Hello Johannesburg

Friday, 13 April and Saturday, 14 April

We're home at last! Travelling to Greece has been an amazing experience. There are some things I won't miss (Greek toilets that mostly can't take toilet paper, taxi drivers who drive like hooligans and butterless bread) And there are many things that I will miss a lot, like the people, buzzy and historic Athens, the gorgeous scenery and the relaxed feel of the islands. All in all, the good definitely outweighed the bad :) Anyway, let me tell you about yesterday:

We woke up in Athen's Central Hotel and went for breakfast in their dining room. It was a buffet and tasted delicious. After breakfast we went to the reception and asked them to phone a taxi for us.

Breakfast

The taxi driver was a woman and she took us to Lycabettus hill, which is the highest hill in Athens. You can see the whole city from there and it even overlooks the Acropolis. We bought a two-way ticket for the funicular to the top and then realized that it was only going again in 25 minutes. We had to be book out of the hotel by 1 o clock, so we didn't have much time. We decided to be calm about it, though, and went for a walk in the gardens on the hill. We saw lots of wild flowers, like poppies and even met a man who had discovered over 500 species of wild flowers in the area.

Walking in the garden

Red poppies (I was playing with the special effects on dad's camera)

Then we got on the funicular and took it to the top of the hill (it was inside a tunnel the whole way) Lycabettus hill is incredible! The view is amazing- they say on a clear day you can see an island that is over 20km's away. It wasn't that clear, but we did see the sea. It was Good Friday for the Greek Orthodox church. They had all the flags halfmast (which they do when somebody dies) and church bells were chiming across the city the whole day. There is a church with a bell on the top of the hill and occasionally that bell would take up the duty of ringing. Unfortunately, it started chiming when we were up on the hill and, boy, was it loud! When the time came for us to leave, we took the funicular back down and then went to hail a taxi. We managed fairly easily and went back to the hotel to finish packing.

Funicular

View from the hill (Acropolis in top right corner)

We checked out, left our bags in reception and went to have lunch. We ate at a little street cafe to soak up our last bit of Athens atmosphere. Everyone agreed that we should share a pizza and a plate of chips. It was really yummy!

A street in Athens

Lunch

Then we went back to the hotel where our transfer was waiting. They had 2 taxis for us, so we had to split up (mom and me together and dad and Ash together) When we got to the airport, Nellie (the lady from Fantasy Travel who had picked us up from the airport on Thursday) was waiting for us. She helped us check in and then we said goodbye.

We went through security and Ashlyn set off the metal detector so she had to be searched (afterwards she told me that it wasn't that bad) We sat in the waiting room until it was time to board. On the plane, Ash and I entertained ourselves by playing backgammon (mom & dad bought her a mini magnetic one), reading and listening to music. They brought us dinner and I chose the mild chicken curry. The whole meal is one of the best aeroplane meals I've had: the curry was yummy, the veggie salad was very nice and the pudding--a sort of cream filled pasty with chocolate on top--was delicious!

We landed in Dubai after about 6 hours of flying. Then we had to get on the airport shuttle bus and drive a further 15 minutes (yes- that's how big the airport is!) to reach the terminal building. Once we had gone through all the legalities, dad took us to the lounge which happened to be on the other side of the airport and so took us almost 20 minutes to reach. It was worth it though, because we had to wait about 7 hours until we could board the plane to Joburg. I blogged, ate some of the buffet, brushed my teeth and then slept on one of the couches. I managed to nab about 3 hours sleep before mom woke me up.

Blogging in the lounge

We boarded the next plane without a hitch and were soon taking off. The flight was from 5:00 and we landed in Joburg at 11:15. I spent the whole time watching movies: We Bought a Zoo, Pirates of the Caribbean (number 1) and Hugo. They gave us breakfast and I chose the mushroom omelet. In total, from the time we arrived at Athens airport to the time we landed at OR Tambo, we spent about 22 hours getting home!

So, I guess this brings us to the end of my blog about Greece. Thank you to everyone who read my blog- hopefully there will be some more holidays to write about in the future!

Greece has been amazing!

Your faithful blogger :)