Monday, 3 October 2011

Harrods Bear


Photo: Bit short on subjects today - too much travel.

Day 45: Athens to mid air over the middle east (on the way to Bangkok)

Our 5pm ferry from Santorini, which was rescheduled to 8pm finally turned up at 9.30pm, which meant we didn’t get back to Piraeus port in Athens till about 1.30am and back to the hotel in Athens just before 2am. Lucklily our pickup at the port was there to meet us and the hotel reception was still open when we arrived. The taxi trip was interesting – or should I say fast. I don’t think the kids have ever been in a car doing 140km/h.
After a bit of a sleep in we did some final shopping in Athens before heading to the airport. The taxi driver was great, telling us a lot about the troubles in Greece, working conditions and some of the things the government is trying to do. He told us that the reason behind the recent taxi strikes is that the government wants to deregulate the taxi industry, making it legal for anybody to take paying passengers and meaning the fees the taxi licence drivers have paid a fortune for would be worthless. In the public sector, the government is trying to cut 300,000 jobs. I can see why the locals are angry.
The next few hours is flying, waiting, flying – arriving in Bangkok tomorrow afternoon. Not much chance for any photos today, so I’m not sure what the photo-a-day will end up being. I’ll find something interesting I hope.

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