Greek Salad

well i thought that while i was in Greece i should have a salad , hopefully thery know how to make them. but it wasn't quite was I was used to .

notice the lack of lettuce.

it was a dam good salad.!!

Crete.

well I cant spend all my life in Athens,

so after exploring the Hadrian's library, and some retail therapy, I caught the night ferry to Crete. ( Minoan civilization). the ferry was 9 hours overnight. got in at an hour when i am usually asleep. so caught a cab to a somewhat cheap hotel that doesnt have Internet access. so here i sit in Internet cafe down town. much faster speed.
Don't ask me what street I am on cause i have no clue. the street signs are now all in Greek. so life is alot harder. Its daylight and the sun is warm so who cares for right now. there was some dew on some cars this morning. this town is called Heraklion, the nearest town to the King Minos' palace. this will be my plans for tomorrow.
the streets are wide and cleaner and there is less Industrail patyicular matter in the air. the sky is dininately blue. I may explore the beach this afternoon. it may depend on the need for sleep.

Mycenae

I went out t Mycenae to day ( pronounced me-cene nes) 1.1/2 hours by local bus then 4 kms walk in the sun current temp 16 the Mycenaean empire was only 300 years from 1500 to 1200 BC Maybe you have heard of Grave circle A where the royalty was buried, they pulled 14 kgs of gold ( 28 lbs ) out the tombs. the hill is set in a very almost desolate part of the area. and on Sundays it s free to get in . Aways nice. then i had to walk back. the surrounding fields are all orange groves , for some reason i was expecting olives. the countryside is much nicer than Athens i have decided.

there are lots of stray dogs here and i managed to pick up a stray golden lab that followed me almost all day. i had to be cleaver to ditch it before i climbed in the bus to come back.

but tonight i m too tired and a shower becons.

National Archaeologial Museum

the Minoean civilization came first, the the Mycenaen, then the ancient Athenians. Sparta was basically a military town Anything else you want to now you get to look it up yourself. The museum was well worth the 7 Euros they charged.
what i want to now is what sort of force it takes to knock over really large buildings made of marble. Athens was Destroyed more than once, which is why they have so much marble lieing around they are not sure where it goes. if they know where it goes it seems to have a number on it.

then I went of a walk to the top of one of the other hills in town , that has a little chapel.Called St George, it was a steep climb and i am in better shape that I thought. a great view of town to say nothing of looking down on Acropolis hill. there is still large volumes of industrial Europe particulate in the air to prevent a clear view.
since i was walking quite a distance I had to pass some shops. and added more stuff to my pack.

Yesterday I had a lazy day due th the problem of walking to far the day before, pulled muscles in both calves and the front of my thigh as well. I found good book. Everything around here is the way of tourists is quiet, someone said they had a friend out on Santorini who was the only person in the hotel that was not a employee.

the Accropolis

believe it or not to was a lovely day yesterday, but Greece is full of smog arm enough to not have my sweater on. everyone else was looking at me like was stupid. i spent all day on the hill looking at the old town and several of the other temples that are around

Athens and rain

On the advise of the gent at the front desk, i left the Acropolis for tomorrow. instead i wondered around to the Ancient Olympic stadium. clean white marble and lots of rain. lots of markets to walk though on the way, then i wondered to the temple of Zeus, there is not a lot of signs not even in Greek with too much more info than, this is the temple of Zeus. but amazing to look at. E 12.oo will get you into the 5 other things around town including the Acropolis Yes i took lots of photos . but you will have to wait till tomorrow.

Then it continued to rain hard its about 55 or maybe 60 its all celcius it s 14. so i stopped at the restaurant , called the Taverna Plaka sat outside and had Calamari and the local fish , with some wine the local Retsina. The food was good the wine to be honest I can take of leave. i may try it again somewhere else. the gentleman at he next table was George who, thought his English was good, decided to hit on me and wanted to buy me coffee and more wine at the best hotel in town. I don't think i have ever spent that much on lunch in my life but sometimes this is good for a laugh. ( One always get caught once with these things.)
Fortunately it stopped raining and i could continue my way to browse the shops till i ran out of energy. the fruit here is so cheap, oranges 50 c a lb apples barely a 86 c a kg. there are orange trees that grow along side the pavement, that have what i thought was ripe oranges, thought i would try some, look like oranges but taste like lemons. there are lots of wonderful little stores that are in back alleys and narrow streets.
Anyway i am going to be cheap for dinner , since i spent so much on lunch.

The building next to the hostel is a pet store, specializing in birds so this morning on the way out I was greeted with the canaries budgies and finches singing to the morning.
more tomorrow hopefully with photos.

Athens flight.

It's difficult to find out how long it takes to get from the train station Kigs Cross to the airport, you never know with London, so one always alows lots of time. So therefore i had 2 hours to fill in a the airport. They have shops!!!! including one of my favorite clothes stores. they have a 70 % sale right now. i resisted, i dont need to carry to much arround right now.
the flight from Lutton ( North of London ) went over france and stuggart Germany. followed by the Austrian Alps, yes i had my camera and it was daylight . The sun was caught nicely on the alps. not sure when you 'll get to see those. the plane window were somewhat scratched , but I got a couple of good ones.
The Greek train system runs in greek and English fortuneatly. there seems to be quite a few people whose speak french.

I think its about time i repeated my disclosure about Spelling and Grammer.
No comments alowed on either, sometime I type when jet laged, like yesterday. Sometimes I remember to spell check, sometimes i dont. the keyboard has Greek characters just to make live interesting.

tomorrow I all attempt the Accropolis.