Monday: to Korinthos (Corinth)

The suggestion from the travel guides is to go to Corinth early in the morning or later in the afternoon. The heat of the day can be really tough.

So, of course, we slept in and left just before noon to get there in the afternoon.

Our train to Corinth was under construction, so we hopped 3 different trains, and then 2 more buses. So 3 hours and a lost pair of sunglasses later, we finally arrived in ancient Corinth.

After a late lunch, we made it to the archeaological site to find out that on Mondays, it closes at 3:00. It was now 3:15. The guides all said that it closed at 8:00pm. Closing at 3:00, was apparently its winter hours. And, apparently, June is winter? By the way, todays high was close to 100 F.

So, with nothing to see, I decided to buy a new pair of "Ray Ban" sunglasses from a roadside stand. Since, most likely, real Ray Bans don't squeak when you open them up, I talked the guy from 15 Euros down to 10. I'm sure I still got ripped off, but it was fun seeing the look on his face when I made these brand new Ray Bans squeak over and over again. Kiki and I had a good laugh over that situation.

A near-death taxi cab experience got us back to the train station in time to catch an early train back to Athens.

We were able to go meet some missionaries at a refugee project in downtown Athens. Apparently, muslim refugees are leaving Iraq and Afghanistan by the truck loads with no place to live and no job to work.

While talking to the missionaries, we got an invite to travel with some of them the following day to visit some ruins. Of all places, ancient Corinth, of course.