Unlike poor old Odysseus I didn’t have to spend seven years floating around the Agean being seduced by witches and fighting the cyclops in order to get home. Neither did I return to a house full of suitors – I brought my wife with me. Mind you the return trip seemed to take an interminable time.
It is hard to believe that we got up yesterday morning in Athens. We had ventured out the evening before for dinner in the Plaka and enjoyed an evening stroll and an icecream among the tourist shops. Following a quick breakfast and shower we headed out to see some final pieces of the ancient settlement of Athens.
It was a lovely warm morning as we walked up the Aerogata Dionysus toward the Pnyx and through the gentle woodland that covers the Hill of the Muses. The sun was shining brightly in a blue sky and the birds were in full chorus.
We sauntered along until we discovered an urge to have one final search for a Starbucks and a coffee. As we trotted along in bewilderment trying to reconcile the map with our surroundings a kind and distiguished looking Greek lady on her way home from church took pity on us and showed us where we needed to go.
Two very expensive cups of coffee and pieces if cake later we were winding our way back to the hotel, regretting that we had only had one night in Athens. We resolved to return as soon as possible.
We checked out of the apartment after a brief chat with Nik, the owner who is from Perth and a good friend of our travel agent at Harvey World in East Perth. The bus stop for the airport bus (X95 if you are wondering) is about 700 metres from the apartments so we walked rather than take the metro. Through careful planning we managed to get our luggage on the bus and get seats.
We passed the three hours until our flight looking at duty free stuff and drinking coffee. From Athens to Dubai is only 3.5 hours and I spent the flight watching a documentary about the history of the Internet. Nothing I didn’t know but it was cool to see people like Marc Anderson.
Unfortunately we had a five hour wait at Dubai airport. We walked the entire length of the terminal. It is very impressive and very big. However, I can’t say a really like it. I thought that maybe I was being xenophobic, since the people were invariably exotic looking to my Western eyes, but that’s not it. I am lots if things but I am not a racist. In the end I decided that it was just that the place was souless and I felt quite isolated from anything familiar. We just didn’t really understand how a lot of things worked.
Finally it was time to board the plane. The graveyard shift at the airport behind us we looked forward to having a sleep. Which we did. I guess I must have slept for seven hours, although it seemed I just shut my eyes and opened then again.
Emirates are quite good. We had been told they were excellent, but I wasn’t overly impressed. Drinks were offered infrequently, even water, and the air crew seemed a little taciturn. I also became annoyed by the promos for Dubai and the fact that every flight began with 5 minute announcement in Arabic and then in English. Subtitles people. Still they got us back to Perth alive.
I won’t detail the tedium of processing through customs and immigration in Perth. I will say that they seem to have streamlined things a bit and, particularly with customs, filter people before they get to the red or green lanes, meaning if you have nothing to declare you now go right on through.
It was nice to get home and find everything as we left it. Kath will go and get the cats tomorrow and I am back to work.
We had a great trip and I haven’t finished writing about it yet. We took 1540 photographs while we were away. You’ll see some of them here soon.
