It's one of the busiest ferry terminals (national, local and international) in Greece and boasts 8 harbours on either side of the headland. We got the metro to Piraeus station and walked past the massive ferries loading Greek families and their cars to go to one of the many Greek islands.
Surrounding the headland is a row of stadia that were used for the 2004 Olympics. I say used and not built because many of them date from the 70's and 80's and were 'refurbished' (painted) for the Athens games. One in particular, the Stadium of Peace and Friendship, looks like it's been abandoned for 8 years when it's actually the home of the Athens basketball team. In fact, it was believed that once the games had ended many of the stadia and venues fell into a state of disrepair. While this aesthetically is the case, many of them have new users despite looking like they've simply been forgotten about. The Olympic stadium is the home to a football club, the diving and swimming aquatics centre is a public swimming pool, the velodrome has hosted 19 international competitions since 2004, and most of the other stadia were bought by football and basketball clubs.
While the infrastructure has remained in place, the legacy has sadly dissipated. Many of the outside basketball, tennis and football pitches go unused. This was only echoed in the Greek medal tally in London this summer.
Had a quick drink at this beautiful cafe called BayWay which overlooked the yachts and boats for sale. Naturally Henry and I boat shopped. We found a lovely one, a bargain at half a million. We'll have two please.
We tried to be all cultural and go to the Greek Maritime Museum but it was closed due to 'holidays' and wouldn't be open again until 27th August. No matter. The yachts were keeping us company well enough.
This marina was called Limani Zeas and then we walked around the headland to a small harbour which was where many of the locals went at night. However, it being day time, it was dead. We stopped for lunch; I had squid and Henry had a Caesar salad (no anchovies) and then went back to the hotel for our afternoon nap.
On the way back we witnessed what I can only describe as public signs of Greek bad temper. While waiting at a station, an old Greek lady went mental, and I mean mental, at the driver. Obviously it was in Greek and we had no idea what she (or he) was saying, but she did say 'tourist' a few times.
Making friends with the locals as always.
The second was when an old man was standing at the door ready to get off and an Asian man stepped straight in front of him with buckets and a squeegee (obviously a window cleaner) and nearly pushed him over. While the old man just moved, another Greek lady had to be physically restrained by her friend while she had a go at this Asian man. She was repeating the same thing in a Catherine Tate 'am I bothered though?' tone. I had to look away for laughing but it was quite amusing to see.
Eventually dragged ourselves out for dinner and decided to go where the guide book said and went to a seafood restaurant called 'Jimmy & the fish' which was apparently famous for it's clam spaghetti. Obviously, neither of us had that... I ordered the seafood ravioli (which was stuffed with crab, prawns, mussels and squid) in a tomato and prawn sauce; it was incredible. Even Henry liked it, and he doesn't eat seafood. He had the steak, which I was a little jealous of because the chips that came with it we're exactly like my Mum's chips. So much so that I could have sworn my Mum was in the kitchen cooking them... Scary.
A bottle of wine later and Henry and I had resorted to guessing the password for the wifi, which he assured me was the phone number of the restaurant (it wasn't) until we decided to go home. On the tram back we sat opposite a boy, probably our age... Picture attached... Very pretty...
Back at the hotel and Henry decided to have a shower. During this quite routine exercise he managed to pull down the shower curtain, not once, but 4 times. I mean come on now. After fixing it for him he finished showering and here we are, me writing this blog, him slightly drunk falling asleep... Awwww they grow up so fast...
So until tomorrow (which is more of the beach) I shall bid you goodnight. I am aware that it's two hours ahead here and by the time many of you read this, we'll be fast asleep in the land of nod.
Much love, my lovelies.
No comments:
Post a Comment