Athens, Greece

Recently I had a dig at Skopje for all the fake-classical buildings there. And in years gone by I've had more than one giggle at the Americans for believing that history began in 1776. Now I'm in Athens and, well, I'd better keep my big mouth shut hadn't I? This is where Western civilisation began, after all.

As you might expect, Athens is a much more racially diverse place than the former Yugoslavia, and here I had a conversation with a black person for the first time in a couple of months. Admittedly it was only a very brief conversation, on account of the fact that no I didn't want any drugs thank you.

Again I'm staying in a private room in a hostel. (The main reason for me preferring hostels is that I like having access to a kitchen, where I can cook myself dippy eggs & soldiers). In this room there isn't a bed as such; rather, there are mattresses on a raised platform which occupies the whole of one side of the room, and there's a lip at the edge of the platform to keep the mattresses in place.

I only mention this configuration because I forgot it was there one morning, rising in semi-darkness and staggering blindly in the direction of my alarm clock, thinking I was walking across the floor when I was in fact still on the raised platform. Inevitably I tripped over the lip and proceeded to perform a kind of forward aerial half-somersault onto the floor. Fortunately I retain just about enough youthful agility that I managed to distribute the impact paratrooper-style, otherwise I'd undoubtedly have broken something. The one tangible after-effect was a badly bruised toe, second smallest on the right foot. It's still swollen and purple. Yowch.

That bruised toe has put paid to my long walks for the time being, but fortunately I'd already done the tour of all the main Athens monuments. See pictures below.

The Parthenon (obviously). 438BC

Greece's Parliament building (1843 AD).
In classical times, Greeks would argue about how much money to demand from their colonies.
Now they gather here and argue about how much to send to the Germans.

Odeon of Herodes Atticus (161AD)
A theatre on the south slope of the Acropolis.

The Acropolis and Parthenon, seen from the Ancient Agora (6th century BC) to the north.

Panathenaic Stadium, built for the first modern Olympics in 1896AD

Temple of Olympian Zeus (begun 6th century BC)