Greetings enroute from Montenegro to Trieste, Italy!
After a few weeks of very high temps and sunny days, a cold front is sweeping through (from up North I think the captain said?) and we have had severe thunder and lightning storms. Due to the storms, as well as possibility of wind getting up to 55-60 knots, our call in Kotor was aborted. If we had gone to Kotor, there was a strong chance we would not be able to leave in time for our call to Trieste. As Trieste is a turn-around port (debarkation/embarkation of guests), it is pretty important to get there. As usual, the ship’s team did a great job of pulling together a full day of activities and culinary options. While the Kotor call was only a half day anyway, I am personally glad for a little bit of forced downtime. But before I get to that, let’s chat about Athens.
Very Easy Athens Express Bus X80 (when you know what you are doing)
UPDATED August 12, 2023 to include both Terminal A & Terminal B information.
Technically it is called the Syntagma Express - and that is what you will see on the front of the bus.
Our mission was to get to the Acropolis, to go independently, and hopefully beat the heat and the crowds. Piraeus, the port city for Athens, was my home port of call every Saturday for five months, and I used to know it very well. If I went into Athens, I would walk the 20-30 minutes to the metro and take that into town, which was only a 15-20 minute ride, albeit often full, very “fragrant” and somewhere to be on the alert for pickpockets. My research has talked about the X80 bus that goes from the port to Athens with a stop right near the Acropolis. Although I perused many guidebooks, websites and travel forums, all were somewhat vague and/or a few years old. I have provided some useful links below that still seem current and relevant. Here’s the skinny for Bus X80 for ships docking as of this August 2023 writing:
Cost: €4.10 for all day transit pass that does include the metro, but does not include transport to the airport.
Terminal A Ticket Booth: If your ship is at Terminal A (the main cruise terminal), exit the terminal building. Make a left, and continue along the (roofed) perimeter of the taxi parking lot. Exit on left, (taking you in the sunshine), walking about 5 minutes along the parking lot (likely full of tour buses in the morning). At the end of this lot, there is another lot to the left where the Hop-on-Hop-off buses go. Directly in front of you, past the little gate arms, is a ticket booth that sells the tickets. We paid cash; there is a sign saying cards preferred (oops). The gentlemen selling the tickets will tell you when the next bus is.
Terminal A Bus Stop: Cross across the entrance to the parking lot (rather than the very busy divided road), make a right, and the bus stop is maybe 10 feet away. In this photo, the stop is behind the bush behind the grey car.
Terminal B Ticket Booth & Bus Stop: The ticket booth and the stop at Terminal B are right next to each other. When you exit the terminal buiding, they are both directly ahead of you.
Boarding the Bus: When you board the bus, simply hold your ticket to the ticket reader.
Bus Frequency: Every 30-40 minutes-ish from 0700 to 2100. The X80 only runs during the summer cruise ship season. It is about a 30 minute ride to the Acropolis stop. There are a few stops before this, but probably no one will get out at them. The stop just before the Acropolis stop is Sygrou-Fix metro station.
So how did it go? Overall, easy. We caught the 7:40am bus; unfortunately it seems we arrived just as the tour buses were. However, the line to get in moved very quickly. We used the side entrance by the Theatre of Dionysus. I cannot speak to the line of the main entrance.
TIP: the long line you see is for ticket holders. So if you purchase a “Skip the line” ticket ahead of time, you get to skip the ticket purchasing line, which was about 5 people deep. If you buy a coffee to drink in line, you probably have just enough time to drink it (and you must throw away the cup before going in). If you haven’t purchased ahead of time, cut through the line to the ticket office, purchase your tickets, and get in the entrance line.
When we left, we backtracked to across the street from where we got off the bus in Athens and easily found the stop. Unsure of the timetable, we ended up waiting about 40 minutes for the bus in limited shade. But, once back in Piraeus, very little walking. The Acropolis was our only goal; if you want to take in the Plaka, Syntagma Square, etc. you may wish to metro back to Piraeus and walk (or taxi) back to the ship.
Some helpful websites:
A Little Mess
I wasn't referring to the rubble in the above photo, when I wrote this, but now that I have the photo, do remember the Acropolis is always under construction/preservation. Photos will contain scaffolding.
Koningsdam has been our ship for the last six years, so changing to a different ship is akin to moving house. Finding places to put your stuff, figuring out how it all works takes a little time. You know how it is - you always seem to need the little bits and bobs to make it homey and organized. We’ve been on for 10 days now, and I am still not sure where I have put everything - just trying to get it put away so the cabin does not look like a disaster. And as we are three in the cabin right now, we have extra stuff everywhere.
A Little Stress
Time and energy has been directed to three main areas:
Ensuring H. has a great cruise
Work - I am still working remotely 30-40 hours per week. We had a big deadline this week, so there was some extra pressure there.
Research - (spoiler alert) I am working on six presentations that I will be giving on Seabourn cruise line next spring, and while I have photos of many of the things I want to cover in my talks, there are some extra images and information that I have been hoping to find. Several of the ports are ports that we are only going to while Harrison is with us; so this has been my opportunity. If we go again later, I can wait until later.
This is not a complaint - we are thrilled that Harrison is sailing with us; I am grateful for the work I do for UMBC and I am excited/nervous about the presentations I will be giving. These are all good things.
But, notice what’s not on the list? Running, working out, journaling, sleeping. Basically self care. Eating and drinking are not on the list, but those have been largely folded into ensuring Harrison has a great cruise. I am working on not feeling like I need to keep up with the boys and some days I am more successful than others. And there has been A LOT of walking, with a few days over 20,000 steps. My body is sending me strong messages as I now have a lovely summer cold. So, the packed throat lozenges and cold medicines come in handy. Along with the hot water, lemon & honey from the Lido.
Speaking of honey, I will leave you with a few images from a delightful lunch we had ashore in Argostoli, Kefalonia at Palia Plaka, Agnis Metaxa 2. Local beer, baked feta with honey & sesame, lemon chicken, tzatziki, meat pie, spinach pie and a complimentary dessert of ekmek.
Next week should be a bit slower pace. Bon Voyage & Bon Appétit!
Re-posted August 25, 2024
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