We felt extremely lucky on the morning of unlucky Friday the thirteenth. Until we realised that due to the time difference between Italy and Greece, we had woken up an hour later than planned, and the ship’s crew were already doing housekeeping. A guy who was currently six cabins down the corridor was about to discover a major mismatch between the number of people on his inventory sheet, and the current population of cabin 118.Nathalia and myself were the closest to being ready, so we legged it down the corridor when the crewman was in the next cabin. When he opened the door less than ten seconds later, Chris was still in bed, and Sunil was packing his bag. The other three beds were all made up, and occupied by our luggage. Chris angrily demanded to know why he had been disturbed so early, and countered some suspicious queries by explaining that he was looking after our luggage for us, now would you please go away, we haven’t docked yet.

It worked – he stayed in bed until about ten minutes before we docked, and the crew were so worried about getting him out of it that they ignored the suspicious evidence that we had left behind. Apparently just before he left the boat (the rest of us were already ashore) the chief purser had another go, but did not prevent Chris leaving the boat.

So having had a very good night’s sleep at Med Link’s expense (which was negligible anyway), we got another free shuttle bus to Patras train station and waited on a train to Athens. The train arrived about fifteen minutes late, and was packed. First class wasn’t, but my conscience was playing on me and I decided that I couldn’t cheat on the Greeks twice in one morning. I’d only been in the country for 45 minutes.

Nathalia, who was entitled to first class travel on her more expensive railpass, took up residence in first class while the rest of us found a few square inches of space at the end of the adjacent second-class carriage. In the tiny space between the door into the main seating area and the door to the next carriage, we sat on three of the four available fold-down seats. To my surprise the fourth one was occupied by the oriental girl from Brindisi.

About halfway to Athens, Chris was spending some time in first class and Sunil was asleep. Slowly, he began to lean over. He’s going to fall off his seat, I realised. I’m not sure why I didn’t do anything about this, but slowly and surely he continued to pivot towards the gangway. Only when he’d gone past the point of no return did I provide an arm to prevent him cracking his head open on the edge of my seat (across the gangway). Then he sort of poured onto the floor, and the seat he was sitting on flipped back up with a loud bang, which woke him up. For some reason falling on the floor hadn’t.

Still not quite awake and definitely not on any planet I know about, Sunil stumbled into first class, leaving myself and the Korean girl, who I started talking to, because I could see she was desperately trying not to laugh. Her name was Mi-young, and she was studying in Ireland.

When we arrived in Athens there were the usual vultures circling. We followed an American girl to the Hostel Aphrodite, which was very well appointed with plenty of showers, internet access, a 24 hour bar, late checkout and no curfew. No power outlets though. John would not have been impressed.

There was only one destination we had in mind, and we were all in agreement, which was a good thing because if we’d done more research (ok, any research at all) we might have differed about where to go. The metro system in Athens is brand new. In fact it’s so new it’s not actually finished yet, but the line to the Acropolis was certainly working and provided a very smooth ride. The public transport network is being beefed up considerably in time for the 2004 Olympics, and the new metro is the biggest project.

At the entrance to the Acropolis complex, we spent several minutes trying to work out the ticketing system, which seemed very confusing. In fact, between the four of us we qualified for three different types of ticket. Sunil and myself were pleasantly surprised to find that European students were admitted for free. Nathalia, being Columbian, but also a student, got the global student price of €6, while Chris had the misfortune of not being a student at all, and had to pay €12.

The area was chocabloc with relics – ancient stone lay all around as if a giant flying brick had exploded. Not knowing quite where to tread, we made our way carefully up the hill. We entered the acropolis itself under an enormous stone archway, unfortunately mostly supported by scaffolding, but at least it meant that the place was being looked after. After reading a few information panels located around the site, I discovered that actually there was a major restoration programme in progress.

We did a circuit around the buildings, the Parthenon, Temple of Athena Nike (whose name is obviously much recognised for its adoption by the training shoe makers.), and the Erechtheion. During the Classical period (450-330 B.C.) these three important temples were erected on the ruins of earlier ones. The Propylaea, the monumental entrance to the sacred area was also constructed in the same period.

The monuments on the Acropolis reflect the successive phases of the city’s history. Some of them were converted into Christian churches, houses of the Franks and later on, of the Turks. After the liberation of Athens from the Turks, the protection, restoration and conservation of the monuments was one of the first tasks of the newly-founded Greek state. This major effort continues today, with the large-scale restoration and supporting of the monuments, which started in the 1970’s and is still in progress.

We descended at sunset and found a place to eat dinner. Walking back to the Acropolis, we turned in the opposite direction and went around the south side, looking or a sound and light show that was mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide. On the way to the Hill of the Pynx, where it was supposedly located, a thunderstorm hit and lightning began to light up the sky. Not the kind of thing I had in mind but it was a pretty good sound and light show, so we found some shelter in a nearby café and watched the storm.

Chris and I decided to order some dessert, which we’d skipped at the restaurant. The café served some really good chocolate cake, but it was pricy, and Sunil and Nathalia were watching their spending. Sunil did so much more reluctantly than Nathalia, seeing as he is addicted to both chocolate and sugar.

“Ummmmmm. This really is excellent chocolate cake” I observed.
“Spectacular”, agreed Chris.
“Look at those huge swirls of chocolate sauce on the top – does yours have that too?”
“Certainly does. This is definitely worth the money. Cheap at twice the price”

And so it went on. Sunil sulked. Nathalia laughed.