Text book journey. I hate to say this is getting to be routine as something will happen to take the rug out from under me.
However, we got ourselves ready, strolled up the road and waved goodbye to our chums at the bar. We are feeling somewhat flakey from the Ouzo that flowed last night but we will survive. Jump in a taxi to the bus terminal. Bus is dead on time. Journey expected to be approx 2 & 1/2.
Lovely journey along the coastline of Korinthiakos Kolpos, over the man made canal that joins it to sea of Saronikos. Great sea views one side, mountains of the Peloponnissos on the other, dotted with little hamlets and farms. Then we reach the massive oil refineries on the outskirts of Pireas, which is the big port of Athens. Massive oil tanker ships moored out at sea, huge pipes and refineries. The smell gets into the bus and is quite unpleasant.
Then we hit Athens, busy roads, noise, traffic, chaos. The bus terminal is big and bustling with people, bags, taxi drivers touting for business, people selling all sorts of junk that no one seems to want. We avoid them all and find the WC. This is a new ploy. It avoids the taxi touts, gives us a break and allows us to take stock. So, refreshed, we join the queue to get a registered taxi. There are dozens of yellow taxi`s, our driver looks at the address I have written down and heads off at speed through the manic traffic. He is driving, texting and talking on another phone all at once. I have learned to not to look nowadays. Never having been a great passenger, I will one day punch a hole through the floor on my imaginary brake pedal. We duck and dive across Athens and screech to a halt in a backstreet of five story apartment blocks. Washing hanging on balconies, mopeds and cars parked everywhere, babies crying, people shouting across the road at each other, seems we have arrived!