The ferry ride to Patras in Greece from Bari went fairly smoothly . Ran into a really nice American couple from Califonia called Chris and Marina who had been at the Aloha in Paris, so conversation was good. Got a good nights sleep despite not having a seat by crashing on a bench in the resturaunt.
The next day had 4 hours to kill in Patras before the train to Athens. First impression of Greece was " man this place is hot " . Managed to walk aroung town for about 20mins before sucumbing to the temptation of beer and football. The train ride to Athens was bizarre. After 15mins the train stopped so the staff could forcibly remove some vagrant/tourist hustler types who didnt have tickets. We then stopped randomly and transfered onto a bus. After another 25mions the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere to pick up a couple of illegal imigrants and their African smuggler. We were then dropped at another random platform to wait 20 mins for the city train that got us into Athens around 8.
Said goodby to Chris and Marina and walked to the hostel that was near the station ( a new travel tactic of mine to avaoid tiring city commutes on arrival in a new town). Was sharing a room with 4 Australians on the first night of a week long booze cruise type holiday in the islands. After being swamped by American students in Rome was a welocme change, and we ended up getting rather drunk in the in-house bar. By the end of the night though it was clear these guys had a different agenda to me in Greece. As they put it they were "here for a goodtime not a longtime" eventually the bar ( staffed by more Australians ) cut them off and we retired noisley to the room.
The next day I headed out on my own to see the acroplois and surrounding ruins. The walk up the hill to the Parthenon was hot and tiring . had to stop 3 times to rest and at the top almost snapped the arm off a local vendor who was selling extorsionatly priced slush puppies.( At the time the best 4.5 Euros id ever spent ). Once I had recoved spent the next 4 hours exploring the acropolis and surrounding greek and roman ruins. Very impressive but not as good as Rome in the end.
That evening watched the England Algeria game ( what the hell?!!!) in the hostel bar and continued drinking with the Aussies, who had to be up at 530 am the next day for a ferry . This didnt deter them and by 230 am they were all dancing on tge bar to greased lightning. This type of behaviour would have put a St mary street vally commando to shame....The next day my plan had been to do a day trip to Ancient Corinthia but a late start and tired legs convinced me to spend the afternoon chilling in the municipal gardens instead before an early night.
Athens was good but I think I was there a day too long. The first signs of travel fatigue after a month on the road didnt sit well with the hostel atmosphere of incoming and outgoing island boozers. The next day headed to the port to get a ticket on the night boat to the island of Chios. One of the quieter of the Greek islands right next to the Turkish coast. Decided to try book a single room in a quiet budget hotel for the next 3 days. Seemed to be spending the money I was saving by staying in dorm rooms on beer anyway. It was time to chill out, catch up on some sleep and pick up the guitar again......
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