The day started with an early morning run with Pepe our manic Italian driver who took us from Sorrento to Naples in just under an hour. Not a bad effort we thought considering the traffic and the road as wide as a large footpath.
The flight from Naples to Athens only took an hour and forty minutes, just a hop really. The train from Athena airport to the city took nearly that long. We were still mighty glad to find our hotel and put our feet up for a while anyway, because the heat was very draining.
As usual, after a shower and a freshen up we took off to explore our local surroundings. As luck would have it we had arrived on a public holiday, so most of the shops were closed and did not present the city in its best light. In fact it looked down right dead and scungy, sorry to say. Everywhere, but everywhere is covered in graffiti and more graffiti. On the monuments, on the churches, on the sides of vending machines, on the trains and buses, everywhere. It must be a manifestation of the youth unemployment here or the general dissatisfaction with the government. Certainly the graffiti is in wide abundance.
A quick stroll down to Syntagma square was in order. This is the location of the Greek parliament and noted for the ceremonial garb and drill of the soldiers who stand guard outside it. While they may look kinda strange in their pleated skirts and with pompoms on their shoes they are nonetheless trained and serving soldiers of an elite Greek unit. Like the Swiss Guard at the Vatican, to dismiss these troops out of hand based on their "poofy" uniforms would be a BIG mistake.
They pop up in the most unexpected places and the McDonalds at Syntagma Square is no exception. Try the Greek Mac or the McShrimp burger. We'll post up a link to some piccies as soon as we can.
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