Europe Day 19: Our Last Contiki Day

Early morning, last Contiki hurrah
Well – our last day with our Contiki group started bright and early – not only because we were leaving at a ridiculous early time to visit the Acropolis (trying to avoid the line-ups, crowds and the hot, hot sun of midday Greece) – but also because we had to pack and store our bags (which our friends Chris and Liz graciously allowed us to use their room for). We weren’t staying in the same hotel that night and needed to make our way somewhere further uptown later on.

Athens the dangerous
Well – let’s say I never expected to feel more in the Ghetto somewhere in the Mediterranean than any city I’ve seen in Canada or the United States – but voila – Athens did it. Even staying at our pretty nice hotel didn’t save us from the crime life that seems to exist in that city – and it was evidenced further by the 2-tonne police trailer full of cops that apparently sits just outside the hotel during the day. Too bad they weren’t around the night before to catch all the drug dealers operating out of the phone booths. Seriously.

Sites of Athens
The heat was unbearable even before the sun was high in the sky. Even though the early leave time had already wiped us out, we were still glad we weren’t waiting to do the tour any later. We got a professional guide for this tour of the city and the Acropolis, so she took us around town first to point out all the areas, and then we headed for the big hike up the “mountain” to see the ruins.

Hard walk up
It was a bit of a hard trek up to the Acropolis with the extreme heat and my asthma – but I vowed I’d go the distance. I wasn’t getting all the way to Greece and not seeing the damn thing cause of my asthma. The guide let us stop every now and then, but she also pressed pretty quickly so that we weren’t up at the top in the scorching sun (and in order to get there before the major crowds started arriving). While I’d have loved to be listening to the history she had been telling the group like our other good tour guides – I was too wiped out to care much. I preferred instead to take photographs. My visual pleasure in being there was so much more satisfying than simply standing in the heat to listen. I figured I could catch the history later to match with the photos.


The Acropolis…
… was under construction – or more accurately put – restoration and research. It was a little bit of a let-down, as the historical and stereotypic vision of the Acropolis was un-photographable. Oh well - another picture regret that I’ll have to fulfill sometime in the future.


Modern interpretation
The guide let us know that they are just putting the finishing touches down in the city on the Acropolis museum which she pointed out to us down below. It has been made the exact same size as the Acropolis area and all the artifacts that have been found from it – frecoes, statues, etc. – are being placed down in the museum in the exact place they were found in the actual ruins. It’s quite a cool idea – and would be a neat thing to go see in the future when it’s finally all ready.


My favourite part of the area was the Caryatids statues – even though they are only the replicas. Five of the originals will be in the Acropolis museum, while the sixth is somewhere in Britain – can’t remember where exactly.

Air conditioning relief!
After we had our fill up top – and realized we were being burned alive by the sun – we decided it was definitely time to head back – quickly – to the lovely relief of our air-conditioned bus. Somewhere along the way we lost one of our tour peeps… and we got stuck waiting until one of the guys could find her in the stores.


Olympic Stadium
On our way back to the central square of the city – we stopped off quickly at the Olympic stadium in Athens. Quite large and quite impressive – kind of the atypical stadium you would expect from Athens.

Teary Cheery Goodbye
Our tour ending in the main city square was actually out literal Contiki tour end as well. It was our last stop and we no longer were responsible for staying with the group. There were lots of hugs and kisses all around – but also I’d say some sighs of great relief – it’s hard to spend so much time with the same group of people – especially when there are some members that you don’t necessarily hold in high regard. But – c’est la vie.

First independent decision – McDonalds
Yes – indeed – we are a sad, sad bunch – but as soon as we were released, Chris, Liz, H-Rabbit and myself headed to the one place that felt like “home” – McDonalds! Ha! I think after three weeks of European food and being really good about trying new things – all we wanted to do was sit in great air-conditioning and eat something plain.


High heat, but the Plaka was calling
After quickly running through the Plaka area the night before – we were itching to head back – and even though the day was just getting hotter and hotter – we figured a small walk through the area wouldn’t be too much. We started in earnest our hording of souvenirs – and the area was amazing even during the day. However – the heat wasn’t getting better – only worse – and it was getting to us pretty badly.

Last swim on the roof-top
We head back with Chris and Liz to the hotel. We decided to enjoy the roof-top pool and patio one last time before figuring our way over to our new hotel. It was a joy to just relax with nowhere to be and nothing to do and no responsibilities with time or location. However – after a few hours – the heat was even getting to us up there and we figured we should probably get moving to our new location.

Great Friends
We gave a long and lasting goodbye to our new friends Liz and Chris – they truly were an amazing couple and we can’t wait to find our way over to Australia one day to see them again. Perhaps we’ll even get a glimpse of their newly minted Venetian cat in its new home.

New hotel
The drive to our new hotel wasn’t too bad – and we weren’t much further away from the downtown core either. The new hotel was very clean and simple and our room was pretty huge too. The heat however – had really done us in and H-Rabbit had a pretty bad case of heat stroke. Instead of doing anything else – we figured we’d just hit the sack and get some much needed sleep in a cold, dark room. While it may have felt like wasting a night – we figured it would be better than still feeling crappy for the rest of our stay in Athens and ruining those days as well. Besides – running around Athens in the dark by myself without H-Rabbit wasn’t exactly high on my to-do list with all te crime we had been seeing. Sleep was probably the best decision to be made.