Oh! fancy meeting you here!

we are FINALLY in ATHENS after taking forever on that stinky ferry, and then training from Patras, Greece to Athens. it was quite a trek, but we made it and we are staying at hotel Zorbas! hahahah like my big fat greek wedding! HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh man.

so we got to zorbas in the evening and we were all pretty darn pooped. jo got lucky and found a church right across the street so she went over there while amie and i showered and relaxed a bit. we went down to the bar in the basement for some dinner and for our free welcome drink! MMM OUZO! blehhhhh!!! jo liked it, but amie and i were gagging! ouzo is the traditional greek shot, but it tastes like licorice and it's just not very pleasing. no, not at all. so we had some dinner, drank some drinks, and went to sleep.

the next day was probably my favorite day on the whole trip so far! we signed up to do this 'athens in a day' tour with our hotel. so we met in the lobby and the receptionist drove us to the meeting point. that was weird. our tour guide was from north carolina or south carolina or some place like that and he was very knowledgable and helpful! we saw lots and lots of old athens ruins and places where the greeks used to have markets and churches and jazz like that. we walked soooo far but it was really nice! we eventually made it to the acropolis and got to see the enormous parthenon!!! it was GIGANTIC but they were restoring it to look like the original. it was neat to see the different colors of the stone, old and new. at the acropolis amie and jo pretended to be athena and posiedon standing in front of their respectful temples. the pictures are hilarious, believe me. we walked further to the olympic stadium and the temple of zeus. there, we sang the entire song from hercules (disney movie) and had a splendid time! our guide was nice enough to escort us back to monastiriki to eat at a local greek restaurant. we had greek salads and our first tastes of Mythos, greek beer. it was so so sooooooo good! i want to eat that for the rest of forever! after lunch we walkedto this little sandal shop that our guide suggested we check out. the man who makes sandals there is called the Poet. he writes poetry and songs and makes sandals! this was probably the coolest part of the day for me because i found out that this is the same shop John Lennon bought sandals from! i was so excited just to visit, but then once i found out that they had sandals named after Johnny boy, i HAD to get them! i've been wearing them ever since! they are going to go alllllll around europe! i feel pretty snazzy in my lennons (as i like to call them). after that and saying goodbye to our acquaintances from lunch, we bought our tickets for the ferry to mykonos. after that we hopped on the metro to get back to Zorbas. the metro ride back was quite eventful as this random old greek man was serenading jo and me. he was pretty weird, and we were pretty uncomfortable, but we are still alive and it's a hilarious story to tell... now that it's over.... so we went back to zorbas, packed, and did a MUCH needed load of laundry... though it did cost us a pretty penny! 5 kilos my butt! anyway, we are clean, for the moment, and ready to hit the islands! first up is MYKONOS! WATCH OUT!

-Megan-