6th May - England Colchester -> Athens

Awake 07:00 to head to the train station for around 08:45. James was pretty shattered due to starting his packing at 00:00 that very morning, preparation, that's for losers! The trains were wrecked, so we had to get a bus from Colchester to Ingatestone. Ingatestone appears to be very primitive much like something out of "The Village", somehow sheltered from the rest of the 1st world. We then finished up with the train from Farringdon to London Luton, where a shuttle bus was provided to connect us to the airport. There was a unusually strange girl who could have been mistaken for being dead on the train. Although one guy took it upon himself to answer this very question by shaking her violently and waking her up. Instead all he got in return was a zombie like mumor, and it was only then we realised he didn't actually know her personally. Most left the train, except her who probably remained there until the end of the line.

England - Primative Ingatestone

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Loving customs, as having nothing to check in sped up both departure and arrival. Although my bag technically was too big for overhead baggage no one seamed to double check, so all was good!

Greece - Athens airport on way to Zorbas

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Greece - Athens airport yellow taxis mercs

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As soon as we exited the airport, a wall of humidity hit us. Bear in mind that it was 21:00 local time! By 11:00 the temperature was still registering at 22c in the street; i think that the heat simply doesn't leave the city and retains an ambient heat that is more suitable to Lou and Bridget than my snowman self!

From the airport, a ridiculously long journey ensued to reach Athens central. This is not because the choice of airline carrier was motivated by price alone and therefore dropped us off at a disused military base. It would appear that Athens is simply a spralling city, particularly when we had only a limited idea where our hostel was. Our instructions were from Omonia Square, which is where it seemed that we had been deposited by the airport shuttle bus. Our map showed the entire city in half a page of A5 so only had room for precious few road names. From what was masquerading as Omonia Square, we absent mindedly walked in what would have have been the wrong direction anyway before eventually realising the mistake. It did, however, present an opportunity to observe the Egyptian embassy and many other grand buildings of unknown name, all of which including as standard a security guard weilding a sub machine gun. This was nothing compared to the 'guerilla in the mist' guard donning full camouflage in a hedge within the fenced compound of one building!

Back at 'Omonia Square' we saw a huge sign saying Syntagma Square and edited our position on the map. From there we fairly easily found the real Omonia Square and followed the directions from there. What was touted as a '10 minute walk' was in reality a 20 minute hike. We struggled against the temptation to call it a day and figure out a new plan and were eventuall rewarded by the sight of an oasis going by the dubious name of Zorbas.