Today has taken me to several places around the city. I really am making the most of my unlimited Athens travel pass. Although this does include the busses, I’ve yet to actually use them: the underground is more convenient.

Metaxourgeio is my nearest – including the time it takes to get to the ground floor of my hotel, then to the station and on to the platform, I am just 10 minutes from Syntagma Station. Syntagma is where I started my day: I went to the post office to get some stamps (they’re not sold by the kiosks as there are actual proper post offices here).

Next on my list of chores was ticket collection. My ferry ticket to Syros was pre-booked before I flew out here: all I had to do was get the train down to Piraeus (journey time about 40 minutes) and type me booking number in to the e-ticket machine. Easy! My return ferry tickets will be picked up from the ticket office on Syros itself. No e-ticket machines for the Blue Star Ferries though – I have to show my booking confirmation and passport to a person.

Then, it was on to Ag. Paraskevi – one of Athens’ suburbs – for a visit to the Greek equivilant of Broadcasting House, known as the Radiomegaro. Home to ERT until it was closed last year, NERIT is the current public service broadcaster in Greece. It currently runs 3 radio stations (one of which opened only on Tuesday) and 2 TV channels; with a planned 3 more radio stations and a couple more TV channels on the way too.

I note that the ΠΟΣΠΕΡΤ journalists union has banners still protesting the closure of ERT in a prominent place outside the NERIT building.

After a late lunch at PitaQ, just a short distance away from the studios, I took the underground back in to Athens itself for a late siesta at the hotel.

In the evening, I ventured to yet another new area of Athens: I got the tube to Acropoli station, wandered round the Acropolis Museum (free entry for students) and then went to see a concert at the Oden of Herodes Atticus; an open air theatre on the Southern slopes of the Acropolis.

It was a fantastic concert, to celebrate the union with Greece of the Eptanisia (the Ionian islands). Sitting right at the top of the theatre, I got chatting to some South Africans in the audience and discussed Greece for a bit. At the end of the concert, we got a live version of the Greek national anthem, and I’m quite proud of the fact that I know the words well enough that I could join in with the Greeks when they started singing!

Tomorrow, I’m going to see the Acropolis itself, and I’m going to walk up Lykavvitos Hill.

Bye for now.