:: athens 14/07 ::

arriving after midnight, we checked in our hotel, only to find it was a dodgy switcheroo job, where you rent a room in one hotel, only to arrive, find its full and get shipped off to their other, not so popular hotel. the guy at the check-in of the dodgy hotel reminded me of that goofy guy with a superman t-shirt from "the goonies". not too concerned as it was only for one night and then we went to meet mina.

met mina in serbia and then we faci'd a conference together in morroco. she and her parents put us up for the next two nights, they really looked after us with great food and even a load of washing! was the first time i have had home cooking in a real long time (other than my own).

when mina picked us up she left us with voni who took us to the acropolis/pantheon and gave us quite a good improtu tour. meeting mina after, we had a good old greek lunch in monistiraki and then wandered the markets. bombed out, we took a late dinner (after 12 when finished chatting) and crashed. sleeping nearly half the day away, we ventured into syntagma square to see the greek soldiers with the funny shoes (i'm sorry, culturally insensitive and all that, but the shoes are damn funny!), wandered through town and then out to a roof top garden party for one of mina's friends - a quiet night, but nice to sit and watch the view.

another late sleep, a great lunch and then on the train to thessaloniki for the last stop of our vacation - 3 days by the pool, 4 star hotel and more awesome food.

lost the days reading, sun baking, riding a fish smelling bus into town, eating squid & salad and the occassional swim.


writing all this back in the office is so depressing, the time has gone so quickly. i am already planning the next trip...

9 weeks of work left, finished in Basel on the 30th September - I will be making my way back to Oz soon after.