Sifnos to Athens, the end (09/12/2009)

On our last day in Sifnos, the weather was finally sunny again. We didn't have much time to do anything, though -- I walked down the street to the bakery to buy some pastries for breakfast while Carl tidied up our apartment. We took a few pictures of the place, and then it was time to leave for the ferry.

The ferry ride to Piraeus (port of Athens) was interminable -- hot and crowded. When we arrived in Pireaus, we thought it would be a simple subway ride to our hotel, but of course the subway was out of service at that part of the route, so we had to take a crowded and confusing shuttle bus ride to another stop on the line. We finally made it, though, and dropped off our bags at our hotel in time to walk to the Acropolis at sunset.

We didn't make it in time to actually get into the Acropolis, but were able to walk around the outside of the grounds (you can actually see quite a bit). Carl was surprised that the Parthenon was still covered in scaffolding like it was when he visited Athens in 2001. I guess some things take a while. We also saw the brand new Acropolis Museum, again only from the outside, and a Greek wedding taking place that was WAY fancier than ours.

We walked through Plaka, which is a very touristy part of the city, and I was having a hard time adjusting from quiet island life to a crazy city. Remarkably, in this huge city, we ran into the couple who had been staying next door to us at Dana Villas in Santorini! The man had twisted his ankle there, and when we saw him in Athens he had gotten a walking cast and was using crutches, the poor guy.

We had an unremarkable dinner and then had a drink at Bretto's, a very visually appealing bar we had seen earlier in the evening. The decor there features bottles filled with different colored liqueurs set against backlit walls all the way to the ceiling. We walked back to our hotel and enjoyed a last drink on the roof deck, which had a view of the Acropolis.

The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, and took the subway to the airport. Fifteen or so hours after getting on a plane in Athens, we arrived back at home. We got married, we didn't get sunburned once, and we took over 1600 photos: all in all, a successful trip. I hope you enjoyed following along!



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