Rush Visit to Greece (March 13-17)

After extending my trip in Israel a few days, I left on the evening of the 13th to arrive in the Greece airport around 11pm. Carrie left me a message that she might miss her connecting flight to Greece because her flight from Delhi was delayed for hours. So, when I arrived I checked email and found no word from her. In case she was coming the next morning and because it was almost midnight, I decided just to sleep in the airport that night. I figured I would save 20 euros as an added bonus, I must say the seats with arms aren't the most comfy so I moved on down to the floor. Luckily, I had bought a warm jacket that served as my bed and I kept checking the free 10 minutes Internet desk hoping to hear from Carrie.

In the morning I checked into flights to the island of Santorini but the cost was a lot for such a short time so we will have to come back during warmer weather to visit the islands. By 11 the next day I figured I would eat some food, no I didn't have to resort to starring in the movie "Terminal 2". Just before heading to the hostel I heard from Carrie that she was stuck in Syria but would be arriving late that night. I took the metro, very easy to use and clean, arriving at Athens backpackers in time to chill out. The people at the backpackers were pretty funny, an Aussie family who started it right before the Olympics. Oh, I even watched a movie in the lounge - Ordinary Decent Criminal with Kevin Spacey. That was a bit like being at home until I walked out to see all the signs in Greek when I headed to a local restaurant, Smile. Souvlaki meal was great as was the Greek beer, Mythos. The woman that owned the restaurant was so funny and warm. Carrie arrived late that night with some guy who also came from the airport in tow.

Wednesday, March 15 (Romain Agora & Plaka Market)
We had our toast and jam with tea/coffee breakfast at the hostel. Reminded us of our New Zealand backpacker experience. Walked to the Plaka area to check out the markets and saw Romain Agora nearby. Then we explored the market area and had a late lunch at Tepina Cafe - Carrie was craving a hamburger and she found a good one too! I tried the traditional Greek salad, yummy! We didn't realize that the bread and water they brought to the table was going to be charged to us even though we didn't ask for it. Evidently, that is the way in Europe. Back to the hostel to watch another movie, Piano, before heading to Smile again for dinner with some buddies we met here.

Thursday, March 16 (Akropolis and surrounding area)
We headed out for a full day at the sites, but found out the Akropolis sites closed at 2:30. Yikes! Luckily we made it out early that day and everything was fairly close together. It was really odd to walk around Athens and just see these historic sites right in the middle of the city. And, although most people told us to head out of Athens fast we thought it was pretty cute and clean. Maybe this perspective comes from having been in India and SE Asia most recently. We saw the Theater of Dionysus, Temple of Athena, and the Parthenon. Each was unique but to see the Parthenon was truly amazing. It is so big and you have some incredible views of the city from the Akropolis. Of course a number of things had scaffolding around areas where they were working. The Parthenon is massive and breathtaking.

Our final site visit was to walk through Ancient Agora, the ruins of an entire city site. It really sprawled around and had some interesting statues and a temple on the hill (they all seem to be on hills, guess they wanted to get as close to the Gods as possible!) After we did a little shopping for Carrie to get some boots so she wouldn't have to wear her hiking shoes or chaco sandals out at night in the cold weather. Then we had a yummy late lunch of pasta at a restaurant outside at Ydria where the guy serving us gave us a Rose liquer to finish off our meal. A strange but lovely end to our wonderful meal.

That night we met up with some guys we met through the hostel, Harry, Daniel and some of their friends Medusa, Angelos, and Miriam. Harry is a photographer so he got us in this interesting opening party for a Greek fashion show, no catwalk or designs to see but lots of very unique individuals including a few Fabio look-alikes, wanna-be top models destined to stay B level, rich socialites, and random drop-ins like ourselves. Very funny last night in Greece.

Left the next morning (late due to my traveling partner Caroline) for the airport on our way to Italy. Found out our travel agent put in a wrong ticket number so they canceled our reservation but luckily they had space on the flight so we made it!