Any respectable travel guide will tell you that when visiting the Greek Isles, you should do a bit of 'island-hopping'.  A suspicious term, in my opinion, that means dirty ferries, paper bags full of vomit, two hours staring at a few beaches, and then back on the dirty ferry.  I decided to avoid more islands and instead 'hop' from Zakynthos to mainland Greece.  I thought that in order to reap the benefits of the whole experience, I should brave that dirty ferry, and enjoy the crossing, before enduring a four-hour cramped bus journey across Greece, to Athens.

The ferry crossing was relatively painless, with not a sick-bag in sight. Unfortunately, the sea-viewing part was not as picturesque as I had anticipated, it was a tad windy on deck, and I spent most of the two hours removing insects from my face, and un-dread-locking my hair.

Once on the bus, my friend and I settled down to enjoy the Peloponnesian countryside.  It is said to be the 'Garden of Greece' because of its rows and rows of fruit and vegetable fields. A definite rival to Sainsbury's fruit and veg section, I must say. En route, cars would frequently stop and load up their boots from the roadside fruit stalls (run by gypsies).

After about two-hours, the bus reached Corinth.  The bush-fires, caused by the severe heatwave, had blackened miles of greenery, and helicopters flew overhead throwing huge tanks of water on to the hills below.  It was quite a disturbing sight, especially having watched the news coverage on Greek TV.

Once out of Corinth, the bus continued on to Athens.  At this point, I started getting a little worried about the driver.  He seemed to think that it was OK to use two lanes for himself, and was frequently enjoying a good horn-beating session with the other drivers, whilst sticking various fingers out of the window, and shaking his fists.  The journey continued in this way until we reached Athens, and I think I can speak for everyone, when we were more than pleased to say goodbye to our driver.

We checked in to a hotel close to the Acropolis, and once I was able to feel my legs again (who ever invented the bus, and its seating, was probably about two-foot tall), my friend and I went out in search of food. After winding through the labyrinthine streets of Plaka (the old part of Athens) we stumbled across an open-air restaurant that had a beautiful view of the Acropolis.  The waitress, after repeating our order back to us for ten minutes, proceeded to type into a mini-computer-thing strapped around her waist in a bum-bag fashion.  Having sat there for a further twenty minutes, my friend and I suddenly thought 'where on earth was the rest of the taverna?'  We were sitting in a type of outdoor marquee, but with no roof. It was then that we realised the waitress was bringing our food, with no tray, from a kitchen across a busy road on the other side of the street. Forgive me for thinking this set up a little bizarre, if not dangerous!  My friend and I amused ourselves thinking of a staff-wanted advert: 'candidate must have adequate life insurance, crash helmets provided.'

After dinner, of which most was given to the purring cats under our table (how could we resist?), we crawled round a few bars, before calling it a night and heading back to the hotel.  We had planned to visit the Acropolis the next day, and as we'd heard there were quite a few steps to climb before reaching the top, much loafing and rest was needed.  Too much exercise never does anyone any good.

The next morning, after climbing the many steps up to the Acropolis, we took our first look at the Parthenon.  It was magnificent.  All the temples and ruins were huge and towered endlessly above us, and the ancient marble gleamed in the sunlight. We were both breathless (partly due to how exhausted we were from the uphill climb) and in awe of how lovely it was.

Three or four hours later, after we had used up all our rolls of film, and laughed at how many times the guards had blown whistles at us for, repeatedly, climbing over the rope-barriers (well, who wouldn't?), we decided it was about time to make our way back down the steps.

As our 72-hours in Greece's capital came to end, I think that we were both ready to return to Zakynthos, to wallow in the sea and roll around on the gorgeous beaches, and, of course, to continue baking ourselves.  A break in the city was definitely welcomed as we saw more of Greece than we could have possibly imagined, and, in my opinion, Athens is one of the most cultured and beautiful cities in Europe, but three days was just not enough to see and do everything that we would have liked.  It was, however, worth the torturous bus journey (and driver) that awaited us to escort us back to the ferry port.  My three days in Athens opened my eyes to just how gorgeous Greece really is, and I shall definitely be going back.  Whether it's a good credit card bashing in Athens you crave, or a lazy bask in the Greek Isles, this is one holiday destination that no one should overlook.

First printed in Leicester University's newspaper, Ripple, 13th November 2000