2 September Saturday, Piraeus Athens

I believe some people partied both ashore and on board last night. I went up onto the Lido pool deck to get those nightscapes and the atmosphere was alive!

One of the landmarks I've noticed has been that "blue church" in the pictures, so this morning I decided to take the advice I got from Davos of Greece and go and explore. The guide on the dock gave me a map and pointed out several landmarks; he said "blue church beautiful!" So I'm proud to say I found it. Inside it's certainly very beautiful in the traditional Orthodox style, but it was also set up with chairs for those who wanted to pray and I noticed that the elderly gentleman at the door actually asked a lady who was just having a quick walk around to leave - she was wearing shorts and I imagine that's not considered appropriate wear in a holy place here. A couple of shots now, maybe more later when I can download them. I'm enjoying a strange creation called and "iced coffee" here on the waterfront near the Maritime Museum and using free wifi, of course. Another day without having to spend $A35 on 24 hours of ship's wifi!

On my walk I passed by the Archeological Museum and apparently they’re digging on the site. The artifacts, of course, come from other locations.

A note about traffic in Athens:

1.     NEVER step onto a pedestrian crossing unless there is not a car in sight: if you do, you’ll wake up with St Peter at the Pearly Gates. You wait till there is a break, you hurry across halfway and if there’s anything coming, you lift up your arms like a policeman and tell them to stop: they seem to do this (or the have so far!).

2.     Apparently parking in Athens is legal wherever there isn’t something else on that stretch of kerb.

I walked up some stairs leading up to a pretty alley with what turned out to be apartment buildings. Most of these looked like adequate, modern dwellings; however, I thought this one, right in the middle of the nice ones, must have a sad story to tell.