On My Way to Athens

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  Athens, Greece
Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Today, when classes were over, we headed into Athens to get accustom to public transportation. This was my first experience on a public bus and subway and it was a lot of fun.

We left around 1:00pm, when we finished our classes. We walked to the bus stop and all 31 of us got onto the bus. That was interesting. There were only a few open seats, so more then half the group was standing. I sat in back with Mandy next to a nice Greek lady. She tried to talk to us but we had no clue what she was saying. She made room so that six of us could sit in the seat. It was very awkward at first being so close to a random women but she was very nice and friendly. When we get into Athens, we get off by the National Guard building and then catch the Metro which is like a subway. On the Metor, we stood because it was crowded; it was similar to being on the train at DIA. We got off at Sintagama Square and walked down to the Plaka. From there, the Myhans gave us a brief overview of the area and then we were free to roam until 7:00pm, when we were to go back to Porto Rafti.

Mandy, Nathan W, Nathan M, Sean, and I started off together just exploring the area and looking at the shops. We went to a sandal maker's shop, who makes the nicest sandals in Athens. He was on TV for the Olympics because he provided the Greeks with their sandals. He has also made sandals for the Beatles and many other famous people. We headed back up to the Plaka and started shopping. Mandy and I got really nice bags that are handmade. We bargained the price down from 26 Euros to 16 Euros. After walking around some more, we met up with Nathan W. again and ate at a gyro restraint. This is probably the best that we have had. After enjoying our dinner, we met up with the group in the Plaka square to some home.

After all 31 of us met up, we headed to the Metro to head back to the bus stop. This part went really smoothly and it was great to sit back and relax on the ride. When we got to the bus stop, we waited for 45 minutes for the bus to come. This felt like it took even longer because we were so tired from the day. The bus finally came and we were all getting on, when the group had to split and take another bus and meet about 20 minutes from the hotel. I sat in the back again by Mandy and a guy from Bulgaria, who knew no English. We had an interesting conductor who was flirting with the girl in front of us. The conductor had really weird facial expressions and his hands were flying everywhere when he talked. It was so funny, the three of us were trying to be polite and not laugh but it didn't work out too well. When the conductor left, we were able to laugh together and communicate with one another using hand gestures. This was the highlight of my public transportation riding. We can still laugh about what happened on the bus.

When we got back to school, we had a mixed swimming time which was a lot of fun. We all wore dark t-shirts and then jumped in the pool at 10:00. After that, I had to finish up on my homework and then went to bed.

I am excited to use the buses more and to become more familiar with getting around in Athens.

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