Note: this is split into two as I had enough time to write the first half while waiting for a bus.

After the very long day yesterday (as described here) I’m glad I got a good night’s sleep afterwards.
Oh, wait. No, that’s not right. That’s not what happened at all! In fact I slept terribly despite being so tired. That was partly because I was slightly unprepared for hostel dorm sleeping again (4 other people, two snorers, late arrivals, early departures, noise from outside – will buy earplugs before next night in a dorm) but mainly because I went to bed with cold feet and that always means game over. Grumble.

Anyway, it’s 7am and I’m up now, time to face the day! Preliminary plan:
– sort out accommodation for tonight
– decide if I’m heading out of Athens tomorrow and if so get that sorted as well
– do Athens tourist stuff

I spent some more time trawling TripAdvisor and the internet for ideas for the next few days. It looked like tomorrow (Monday) was a bad day for trying to see sights in Athens as a lot of things closed so a day trip was pretty attractive. I eventually chose to solve the first two items above in one go: I’d take a bus to Delphi tonight, stay over and sightsee tomorrow before returning in the evening. That was easy!

Hostel breakfast, checked out, left my backpack in storage (I had a small lightweight pack for bringing with me), I was ready to go. There was a suggested 1-day tourist walking route on the map the hostel had provided, that seemed like the easiest thing to do. That meant Ancient Agora, The Temple of Hephaestus, The Acropolis and Parthenon for my morning. Conveniently all covered in one reasonably-priced ticket (€12).

“Amazingly impressive” is the best description I can think of for each of those places. They were all large, and mostly intact enough that you could imagine them in use. It all felt a little bit surreal, as well; these are all monuments that are very well known and recognisable, so to be walking alongside and through them was weird. They were from the universe of TV or pictures, not things that existed in my world. Walking onto the peak of the Acropolis and thinking “oh right, and that’ll be the Parthenon”… yeah, pretty surreal.

The views of Athens from the hill of the Acropolis were incredible as well, and I’m a man who loves city views from up high. Recommend+++.

Right, I’m not going to tease any longer; have a bunch of photos! I’m posting from my tablet so these are basically a random collection of shots with no tidy-up done. When the trip is over I’ll probably go back and select some of the better ones.

Part 2 will follow later today!