Returning to England....

ALTHOUGH it has been difficult to contemplate (mostly due to my enjoyment of the last week), it is almost time for me to get on a plane and return to England.

There's always a strange feeling of both enjoyment and sadness when you are about to come home as I have discussed before, and I think that whilst perched in the departure lounge of Athens airport as I am at the moment, that feeling is no more obvious than it has ever been.

Thailand in 2009 was the last time that I travelled abroad for a holiday, and therefore I think that my trip to Barcelona and Athens was not only needed but well worth taking. I knew that Barcelona would be a unique experience because of my visit to the Nou Camp, but I don't think I was expecting my visit to Athens to be as enjoyable as it was.

I liken it to a visit to Paris I had back in 2008 when I was quite astounded by the number of things there were to see and do in the French capital, and perhaps I had resisted visiting there for so long because I had been on several trips to France, and let's be honest an hours travel from London doesn't exactly fit in with my exotic travel history!

Athens has been a throughly enjoyable experience though, and one that I would recommend to anyone who was wanting to spend a few days away from home and see some truly unique things.

The highlight of my trip, and you can probably guess because it's been mentioned so often, has to be the view of the Acropolis on the hill. Again, relating it to Paris, seeing it and always having my eye drawn to it as I did the Eiffel Tower makes it one of the standout views of this or any other trip. Due to the Acropolis' nature of being at the centre of the city however it has made it even more attention-capturing, and it has seemed like whether I was right next to it, climbing up a tall hill or visiting other historic sights, the Acropolis has always been there waiting to be looked at.

Whilst I have been here, I have probably taken around 200-300 photos, something which is quite normal for me when I am traveling abroad. I'm not sure if any of them will truly do justice to the views that I have seen whilst in Athens, but I have certainly done my best to capture some, at times, spectacular viewpoints I have had on almost a daily basis.

Returning home, and leaving behind the enjoyment I have had in a couple of days in Barcelona and five days in Greece has only left me hungry to travel further and maybe not leave so long in between my next holiday. Sadly I fear a massive return to 'normality' when I get back to England in a few hours, and those of you who have enjoyed reading my blogs from Spain and Greece don't expect quite so many updates in the near future!

Capping off an excellent trip.... Museums, Stadia and Mountains

REALISING this would be my final days stay in Athens, I was determined to fit in a whole bunch of activities that I had saved/not been able to get round to doing on my trip.

I had planned the final day of my stay here in Athens to be spent on a near by beach and also visiting the Cape of Sounion which is situated by the coast and hosts the temple of Poseidon. Having seen (and felt) enough rainfall to last me a week yesterday and with grey clouds headed Greece's way overnight I felt it best to stay in the city and tie up some loose ends.

My first port of call was decided for me thanks to the time at which things like to close in Athens, so I headed to the nearby National Archeology Museum which is about a five minute walk from my hotel. Reading in the guidebook I have on the city, it describes the museum as "unmissable", and says that any trip to Athens is not "complete" without a visit there.... well here's an idea, open until after 3pm!

Walking up to the museum thankfully the streets were full and there were plenty of people milling around unlike in previous visits so I was pretty confident it was open today. Saying that I walked around and left at about 2pm, by which point they had stopped letting people not only pay for entrance but people who were already in were not allowed to enter certain sections of the museum as they were shutting up shop! Ridiculous!

I have to admit that I am not usually a big one for museums, and the last couple I have been in were probably in Paris when I visited several years ago, or in Stockholm. I have no problem looking around them provided there is plenty of different things to look at, and I don't like to take the attitude that once you have seen one old piece of pottery then you probably don't need to see anymore, but I prefer it when museum exhibits are varied and extremely differing.

Luckily for me, the museum I visited today had plenty of variety. There were different rooms and exhibits for a number of different artifacts which were found mostly in Athens but some throughout Greece as well. I started my tour in the section which contained sculptures (as did most of the first floor) but there was also a separate section surrounding the collection which focused on other things discovered including artifacts, weapons and jewelry.

Heading up to the top floor a few of the exhibits were closed allegedly due to "security shortages." I presume this referred to the large number of people sitting on seats pretending to look official whilst also being on the phone that were scattered around the different rooms. One of them almost rugby tackled me to prevent me from coming in at the entrance after I had brought my ticket. I understand she might have just been doing her job, but you did just see me buying a ticket two yards from your face so the man handling may have been a little unnecessary.

The top floor was mostly concerned with pottery that was found in different places and by the time I had looked around and seen everything I was interested in seeing, I decided to head to my next destination which lay a little outside the city.

Following my visit to the Panatonaic stadium yesterday, I felt it was only fair to get a bit of balance by visiting the complex of the 2004 Olympic games which is in a place called Irini. It would also be the first (real) time I had ridden the subway since getting here. I had expected to be hopping on and off the underground plenty during my time here as most things are located right next to a subway station (perhaps that's why there are no maps anywhere!), but after the first day and realising that I could walk pretty much everywhere, I honestly haven't been too bothered about using public transport.

To get to Irini however it was necessary so I climbed on board at my nearest station in Omonia to suddenly realise that the subway here is pretty popular. As I was heading out of Athens (Omonia is quite central) it didn't take too long for the chaos to subside but being squashed against what felt like every person in Athens wasn't a very enjoyable experience for as long as it lasted. I had to change trains once to get to 'line one' and even then it took me ages to work out where I was supposed to be going to catch a different train.

There's quite a few differences between the Metro in Athens and Barcelona for example. In Greece the price is usually 0.70 Euros for a ticket providing you stay on the same line, and if you need to change then it is 1.40 Euros. There are no barriers as such to enter the station, partly because they are used to so frequently to cross the road, but you do have to 'validate' your ticket before you board. There are huge signs threatening a massive fine should you not have a validated ticket but I have seen plenty of people just jump on board without even thinking about purchasing a ticket.

Eventually once out of the city, the train wasn't quite so packed but soon enough I had hit Irini and the Olympic Stadium. Unlike in England where our plan for the London 2012 games is to use a large portion of the city, most of the Olympic village and its stadia are located in one place. You can see most of the stadia as soon as you climb of the train, and to be honest once you get down at ground level it looks pretty spectacular. Even though it's only seven years since Athens hosted the Olympics in 2004, I would imagine that large sections of the area are now unused.

Walking around the first thing I came upon was the velodrome. Unlike in Korea where everything was just 'open' to walk around in, the doors were bolted but sneaking a peak through the window I could see a few people inside training. Walking around a bit further I found the swimming pools. One was obviously a training area, and again there were a few people in there but the main pool was totally empty (of people, not of water.) Sliding a very flimsy metal barrier to one side (remember I have previous with going inside Olympic Stadiums, particularly abroad!) I was able to take a quick walk around the outdoor swimming area before leaving without a trace.

In the middle of the village there was a huge indoor hall which I presume was used for basketball, netball etc... so it's probably where Team USA somehow got it handed to them by Spain seven years ago. It's often strange to think in such empty surroundings how in the past famous feet would have been walking all around the areas where I was visiting today.

Last but not least I came to a rather familiar sight which is the Spiros Louis, which is the Olympic Stadium, and also where Greek team Panathinaikos play their home games. The stadium looks pretty immense from the outside, and it is very original so I took plenty of photos before heading back to the Metro Station to get the train.

The last place I had planned to head today was to Mount Lykavittos, which as the name suggests is a mountain situated at the centre of Athens and provides excellent views of the surrounding area. Lykavittos is pretty easy to spot from the ground because it has a small white church, named St George's which, makes the peak very easy to spot.

I caught the train back to Akropolis Station which is at the East side of the great monument and close to the Temple of Zeus that I visited yesterday. Following the guidebooks directions I managed to make it to the side of Lykavittos from the Acropolis and then it was a case of following some staircases to get to the foot of the hill. There was a road up to the top, and also the option to catch a funicular (think an outdoor lift) to get you to the summit. I followed some unofficial man made paths to get up the side before eventually joining on with the actual path which by now had become very windy.

At about half way up, even before I had started to climb onto the rock bit of the mountain, the views I was seeing were pretty spectacular. I continued to ascend, stopping every flight of stairs or so to take a picture of my improved very. Two things stand out very obviously from up at that height; the Acropolis and the Olympic Stadium. I think this is probably because they are both huge structures and both made of marble so at sunset when I was climbing up they are certain to catch your eye.

Once you get right to the top, the view is what can only be described as one of the greatest I have seen in my short lift. Athens seems to stretch for miles around and in one direction you have mountains, another there are houses, another monuments, and behind all there there is a view of port of Piraeus and the sea. I could literally have stood up there all day and not got bored of that view.

The sun was still setting at this point so I headed across to another part of the mountain for a different view before returning to the perfect church setting to watch the sun completely disappear behind the Acropolis and the mountains to the west.

As I climbed down, still with the view in mind, it was possible to see the twinkling of little lights coming on all across the city. Several of the postcards I have brought show the view of the Acropolis at night and I was eager to see that it looked like with my own eyes. As I got back to ground level it was becoming dark but the great monument at the centre of the city was out of my view for the time being.

I walked my way past the familiar setting of the stadium and the Temple of Zeus which both looked extremely good illuminated. Grabbing my attention as it always has done since I came here, the Acropolis soon came into view and it wasn't long before I was snapping away and looking for a way to get some elevation to get some good pictures.

Heading back to the sight of my first evenings 'conquest' I climbed back up Akropolis Hill for a great view of the centre of the city, and one of the few things I have seen that has amazed me whilst traveling. I stayed there for half an hour or so, on top of the deserted hill looking out for miles and miles around as cars and people carried on with their evening routines.

Soon I started to become absolutely freezing so I decided it was time to get some dinner and head back to the hotel. Walking through Athens during the day and at night are two polar opposites. The hustle and bustle is still there, but there seem to be a lot more people hanging around and doing business during the evening whilst those who have been busy in offices and shops all around the city are enjoying time with their family.

As I walked back, I started to think about how Athens has grown on me since I arrived. On my first evening here it seemed like quite an intimidating place, but as I have spent time here I have enjoyed exploring and seeing what this city has to offer. Athens has always been high up on my list of 'must visit destinations' and I am glad that I finally made it here after 26 years.

I leave tomorrow with mixed emotions, pleased to be returning to the familiarity of home but also sad to be leaving behind such a historic, varied and enjoyable country. Both Athens and Barcelona have given me plenty of happy memories to take back to England with me, and I would not hesitate to recommend either destination to anyone who was unsure about whether to visit.

Rain, Rain, Go Away and a Unique Stadium

Good Afternoon from a cloudy and dreary Athens boys and girls. The weather that I had predicted for the duration of my stay finally arrived this afternoon as for the first time since being here I got to see how Athenians cope with the rain.

As this is usually the first thing that I type up after I return from my day's experiences, I never get the opportunity to add many things that happen after about 6pm, not that much does, but I did have a rather strange case of Greek food last night which I thought you would appreciate.

On my first night here I did comment how someone who came into the restaurant I was eating at had a chicken and french fries sandwich, and since I have been here I have managed to avoid 'lowering' myself to such a standard. Last night however, I did unintentionally eat something which was just as creative as a university students menu might have to be with the new tuition fees come into operation!

Gyros are a well known Greek tradition and it basically involves bread being wrapped up like a tortilla and being filled with meat and salad. I have eaten them before whilst in Mallorca and also strangely in Korea, so of course it would be kind of normal to eat one whilst I am here. As I searched the block I am staying on for something to eat last night (apparently there aren't too many restaurants nearby) I came across something which resembled a restaurant serving Greek food and I stepped inside to see if I could get myself a gyros.

Managing to communicate in broken English exactly what I was after, the guy behind the counter wrapped up two delicious looking gyros for me before handing them over. I returned back to my hotel, buying a drink on the way to wash down what I thought would, for me, be a relatively healthy meal (anything containing salad should be considered so.)

Much to my surprise unwrapping the gyros back in my room did I discover that what usually consists of chicken, lettuce, tomatoes and onions, actually contained chicken, french fries, tomatoes and mayonnaise!

Not that it lasted long having starved myself since lunch time, but I found it quite funny that after eating a few things, I discovered that what I thought were potatoes actually were, but in a totally different form.

Back to this morning, and with the riots of yesterday seemingly over, I planned to head towards the Syntagma area of Athens which is closer into the 'city centre' and another location where there are plenty of things to look at, and obviously for me, take pictures of.

I wasn't too sure of the route, and with the impossibility there usually is over trying to navigate using road signs in Athens, I followed the route I had used over the last couple of days walking past the sight of the Acropolis and Phyx Hill that I had visited on my first few days.

The first landmark I was looking for was the Temple of Zeus, luckily the guide book I have of Athens is pretty detailed when it comes to describing how to get to each destination it features, and with a good map in hand I managed to make it past the Acropolis and in the vague direction I was heading. During my 30 minute walk to the temple, it had been raining on and off, and luckily I had worn my coat so I didn't get dripped on too much.

As if by magic when it starts raining in Athens, men trying to sell you umbrellas for a couple of Euros come out of the woodwork, and literally as soon as the bad weather goes away they disappear, or at least blend back in with the rest of the population. With the weather like it was today the men selling brollies must have been in and out like cuckoos as the climate didn't seem to know whether it wanted to be wet or dry pretty much all day.

With the use of one of the remaining strips on the ticket I had brought on my first full day in Greece, I was granted entry to the Temple of Zeus which was actually just by the side of the road that I was walking down. Most of the area is pretty wastelandish, but I imagine this is to represent what actually used to be there before time took it's toll. Amazingly standing almost perfectly in the middle is Zeus' temple which pretty much towers above anything else in the area. Walking around I took a few photographs, unperturbed by the weather, and the piece I was most interested in was a section of the tower that had most likely crumbled and fallen to the ground, but was still in pillar form.

By this point the weather was getting quite ridiculous, and most of the tourists who were in the area had scampered towards cover. Determined though I pressed on with the next destination I headed towards being the Panathenaic Stadium, which was the stadium used in the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens. Once again using the map as means of navigation I followed the road around until I came to a huge opening where the stadium sat between about eight lanes of traffic.

Carefully navigating my way across (and sort of running) I paid the entry fee, picked up an audio guide and followed the instructions dished out by the English voice on the device. Usually you have to pay for such things as an audio guide, and I kind enjoy looking around things by myself without being 'historied' to death. In a part of the world like Athens though, there is so much history that I feel like it's quite necessary to learn about the things of structures and buildings that you are looking at.

Following the audio guide, I was taken on a tour up and down the isles of the stadium to the very back of the marble seats and then onto the track in the middle. The stadium was destroyed in the 1930's when Olympic Events were banned from the city but it was re-built in the 1950's and has since hosted the largest crowd for a basketball event during the 1960's and has been a place of Greek celebrations in the last few years. When Greece won Euro 2004 the players paraded the trophy around the unique stadium, and also in the same year when the country held the Olympics for the first time since 1896 the marathon finished in the middle of the stadium and the archery event also took place here.

Walking around (remember my interest in stadiums) I got a sense that the site was a pretty special place. It is the only marble constructed stadium in the world, and naturally that makes it look a little different to any which might have been seen before. Climbing to the back of the rows and rows of seats was quite an effort as the steps were pretty high for my short legs to climb up, and also with it pouring with rain, I was very wary of all the water that seemed to be heading back towards my feet.

It was worth the climb though as from the top, you got an absolutely amazing view of Athens, and once again your eyes are drawn to the Parthenon and the rest of the Acropolis which stands so amazingly on top of it's hill.

After finishing up at the stadium I decided to head towards the National Gardens, a place I had planned to spend the rest of the afternoon, but the weather wasn't exactly suitable for that. Walking along the road I walked past the presidential palace and the parliament building, both of which are on the outskirts of the gardens. Eventually I came to the Syntagma area which seemed to be a hive of traffic an activity at the time I turned up there. The gardens themselves were very well decorated, even in the poor weather. Orange trees, palms and different varieties of flowers seemed to be growing from all different places, I can just imagine what a nice place it would be were it not absolutely tipping down with rain.

Finishing up for the day I decided to head back in the direction of my hotel and try the National Museum of Archeology to see if it was open today. Turning up there it once again seemed very closed so I walked up to what looked like an employee of the museum and was informed that on Monday's its open until 8pm but every other day it closes at 3pm... What is it with Athens and things closing early.

Returning back to my hotel I was about ready for a shower after being truly soaking wet and in need of some warmth! My plans for tomorrow are to head to the museum early before heading out to the new olympic stadium complex and then finishing off the day with a trip up Lykavittos Hill which is where the best views of Athens appear to await me.

The Acropolis, Agora and Rioting

CAMERA charged and at the ready, I was all prepared to head towards Athens all too frequently closed sights that slipped through the net yesterday.

This morning I was prepared to do some serious sightseeing as I planned to take in the Ancient Agora area, the Acropolis and all it's monuments before heading to the National Archeological Museum later today.

First of all, I do find it a little ridiculous that things find it necessary to close so early in Athens. I realise that it isn't quite peak season, and perhaps it has something to do with the strikes in Greece at the moment (I'll come to them later) but with sights like the Acropolis and the Agora closing at 3pm each afternoon, it makes it a really big struggle to see everything that you want to within the limited time that you have.

In terms of what it has to offer, I can only liken Athens to Paris, or even London. There are plenty of landmarks and museums to visit, and in four days there are no chance of me getting to view them all without the aid of Bernard's Watch. So far I have loved every second of my time in Athens so I certainly have no problem with returning in the near future should it be necessary.

This morning I found it rather easier to navigate my way to the station and follow the road from there. It proves that once you become familiar with an area, you soon become confident, and don't even find it necessary to check road signs as you just KNOW you're going the right way.

What wasn't all together reassuring this morning was the large group of protesters lining the street adjacent to the one that my hotel is on, and then half of the roads being closed off to traffic with police lining the streets. I discovered (only when I returned home later) that there was actually a national day of strikes in Greece because of budget cuts by the government. There was a planned protest with around 30,000 people involved and it probably explains the heavy police presence in the last few days. There's something a little ironic about people protesting because of cuts to vital things like education and wages, then discovering that people aren't going to work and all the schools being closed. Anyway, I digress.....

With no cars on the road, the streets were pretty quite of people this morning, which is a shame because I always enjoy Athenians trying to do as many things as possible whilst driving a vehicle. I have noticed that pretty much like everywhere but the US and UK, helmets whilst riding on a motorcycle/scooter seem like an option. It also feels like traffic lights are a mere suggestion of stopping and now that I have been here a few days I have realised that you get about five seconds to cross the road, if you're lucky, with no courtesy time when the light is about to change.

I now feel as if I have accustomed myself to the Greek way of life, and all the hustle and bustle of the pavements, so this morning it was a bit weird to be walking outside and for the to be no traffic. I do wish, however, that I could speak or read a bit of Greek so I could have understood what the protests were about at the time. Of course, I am not expecting myself to be able to learn an entire language before traveling to a new country (I'd never get anyway), but even being able to know simple things like 'please' and 'thank you' in the native language would be beneficial. It's a good job that people here have a good knowledge of English or I would be very stuck!

Walking past Omonia station this morning and towards Monastrassiou it was almost as if there was an air of expectation surrounding the protests. Police seemed to be everywhere, and now I discover that many people were actually on strike so that could explain why there were more people than usual milling around in the various squares. I turned down towards Thissou station and decided to head up to the Acropolis first whilst the sun was shining and before I got myself some dinner.

As the only well signposted thing in this city, the Acropolis entrance wasn't too difficult to find (and considering it's standing on a massive hill, I shouldn't have had any problems!) You begin to walk up the Acropolis before you come towards the gate to get inside the structure, and on the way up there you can stop off and see the Odean of Herodes Atticus, which is a large Greek style stadium that was used by the countries ancient ancestors for theatre and sport. It's quite impressive, and still largely in tact but you get a better view of it from higher up, which is where I then decided to go.

Even though there is only one structure that you are heading up to, the route to get up to the top is still pretty confusing. There are so many paths up to the Acropolis and it's not always easy to judge which ways go up and which go down. It is also senseless following people, as they have just about as much clue where to go as you yourself! Eventually you find the right set of stairs and head up towards the centre of the structure. At the entrance there is a temple structure which gives you a feel of what you are about to experience, but I don't think anything can compare you for the view that you are about to get.

I thought that the whole structure was called the Acropolis, but that is the name given for everything put together, all the temples and the stone foundation it is built on. The tall temple in the middle, probably the most famous part of the structure, is called the Parthenon. Last night when I looked on from Pynx Hill I was pretty confused by the amount of scaffolding that was resonating from the structure itself but reading a sign close-by I discovered that it was part of the restoration of the Parthenon itself.

My first impression was pretty much 'wow'. Just like when I saw the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben for that very first time, I find it hard to comprehend that something which you see in books or on the television is right in front of you. You're able to walk all the way round the Parthenon, and as well as the temple itself there are some exception views of the area around it which only helped to make the experience even more special.

To say this is one of the most recognisable places on the planet, it wasn't very busy up there, and with entry only being about 5 Euros a person, it is easy to see why many people choose this as a destination to visit in the summer when the weather is much better. I was astounded by the columns and the temple itself, but also the view of the rest of the city over the edge of the wall surrounding the Acropolis is pretty incredible.

Looking around for about an hour or so I then headed in a different direction and went towards the Theatre of Dionysos which is another structure that was used for theatre in Ancient Greek times. Again, the fact that this is still standing blows my mind, after all these years it's pretty difficult for us to comprehend that it is still in place. I have always liked the way in which the structure of these theatres looks and even from a few rows back you get a distinct sense of vertigo as they didn't mess around with these structures and tried to fit as many people into them as possible.

I took a brief walk from back towards the Acropolis and headed back down towards the Agora area.

Once again, the Agora isn't greatly signposted and I only found the way to get there having retraced my steps from yesterday and basically looked for the gates which were closed after I returned from charging my camera battery.

This time thankfully the gates were unpadlocked and I was able to have a walk around the structure. The Agora was a marketplace in Ancient Athens and is probably the second best archeological sit in the city after the Acropolis. In the corner there is a museum which shows you a number of artifacts that have been found in the area, and there are also some statues which were constructed and then dug up when archeologists came along in search of clues about the area.

Walking around the grounds of the Agora you can see how everything used to function and where the different areas of the marketplace were. In the corner there is another well kept temple, this one belongs to Hephaistos and was built around 449BC. In the opposite corner there is the fantastically named Stoa of Attalos which is a two-storey building constructed in the second century. It has been restored due to it's age, but I think it is still a fantastic structure.

Sadly the Agora and its Ancient area were beginning to close to I headed back towards the National Museum of Archeology where I had planned to spend the rest of the day. I had been a little alarmed by the number of loud explosion type sounds I had been hearing during the day, and it would be no exaggeration that from the top of the Acropolis you could hear the protesters loud and clear throughout the day. Still. With trepidation I headed back towards Omonia only to discover that the who district had basically been shut down. The metro was closed, banks were shut, shops were unoperational, the only thing that was open was MacDonalds, but even a cockroach can survive a nuclear holocaust......

As I started to walk down the main street towards the museum, it seemed as though there was heavier and heavier police presence as I got closer to my hotel. All of the side streets leading from the main road in Omonia were closed off and very few pedestrians were walking down them. Any 'normal' person at this time would realise it might be a good idea to go back to their hotel, but perhaps it was the journalist in me that encouraged me to carry on towards the museum.

At one of the side streets I saw a number of confused looking pedestrians and almost immediately as I passed the road I saw the sight of a massed herd of people and behind them what looked like a couple of vehicles in flames. As I walked past the next street I saw some more smoke and also a couple of fire engines which were clearly tackling the blaze.

Once more I pressed on until I saw one of the major roads leading to the museum, and up on front of me I saw what looked like the Museum of Archeology, even from a distance I could see that nobody had entered and with the number of people around I figured that it had been shut for the same reason that most of the shops around me were closed; safety.

I sat and contemplated if there was anywhere else that I could spend the day before returning back to the hotel, but the sound of another explosion, this one close by, persuaded me to return back to my safe haven. Since then I haven't heard of much trouble outside of my window, but I also haven't seen many cars traveling down my usually busy road. I presume if there was some problem then I would have been informed of the immediate danger, but fingers crossed the trouble has passed.

I read the BBC News website when I returned 'home' to discover that as many as 30,000 people had marched towards the capital building today to protest about cuts in public services across the city. What had actually sounded like explosions were petrol bombs, and the police had been required to fire smoke and tear gas to disperse the protesters.

Tomorrow I have plans to travel into the city again, and rather ironically I will be heading near the buildings that the protests were aimed at today, fingers crossed those who were on strike are back at work tomorrow and not lining the streets once again!

Back into Athens Looking for Sights....

SETTING back out into Athens about an hour after returning home with a drained camera battery, the weather seemed to be taking a bit of a turn for the worse as most of the Greeks walking through the streets had donned their coats.

It was definitely time for me to put at least a jumper on as I walked back to the Agora area.

With the ticket I had brought this morning I was all prepared to enter the Ancient area which comprises of several things I had hoped to see and also a couple of other different areas that I was interested in taking a look at.

At the best of times, my geography isn't brilliant. And when it comes to map reading, my skills are definitely not up to scratch with the greatest navigators of all time. Whilst I was walking through the graveyard earlier on, I did notice a tall monument on a hill which my eyes kept being drawn to. I thought nothing more of it, until on closer inspection of a map, I actually realised what I was staring at all this time was the Acropolis.

As the most famous monument in Greece, and one of he most famous in Europe, it isn't difficult to spot, but from the view I had you couldn't actually see the monument itself, and seeing ladders and scaffolding hanging off it was slightly deceiving. Walking back to the area I had been in earlier on near, Thessis metro station I decided to start walking up a hill which I presumed would take me to the Agora area.

The path wound round and round and I started to climb up more and more, not really heading towards anything, or so it seemed. Pulling out the guidebook I appeared to be heading towards the Acropolis (which was now closed) and I decided to take a detour through a park that I thought would take me towards the area I was looking for.

At first glance, this just seemed like any normal park with a hill in the middle. The rocks which surrounded it, formed into a very rough looking path, and being the intrigued tourist I am, I decided to climb up to see that this led to.

As I climbed higher and higher, my view of the city became greater and towards the top I found more and more people who appeared to be enjoying the view. Turns out where I was is actually called Akropolis Hill (I discovered this from a sign at the top) and it actually gives you an excellent view of the Acropolis itself from the peak.

Right at the top I was treated to some of the most fantastic views I have ever witnessed in my life, and not only was the Acropolis right in front of me, but I could also see pretty much the whole of the city, including another couple of monuments which were named in my guidebook. I spent some time just sitting up there looking out onto the city, and I really feel like if I lived in Athens then this would be one of the places I would come to often. The hill is around 100m high, not the tallest of all the peaks in the city, but one with an absolutely spectacular view for miles around.

Climbing down the other side I realised there was a bit of a path (presumably I'd come up it using the 'local' route where there was a legitimate path on the other side) and I soon started to walk down this following signs to the Agora. Passing people heading the opposite way, and with gates locked to several museums as I walked along, I got the vibe that something was not quite right, and stopping along the way to ask some touristy looking people they informed me that the Agora and it's ground (which were actually directly in front of me when I was up the hill) were closed at 3pm. Best try again tomorrow then.

It's at this point that I could have just turned round and gone back to my hotel. It was getting pretty late, I had been walking for quite a long time and there were spots of rain in the air. I pressed on determined to find more to do however, and climbing back down Akropolis Hill, I continued walking up the road which had led me to it to see if there was anything else up there.

As it turned out, this was a rather wise decision as I soon came across the entrance to the Acropolis and also that of the Parathaenon which is located in the same area. To the right I saw signs to 'Phyx Hill' which, with a quite glance at my book, I saw was the location of the Momument of Phillipou and also the Theatre of Phillipou. Rain had started pouring by this point, but hey, I was already wet, time to start climbing.

At this juncture I have to say that if there's one thing Athens isn't good at, it's signposts. Unlike Barcelona where the Metro was clearly indicated, there isn't much of a hint as to where things are in this city. Apart from the Acropolis it seems like the Greeks just want you to work everything else out for yourself, and perhaps that is the beauty of the next discovery I made.

Walking along I soon found my way winding up another hill. Through the trees and bushes there were the occasional stone monuments, but nothing which was indicated to be of importance, just concrete blocks as far as I could tell. Nobody else seemed to be walking up this path so I was slightly disturbed as all I had seen at the bottom were stray dogs (something which there are far too many of here.) I persisted and eventually found my way up to the top of the Phyx Hill, discovering that there was, after all, a monument at the top. What was even better was another panoramic view of the city. Once again I wish I had a better camera to illustrate exactly how good this view was as literally 360 degrees round as far as you can see, there was a good view of Athens.

Still outstanding beyond anything else was the Acropolis which was now almost level with me, and even closer than it had been before. Even though it is however many years old, the monument seemed to gleam and despite the dreary conditions whilst I was high up, I decided to stay for a while and take a few pictures of yet another terrific view.

I went searching for the Theatre of Philippou but the gates to enter seemed to be shut so I figured it was time to plod home in the drizzle after what I would consider to be a successful day.

This evening I grabbed myself a bite to eat and spent the rest of the evening updating my blog and also adding pictures to my previous entries. Tomorrow I am planning to head back to the Agora area and then hopefully later on in the afternoon I can go to the Acropolis before it closes on me again.

‘Snap, Snap, Snap’ “Low Battery”

HEARING rain outside my window this morning, I decided it would be a good idea to have a nice lie in this morning (!!!), and after being fooled by an early breakfast in Barcelona I thought that I would scavenge my own food this morning before heading out into the city.

Before I came to Greece I did write down a list of things that I wanted to do and see, but the itinerary style I’d noted them down in the first few days soon went out of the window after about ten minutes.

Having arrived in my hotel after dark last night, I felt that it would be a good idea to familiarise myself with the streets in the same way that I had got here last night, by heading back in the same direction as I did yesterday.
A few streets in and I realised that something wasn’t quite right….

This sounds like a very stereotypical, and ignorant thing to say, but so many things here do look the same. I’m sure someone could say that about England, but seriously, any city which is built in rows and blocks (Yes, you Milton Keynes) might be easy to navigate, but it also makes it difficult should you not have a map and only vaguely know where you are going.

Most of the main roads in Athens are pretty easy to find so as I wound my way down little alleys towards tons of traffic, I always felt like I was going the right way. Sadly that didn’t turn out to be the case on several occasions as I thought I was heading to somewhere familiar, which then just turned out to be another square with a ton of traffic on it.

What made it even worse this morning, was the fact that walking around I was already beginning to get hungry. I dipped into a local Spar (Apparently they have those here) before heading back in the direction I thought I should be going.
Purely by luck I eventually stumbled upon the “Omonia” station which is the closest to my hotel and after buying a ticket I was ready to take the two stops down the line to Thessis which is there my first set of sightseeing begin.

Following arrows this way and that to get onto the right platform I soon learned thanks to a tannoy announcement in English that the line I needed to travel on would be closed between 1-4pm today so my only option was to get my Athens guide book out and begin walking in the direction of the city.

Immediately, this became one of the best ideas I have had.

Walking down the street I began to get a nature of exactly what life in Athens might be like. Chaotic, would be my way of describing it, but with little merchants and shops all over the pavement and paths, it’s easy to forget that you are in a highly developed European culture.

Reading through the book I have on Athens (and I probably should have done this before booking a hotel) the Omonia district of the city is quite run-down and you can see that from the amount of graffiti that is on the walls and the number of pavement slabs which are crooked and need replacing down every street.

Traffic once again played a huge part in my journey. My suggestion to anyone hoping to drive a vehicle down the streets of Athens would be, “just don’t bother”. I usually spend my time walking to destinations with my ipod blasting on full but sampling the sounds of the streets of Athens is deafening enough without musical distractions.

I walked down the main ‘Athena’ street from Omonia station and headed towads the next station which is Monassarium. Down the street I caught a glance at the main market in the city, which was rather grand and looked hugely busy. Best to avoid that whilst on a mission and with a massive bag I felt. Looking in at it though, it gives you a sense of what Athens has always been like. Street vendors selling things to the public without Wallmart and Tescos filling up every nook and cranny with an ‘Express’ version of one of their stores.

Whilst walking around, I constantly feel my eyes being drawn to different sight, each more exciting and intriguing than the one before it. Out of the corner of my eye, the view of a momument on a hill grew closer and closer until I eventually came to a crossroads where I turned in the opposite direction and once again it disappeared into the distance out of view.

The map that I have of the city is about a clear as mud (at least it’s there as apose to any signpositing in Athens at all) but I decided to follow a few people with cameras who were heading towards an ancient looking graveyard just off the main road.
Walking in I brought myself a ticket (and tickets to several other sights in the process) and discovered that I was actually at the Museum of Kerameikos, somewhere on my list of places to visit.

There was a small museum which I walked around and to briefly sum up Kerameikos it was an ancient burial ground where arhiologists found the ruins and gravestones of tombs. Most of the inhabitants lived around 500-550BC but some of them were in remarkable condition.

After walking around the museum, you can walk out into the main grounds of the museum where some of the more well kept gravestones are still in place. Walking through, I was sad to discover that the battery on my camera was dying and almost immediately the damn thing stopped working!

Luckily it was about time to leave the museum, and I decided to return to my hotel back past the market for a recharge of both my cameras batteries and my bodies after a 1000% increase in the amount of walking I usually do on a daily basis.

Athens by Nightfall

SPENDING a few hours updating my blog I decided that it was about time to find myself some dinner this evening. The area where I am staying has been alive with the sound of traffic and people since I arrived so I figured that there must be somewhere remotely decent to cure my evening’s hunger.

As it turned out, I actually went to a restaurant just opposite where I live and enjoyed a traditional Greek burger and followed that up with some traditional Greek biscuits as a desert (what do you mean those aren’t two things they are famous for!)

Being in a new city there is always a lot to take in, and even though I have spent time in Barcelona and know very little Spanish, I feel as though it is even more difficult to communicate in Athens.
Exactly the opposite might be true as the two places I have been, the people I have spoken to communicated with me in perfect English. Perhaps they are just use to ignorant foreigners like myself and have learnt important bits of the language to save themselves some hassle.

I have to say on the language front actually, that whenever I go away (including Korea) it is always ridiculously humbling to hear people speaking ‘your’ language when communicating with you. We seem to have a mentality in England that foreigners are in ‘our’ country and should therefore speak English, but when we go abroad it seems to be the opposite.

I know that a large proportion of the world speaks English, or learns it at least, but going to Spain and attempting to speak something I learned over five years ago, it’s quite embarrassing how much I have forgotten, or if I was stuck, how little I would actually be able to communicate. What I like about ‘foreigners’ is that they will at least try to speak English, we, as a nation, just don’t really bother. I see it at polite when you go abroad to at least be able to say the basics in the language ‘please’, ‘thank you’, ‘hello’, ‘goodbye’, it doesn’t take much effort and I am proud to say in most places where I can I have done my best to communicate in the native tounge with the locals.

In Spain it is a little easier because even if words are spelt differently, you can sound them out and try and prounounce them, Greek is a bit different because I am not sure of the alphabet and they have different ‘symbols’ representing sounds as well as letters. That’s what it seems like from the little reading I have done anyway’. It’s funny that even though I am learning Italian at the moment, and have learnt Spanish for a few years, my default foreign language response is usually in French and occasionally in Korean, something which is even less use than English to them.

One wish that I do have is that I was actually bi-lingual so that I didn’t feel quite so useless when I travelled abroad. If you are immersed in the language you are trying to learn, I feel it is a lot better for you, than just trying to learn the odd phrase or pick up what people say. I think as a nation we probably shouldn’t take language so lightly, particularily in schools as we just see it as something which has to be done in the curriculum. Learning about different cultures, nations and their languages would probably serve us a lot better than the educational tools we are using right now.

After munching down my dinner, I sat and ‘people watched’ for a bit before heading back to my hotel. Night has well and truly set in and there’s something rather intimidating about being in a foreign place when the sun is not out. I did see, however, one of the strangest things I have ever seen in terms of food which is a guy come into the restaurant where I was eating and order a strange concoction in his sandwich. I’m not sure of which language he was communicating in as the man behind the counter was mainy responding to a combination of broken English and grunts. Inside a Panini this customer had a chopped up omlette, cheese, onions and French fries, which were then toasted and taken away…. Work that one out if you can. Would be a bit like putting lasage in a sandwich!

Anyway, I plan to spend of what is left this evening re-energising after a day or travelling and cancelled flights, I look forward to waking up tomorrow ready to see the sights of Athens and everything that it has to offer.

Initial Impressions on Athens

It’s a little different to Barcelona to put it mildly!

Perhaps it has something to do with me being there at a weekend, or perhaps it is just the city itself, but Athens presents a totally different backdrop for my next few days stay than Barcelona.
Not, despite my Yorkshire upbringing, that I am intimidated by the change.

One dramatic thing you notice straight away is the pace of the country. I read that Greeks were supposed to be quite a laid back people, but in Athens that philosophy seems to be out of the window. Everywhere I look something is happening. If ever there was no place for an insomniac, it seems like this little section of Greece would be hugely unsuitable.
There are people gathered in shops, bars and restaurants, there’s an insane amount of traffic on the road and you can just sense the busyness of each and every person that you come across.

Luckily I managed to print off a map to find the hotel where I am staying, but that didn’t make it any easier. Thankfully I am now here and can begin to enjoy my stay in the Ancient city.

On the Move Once Again..

Waking up to face another day after the enjoyment of my appointment with Barcelona yesterday evening, you can imagine I was very much not impressed by having to wake up at 7.00am to begin my travels to Athens.

I figured that I would have some breakfast and then beginning travelling on my way to the airport to catch my flight at 11.30am.

Things turned out slightly differently.

Now let me say this first of all. I was slightly puzzled on Friday when briefly checking my emails before heading down to St Neots I had an email from Vueling Airways to confirm my flight. Bear in mind that I happened to stumble across this email having gone into my junk mail, and just about every detail in the message seemed from my destination, to the time, and including my name being spelt with one ‘l’.

I was slightly puzzled by this but my mum re-assured me that the card which paid for the trip had only been charged once, so instead I concentrated on enjoying my time off rather than what appeared to be a phony email.

Having let myself down by not getting up for the hotel breakfast yesterday morning (Sunday) I was rather glad to have stayed in bed for those extra few hours as that the hotel constituted as a breakfast (it’s free remember –not complaining) was rather less than I expected. Some small pastry type biscuits and a cup of hot chocolate was all that I found waiting for me in the empty reception lobby, not sure if it was the time or the quantity of what was available that put the rest of the hotel guests off.

Anyway, at least I had a little something and was now ready to hit the open road to Barcelona Airport.
I was pretty wary that setting off at 8am, I was likely to be travelling at the same time of the majority of commutors who travel from the area I was staying into the city, so I braced for the worst.
Aside from avoiding one tram this morning, and being able to catch one two minutes later I have to admit that it was a relatively successful journey to the airport with few hitches.

It was from there that things started to go wrong.

Making my way across the airport terminal on a bus to the departures lounge of Barcelona airport I looked, as you do, on the departures board for my flight. Staring at the electronic messages for a few minutes (as if that was going to help) I was rather disturbed not to find my listed on there.

Waltzing over to the Vueling Airways desk, the woman behind the desk serving me immediately picked up the phone after talking to herself for a little while and clearly struggling to find my booking, and before too long it became clear that something wasn’t quite right.
I was shunted from her to another lady who made another phone call and then informed me that the flight I was booked on had actually flown yesterday (Sunday 20^th) at the same time and asked if I had been informed via email.

From there she instructed me to speak to the Vueling Customer Services department which was in another part of the airport and the person who dealt with me there said that the flight had actually been cancelled on 14^th January and that I should have received an email to confirm that happening.
Considering I check my emails everyday, unless another message from them on the date they gave me had landed in my junk mail box (which I rarely check) then I hadn’t been informed.

My initial idea was just to get a flight back to England, but I decided against cutting my losses in this instance and headed back to the departures board. I managed to find another flight with a different airline that was setting off that afternoon and made a beeline for their customer services.

Thankfully I was able to book on a flight to Athens which set off at 12.15pm this afternoon so after all that a disaster was avoided. Due to the last minute nature of the flight that I booked, there wasn’t much sitting around in the lounge before coming here, and it was a case of getting myself a quick sandwich and finding my departure gate.

I was relieved to discover that unlike Easyjet’s budget decision making to cut the frills out of flying, there was food on this plane and I tucked into some rather nice pasta for my lunch before naturally falling asleep.
For once, however, I didn’t sleep through landing, and my eyes opened just in time to see the terrific view out of the window that appeared to be Athens.
The sea around the outside was a fantasy greeny-blue whilst there seemed to be hills and mountains almost everywhere you looked.

Once disembarking the plane and having to wait until 2^nd last to get my back, I was rather alarmingly stopped by the ‘airport police’ and questioned about my visit. I presume that the check was just done at random, maybe they don’t take too kindly to solo visitors from Barcelona.
No idea, but I didn’t take it personally, and eventually I was on my way again looking for the Metro Line to make my way into Athens itself.

Spending a few minutes looking around the airport I couldn’t actually find a clear sign or anything which said ‘Metro’ on it, so I just followed the signs for trains and busses. As it turns out I had actually headed the right way and in the same place as the suburban train was the metro service. I had my direction written down and it was as simple as just buying one ticket and then heading to where I needed to go.

The ride from the airport to my first stop, Syntagma, was about an hour long, and just like in London if you reach the outside bits like Southfields where I used to live, it’s more overground than underground. Once you get into the city it turns more into a metro and the stops become more frequent. At Syntagma I had to change from the ‘Blue Line’ to the ‘Red Line’ and then just another two stops down the line and I was at my destination.

With the experiences of Barcelona in my head, I contemplated getting a taxi, but looking at the state of the traffic and also the distance to my hotel, I decided to walk it following the careful directions I had written down. It took about five minutes on foot through the busy city streets and eventually I turned up at my hotel at about 6.15pm local time

The travelling has once again drained me and I doubt that I will be participating in many activities this evening except sleeping and eating. Such activities will prepare me just fine for tomorrow of course when I begin exploring Athens.

An Audience with Barcelona

SPENDING an enjoyable day in the city was all I needed to get me in the mood for the evening’s entertainment as last night (Sunday) was the big night on holiday for me as I travelled to the Nou Camp to watch Barcelona play Athletic Bilbao in La Liga.

Having managed to navigate the tight streets of Barcelona to pick up my tickets earlier in the day, I was extraordinarily enthusiastic to make my way to the stadium to watch the game. I have been to the Camp Nou before for a stadium tour, but that was in the daylight and without 120,000 other people surrounding me.
The atmosphere for a night game was bound to be special as thousands upon thousands of Catalans hoped that Barca could put their nightmare against Arsenal behind them and returning to winning ways against the team lying in 5^th place.

Real Madrid had won the previous day and therefore it was even more important for Barcelona to win their game in hand and maintain the gap at the top of La Liga. All throughout the day I had been seeing people wearing shirts and scarves of the famous club, it is something unlike I have seen anywhere else around the world if I am honest.

When you walk the streets of Liverpool or Manchester, there is always a divide in the number of blue and red shirts you will see, the same in London where there is no corrolation between the colour of the shirt and the teams which play in the city. Espanyol also play in Barcelona but I have a feeling that they are massively outnumbered by the fanatical support that the city’s ‘main’ club possess, and that was on show throughout the day.

After grabbing some dinner (and causing indigestion by waffling down a pizza and some potato wedges) I headed back on the route I had taken sometime earlier to each the Metro where I would be able to board and swiftly travel to ‘Les Corts’ which is one of five stops around the Nou Camp, and the closest one located to my seat.

Boarding the tram it was pretty clear that plenty of other people had the intention to watch Barcelona play this evening, and as we passed bars and restaurants on the street there were plenty of blue and red clad fans preparing for the game. I exited at ‘Zona Universitad’ and headed to the Metro where I was quite surprised to not see about a million people trying to do the same thing. ‘Zona’ is right at the end of the ‘Green Line’ in Barcelona so therefore it was an empty train for me to climb on, but even as we got to a couple of stations before my stop, there were no more than a few people on the train with me.

Once I got to my destination and headed out of the station, it was pretty obvious that I was not going to enjoy this experience alone. The streets were lined with people, and I hardly needed a map and a compass to lead me to the Stadium. The Nou Camp is pretty subtle as football stadiums go, of course it is massive, and can hardly blend in with the background, but from the angle I attacked it, it’s pretty hidden behind the apartment blocks before shining like a beacon, there is is in front of you.

By this point, I was thrilled to be in range of something I have seen on television so often, and that is the most recognizable stadiums in world football. I always get a special sense of anticipation when I visit a football ground and particularily when I go to watch Arsenal, but this was totally different.

Lining the streets there were plenty of souvenier stalls and people offering snacks and drinks in preperation for the game. I was to enter through ‘Zona 19’ which is basically the outside gate that you have to travel to before getting into the stadium. I walked around for a bit, just soaking in the atmosphere, and as there was more than half an hour to the game, I realised this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Next I was to navigate where I was to head to next, and as I walked around I eventually found ‘Enter 50’ which was the turnstile that I was to head through. Entering there I was confronted by a large number of stairs which wound their way up to my seat. I climbed up, and up, and up, and up, stopping off at each level to gain a measure of the teriffic view which waited me before eventually arriving at ‘Block 526’ which is where my seat was located.

Like a mischevious teenager on his first trip to the cinema with his girlfriend, I was located somewhere in the back few rows. By this point it made no difference to me as I was about to achieve a dream. Just as I stepped out to look over the beautiful view of the arena below, the Barcelona team came out to a teriffic applause from their supporters. I did the tourist thing and took a few pictures before deciding it was about time to find my seat and settle in for the match.

Rows at the Nou Camp go between 1 and 40 on each tier of the ground. I was in top corner of the highest tier about eight rows from the back and after some struggles to find my seat (for some reason the even numbers go one way and the odds go the other, so if you go with a friend and you’re in seat ‘2’ and they are in ‘4’ you’re actually next to each other) I found row 32 seat 16 and watched on as the Barcelona starting eleven was announced and began warming up in front of me.

More excited than a child on Christmas Eve or a teenager the day before their 18^th birthday, I was pretty overwhelmed by exactly what I was witnessing meters from my face. Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, they were all there, with the rest of the squad, and at the other end of the pitch, a team overachieving well in La Liga with a top class Spanish international in their ranks.

By this point, my camera was going into overdrive. I was taking pictures of pretty much everything, including a small bunch of Athletic supporters who were right at the back of the ground next to a giant scoreboard. I wondered if they could see, or even be heard down on the pitch from up there.

As the players headed back to the changing room for what I presume were final instructions, several Barcelona youth teams came out on the pitch to warm applause as I waited with bated breath for the sides to come out.
Greeted by what I can only presume is the Barcelona ‘Anthem’ (of which I know one word “Barca, Barca, Barca”, or does that count as three) the players were roared on by the enthusiastic crowd, clearly waiting to be entertained by their team.

Having watched Barcelona several hundred times on TV, I knew exactly what to expect, and straight from the off, the home side began to get into their passing rhythm. It didn’t take long for the first goal of the match, a good cross from Pedro on the left was headed back by Dani Alves to Villa who slotted the ball home to make it 1-0.

The rest of the half was pretty much spent admiring the play of Barcelona. Messi (of course) and Pedro, were the stars of the show, though I did admire the way in which Iniesta and Xavi kept the midfield ticking over. Some of Barcelona’s passing movements are quite, for want of a better word, ridiculous. The second part of the half was basically attack against defence as Barca tried to walk the ball into the net, they came closest to doing this when Villa hit the crossbar with a sublime chip from a tight angle.

At the half time interval, I decided to go all the way to the back of the ground and take some pictures of not only the stadium, but the superb view which you get from the concrete wall at the back of the tier I was in.
Before I knew it, we were back to the action, and most surprisingly of all Athletic scored and found themselves back in the game.

Some sloppy passing at the back for Barcelona saw Pique commit a foul in the penalty area, allowing Athletic to score with only their second shot on target of the game. Pique was lucky not to be sent off a few moments later when he took out an Athletic player who was running clear on goal. I think the angle the player was coming in on goal prevented the Spanish World Cup winner being sent off to be honest, it was a pretty blatant shirt tug and he “took one for the team” as they say.

As the half wore on, Barcelona got their rhythm back together and only their final passes were letting them down and preventing them from scoring. Messi was denied an obvious penalty after being taken out by two defenders. The move that led up to it was magical as he body sweved three times in the same direction but took on a defender each time, just before he was about to score, two players sandwiched him and somehow the referee didn’t award a penalty.

By this point, Barca fans were getting pretty frustrated with the officials, the white hankies were out everytime a decision didn’t go in their favour, and on the pitch Guardiola changed things to move Busquets from left-back to central midfield. The previously felled Messi got revenge on the spiteful defenders who knocked him to the ground as Villa crossed from the right allowing Messi to get in front of his defender and best the goalkeeper for 2-1.

As soon as Barca scored, that knocked the stuffing out of Athletic and it was quite clear there was only going to be one winner.
The final whistle blew to great applause from the crowd, and I was kinda sad that my experience in the Nou Camp were coming to an end. To ensure that I made the most of my time being there, I decided not to sweep out with the crowds who headed for the streets, but stopping in the stadium for a little I was able to reflect on what a great experience it was to be watching such a talented team in such a fantastic arena.

As I headed out of the ground, I was on a bit of a high (metaphorically and physically) and all I could see for yards around were queues and queues of people heading home from the game. Where there had been cars, motorbikes and busses before the game, there were now Barcelona fans as the traffic tailed back towards the metro station where I arrived.
Even though I appeared to be going in the opposite direction to most of the Barcelona fans on the way to the game, I decided not to even bother trying to wait in the queue at Les Corts and I spied quite a few people obviously walking onto the next closest station.
After about a twenty minute walk I found my way to Saints Estacio, arriving just in time to catch one of the last few metros out of the city. Once I got back to ‘Zona’ there was a bit of a wait for the tram back to the hotel, but still all around me seemed to be Barcelona fans.

Even as I walked back to my hotel there was a couple of people clad in scarves and shirts of the famous Catalan team.

I don’t think I have ever had a night like Sunday at the Nou Camp, and I’m pretty sure that as long as I live, I will never experience another football related moment that meant quite as much as that to me.
I loved every second of my time in the stadium and watching the game took my enjoyment of football to another level. I look forward to the next great experience that I can share with many others whilst enjoying ‘the beautiful game.’

La Sagrada Familia and Park Guell as a Starter....

Ola, as they say in Barcelona (or as I say very badly in my poor attempts at Spanish!)

Just a shortish update on my day in the Catalan capital so far. After last night's efforts to fight the tiredness and stay awake to watch the end of the football, there was no chance of me getting out of bed early this morning. Not even a free hotel breakfast could persuade me otherwise.

It's really confusing at the moment, I know there is only one our time difference between Barcelona and GMT but my watch is so difficult to change that I haven't bothered to do so, and this computer is also still on UK. The only thing which has been altered is my barely used phone, so I have spent most of the day working out what time it is, and where I need to be when.

As I eventually woke this morning, I was delighted to discover that it has stopped raining right outside of my window and the city looked rather sunnier this morning. Forgetting my coat as I walked out of the hotel, I was rather worried but I have managed to stay dry the whole day without having to dive for cover if the heavens opened.

I was still trying my best to find the best route into the main part of the city as last night I did cop out and get a taxi. This morning, being Sunday, after walking past a few shops I realised that as the city of the siesta, there was a large chance that busses weren't running a long schedule and also that the metro is virtually inaccessible by foot.

At first I was just going to wait for a bus and then got it to drop me off at the nearest metro station, but fearing the language barrier I avoided that option and started heading towards the busier part of where I am staying. En-route to working out what I was going to do, I spied the tram rail that I had crossed last night whilst getting some dinner and as it had an automated ticket machine I figured that might be a wise choice.

Indeed it was as once I'd managed to figure out the English setting, a tram turned and off I was headed to the closest station I could find. The tram map is actually quite good because it shows you where the metro station is in relation to the train track, and although two stops closer than the one I chose had metro stations, they both seemed like a bit of a walk, so I bottled that and headed for the one which was right next to the track.

My first mission of the day was to pick up my tickets to watch Barcelona this evening, in fact, scrap that, my first mission of the day was to find food! But after I had achieved that I knew the vague direction I had to be going in to pick up my tickets for the Nou Camp tonight. Unlike when I printed off the directions to my hotel, I actually printed off a map, but don't be under the illusion that it made it any easier for me to find where I was going.

Once I was off the metro I began looking for the name of the street I needed to be heading down, and of course once I'd found that street, I started heading in the wrong direction down it! The main problem was that I basically came out in the middle of a roundabout and had several streets all with similar names to chose from. None of them were exactly clearly signposted either so eventually realising the error of my ways, I used my scouting skills to map read and try and point myself in the right direction. Once again that failed miserably so I re-adjusted and third time lucky came upon the street I was looking for.

Smoothly I managed to navigate down the street I was supposed to be looking to find this ticket office, I was thinking it would be a relatively big facility, as having picked up tickets to a game in Sweden before I was thinking that it would perhaps be a souvenier shop where I could collect the tickets and me on my way.

Sadly it wasn't that simple, and after a frustrated half an hour circling the block to see if I could find this place, I somehow stumbled upon the address of the ticket office and found that, much to my surprise, it was basically at the top of an office block.

When I got up there, after being let in my the manager I picked up my tickets, the two guys who seem to run the business (I'm guessing that by the various bits of Barcelona memorabilia around their office) explained where I needed to be and I headed off to find myself something to eat. Being a bit of a wuss, and not being in the mood to really struggle to find food, I stopped at Burger King which I saw around the corner and thought I would eat my lunch there.

Doing so proved to be a wise decision as this might have been the flashiest, upbeat Burger King I have ever been in. Once again, as in Korea, I am astounded by the fact that people working in such places can speak a level of English, that my Spanish, despite studying is nowhere near.

Heading to my next destination back on the metro I decided to pick myself up a two-day metro card which can be used on the bus, tram, train or metro to save myself some money and went in the direction of 'La Sagrada Familia'.

I wouldn't say personally that Barcelona has any outstanding landmark, but thanks to the advice of my mum I chose to visit this gothic cathedral, as is the closest thing to the Eiffel Tower/Leaning Tower of Pisa that Spain has.

Were I able to attach pictures to this blog at the moment, then I would be able to show you the place I am talking about, until then, you will have to do a google search to prove that it does actually exist! It's basically a cathedral, I believe designed by Gaudi and once described by Oscar Wilde as "the most hidious thing I have ever seen."

It's original put it that way, no building I have ever seen before looks like it with things sticking out all over the place and a set of very tall spires which seem to go on forever and ever. Walking out of the metro station, the cathedral is right in front of you, but at the moment it seems that because it's not peak tourist season at the moment, some facets of the monument aren't exactly looking their best.

From my photos you'll be able to see that there's quite a bit of scaffolding attached to the building itself and there's also no access to the lifts at the moment, which take you to the top of the spires, and basically give you the best view. I walked around inside and took a few photos which was good, but I am disappointed that I didn't get the opportunity to go right up to the top and see pretty much the whole of Barcelona.

I did have a little walk round the edge of the building however and see about a million gift shops which were selling merchandise, not only to do with the cathedral but also Barcelona itself. Being a shameless tourist, I walked through a few and saw what they were selling before eventually deciding to settle on a few postcards for people back home and little else.

With time ticking on into the afternoon, I decided to move on to Park Guell which is pretty close by. Park Guell is another very little known attraction in Barcelona but after spending nearly three hours there I would highly recommend a visit should the opportunity arise. Again, created by Gaudi, the park is a hybrid of a maze (not sure they intended it that way) and a walking tour which allows you to climb up the hill it is based on and get some great views of the rest of the city and out to the coastline of the country.

As I said it was a bit a maze but walking through the entrance it reminded me of DisneyWorld as people flock to have their photo taken next to the tiled statues which were built there. Right at the opening gates of the park there are two what I can only describe as gingerbread houses which mark the entrance and make it pretty stand out for those who can see it walking down the street.

From the subway stop it was about a ten minute walk, but I just followed the crowds of people heading in that direction and also it is quite well signposted. Picking a direction to walk around in, I soon found myself on a windy path to the top of this hill. Stopping ever now and then to take some photos I found it quite difficult to pick a spot to take pictures from, this is mainly because there were so many good ones, and the higher you got, the more you felt like needing to take another one from the new vantage point you had just discovered.

I made my way to the top, or as high as you could go on one side before descending and the re-ascending after spotting a little stone pyramid on a hill that I had spied whilst taking photos from opposite.

I literally did spend about two hours walking around to take pictures, and once at the top I found a nice bench to sit on and stare out at the tremendous view which was afforded to me.

I decided to make my way home after having seen pretty much everything there was to see at the park, but I am pleased with the outcome of the day so far. I am more than excited about the potential of this evening as I attend the Nou Camp for Barcelona Vs Athletic Bilbao. The game kicks off at 9pm, but I am heading out to get myself some dinner in a little while and then hoping to head to the stadium in time to get a few pictures and sample the atmosphere.

As an un-ashamed football fanatic, I have to admit that it is a bit of a dream for me to be traveling to the stadium for a game. The main reason I came to this city was to watch one of my favourite teams play, and now the moment is almost upon me, I have to admit that I am anticipating something special. I know Barcelona weren't at their best against Arsenal in midweek but I expect them to play a full team and take the game to some quite decent opponents.

I only hope that match can live up to my expectations. Depending on what time I return, and the earlyness of my flight in the morning, I hope to be able to update you on how the game was and let you know of my plans for tomorrow, but we shall see.

For now, buenos noches

Ben xxxx

Barcelona-Bound: My Latest Adventure

HAVING spent the last five months working (except weekends, and Christmas, and all those snow days in December, and the day I had off for flu), I am obviously deserving of a holiday!

Rewarding myself for such a work-heavy schedule, I am currently typing this latest entry in my blog from a hotel in Barcelona where I have strategically positioned myself away from the snow and sideways rain of England for a few days.

For those of you who I haven't bragged about it to, I do have a week off due to schools being on half term, and have decided to spend three days in Barcelona before traveling onto Athens, Greece on Monday, and then returning back to England on Saturday.

I set off from Mansfield on Friday night and spent the night at my aunt and uncle's house in St Neots. Catching the train from there allowed me to travel for a much more acceptable price than the three figure quote than I found online when planning my latest adventure.

It's 11.21 in Barcelona at the moment, and it genuinely feels like I have been traveling all day to get here.

My train left St Neots this morning bound for Gatwick airport, I travelled via Kings Cross, braved the tube to London Bridge before returning to the overground train to complete the final part of my journey to Gatwick. I was massive early arriving at the airport, but flying with Easyjet, they seem to be not really bothered what time you check-in for your flight so at least I was able to do that before going through to the departure gate and finding some much needed nourishment (it was at least 2pm by then!)

It's been almost a year since I've been on a plane flying back from Korea, and after the dramas of almost not being allowed on the plane, nearly missing my flight thanks to Russian incompetence, and then returning to find a suitcase had disappeared, I was more than delighted to discover that I managed to make it here with few delays/disasters.

Being a cheapskate (it's the Yorkshire in me) I wasn't too delighted to discover that when booking my flight, Easyjet have some form of paint-by-numbers flight booking system in place these days, I presume, primarily to line their pockets with dosh, and basically rip-you off in as subtle a way possible.

As well as the added extras of being able to choose your seat, book a quick check in, and order in-flight food (all for a nominal fee of course) they have gone with the policy of charging you a 'fine' for taking a bag on board. Not only do you have to pay extra for the pleasure of doing so, but you are also now required to ensure that your bag fits into the small space you will be allocated in a carry-on locker once on board the plane.

I did have a few fears about the bag I selected to bring with me to carry onto the plane (I don't really do traveling lightly) and sheepishly as I was queuing to check-in I moved a few things into my suitcase to ensure that my bag was a little squashier. Having showed the woman behind the desk my bag, she didn't seem overly concerned that I would have any problems.

Only when I was about to board the plane and seeing the guy in front of me basically having to stamp on his suitcase to make it fit into the space, did I feel a bit worried.

Luckily with a bit of a shove I managed to avoid any embarrassment, and discover that another of Easyjet's ploys for cheap flying, is basically not to give you a seat number and basically cause people to rush even more to board the plane so that they can sit together.

Being a relaxed type (bordering on not being bothered), I never understand the whole rush people seem to be in when boarding or getting off the plane. I find it funny how as soon as the plane lands, people are taking their seatbelts off and trying to get their carry-on baggage out of the locker without even a thought for anyone else. I understand it even less if you have a 'reserved' seat and you rush to get on the plane, I personally would rather sit in the lounge than in the cramped space of a plane, perhaps I am strange in that way?!

Anyway, the flight over here was only about an hour and forty minutes so no major struggles, I have to admit that I slept the majority of the way, and my new thing when going on a plane seems to be falling asleep during take-off and landing. Almost like a small child (or my friend Rowan) on a car journey I barely manage to stay conscious during either.

Arriving in Barcelona I wasn't too worried about being on my own and finding my way, after all I'm pretty sure that the standard of English here is better than what I faced upon arrival in Korea. There's a pretty good metro system which runs throughout the city and after collecting my bag I headed to the train station to catch an overground train into central Barcelona before getting onto the metro to my destination.

Both of those bits went without a hitch, and instead of trying to navigate my own way to the hotel with the instructions I had got online, I felt it sensible to catch a taxi to my final destination.

It took half an hour before I could find one (they must be sparse on saturday nights) but after some initial skepticism from the driver about the address I had given him, he eventually dropped me off safely outside of the door.

Now that I am here, I must be honest and say that I am delighted to have touched down and not be traveling for another three days. I don't mind the traveling, of course, or I wouldn't do it, but it's nice as the A-Team would say, when a plan comes together, and in this case you eventually get to your hotel room.

When I did arrive, my body was naturally craving some food so I went walking to find a local supermarket to buy myself some snacks. Most of the restaurants around here seemed pretty closed up and I thought that might be the easiest option in curing my hunger. After eating I did go next door to my hotel to a local bar to watch the end of the Real Madrid - Levante game which I had spied being on as I walked past, and I am planning a reasonably early night to head into the city tomorrow.

My initial thoughts of Barcelona are firstly a delight to be out of England for a while. I'm not one to trash the country that I live in, but somewhere in my body perhaps there is gypsy blood which creates the desire to travel and makes me enjoy being in different places doing different things. I don't class being in Korea as a holiday as I was working, so it will go back to Thailand when the last time I was on an actual vacation away from work.

A dream of mine would be to be able to find a career where I can travel and also work in different places on a permanent basis, but for the time being, holidays like this provide me with the ideal opportunity to experience new things and different places whenever I am able to.

Traveling to different places, however, only increases my desire to watch to travel to even more places and I'm pretty sure that after some time in Barcelona and Greece I will have got the fever to go away again.

I've been to Barcelona before (I think Calella counts) but I am genuinely excited about being here and seeing some of the things I have planned to. Sadly the weather isn't brilliant at the moment, but I am hoping that will not dampen my enthusiasm to get out and see the city in my only full day here. So far what I have seen of the city, it seems like quite a lively place, my hotel is in quite a quiet part of Barcelona but it seems like there are good links with the rest of the city so I shouldn't have too many problems finding my way around.

I hope to be able to update this blog regularly in the next few days, especially as I am actually doing something interesting for a change, but that depends on my access to the Internet. If not, then I certainly intend to type up some entries and post them online when I get back.

Thanks for reading,

Ben x x x