Greek Holiday - the next day

 The next day was to be the official start of our butterfly holiday with Greenwings Wildlife Holidays. We were all to meet back at Athens Airport at 2.30pm - so me and PB had the morning to kill. We knew the way back to the airport now, and the Economy Hotel let us leave our bags there until later, so we set off to explore Athens in the daylight.

Now that Peter knew that we were in spitting distance of the Acropolis and what-not, he thought it would be rude not to go and climb the hill as far as we could before we had to pay. We set out in the burning 30 degree heat, squinting into the bright light. Taking the possibility of it being hotter and brighter than we could handle into account, Peter had brought along Factor 30 suntan lotion. I had been sceptical back at home if we'd really need that. We never push the factor above 15 usually - and even then stop using it within a couple of days of arriving somewhere sunny - but this day I slathered it on, and continued to do so for the whole holiday.

I was also a bit sceptical about the need for a forced march through the city before joining up with the tour - but Buchanan was determined - so off we went.

Monastiraki Square, just down from our Metro stop, was hoaching with tourists. As we climbed the hill we got a bit more space. We went as far as we could before the official Acropolis entry, and then went for a wander round and about.

We got to the end of a street and saw there were some green areas over a large road so we crossed and found a little park and some flowers and before we knew it we were butterfly hunting rather than sight-seeing!

Well actually, Peter did some butterfly hunting but pretty soon I retreated onto a bench under the shade of a tree and messaged with my sister. We were stationed at the entry to a rather over-grown park and young single men seemed to keep arriving, holding onto their phones. I thought that maybe we were in a Grindr hot-spot; a thought that was further supported by the message that was inscribed on my bench.

Peter was oblivious to the stream of young men entering the park.

This cat was very friendly to me and too lazy to start anything with the pigeons.

Eventually we got moving again and went a bit wrong marching back through central Athens, only to be rescued by my phone again which steered us to the right and got us back to places that we knew. Picking up our bags from the Economy Hotel and marching with them on our backs back down to the Metro in the hot sun was a bit grim and we hadn't left ourselves enough time to grab something for lunch. Luckily I still had one of my big cheese sandwiches left over from the flight. It had survived 24 hours and was now more like a grilled cheese sandwich. We ate it on the Metro on the way back to the airport.

We met up with our Greenwings guide - Sotiris - and our three fellow butterfly hunters in the Arrival Hall and then set off for Delphi.

View from the van on the way to Delphi.

I was delighted to bag the seat furthest back in the van. I couldn't hear all the chat over the sounds of the air-conditioning and the engine noises, so I let my mind drift free watching the Greek landscape swish by.

After 3 or so hours we arrived in Delphi and settled into our first hotel. The view from our room was astonishing; the land falling away from where we were to olive forests and eventually down to the sea. House Martins or swallows darted about in the sky nearby.

We went out for our first evening meal together - Sotiris taking the initiative and ordering several salads to share before our main course. It set the pattern for the rest of the trip. I ordered too much food for my main course and then was full after I'd filled up on the delicious salads and bread - but forced myself to eat everything anyway. The main dishes tended to come with 'potatoes' and what "potatoes" was was a big, lavish serving of chips. However I was brought up to eat all my food. And so was Peter. To our credit, we went easy on the wine; setting a pattern for most of the trip of sharing a half litre of wine with fellow traveller Liz. 

There was a tiny balcony outside the window with a thin metal railing which I did not trust, and a long drop. I stood out on it anyway to try to get pictures of the lovely gathering dusk.