Athens & Costa Navarino
First of all, I am sorry guys we haven't posted for quite some time. To tell you the truth we've been swamped at work. It's just that simple. Our goal has never been to simply post for the sake of posting. We've always wanted to tell you our story, our point of you, to show you our best pics - you get the idea. Therefore when Saturday after Saturday came and I had written nothing I decided not to post anything (thanks to my amazing Telchac we could at least tell you about our exciting walk with the wolf which btw I wasn't really planning on writing about). Now we're back to talk about our adventures again, hopefully, you'll enjoy what we have for you. Thanks for checking the blog despite us not posting and thanks for reading!
Basic trip details
when: end of August 2018
where: see above ;)
for how long: 5 days
why there: weather, flights and did I mention the weather? and the beach? ;)
There will be three posts in total about this trip (we have lots of pictures, bear with us please :D), the first one, that you're about to read now, sums up our arrival and first day in Greece. So here we go...
Athens
When we arrived in Athens, it was almost the day after - midnight, Friday/Saturday. With hand luggage only and a rental to pick-up, we tried to get out of the airport asap. We did not see much at night, but what we saw wasn't that attractive. Driving from the airport to the centre of Athens, we felt like driving in some abandoned country. The neighbourhoods we went through were dirty, unkept and worn-out. I thought it's going to change once in the city centre. It didn't.
I read that Athens might come off a bit dangerous. Again, I thought people were just sensitive and a bit too much cautious. Lived it, learned it. I was pretty happy that we only drove in Athens, that we could park the car in the hotel garage and did not have to walk. It didn't seem safe at all. The streets were littered from what I saw and there were quite a lot of homeless people.
So straight to the hotel, I mean bed (a day at work, flight and the drive got the best of me). After I woke up, I wanted to give Athens another chance. After all, it's all better in the morning, isn't it?. It wasn't better, just funnier. See for yourselves, the views from our balcony:
Maybe I got it wrong from the start, maybe I expected too much. Well, if you're reading this, maybe you won't.
Btw the police and security (in general) are one of the most heavily armed ones I saw. At first, when I saw the hotel security guy, I thought he was a soldier, but no, just an ordinary hotel security - but they've got their reasons, obviously.
Useful tip: Lock the car when stopping at the traffic lights. We had a couple of guys approach us to beg. Better safe than sorry, right?
The drive
The next morning we planned to finally get to our destination - Costa Navarino which required a short 3-hour drive ;)
Weather-wise - the drive was both sunny and rainy. When sunny, it was too hot and a bit tiring. When rainy, it was a bit complicated as we only had one screen-wiper which we realised only after it started to rain heavily (fortunately, the one on the driver's side was fine, so it was me who did not see anything :D).
Driving-wise - thumbs up! They do not respect any signs, not stop signs, not speed limits, which worked for us especially considering the last police we saw was in Athens. Roads are fine, people mind their own business, no excessive honking or anything that might make you uncomfortable.
Countryside-wise - well, I might be a moron but I expected it to be much flatter than it really was. Driving from Athens to the coast, we were almost constantly surrounded by mountains. We got a few sneak-peeks of the sea after around two hours and we just couldn't wait to be there!
Useful tip: Any refuelling you might want to do, do it in Athens (if you're going for the cheapest options), the fuel's more expensive out of the Athens.
Now, please imagine the cartoon Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. We were the Road Runner after we checked in (also caused by an hour spent waiting for the room) and our only direction was, yep, you guessed it, the beach. So there's not much to talk about here, right? :D So in two weeks, we'll continue to reveal more about our trip, CU then!
When we arrived in Athens, it was almost the day after - midnight, Friday/Saturday. With hand luggage only and a rental to pick-up, we tried to get out of the airport asap. We did not see much at night, but what we saw wasn't that attractive. Driving from the airport to the centre of Athens, we felt like driving in some abandoned country. The neighbourhoods we went through were dirty, unkept and worn-out. I thought it's going to change once in the city centre. It didn't.
I read that Athens might come off a bit dangerous. Again, I thought people were just sensitive and a bit too much cautious. Lived it, learned it. I was pretty happy that we only drove in Athens, that we could park the car in the hotel garage and did not have to walk. It didn't seem safe at all. The streets were littered from what I saw and there were quite a lot of homeless people.
So straight to the hotel, I mean bed (a day at work, flight and the drive got the best of me). After I woke up, I wanted to give Athens another chance. After all, it's all better in the morning, isn't it?. It wasn't better, just funnier. See for yourselves, the views from our balcony:
Maybe I got it wrong from the start, maybe I expected too much. Well, if you're reading this, maybe you won't.
Btw the police and security (in general) are one of the most heavily armed ones I saw. At first, when I saw the hotel security guy, I thought he was a soldier, but no, just an ordinary hotel security - but they've got their reasons, obviously.
Useful tip: Lock the car when stopping at the traffic lights. We had a couple of guys approach us to beg. Better safe than sorry, right?
The drive
The next morning we planned to finally get to our destination - Costa Navarino which required a short 3-hour drive ;)
Weather-wise - the drive was both sunny and rainy. When sunny, it was too hot and a bit tiring. When rainy, it was a bit complicated as we only had one screen-wiper which we realised only after it started to rain heavily (fortunately, the one on the driver's side was fine, so it was me who did not see anything :D).
Driving-wise - thumbs up! They do not respect any signs, not stop signs, not speed limits, which worked for us especially considering the last police we saw was in Athens. Roads are fine, people mind their own business, no excessive honking or anything that might make you uncomfortable.
Countryside-wise - well, I might be a moron but I expected it to be much flatter than it really was. Driving from Athens to the coast, we were almost constantly surrounded by mountains. We got a few sneak-peeks of the sea after around two hours and we just couldn't wait to be there!
Useful tip: Any refuelling you might want to do, do it in Athens (if you're going for the cheapest options), the fuel's more expensive out of the Athens.
Now, please imagine the cartoon Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. We were the Road Runner after we checked in (also caused by an hour spent waiting for the room) and our only direction was, yep, you guessed it, the beach. So there's not much to talk about here, right? :D So in two weeks, we'll continue to reveal more about our trip, CU then!