arrival in athens

Again, it's been a while! But I've just had the satisfaction of re-reading my previous blog post and have the slightly smug sense that I called the World Cup pretty well - at least as far as England were concerned. The nation's bloated sense of self-importance on the football field was blown apart once more, and our deified Italian manager was to be found with feet of clay, eventually to be hounded out of the job by the Fourth Estate guttersnipes...

It will be a while before we win a major football tournament - if ever - but I suppose a miracle is always possible. That's pretty much what happened to Greece in the European Championships of 2004, and this is the country I find myself in now, embarking on an Inntravel island-hopping odyssey through theDodecanese - it's going to be special.

But first I find myself in Athens. I love going somewhere - anywhere - for the first time, as there's always so much to soak up. Not just the sights and sounds, but also the 'feel' of a place. Powerful first impressions seem last a long time when I'm travelling, and my initial take on Athens has been entirely positive. It's nothing short of an astounding place, with a palpable sense of history quite literally around every corner - whether it's the looming presence of the towering Acropolis, whose power is undiminished each time I notice it, or stumbling across some magnificently crumbling remains at the end of a narrow street.

Of course, I'd heard tales a few years ago of the city as the smog pit of Europe, gridlocked by fuming traffic, and an utter nightmare to visit. In these post-Olympic days, this is hard to imagine, though I don't doubt that it was true. Today, my first experience was of a gleaming airport terminal and an equally polished Metro system that whizzed me into the main hub of Syntagma with the minimum of fuss and the utmost civility. From here, it was a short change to Akropoli and then a five-minute walk to my modern and comfortable - yet unimpeachably characterful - hotel, the Philippos. After a shower and a beer, it was time to head out and explore...

What I found were swathes of beautiful young Athenians enjoying a typically balmy September night in the tender embrace of the open air. A constant hum of laid-back chatter and laughter filled the streets, and the fantastic al fresco bar and restaurant culture was a sight to behold. My deliberately unfocused 'recce' got me lost a couple of times, but I felt as safe as could be - wandering the lanes as I did, stopping at a streetside taverna for the occasional beer . One such blind alley led me to the square at Monastiraki, and my gluttonous eyes got the better of me as I eyed two Greek fellas' thassanis kebap at a taverna table. Quick as a flash, I was seated at the table next to them and was soon tucking into exactly the same thing. This was washed down with half a litre of ice-cold Mythos beer - all for the fairly palatable price of 14 euros.

It's now 3am local time and I feel as though I could stay up all night, such is the excitement I feel at arriving somewhere new, different and faintly exotic. This would be inadvisable, however: I have lots of discoveries to make tomorrow - I can hardly wait!