It's Greek to me
Trip Start
Jun 05, 2006
1
18
33
Trip End
Aug 01, 2006
Athens,
Greece
Thursday, June 29, 2006
So, travel back to yesterday...I spent the day wandering around the city, going to see the Acropolis from a nearby rocky hill, and trying to learn the city as much as possible before the arrival of our huge group. I even went for a 5 mile run around the city, which would turn out to be much longer when I got lost and I found another guy who thought I smelled bad and seemed to intentionally give me wrong directions. (Maybe I did smell at that point in my run.) Anyway, after that I showered and tried to cool off inefectually in the AC-less main room, while I made some friends and waited on the others to arrive. Scott and Adam showed up as expected at a little past 11. It would not be until after 1 that an exhausted group of Jon, Jill, Kelly, Robert and Jenn would fall into the main room of the hostel, spouting something about a delayed flight and the metro being shut down, then check into their rooms, and pass out.
In the morning, the others got up fairly early and went to the Agora, while Scott, Adam and I slept in (I know that's out of character for me) and then made our way to a gyro stand and the Roman Agora.
Adam looks at the Grecian flag atop the Acropolis
There I learned that my still-current student ID from la University of the Balearic Islands qualified me for free-entry to all the historic sites, while Scott and Adam, who had forgotten any student ID, had to pay 12 euro. Sweet. So, shortly after I got yelled at for posing on a 4" platform (picture included), we headed up to the Acropolis, where we admired the Parthenon, Erichtheon, and the city from way up high. And in the Acropolis Museum we saw a lot of the well-preserved statues and things--which were pretty impressive. We got yelled at there because you're aloud to take pictures of the artifacts, but not other people and the artifacts. Ah, we troublesome Americans, why can't we just respect things?! So we're learning the rules here bit by bit. But in any case, we were site-seen-out and all that, so we decided to come here and catch up on email and have a snack and a nap before we meet up with the others for dinner. Drew and Anne Elise come at some point tonight, though no one knows exactly when, and Scott, Adam and I went to another hostel to reserve a place for when we get back from the islands. They're apparently having a party there tonight, which we may stop by--but we have no fixed plans. It's kind of vacation after all, right? Educational though it is. Well, till next time.
Andamio
matt
