Athens

On 4th January my friend Anne, her 15 year-old daughter Christina and I took the Blue Star 2 from Leros to Athens. Anne had an appointment with the people who say whether or not she can get Greek Citizenship. She has been married to Yiorgos (George, Greek) for 17 years but being from New Zealand, ie non-EU citizen, has to have her visa renewed every year. In order to do this, the police here phone her husband and ask if he still wants her. Understandably, she'd rather not have to go through this every year!

We had a great time. I'd never been to Athens other than a day trip to Ikea and a taxi-ride through the streets from Ikea (near the airport) to the port of Piraeus.

We did the whole touristy bit, the Plaka (wonderful small streets with great shops), the Acropolis, the lot. We arrived early Friday and hadn't reckoned on the shops being shut Saturday (Fota, holiday) so had to make do... Somehow we managed to spend a great deal of time and money shopping nevertheless.

Friday the streets were full of street vendors (not unusual), mime artists, musicians and just amazing sights. We clutched our bags closely and spent the day with out-of-town jaws dropped.

Movies from halfway up the Acropolis, and from the top.