21-22 June 1984 - Bus back to London

Thursday/Friday 21/22 June/June Passed through Yugoslavia, going right into Belgrade this time to pick up someone who didn’t appear. Some nice tree-lined streets, and the electric trolley buses look far more modern than the Russian ones. There are condominiums of strange shapes. [One of the passengers, at the Greek-Yugoslavia border check, was a bit drunk, fell over outside the bus and cut his hand on the whiskey bottle when it broke.]

   Yugoslavia – some nice country, especially in the north, where it looks like the Austrian lowlands; we crossed the border into Austria (for a can of Coke [that is, going through the Yugoslav checkpoint]) and arrived in Salzburg when it was dark – along the river the buildings, and the castle on the top of the hill, were all lit up. 

Austrian Tourism shows Salzburg at Night.

 We went through Munich about midnight – it was very well lit up, and there’s more to it than I remember (e.g. a rubbish bin on the corner of a pavement) [We went there in 1970 - I remember that the streets were dug up to build the U-bahn for the coming Olympic Games. The U-bahn started operating in 1971]. Frankfurt early morning (the Airport), Brussels about midday. We had about an hour and a half to spare, so I went with Steve of Bradford up to the shopping area and the old square. Nice place, Brussels, lots of murals. Then to Zeebrugge to catch the ferry to Dover, which fortunately wasn’t as crowded as the crossing before.

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Well, this ends my diary for the Greek trip. I arrived in London in the evening of 23rd June. My UK diary is another 120 pages in an exercise book, but I'm not going to blog it at this time - maybe next year when it will be 31 Years Ago Today, and who knows, maybe I'll have picked up my slides from Australia by then. At least I can go back to concentrating on  the Doodle Book Archives.

  On the 27th I picked up a hire car and drove around the island of Great Britain - down to Land's End, around Wales, and as far north as Loch Ness (I think that's about the furthest north I went), and eventually back down to London.

  I met one of the fellows who had been on the Trans-Siberian Railway, albeit in a different group from us. He was working at the Youth Hostel in Bangor, Wales - however, it was full so I had to find another place to stay (a rather more remote Idwal Cottage Youth Hostel). Pity, because he was a very interesting fellow.

 I had the car for a month. In London, I mostly stayed in a Colonial Club house in Willesden Green, with the idea of getting a job somewhere, but I really wasn't pressed as I had already decided to go back to Japan. So it was another month staying there, visiting people and places and seeing some some shows - I even saw some friends in the Australian Youth Orchestra perform at the Royal Albert Hall (29th August) - and old school friend David Morgan was there, too, taking time off from his violin-making studies in Mittenwald, Germany (and I had missed his letter to me, so I didn't go to visit him there).

   I also went to the first match (25th August) of the 1984-85 football season, Arsenal vs Chelsea at Highbury (early kick off). I flew out of England on 30th August to Winnipeg, Canada, and stayed with Bernie Beare, my 6th Grade teacher From there I took the trans-Canadian Railway to Vancouver - that was a great ride.

  I arrived back in Australia on 7th September, and went back to Japan in the middle of December on a working holiday visa.

 

20th June 1984 - Getting out of Greece

 Wednesday 20^th When I eventually got out of the hostel, I caught a trolley bus to Sintagma Sq. and left the pack at Fillenilon St at the Eurolines office. I then went to the National Gardens and was accosted by three female Greek Jehovah’s Witnesses, two of whom could speak English. I suppose the other one spoke Swahili and Sanskrit to cover possibilities. The Gardens are near the temple of Olympian Zeus (30^th May), so from there I went to the Plaka district, looking at the souvenir shops. One fellow invited me in for the special 50% off all marked prices – the items were marked double that of the same items elsewhere (mostly), so I bought everything in the shop, I couldn’t resist such a bargain. But I walked around and went to the telephone exchange to call home, but other people had been waiting two hours for calls to the USA and Oz, so I didn’t.

A shop n the Plaka district, thanks to Matt Barrett

  I went to a dozen or so banks to buy sterling, but no, so I bought guide books for Mycenae and Knossos instead (300ΔΡX), and wrote a quick postcard home to use up my last Grecian stamps.

   Some kids came up to me while I was sitting writing and started cleaning my boots. They wanted 500 (005 written backwards on the kid’s hand) for the service, but I gave them 50 and 50. Then I went up to the Eurolines office; the bus left at 2.00, went to the bus station staying there for a while for some unknown reason, and took ages to get out of Athens. Eyes started stinging because of the cigarette smoke. Picked up an Englishman, Steve Firth, in Thessalonika late at night.

19th June 1984 - Back to Athens

Tuesday 19^th June  480ΔΡX is the price of a bus ticket from Delphi to Athens, and the bus left at 9.00, so by that time we had packed and consumed matinally a breakfast. The bus came and continued eastward, under Parnassus and through the mountains. Ken and Chris got off in Livadia, and at about 12.30 the bus arrived in Athens. I caught a local bus to Sintagma Square (the conductor lit up when he learnt I am Australian) with a couple of American girls. I walked around for a bit and then caught a trolley bus to the Youth Hostel, where I had a short sleep, a shower and started reading The Silmarillion, which I had bought from Ken for 150ΔΡX to read on the bus to London. [I have no memory of ever having read The Silmarillion.]

The stadium, thanks to MMTaylor 2000

   I had some spaghetti and meat at the hostel for dinner, and went down the plaza mentioned ages ago. I tried several ice creams for dessert. Then along 28 October Street, up around behind the museum and into Areos Park (again). Many people go there in the evening; kids, from very young to very much older playing football or catchies with a basketball; older people sitting, watching, walking: an excellent park, with its hedge-lined paths and huge oleander trees.