Kusadasi was our next port but has been changed to Athens. Greece has a population of 1.1 billion with Athens housing 3.5 million of them. Athens decided to have a public transport strike on the day of our arrival so our Italian Captain decided to change our schedule and sneak in a few days early, outsmarting the Greeks. The ship quietly slipped into town like a huge Trojan horse and in the early hours of the morning we all slipped ashore taking the Athenians by surprise.
We did take them by surprise as many of the 40+ tour coaches that meet us in every port were not on the dock! No harm was done though because by the time all the walking frames and their less robust jockeys maneuvered off the ship the buses had begun to arrive, so all was well.
We managed to secure a private vehicle for the day. Our driver summed up Greece and Athens simply; “no-one pays tax, everyone owns a boat and a Mercedes, no wonder the country is broke”. We absorbed ourselves in Athens from the Parthenon at the Acropolis and the Temple of Zeus to the local café serving Chimay Blue beer, hand brewed by Trappist Monks from Notre Dame. I have never seen so many boats, certainly more than grace Sydney Harbour and noticeably larger.
Did you know that the “Marathon” is so named as a consequence, and in honour, of a military runner named Phidippides who ran 26.2 miles from Marathon to Athens, in 490BC, to announce a battle victory where the Athenians had beat the Persians. He then keeled over and died from exhaustion. The logic does not quite follow, as the marathon should then be called the Phidippides. Eh! It’s all Greek to me, get out the windex and she’ll be right mate.
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