the blue horizon

Rethymno manages to strike a balance between nice old town and tacky tourist shithole. I imagine that in the peak of summer it learns a lot further towards the later. Pretty much any avaliable waterfront space in the old town is taken up by a cafe or bar or restaraunt and continues in a loop cafe / hotel / car rental agency as you move further town the beach into package holiday territory. Away from the beach it is a joy to walk through the narrow streets amongst the old venetian buildings where the restaraunts are a bit thinner on the ground and interesting doors seem a lot older than the walls around them. I was in Rethymno for Orthodox Easter which explanied the eratic ringing of church bells from dawn until midnight from every church in town for the past week. If I didn't know any better I would say they were competing to be the most annoying. All the ringing of church bell concluded on the Saturday night with a candle lit march from ???? church to ???? church in the town squar...

Athens has at east one thing in common London. The locals have the same amount of contempt for tourist on the Metro line from the Airport that Londoners do on the Piccadilly line. The amount of death stares I got from early morning commuters coupled with a 27 hour transit made me wish I skipped another month and a bit traveling and went straight back to the UK. Athens is surprisingly average to look at. If I couldn't see ***** at the end of the street the view from my hostel balcony would almost be indistinguishable from that of my hotel in downtown Dubai. Ancient ruins aside the building with the most character I have seen is the unoccupied dilapidated thing across the road. Of course as you get closer to the Acropolis and other touristy bits the buildings get a little nicer but someone with a sense of humour has covered every wall in sight with graffiti. I woke early to try and get up there before anyone else. Mission accomplished. The first thing that really catches your attenti...