Athens

Years ago a friend showed me photos of the Acropolis in Athens. It looked like an amazing place, although I do remember noticing that it was surrounded by a big, polluted city. Adrian had seen similar images so we have both wanted to visit for a while;
weren't sure what we'd think of the city though, especially as we had chosen cheap accommodation in a rough part of town.

Our room was small, but clean and comfortable. We shared the communal areas with a French Canadian man and a girl from New York (travelling independently) whose company we really enjoyed. The area itself is, well, rough... think prostitutes, drug users and dealers and general dodginess all taking place in amongst grimy buildings and you're about there. It is probably not an area many tourists visit, [Adrian: our guide book told us not to go there] but is definitely an interesting perspective on the city. The impact of the economic situation in Greece can be seen clearly on these streets and doesn't make for an easy life for the locals.

The Acropolis is amazing. There are views from different angles all
over the city. The Parthenon is partly under scaffolding, which was a
shame, but didn't detract from its impact. my favourite though was the
Erechtheion. There was a film crew shooting while we visited, we don't know what the film was and didn't recognise either of the stars. It was interesting but a little frustrating as our ability to wander freely was restricted at points and they needed quiet, which is a little tricky when Eleanor and Leo think it is hilarious to play 'monsters and screamers' on the rocks. If you see a movie set in about the 1960's in which the female lead is wandering around the Acropolis in a yellow dress, please let us know!

From there we walked past Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Zeus to a
great playground in the National Gardens. Athens is littered with
ancient buildings in amongst the modern. Discoveries are frequently made when they dig foundations for new buildings.

We also went to Ancient Agora, which contains the fantastic 7th century Temple of Hephaestus that we had seen from the Acropolis the day before. It is largely as it would have been all those years ago. After another stop at the playground and repairing the second flat pushchair tyre in two days (none until Athens then two in two days!) we visited the Acropolis museum. The museum has a pathway leading up to the entrance that give a view onto ruins that were
discovered during its construction and meant the original site was changed by a few metres.

That evening we had dinner in the old town. The Acropolis illuminated
at night is a beautiful sight and the pedestrian streets full of restaurants and little shops were lovely for a post-dinner wander. Such a different part of the city to where we stayed!

We decided that a 45-minute tram trip to Flisvos, a seaside suburb with a big play area, would make a pleasant change from the hustle and bustle of the city. It did! The play area had at least 15 slides of all shapes and sizes and a rabbit warren of climbing frames, just perfect for small people. After a paddle (or skinny dip in Eleanor and Leo's case) in the warm sea, we headed back to Athens. Our tram stopped outside the parliament buildings, so we watched the changing of the guard outside the tomb of the unknown solider. It was great! The pompom-toed soldiers must have taken years to learn their leg swings and toe wiggles. Excellent! [Adrian: you train for years to kill people and then some officer says congratulations! you get to perform silly walks in dorky costumes for tourists!] We then raced back to pack our bags for our long-awaited two weeks in Cyprus.

We had noticed early in our stay that on the day we flew out there was to be a march from a square near our accommodation to parliament protesting against the austerity measures. We were pleased to be leaving first thing to avoid it as other similar demonstrations have ended with riots and arrests. While Adrian and I were a little curious to see it, we thought best not to be too close to the action with two small children, just in case.

When we were notified the night before we were due to fly to Cyrpus that our flight was delayed from 10.40am until 8.30pm due to a strike by air traffic controllers (we later learned it was a general strike), we considered our options and decided to go straight to the airport that morning and spend a few hours at the nearby zoo.

We left just in time to see the beginnings of the protest pass our accommodation and arrived at the metro station only to discover the drivers were also on strike. Adrian knew there is a bus, so we walked a couple of kilometres to the bus stop and got to the airport very easily. Once there, we found that the taxi drivers were striking too, so that meant no zoo visit (unless we wanted to hire a car). Fortunately there is an excellent free play area at Athens airport so what would have been a very long eight-hour wait went remarkably quickly and we arrived in Cyprus late and tired, but excited about the next leg of our journey.

As for what we thought of Athens... The sights are fabulous (the
Ancient Greeks were incredible architects!) and, while it is a large
and busy city, we didn't notice much pollution (I think there has been
significant work on this in recent years). Would we live there? No.
Would we visit again? Definitely!