Greece - not your ideal tourist destination...

Greece is a very difficult place to be a tourist in. There are the trivial things, like the fact that you can't read the script, there are no public toilets, and the people always sound like they're yelling at each other (and I thought Germans sounded angry...).

Food is an interesting problem. I went out for a meal last night (on my own), and ran into the issue of "how do I order this?". They have all sorts of little plates and breads, and some things that I think are main meals like moussaka... but most of them seem to have eggplant in them. After staring blankly at the menu for about 10 minutes, I gave up and ordered a greek salad and a plate of gyros chicken, but the waiter laughed at me, so I'm sure I did something wrong. It's not always easy to tell how you should order something :( At least when there are two travellers, they can be idiots together. I'm just an idiot on my own :( Mythos beer is good though!

Athens is an off-white city. The buildings look like they were all painted white about 60 years ago, and haven't been cleaned since. The streets are filthy, and every second vehicle is a motorbike that sounds like it's missing the muffler. Worse, motorbikes speed down pedestrian malls with very little consideration for pedestrians. It's a little scary.

Unfortunately, I discovered yesterday that the Bus Terminals are about 10km north of the city, not accessible by Metro and not on any of the maps - there are a couple of local buses that go near them, but local buses aren't really good for tourists, because they generally don't sign stops so you have no idea where you are. I got up early this morning to try to go to Delphi, but gave up. It was dark, and finding my way to the bus stop didn't appeal. I guess I'm not going to get to do my day trips after all.

Today I took a metro to Pireas, the port... and left again after discovering that it was just a Maccas, a lot of big ships and a few people trying to rip off tourists. I visited the Tourist Office too, and eventually got a map from the rude and unhelpful staff... but it wasn't exactly a great tourist office - nothing on the walls, no brochures and no one interested in helping. Eventually, by cross-referencing the map from the Tourist Office, the Lonely Planet and some information I got from the internet, I think I have figured out that there is a a bus from somewhere on my map to Cape Sounis (southernmost cape of the mainland), where the Temple of Poseidon is. Hopefully I can catch this bus tomorrow.

The day after I am heading for the airport to catch a plane to Barcelona for what looks to be my final country. I wanted to visit Portugal, but the Spanish and the Portuguese hate each other so much that there is only one train a day each way between Madrid and Lisbon, so it would be too tough to fit it in.