Hotel Mina Agios Stefanos

... but once questioned why i was visiting, with my answer being to see where my great-grandfather was from, the reply has been the same: "then why you don't know greek?! no one taught you greek?" this is also according to them, my mother's fault. i feel as though i may have just wandered into a deleted scene from my big fat greek wedding.

... t come to movie night but who have stepped up with small but meaningful acts of kindness for me [above and beyond feeding me dinner] over the past few days. As I write this, three days have past since the events of Sunday. The desire to scratch my own flesh off in strips is still coming and going - I'm not able to surrender my black eyeliner just yet - but I emerged from the weekend having learned that I do actually have some resources internally and amongst the students to deal with it.

... a gym - which I'll check out tomorrow and a very nice bar on the roof - I slept up there while waiting for my room. Very nice view. Try to get a hotel near Syntagma Square as this is safter and it's exactly where you want to be. Fresh Hotel should be you're backup. It was my backup after Amazon Hotel was overbooked. Pictures to come when I get back.

... questions to answer, food for thought anyway. The Plakta was indeed great to visit, but after an hour so so, was was definitely ready to call it a day, headed back to the hotel. A.R.S #2; Oh yes I don't have a map. That's ok, I'll just retrace my steps back to the hotel. I was doing quite well until I came to an intersection I didn't recognize. I think this is were it all went wrong. The street was Athinas, I know this is one of the main streets and I wasn't far from the hotel at all ...

... enjoying the three most recommended and popular islands in Greece, but popularity is what it is for a reason, and I will continue to sing their praises! Paros - Last but not least, my fourth and final island. I was a bit harsh in my prior descriptions of the place, and though I never gave it due attention, it just wasn't my cup of tea. Laidback the island certainly was. Parikia, the port was lovely to explore with it's endless alleys and beautiful shops reminscent of ...

... It is warm, we are comfortable. Life is good. After midnight we arrive at Thessaloniki. This is a small problem as our connecting train to Athens was due to leave at 11.45pm (one hour after we were originally due to pull in). No problem, as we can pay another $70 and catch the next train at 2am. We explained that the Greek train had arrived late which meant our connection was missed - so was there any chance that this supplement on the express train at 2am ...

... on a huge role in our journey. Little problems. Nevertheless, our intrepid band of voyagers gathered at the "Hotel Kaningos 21" in downtown Athens late on the morning of September 24, 2007, having journeyed there from opposite extremes of the globe. (By the way - Kaningos is apparently Greek for "I can't go" because nothing in the hotel seemed to work.) By far the most harrowing part of our trip was the ride into Athens from the airport ...

... we got back to the hostel we were all so wiped that we basically just headed to bed! Last day in Athens!!! Well we took the morning and day in general kind of slow. After showering and packing up our things we headed downstairs to check out of the hostel! after dropping off our luggage in the luggage room, becky and I headed out to graba bite to eat! this ahd to be the best luch in athens i had had thus far. they call it a Gyro pita, and boy is it ...

... The captain was arrested and jailed for negligence, which may be escalated to manslaughter. It took 3.5hrs to evacuate the 1487 guests but we had a great group and made it fun to help fend off anxiety. We made crepe paper headbands to identify our team, took heaps of pics, filled them with false assurance to pacify hysterics, sang the baby elephant walk as we marched single file to gangway, made our own rave with the lights and whistles on our life jackets, ogled the hot ...

... and toilet), we had an ant problem, enough said. Finally, and best of all, we had a blackout all three nights we were there. The first night it lasted from early to late morning, and management said, "We had a little problem, but it's fixed now." The next night, it lasted about 20 minutes and management blamed us for using plugs (even though we were using converters). The final night, I like to call the finale, lasted all night and all morning (and apparently for a few days ...