Writer Robyn Skinner continues her travel journal from Patras, Greece.

After catching my breath from sprinting across Venice for my travel buddy's watch, boarding the ferry was an event. This was no high-speed ferry from Hamilton to Dockyard. Greeting us, and quickly relieving us of our backpacks, was a bow-tied crew member who escorted us up the escalator to a reception area that looked more like the entrance to a high-end hotel. We were certain we were in the wrong place, but the crew didn't throw us out, instead they helped us with our bags to our cabin. What service!

We shelled out for a cabin because the trip to Patras, Greece, was going to take two nights and sleeping on the floor just would not work. Luckily, we were able to get a good deal because the ferry was relatively empty, so two nights' accommodation and transportation to Greece cost us about €200. The plane ticket alone would have cost us more than that, and with more time than money we chose the ferry ride.

The trip proved very comfortable, with lounges to escape your room to have a cup of coffee and a balcony outside to watch your arrival into port. Or at least that was the plan until we arrived in Patras around 6 a.m. in the pouring rain. It was the type of rain where you cannot see more than ten feet in front of you not a problem if you have money for a taxi, but without it we had to hike out of the port.

I say hike, because it was close to one-and-a-half miles miles before we could find an exit, and then it was another mile or more to the hostel we had booked! (I'm going to segueway this trip into the backpacker's workout video).

Needless to say when we finally got into our room, we were soaked and exhausted from lugging our heavy bags, so we collapsed into bed for a few hours sleep.

Just our luck, the sun came out for the rest of the day, but there really wasn't much to see in Patras. We climbed up a hill to see a castle, but it was closed and after seeing the largest Greek Orthodox cathedral in Greece, we were at a bit of a loss with what to do here (and we had booked our hostel for two nights!).

So after wandering around I decided my mane needed some taming and with nothing really better to do I set out to find a hairdresser. After about 20 minutes I saw a salon that was quite modern and one of the hairdressers even spoke English, perfect! But after telling her what I wanted done and after we agreed on the price, she disappeared leaving me with a woman whose only language was Greek and, well, I don't speak a word of it!

It was a nerve-wracking 90 minutes, filled with lots of nodding, smiling, and sign language. During this time my travel buddy also decided to abandon me, taking the bag with my wallet in it to find himself a gyro! After sweating about walking out with a mohawk, I was also left fearing I wouldn't be able to pay for it either! Luckily my travel buddy found his way back just as she was finishing my cut, my hair was not purple, blue or red and it was a bit shorter so overall a stressful, but decent experience.

After enjoying a Greek salad (love the feta cheese loaves they give you) we had to decide what to do for the next two days since we had already reserved the hostel for two nights. The town of Patras is located on the Peloponnese peninsula and there are a number of historic towns to visit so the next day we decided to rent a car. Apparently, you need an international driver's licence to rent a car in Greece.

We, however, did not have one so after questioning a couple of places we found a woman who swore to us up and down that we only needed our i.d. to take the car. We were not going to argue, but after we finally negotiated our way out of town we realised that we may have made a mistake.

Drivers are crazy in this country! The shoulder, which is usually reserved for broken down vehicles, was the slow lane!! After a number of angry beeps from trucks and tractors my travel buddy caught on to the Greek rules of the road, and after about two hours of this harrowing affair on the shoulder we arrived in the birthplace of the Olympics Olympia.

In ancient days, city-states would civilly stop all fighting by calling a sacred truce and travel to this site for the Pan-Hellenic Assembly.

At this spot, where ancient athletes would become gods, the Olympic flame for today's games is still lit. It was a beautiful, forest ensconced site with an impressive Temple of Zeus one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and an area where cheating athletes would have their statues erected to be forever ridiculed for breaking the rules of the sacred games (maybe the modern games could learn something?).

After wandering around the site, which also includes an outdoor athletics arena, we decided to visit two of the three museums (one is dedicated to recording how they excavated the area and did not sound the slightest bit interesting).

Fortunately, both museums were free to enter (as a tribute to some Greek woman who died), otherwise I would have been a bit disappointed. The Museum of the History of the Olympic Games in Antiquity was the most interesting and a definite stop in, but I would give the archaeological one a miss it's a bit repetitive and the stories about the games are far more interesting than the statues they have tried to reconstruct.

It was only three in the afternoon when we finished at Olympia so we referred to our map to decide what else we could fit in.

Against the suggestions of the tourism office in Patras, we decided to try and cross the entire Peloponnese peninsula to visit Mycanae, which was ruled by legendary Agamemnon (the movie Troy anyone?) and Nafplion which is described as a tiny Venetian town surrounded by blue waters.

No problem for me, I wasn't driving! Almost as soon as we started climbing the mountains, dark black clouds came over, the wind picked up and hail suddenly started pelting down. This was coupled with large branches falling in the middle of some of the windiest roads I have ever seen!

This lasted for almost three hours and by the time we reached Mycanae I had motion sickness from my travel buddy careening around mountainous roads and we were five minutes late for Mycanae's closing time. The women working there could not be sweet talked by my travel buddy so we decided to wait them out and try to storm the ancient city when they left.

To kill time we headed down the hill to the Tomb of Agamemnon, which was also closed, but not so heavily guarded. We were not going to let that car ride be in vain so we jumped the fence (really we would have paid if they would have let us) and were at the very least able to visit the tomb, which was shaped like a pyramid but wasn't much to write home about.

After realising the castle would continue to be guarded through the evening we caved and decided to push on to Nafplion.

We arrived with about 15 minutes to spare before sunset, which is best viewed from the top of the 18th century Palamidi fortress. The only problem? It's 999 steps to the peak. Who needs a stairmaster when you have this kind of travelling?

The sprint to the top was worth it. We had an amazing view of the bay with a tower on a tiny island in the middle. When the sun was finally down we descended into the streets of Nafplion, which are lovely, and we were truly regretting staying in Patras. After a great Greek dinner with my mound of feta again we had to jump in the car to get back to Patras at a decent hour.

The next day we still had the car so we decided to rise as early as we could and drive to Delphi and see if the oracle had any good advice. There are two ways to get to the mainland of Greece (where Delphi is located). One takes about three-and-a-half hours and the other takes about ten minutes over the longest suspension bridge in Europe. We decided our time was more important and took the bridge. What we were not expecting was the $20 toll!! Talk about supply and demand.

After getting over the shock of the toll (which we also had to pay on the way back), we revelled in the drive along the coast and when we reached Delphi the sun was still shining. Surrounded by sheer mountains this hilltop was a mecca of the ancient world.

Here the priestess of Apollo would relay the prophecies of the gods and from the view you could see why the gods would send their messages here (the earliest séances!). There is still a perfectly preserved theatre and stadium where the Hellenic games a smaller version of the Olympic games took place. Like Olympia, there was a museum attached to the site and we decided to buy the inclusive tickets. Waste of money. The site was beautiful but the museum really added nothing to what you saw and experienced among the mountains.

As we started running out of time it was a quick picnic and then jumping back in the car to return to Patras. After fearing we would be late for the rental agency the woman was actually late for us. Returning the car on empty (as most car rental places weirdly provide them, so it's a sweat when you pick up the car until you find a gas station) we hopped on a four-hour bus ride to Athens.

Next stop: Athens, Greece.

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