Athens

Pictures: 1) greek flag on acropolis, 2) in front of one of the acropolis buildings, 3) a church from the 11th century, 4) the flag up close, 5) the temple of Hephaistos (460 B.C.), 6) the church again, 7) on a mountain of rocks in the ruin grounds, 8) in back of the Temple of Hephaistos, 9) some pretty flowers in the gardens, 10) on top of the acropolis

Today was fabulous!! I LOVE Athens! The sun was shining all day and I wore capris and a short sleeve shirt and even got a bit warm while hiking around! The change between this and London weather is incredible. Lol

Charlene and Esther left early this morning, but I’ll meet them later in the week in Santorini. I woke up at 10:15 and got ready for the day. The two boys were sleeping like rocks…they must have stayed up late at the party downstairs because I didn’t fall asleep until after 1:30 am (my body thought it was 11:30 because I’m still on London time) and they still weren’t in the room. I then took an apple I brought from London and some of my homemade banana bread down into the lobby where I sat on a swing and ate. After that I got my stuff together and headed through the streets browsing the many shops and stands on my way toward the Acropolis. I bought a Greek pouch purse (slings across the body and is large to fit things), some small souvenirs/postcards, and a pair of earrings. I was looking for a UK to Europe plug converter, but apparently all the places that sell stuff like that are closed on Sundays. Guess I’ll have to wait until I go to the airport.

Anyway, Charlene said that it was 6euros for students to go to the Acropolis, but when I showed them my international student card, they let me in for free! I was pretty psyched about that. I walked all around it for several hours, looking at all the ruins from thousands of years ago. I saw some artifacts in the museum (on the ruin grounds and also free) that dated to 1400 BC. I didn’t pay too much attention to most of the dates, but trust me when I say it was all VERY old. Haha I was in awe the entire time. The view from the top of the Acropolis is 360 degrees of all of Athens. The breeze up there was very nice.

Everyone here is so friendly (though I did talk to a lot of other tourists). I met a couple from outside London who were here on a around-the-world cruise. It is 3.5 months long and they are toward the end of it (having started west across the Atlantic, through the Panama Canal, to Hawaii, Australia/New Zealand, Japan etc). We chatted for several minutes and they took a picture for me with the Parthenon. I feel much less self-conscious asking someone here to take a picture for me than in England. People just feel friendlier. For example, after seeing everything at the Acropolis, I walked to the botanical gardens. Upon entry an older man asked if I’d like to have my portrait drawn and I said “No thank you” and then he said “where are you from?” And I said “the states” and he said “everyone is from the states lately” and I said “well I’ve been in London for three months if that counts.” And he was talking about how gross London weather was and asking me how I liked it here and such. The thing was, he seemed like he wasn’t making conversation in the hopes of me buying something - he was just being nice. I think he had a bit of an English accent actually, so maybe he was from there originally.

Later, as I walked through the gardens of palm trees and orange trees (I really wished I could have picked an orange but I didn’t want to get in trouble) and a man started talking to me in Greek asking me something. I was so excited to be mistaken for a Greek person! I said “I’m sorry I don’t speak Greek” and he said “Oh, sorry! Where are you from?” And I told him and he talked with me for a minute (he was looking for the coffee house in the gardens) and then he asked me if I’d like to get a coffee. I told him I didn’t have much time but thanks anyway and off I went. (To be fair, I had sunglasses on - when they can see my blue eyes I think they don’t usually think I’m Greek, but still, I was excited).

After that I walked back by the restaurant where we had dinner last night. Our waiter, a younger guy named Lucky, was there and recognized me and said “are you hungry?” I told him I couldn’t afford to eat lunch and he said, “no, no, on me.” Well, how could I say no? He brought me 2 pitas with chicken, taziki, tomatoes, and lettuce. I am still ridiculously full! He gave me his number and asked if I wanted to do something during the day on Monday when I get back from Santorini, and I said maybe. While he probably has a small crush on me, he seems like a really nice kid and completely harmless (he’s working there and going to night school for architecture). Mario, the older guy who works there said “Lucky is nice kid. He’s good boy - best one here. All the other waiters are jealous of him talking to you.” haha

After that I just walked around a bit more and came back to the hostel. I’m meeting a girl named Sophia from Athens in 20 minutes and we’re going to hang out. I met her through couch surfing. All in all it has been a great day so far! Will add a bit more when I get back tonight.

I am back now. I met Sophia and her boyfriend Niko at 6:30. They were awesome! I had such a great time with them! We went to a little coffee shop where we sat outside with the setting sun on us and chatted for a good 2 hours. Niko grew up outside of Tampa (his parents moved there when he was young) and he went to school at University of South FL (same as my mom!). He then lived in DC for a while and somewhere else I think before moving back to Greece. Sophia is a freelance reader for a publishing house and she said they are looking for young adult books for girls! She said when I finish my book to send it to her and she’ll see what she can do! She also teaches Greek to people who live here from other countries. We talked about politics and war and books and movies. It was so lovely. Then we walked back to my hostel so I could put some jeans on (as it was getting chilly) and then we took the metro and met some of their friends at a bar. We stood around and chatted some more. These people were couch surfers as well. Everyone was so nice! Niko said “Don’t worry, your water is on me.” This seems to be a common joke no matter where I go. Lol

After that we took the tube somewhere closer to where I live and they got dinner and I got ice cream (still being relatively full from lunch). After that it was 11:15 so I decided to come back to the hostel (they were going to meet other friends at a different club with live jazz music..which would have been cool, but I was exhausted).

It was so great to meet them and they are going to hook me up with friends of theirs in Santorini that I can meet up with at some point. They are also going to see if any of their friends in Athens will be around when I return here on Monday so I have somewhere to stay. I think I may stay here a few more days if they can find me somewhere (they’re going to be traveling in the Balkins) because I LOVE Greece.

I’m leaving the hostel in 2 hours to catch a bus to the airport and my plane to Santorini leaves at 5:30 am. I’m not sleeping tonight L . This will be the first all-nighter I’ve ever pulled. Hope that bed in Santorini is comfy!!