least, only very, very slowly. The taxis won't stop for you, even when they're empty (why? why? no one can seem to explain); the roads get closed randomly stopping taxis from moving anyway; the central Metro station (quaintly known as Ammonia, tho not spelt that way) we wanted closed today because of a rally in favour of Greek citizenship for all residents (ie, we think, mostly Palestinians?) When we saw the rally however, it wouldn't have closed a *street* in London , let alone most the city centre..
As a result of all this,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
clarehooper, fides and I did NOT repeat NOT get to the farfamed National Archaeological Museum. or at least we did, but at 4pm, when it should have still been open for an hour but had apparently closed at 3pm - pretending it was still on winter hours. "Everything in Athens happens 6 months late" someone told us. Including, apparently, changing over to summer tourist attraction hours...
However we DID have a very nice lunch next to the Greek Agora, we DID have very nice tea and cake at the cafe at the Arch'l Museum and we DID do a great deal of satisfactory tat (=jewellery plus food plus tourist shit) shopping - altho most the city centre shops (strangely reminiscent of East Kilbride town centre - M & S , Zara and H&M plus lots of 80s looking shop windows) again seemed to have decided to shut midway through saturday afternoon. Leading to the above nentioned Tamapx crisis... Eventually a nice man pointed us at a mini market that not only sold Tampax but also bottles of assorted spirits in the shape of satyrs with giant erect penises. Faith was pleased:) I bought one to auction off at Eastercon - be scared!!
So far every single recommendation we have had for nice`areas for dinner places has been dismissed by The Only Nice Taxi Driver in Athens as over priced rubbish for tourists - Gazi, Psiri, Plaka, you name it. the answer appears to be to go to Piraeus (miles away), or possibly London. Clare and Faith seem to have chosen bed. J and I will report further :) But right now, I'm drying out from the latest monsoon!!
Today was the day that demonstrated why they were so reluctant to give Athens back the modern Olympic Games..
Essentially this is the city where NOTHING works. Or at least, only very, very slowly. The taxis won't stop for you, even when they're empty (why? why? no one can seem to explain); the roads get closed randomly stopping taxis from moving anyway; the central Metro station (quaintly known as Ammonia, tho not spelt that way) we wanted closed today because of a rally in favour of Greek citizenship for all residents (ie, we think, mostly Palestinians?) When we saw the rally however, it wouldn't have closed a *street* in London , let alone most the city centre..
As a result of all this,
clarehooper, fides and I did NOT repeat NOT get to the farfamed National Archaeological Museum. or at least we did, but at 4pm, when it should have still been open for an hour but had apparently closed at 3pm - pretending it was still on winter hours. "Everything in Athens happens 6 months late" someone told us. Including, apparently, changing over to summer tourist attraction hours...However we DID have a very nice lunch next to the Greek Agora, we DID have very nice tea and cake at the cafe at the Arch'l Museum and we DID do a great deal of satisfactory tat (=jewellery plus food plus tourist shit) shopping - altho most the city centre shops (strangely reminiscent of East Kilbride town centre - M & S , Zara and H&M plus lots of 80s looking shop windows) again seemed to have decided to shut midway through saturday afternoon. Leading to the above nentioned Tamapx crisis... Eventually a nice man pointed us at a mini market that not only sold Tampax but also bottles of assorted spirits in the shape of satyrs with giant erect penises. Faith was pleased:) I bought one to auction off at Eastercon - be scared!!
So far every single recommendation we have had for nice`areas for dinner places has been dismissed by The Only Nice Taxi Driver in Athens as over priced rubbish for tourists - Gazi, Psiri, Plaka, you name it. the answer appears to be to go to Piraeus (miles away), or possibly London. Clare and Faith seem to have chosen bed. J and I will report further :) But right now, I'm drying out from the latest monsoon!!
