It's All Greek to Me!

I arrived excited and ready to go experience all that Greece has to offer. My flight got in at about 2pm. I got off the plane and made it down to baggage claim and collected my suitcase. I went through immigration which was again a joke; they didn’t even check my passport. But I got out to the main airport and took the sky bridge to the train tracks and bought a ticket to the city. I walked down and hung out and waiting for the train to leave. It left about a half hour later. The train ride was decent and took about 45 minutes. The first 20 of which were nice and mellow and the last 25 were a pain. As we got closer to the city center the more packed the trains became. I had a woman stand next to me and stare at me intently saying something in Greek I couldn’t understand. I’m sure it was something like “your young get your butt out of that seat and let me have it”. Just so you know I wasn’t the only young person sitting and she was not that old as to inspire sympathy. But for whatever reason my sitting seemed to bother her. Oh well! I finally arrived at Syntagma Square and got off the blue line metro and changed over to the red line metro. I barley squeezed myself and my bags on the metro when it came but thankfully I got off at the next stop.

I hoofed it up the stairs at the metro station carrying everything; well they did have an escalator at least part of the way. Once I got to street level I followed my directions and found the Athens Backpackers Hostel really easily. I checked in and took the elevator up to 3^rd floor and found my room and 2 of my 5 roommates for the night, Abby, a British girl moving to Athens for school and Elle, an Aussie traveling through Europe. I dropped my stuff and settled in as I would be there for the next 4 nights. I headed back out nearly immediately and went to the local grocery store which wasn’t much but I did get some water, diet coke, spread cheese and more Kleenex. Then I went back to the hostel and dropped that stuff off and checked my email and finished updating one of the blogs. Then I went and cooked myself some dinner. This particular hostel provides pasta and sauces to anyone staying at the hostel that wants to use them. I was stoked as I didn’t have to by any dinner. I made myself some spaghetti with butter and herbs for dinner. It was really tasty and took me back to me ballet days when I used to make pasta like this for lunch before going to class.

After dinner I headed up to the roof top bar that the hostel boasted only to find once I got up there that it had the most amazing view of the Acropolis lit up. I got a beer and then just stood and stared at the Acropolis for at least 5 minutes having a surreal “am I really here looking at the Acropolis” moment. Abby came up to me and apologized for not seeing me earlier as I was standing there by myself. I told her not to worry as I was having a moment with the Acropolis. She introduced me to a few people and I got talking with mingling around. I had a really nice conversation with a couple of Canadian guys and was joined and met another American girl from Arizona, Julie. Julie and I really hit it off and spent the rest of the night talking. She had arrived from Italy via ferry that afternoon and would be staying 4 nights as well. We also talked with Dan yet another Canadian guy (the hostel was like North American central). When the roof top bar closed at 11:30 and the party moves to another local bar for those that want to go I said goodnight and went to bed as I was still not quite up to par but feeling much better. Julie and I made plans to meet the next morning at 10:00 for breakfast and to go to the Acropolis.

The next morning I got up at 8:30 and showered and got dressed and went down for breakfast. I made myself a cup of nasty instant coffee and some toast with my cheese (and one with nutella, dessert piece). I met Julie and we chatted a bit about our plan for the day when a guy came in and said he was a guide that would be doing a 2.5 hour walking tour of Athens for 5 euros. Julie and I talked and decided it would be a good orientation and it was only a couple of hours. So we paid our 5 euros to Michael the cute young Greek-American guide and prepped to go out for the day. I kept forgetting things so ended up running up and down 3 flights of stairs twice in 5 minutes. Once that was all done we left for the walking tour.

We started with Hadrian’s Gate, a large carved marble doorway thing in the middle of the city. No one is sure exactly what it’s for. From there we walked over to the first modern Olympic Stadium (not the one from the 2004 Olympics). We took pictures then walked through the National Garden and stopped quickly for story time. Michael has a monkey story that ties in with post modern Greek history he likes to tell. I can’t remember all the details so I won’t attempt to massacre it. After our story stop we checked out the turtle pond then walked to the House of Parliament to see the changing of the guard ceremony. I will say those guards have to have amazing balance because the ceremony requires a lot of time on one leg. I was very impressed. Unfortunately I didn’t get any picture because I was in the back of a crowd and couldn’t get a good shot. After the ceremony some of the guys stopped to buy a beer as you can drink on the street and then we continued on to Syntagma Square, the cities main square. We walked through the main shopping district with all the normal stores and then into the Palatka district. There we made a stop at, according to Michael, the best Gyro place in all of Athens. You could sit down and eat or buy a gyro to go for 1.70. I got a pork gyro with not tomatoes and it was fabulous. It was my first one ever and I loved it. I ate a ton of the rest of the time I was in Greece.

After our lunch stop we walked to the famous sandal man’s store. He was known as the poet sandal maker who has made handmade leather sandals for John Lennon and Jackie O. They are custom fit to your foot and only 20 – 30 euros a piece. Now is son has taken over the business and he’s retired but the sandals are still made the same way. I took a catalog with me as I didn’t want to hold up the rest of the group. Julie and I planned to come back later and shop around. After the sandal man’s shop we took off to find a Starbucks per a request of another girl on the tour. She collects Starbucks coffee cups from around the world (I thought it was odd too!). Julie and I both thought about getting a drink until we saw the prices. I draw the line at paying 5 dollars for a tall latte. Then we spent some time wandering through the Palatka as a group and then up the hill towards to the Acropolis. We stopped at a climbed up onto rock outcropping that looks over the Agora and there Michael told yet another story. This one I do remember. During WWII the Nazi’s invaded Greece and took it without much trouble. When they marched to the Acropolis there was lone guard standing guard over the Greek flag flying in front of the Parthenon. When the Nazi’s ordered him to bring the Greek flag down and raise the Nazi flag he pulled the Greek flag down and wrapped it around his body and jumped off the edge of the Acropolis. Anyone that’s ever visited the sight knows that it is a big drop and the guard wouldn’t have survived it. There Michael bid us farewell and left us to our own devices.

A group of us made for the Acropolis since we were already half way up the hill and seeing as it is the thing to see when in Athens. Julie and I stopped along the way and bought a drink then headed in just the 2 of us. We walked through and talked and took pictures of each other in front of the Parthenon and other ruins. I had my guide book with me so I read out of it the history of the Acropolis. We stopped and took a picture of a random dog sleeping among the ruins with his head resting on a rock. The Parthenon is corded off so you can’t walk into it because they are doing reconstructive construction. I really wanted to just walk over the barrier and sit in the middle of the Parthenon but knowing it’s not exactly and safe and I would get in trouble stopped me. Julie and I spent a little over an hour just sitting up on the Acropolis and admiring everything and everyone around us. We met up with Ian and Edwin, 2 guys from the tour and finally walked down to see the Temple of Athena and then the theater to Dionysus on the way back to the present. After we left the Acropolis grounds it was a 5 minute walk back to the hostel.

Once there Julie and I took a bathroom break then sat down in the breakfast/common area with a Michael and a couple of other people. Michael during the tour took to calling me Ciao Bella as I was wearing my red Ciao Bella t-shirt. He did this for the entire rest of my visit. A couple of us wrangled Michael into walking us back into Palatka to go see the fruit guys. We had a nice walk and chat with him on the way. When we arrived at the “fruit center” which consisted of a bunch of guys with carts covered in fruit. Michael led us to his favorite guy and I bought some grapes and pears and Julie bought a bag of plums. After some more talking Julie and I took off to go back to the sandal man’s store to shoe shop. I drove the owner nephew nuts trying on about 8 different pairs. The owner of the store, son of the famous sandal maker, talked to us while we tried on shoes. Get this he told us he lived in New York for a while and when we asked him why he said it was when he attended the Parson School of Design!!! The PARSONS School of Design. Okay for those of you who have not idea what that it, it’s a famous design school in New York that has put out some of the top designers and is also the home to the Bravo’s Project Runway. In the end I couldn’t resist and bought 2 pairs of sandals. Yes, the shoe aficionado that I am I bought 2, but they were only 22 euros a piece which is such a good deal. I couldn’t afford not to buy them as Lisa always says. The owner fit them to my foot and put the final nails in. Julie also bought a pair for herself. After that we headed out into the Palatka for some more shopping.

We walked around in the general direction of the hostel and stopped at a couple of shops to try on Greek style cotton dresses and shirts and pants. The dresses didn’t quite work for me so I finally ended up getting a pair of brown cotton pants, kind of gene-esk with elastic waist and ankles and puffy legs. They are really comfortable and not described very well here. I also got a short sleeve white shirt to go with it. Julie bought a Greek style tank in olive green. We continued on and I bought my dad a really nice wallet to replace the one that he bought in Florence was stolen by TSA on the way home. After that Julie and I noticed some strange guy with a pink backpack following us around so we decided to stop at a restaurant for dinner and hope he would go away.

We selected a random restaurant and were getting ready to sit down when the weird guy came close and this random dog freaked and started barking and chasing him away. We stared on in shock at the dog. A waiter led us to a table and when we sat down the dog came over and plopped down next to our table. A few minutes later we found out that the dog was owned by the restaurant owner who came and talked with us. He said her name was Daia and she was usually really friendly. We ordered a mixed grill thing to eat along with some pita and tzatiki. Daia stayed pretty close to out table the entire rest of the meal except when the strange guy came back and she chased him away again. The food was great and we had a nice leisurely dinner sitting and talking and petting Daia. When we finished up and paid we bid farewell to Daia and walked back to the hostel.

Once we got back to the hostel we deposited out bags and went upstairs to the roof bar for the last of happy hour. We hung out and chatted with Michael (the guide), Ian and a newcomer Flo (a German guy, Flo is short for Florien, I think). We just hung out talking about who knows what. I do remember getting Ian’s email as we (Julie and I) would be in Santorini the same time and might try to meet up with him. He just finished his degree in Chemical Engineering which leads me to believe he is very smart but is still kind of ditzy. At 11:30 when the bar closed down both Julie and I went to bed so we would be fresh for our journey to Delphi the next day.

I got up at 8:00am and got dressed and went down for breakfast where I met Julie. We took off shortly after with directions to get to Delphi. We walked out to the main street and hopped on the city bus #24 to the Terminal B bus station. Unfortunately we didn’t see where to buy a bus ticket ahead of time and the driver doesn’t take any money so we ended up not paying for our trip. I swear this was completely unintentional. When we got to the bus station we bought our tickets for Delphi for 13 euros one way. We boarded on about a minute after we bought the tickets and left 5 minutes later. We talked the first couple hours of the trip and stopped for coffee/tea half way there. We got a snack and smuggled some sodas onto the bus when we left again. The second half of the drive was uphill and very curvy and I somehow managed not go get car sick even in the back of the bus.

When we arrived we drove past the sight and to the bus station. From there we followed the street back to the archeological sight and got into the park. There we got our maps and started walking through the big to see is the Temple of Apollo. I got a ton of pictures of everything around and the mountains of Parnassus. Julie and I had a really nice time wandering and after 2.5 hours we walked back into town and bought bus tickets for the 4pm bus back to Athens. We sat and waited for the bus and when it came we boarded. Unfortunately there were too many people and not enough seats so there were about 10 people standing in the aisle. Julie and I were some of those lucky 10. It was by far the worst bus ride I’ve taken so far. The bus made some stops along the way and people got seats. A little more then a half hour in Julie and I finally made our way over to the back door stairs and sat down in the stairwell. After another half hour a girl got off and I got a seat right behind the stairwell. Poor Julie was stuck sitting down there. The woman I was sitting next to said that when we reached the halfway stop she would trade places with Julie and let her have the seat. So when we stopped they traded places and Julie got a normal seat. After that we both pretty much slept the rest of the way back. It was pouring rain as we came into Athens and luckily by the time we got dropped off it was down to a few sporadic drops.

We took the bus back towards our hostel and actually missed the stop and ended up getting dropped off right next to Julie hostel (the Athens Backpacker hostel had 2 buildings, I was in the main and Julie was in the other and had to walk to breakfast and the bar.) So when we made it back to town we stopped off at her room and dropped stuff off then walked towards the hostel and to get dinner at the café/restaurant that had an owner that looked just like Geppetto from the Disney cartoon Pinocchio. We had a great dinner of tzatiki and pita and moussaka. It was uber tasty and very relaxing after our bus ordeal. When we finished dinner we headed back to the main hostel and checked email. I drank my mini bottle of champagne that Giovanni gave me and talked with Robert one of the hostel staffer’s. Julie and I both went to bed early with a plan to meet up tomorrow and do errands.

I got up the next morning and dressed and met Julie at breakfast at 9:30. After we ate and had our coffee I got my laundry and we walked over to the “hostel” laundry mat and dumped our clothes in the washing machines. There was a woman there waiting for her laundry so we asked her to keep an eye on ours and we walked around the corner to a travel agency and bought our ferry tickets to Santorini. We figured since we got on so well and we were going to the same island we would go together. We got our tickets from a grumpy travel agent and walked back to watch our laundry spin. We sat and talked and read our books and did laundry. We met a nice guy, Leon, from New Zealand that was staying in our hostel and I grilled him on things to see in NZ. When the laundry was finally done (11 euros later) we folded and dropped it back in our rooms.

We spent the rest of the day wandering. We wandered around and got some lunch at a local café. I was super hungry so I had a traditional cheese pie, which was pretty tasty if a bit on the dry side. Of course that could just be that one café. After we walked through the Palatka and after a few wrong turns found the entrance to the Agora. We went in and walked around and admired the ruins and talked about random things. I got some great pictures of the ruins, temples and even a really early Christian Church that was built on the sight. After a couple of hours of wandering we headed back to the hostel through the Palatka and stopped at the famous gyro place that Michael first brought us to. We actually sat down and had dinner there. It was just as amazing sitting as it was standing just more food and more expensive. After dinner we walked back through Palatka searching shops to find Julie a swim suit. She mad the mistake of mailing her’s home from somewhere else because she wasn’t planning on coming to Greece and changed her mind at the last second. So we were on a mission to find some suitable for a beach. After some trial and error we came up with a black body suit thing and boxers. It was the end of the season and there wasn’t much in the swim suit department.

Once that was accomplished we headed back to the hostel and hit the roof top bar for a beer. There we met our friend Flo and his new Swiss friend Muki (yes, pronounced Mooky). We sat and talked and unfortunately drank at least one shoot of Ouzo forced on us by Flo. I’m not sure about you and no offense to the Greeks but Ouzo is simply the most disgusting alcoholic beverage I’ve ever had to drink. It’s simply awful. After that we headed down to pack our bags and go to bed early. We had to be up and ready to leave by 6:30 at the latest to catch our 7:25 ferry from the harbor. So I said my goodbyes and goodnights and went to my room. I repacked all my freshly laundered clothes and got everything together. I got ready for bed when all the girls in my room arrived and I actually got to see everyone in the room at one time. Of course this occurrence prompted a group picture with one of the girls camera’s with the promise to send a copy to everyone she got an email for (and side note she actually did send it out a couple of weeks later, I was very impressed). I crawled in bed and went to sleep about 11:30.

So I didn’t sleep at all well that night. You know when you’re really nervous about over sleeping so you wake yourself up every hour or 2. Well that was my night in a nutshell. I finally got up at 5:30 and got dressed and packed my remaining stuff up and left as quietly as humanly possible. I got a wave from one of the girls as I left. Oops! I went downstairs with everything in tow and checked out of the hostel. I went to go out the front door only to find a random dog laying sleeping right in front of the door under the step. So here I am at 6:15 in the morning, the sun is not even up yet trying to step over this dog while hefting not only my backpack, and 15 lbs spare back but my 45 lbs suitcase. It was comical to say the least. And amazingly when I dropped the suitcase next to the dogs head he didn’t even open an eye or flinch. I’m not sure if I previously mentioned this but there are random stray dogs roaming all over Athens and Greece in general. If you are scared of dogs do not go to Greece on vacation.

I went and med Julie at the metro station. Me being the anal person I am I was there 5 minutes early with all my bags. Julie arrived and walked over to check out while I went downstairs and bought our metro tickets. We boarded the red line train and took it to Omonia as directed then got off and changed to the green line headed for Piraeus aka the harbor. We got on and took a seat with all our stuff. As it was only 6:45 the train was fairly empty. When we made it to the harbor we got off and wandered towards the ferries. We had to take a sky bridge thing over the really busy street between the metro station and the actual ferries. We found our boat and boarded dropping all of our luggage off in the cargo hold. We went upstairs and snagged some cushy “airplane” seats. I got up and hit the bakery on board for a croissant and coffee for Julie and I. Then we snuggled in and ate and drank our breakfast. When that was done we tossed the trash and each took a little nap. I think we woke up about 3 hours or so later. Not to worry it was an 8 hour ferry ride. We chatted, I wrote postcards and journaled. Yes I do keep a daily journal of events which is how I can write this with such amazing detail even a month after it has occurred. At lunch time the ferry boasted a Greek fast food chain called Goode’s so we headed over for lunch. I had a strange pasta carbonara, not bad just not quite what I had gotten used to in Italy. Julie had something safe like chicken nuggets. After our lunch we headed back to our seats and pretty much read our books the rest of the ride. Before I knew it we were pulling into Santorini and running down to the cargo hold to collect our bags and escape the boat. We arrived in Santorini with a hoard of other people (or at least it seemed like a hoard, I later found out the season was over so this was nothing compared to the usual summer crowd). We disembarked and found our hotel shuttle driver waiting for us with sign in hand.

I will say I did love Athens and all there was to see and do there but I was so looking forward to a little beach and R&R in Santorini. Stay tuned for the rest of Greece coming soon!