ATHENSSSSSS

Captain's log, supplemental. Stardate 2011

I'm the only one motivated to write blogs around here. Seriously guys. I'm sure people are tired of reading me.

Hokay so. Athens, well, let's see the most recent post is Venice so I'll start from there. We had a lazy day in Venice, Andrea wasn't feeling well, we did some laundry, went to the market, etc. I watched Top Gear... We got to our It left the station at something like 6pm. The first train ride was fine. Uneventful in fact. I lost my camera. I watched the train that held it leave the station, so I asked around and decided to deal with it when the station was actually open. The second train was a bit trickier. First a quiet young man said he had the 6th seat in our cabin (one we tried to get for Neha since she booked later), so we politely asked him to switch seats with her, and he obliged. Then another young man came and said he had the 6th seat in our cabin (on we tried to get for Neha since she booked later), so we got of the train to find a conductor, found the 1st young man, helped him find his seat, asked the second young man to take that seat (he didn't have good english so he ended up offering to take it) and then we settled in for our 7(?) hour train ride.

It was horrible. The worst expirience of the trip. We're spending 7 sleeping hours on the coldest train known to man. Everyone had a jacket on, and most of the girls had a towel. I don't think anyone of us slept for or than an hour consecutively. We were not well rested and I was miserable.

So then we're in Brindisi. I end up being directed to a cop about my camera. He makes a bunch of phone calls and ends up with nothing. I filed a lost/stolen item report, but I don't think anything will come of it. So in Brindisi we walk around the city for a while. We end up in a small square where a few us laid down to nap. We moved into a cafe after a while and charged some electronics while we had gelato. Then we moved to a pizzeria where we had lunch. Then we moved back to the square while we waited for a shuttle to take us to the port. We waited a long time because apparently Brindisi observes siesta hour(s). We played heart while we waited. I won.

Suddenly. Rain. It was rather heavy at times. We got off the shuttle at the ferry (we were looking for a large boat and we found it), but we were told we needed to be at the ticket office which was a solid 400 yards away... in the rain. So we made it there, got our tickets, and started to walk back, but the nice shuttle driver saw us and gave us a lift back to the ferry. We boarded and got settled in for our 18 hour ferry ride. We all ended up in the airplane style seats even though we only paid for two seats. I did a lot of sleeping. I watched a movie at some point. I didn't go outside for a view until the last 45 minutes of our trip, but I still got some fantastic views. We landed finally having spent two nights on the road... in Patras.

So after a bit of questioning (and staring blankly at Greek signs) we started our trek to the bus station that would get us to Athens. We got there got our tickets, and apparently Marianne wanted something salty in her mouth. The bus ride was nice. Neha and I listened to music on my iPod to pass the time (2.5 hours of hectic Greek high way driving). So finally in Athens. We get off one bus, then get onto another. We end up in Omonia (pronounced a lot like pneumonia) and the girls, who recently have become worse with directions and maps than the 3 stooges, led me around the square for 10 minutes before I arrested the map from them and got us to our hostel.

The hostel was nice. Private room, private shower, friendly staff. I think it's my favorite so far. They also had air conditioning! It's more common in Greece, and the food is generally cheaper too! The first day there we tried to go to museum. 'It closes at 8pm'. LIES!!!! D:< Wandering around led to dinner at a decent restaurant (with cheap beer) and we retired for the night. I was deathly tired from our travelling so I crashed. The girls tried to go out, but they like me too much and couldn't stand to be without me so they came back 20-30 minutes after they left with cake for me and I awoke (12 hours later) to a note that read, 'Dear garbage disposal, finish the cake.' I did.

The next day we were up early and off to the Akropoli! This was one of my most anticipated destinations of the trip, and I'd studied the Parthenon and the surrounding architecture quite a bit. Unfortunately, it was blazing outside, and the place was packed full of tourists. If you look at my albums on facebook you'll get a good idea of what it was like to be there. We spent as much time as we could there considering the heat, and then we were off. We had lunch at a place called 'Smile' who had the most brilliant advertising ever: Put a map of the area at the Metro exit, and plaster your restaurant's name all over it in addition to explicit instructions on how to get there. After lunch we went to the Acropolis museum. The architecture was fascinating to me. I spent more time matching up the portportions of the museum and the acropolis than looking at the actual artifacts. The glass floors showing ancient houses below the building were quite cool, too. Later we ended up at some shops and Starbucks... 'cause where else are you going to go when you're in Europe, and we got dinner to go so we could watch Harry Potter in our hostel before crashing for the night.

Then today we did some laundry (thanks Marianne ^_^)went out for lunch, hit up some shops, starbucks again, and then we made our way back to the hostel and the airport. The flight was uneventful and landed us in Romey Rome. (does anyone know this reference? I can't remember where I heard/read/saw it)