Marching boys

I have an evening departure from Athen to Dubai tonight, connecting there to Singapore.  I have most of the day to kill around Athens.

Going out after breakfast, I headed to Syntagma Square to see the changing of the guards.  There were lots of people.  The ceremony was more elaborate than I had expected with a good show of the marching boys!  The guards had different skirted uniforms on today, with a white somewhat-frilled look at the top as opposed to yesterday’s all-khaki.  They are unique military uniforms I think.  While some other Balkan countries have similar traditional outfits, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it carried through into military uniforms.

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After checkout, I wandered around the flea market and the area around my hotel.  Athens seems quite oriental (in the European usage of the word, rather than the English) with its wet markets; covered walkways with household goods, nuts, spices; and now the flea market too.

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I took the metro to the airport.  It cost EUR6 on a new line.  It must be some kind of premium pricing (similar with some other cities worldwide) as the journey to Piraeus was only EUR0.70.

My flight on the Emirates Boeing 777-300 left on time at 1805.  After a very noisy start-up and take-off, a lavish meal tray was provided in economy class.  There was a mezze, salad, dessert, bread roll, cheese and chocolate in addition to the hot meal.  They call it a seven course dinner including the roll and the tiny chocolate square!

We landed into Dubai at 2330 with 3h15 connecting time for my flight to Singapore.