Update (from back in time)

Athens - no resting on your laurels here

Athens looks a bit run down and shabby compared to Auckland, but it is definitely an amazing city. I think the reason I have found Athens so great is because it is so different to Auckland. It is probably not somewhere I would want to live, but it has been awesome to experience the culture for a few days. One thing we've found is that there is a lot of graffiti. It's mostly fine when it's on the streets, but yesterday we saw some on a university building which was really disappointing to see. There are also a lot more motorbikes, which seem to refuse to stop anywhere.

The temples and sights we have seen so far have been amazing. Delphi has possibly been the highlight of the trip so for me, but the acropolis and the national archaeological museum were amazing as well. The view from the top of Mt Lykevittos was incredible, we could see the whole of Athens below us. Particularly in Delphi and the ancient cities of Corinth and Mycenae which we saw today, I've been wishing that I could see everything back about 2500 years ago before anything was destroyed - but it is still spectacular all the same. It is really great having Mr Buckingham as our "tour guide" because he can tell us so much about the history. When you're seeing all these things in person, you can't help but become really interested in the history behind them.

We haven't had too much trouble with gypsies and beggars so far but we did see some in Monasteraiki square where we had dinner every night. We saw a beggar last night who was putting up an act of being really inebriated, which we found really funny to see. Another guy also tried to sell some of us an iPhone 5 at lunch yesterday and showed us only the box. We tried bartering and said we'd take it for €1 - no iPhones were bought that day.

Right now, we are on the bus and we've got the 24 hour ferry trip to Ancona tonight and tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to getting to Rome.

Stewie