Excentricity, just remembered one of my first visits. Travelling around with two locals and stopped at an eatery in some village. In English we were discussing local alcohols to sample, a waitress came to take the order, this seemed to take longer than would be expected. After a while she returned with three tea cups, apparently it was election day and no alcohol is allowed to be served. The tea was about 70% proof.
Used to go regularly Chazz. Lovely city but that was thirty years ago. Take a ferry to the islands, only a couple of hours. Some great ones. Agistri and Aegina really close.
Just booked an holiday in Turkey....does anyone know if you can use euros there?.....years since ive been there!!
Cheers...its just that ive got quite a few Euros mounting up from previous hols!!!..really looking forward to going!!!
Was there a few weeks ago (Istanbul) I used Turkish Lira. Some shops took Euros & US Dollars but certainly not all, so you’ll definitely need some TL if you’re not using a card. To be honest I only use cash for small things and tips etc mostly I use a Monzo card on my phone as you can top up for free and there’s no international charges. That worked well there.
After all that painting, and long hours sat watching it dry, he deserves a holiday. The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.
It’s a lovely city and better to visit in the off-season than in summer when it can get unbearably hot. The Acropolis and Parthenon are unparalleled - similarly the Panathenaic stadium. For first time visitors it’s worth getting the open top bus if the weather’s ok. Haggle at one of the travel agents eg in Monastiraki Square (be v careful there and other touristy areas re pickpockets). If going in January or February check the forecast for snow - rare, but because of that the city and motorways and even some metro lines grind to a halt. (We got caught the year before last and it was six hours from airport to central Athens, and some people were stuck on the ring road motorway all night). If you’ve got a few days, hire a car and visit some of the ancient sites. Delphi, Ancient Corinth, and Epidaurus are all within striking distance. Most islands shut down for the winter, but you could stay in Nafplio and take in Corinth, Epidaurus and Poros (just a narrow channel from mainland), or go skiing on Parnassus, then take in Delphi and some of the picturesque fishing ports on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth (eg Galaxidi).
Just under 3 weeks and I’ll be sat at that bar, sleeping in my new cabin, watching a sun set with a rather large rum in my hand… down to 18/20 degrees but beats minus two any day…
Get Rishi to employ you to negotiate the return of them marbles we nicked Get the trip on expenses then. Easy
Don't understand this cultural standoff between Rish! and the Greek PM. Surely the answer's obvious? They've got half of the marbles. We've got half of the marbles. So the two PMs play a game of keepies. Put all the marbles in a chalk circle. Throw steelies or gollies at them. If you knock a marble out the circle, you keep it. Simples.
If we hadn't taken them, most of them wouldn't exist now, most of the ones we left were chopped up and used for buildings by the locals. It also cost the bloke who took them the equivalent of £5m to get them to the UK.