Athens

In the morning of Thursday my eyes were hurting I needed to get my contactsout, and I began to feel the same plumbing issue as before. We arrived in Athens and it seemed to take forever to dock the boat. Finally we were all let out onto the dock seemed like a big parking lot. I was enthralled that I was standing on the same land as so many famous ancient Greeks-only right now it looked like the parking lot. At this point I was very unfocused but very excited to be in Athens and we found a map as we do every time we arrived in a major city and then the subway. After we got to station Victoria then our hostel, Zorbas Hotel, 10 Gkyilfordou St., Athens 10434, which seems to be very similar to our hostel in Istanbul, we went inside and were given our keys and maps for the city and, were directed to the downstairs level where there was an empty bar not in use, and just two rooms. The one on the left was ours and we unpacked and prepared for the day. Everyone agreed that we should take a nap before doing anything else, so we did and then we woke up and decided it was time for some food then the Acropolis or ACROP so named by Kate.

We took the subway to Monastiraki, walked around the corner, a flock of birds flew up in confusion, and then we saw the tip of it…the Acrop. Walking closer our anticipation grew and I was practically going into a comatose state thinking about all the words I read which came from the pens of people who dwelt on the very soil I was treading on. We paid a fee of 20 Euro and began climbing the dusty hill speckled with random colums and artifacts. We reached the Theatre of Dionysis, where so many plays were recited to entertain the ancient greek people, including those by Plato and Sophocles. I climbed around the seats and found one that suited me and stared at the stage and simply thought. Everyone else was taking pictures, I took a few but preferred to just wonder at where I was sitting! Western culture originated in this very spot! After a while I walked around the threatre a bit more and we decided to continue up the path ascending. There were various signs and memorials and important artifacts being preserved, some under glass protection. We reached another theatre which was being restored on the other side of the hill and looked on for a while. We continued, soon reaching the part of the path which was smoothed marble from the amount of tourists. I was slipping all over the place because of my sandals, which at this point where falling apart. We finally reached the area where we were coming upon the enterance to the Acrop. It was very large and intimidating. There were huge rocks sticking out of the ground surrounding the path and many old trees. at the enterence gate people stood staring in amazement at the size of the gate and colums around it which protected the city and then looking on at the Parthenon. All five of us stared at it in amazement and took some pictures of us in front of it. We wandered to the right and in front and then to the side wall of the Acropolis looking down over the city towards the sea. You could see the sea from this high point and I imagined enemy ships on the horizon, as there were so many times in history. The advantage of this fortress was so clear to be seen and strangely even today, if there were no planes would be the first place I would go if the city were under attack and I couldn’t escape. I walked along the edge of the wall and stared in amazement around the city.We walked towards the back of the Parthenon and then I went out to the outer edge of the acropolis where there was a lookout and got some good shots. The Greek flag was hanging high and blowing in the wind and the view was spectacular. Therew as a short mountain rising out of the city scape witha monastary on the top as well as buildings as far as the eye can see. It reminded me of a shot I had seen of Mexico city. I motioned for the others to come over and see the sight but it took them quite a while to come over and I wanted to continue to the little (though very large) temple that was resting to the right of the Parthenon. I belive it was dedicated to Jupiter. After continuing to observe all of this we walked together to where we had began the self conducted tour atop the ACROP. I told them I wanted to get one mroe picture which I did I went in front of the Parthenon and came back. We then started heading out of the ACROP. Got some pictures in front and saw the areopagus.

Partway down we were decided what we should do next. We decided to go down to the bottom and we happened upon the Areopagus on which I climbed with Kate and then the others came up when they realized it might be something worth seeing.

It was the place where St. Paul essentially converted Athens, he preached on that hill and the hill where so many were condemned. The rock was smoothed over from so many people walking on it so it was very slippery since I was wearing my overused sandals. There were no buildings on top only some secdtions of grass and flowers and the other side was not steep, it sloped down into more of the preserved area. I remember sitting atopc the areopagus and thinking for a good twenty minutes about where I was and just savoring the moment. Then We went back down and started wandering further towards the Agora. We walked into the Agora and climbed up onto a ruined wall and began to watch dusk roll into the city. There was a guy up on the wall like place also who tried to take my camera. We kept going down to Monastiriki area though a little side street lined with stuff being sold. Anything you can think of it seems was being sold there and then we started looking for a place to eat. John Paul had picked out a restuarnt but we were having trouble finding it becuase the building it was in looked like it was abandoned. We finally found it next to the market and went into it as best we could. We were suprised to find that the restaurant was underground under this abandoned looking building. THere were barrels of Orzo against the wall and it was a very non-touristy restaurant, we seemed to be the only non greeks there. Nice pick John Paul! We were sat down at table and immediately given a pitcher of orzo and greek salad. we sat and talked about all the stuff we had seen in one day and the interesting food that would be coming out to us. Kate and I tended to argue about some random stuff I don’t remember what it was about but the others had started to realize it was part of who we were to argue I guess as they pointed out. The food came and we had different kinds of soup with some really spicy peppers which Brendan almost killed himself with and searched for water the rest of dinner. I drank and ate and was quite satisfied with the unique food which JP had discovered. We paid the bill which was really a lot cheaper than I expected…these are the kind of palces that are out of reach of most tourists who don’t do their research enough. ASK THE LOCALS!. After this we walked around the nearby market which had everything from olives to raw meat to all kinds of trinkets. After going almost all the way through I almost bought Roman knife but we were continueing on and though I could come back the next day if I had to to get it. Then we decided to go back and look at the Agora. We did and I couldn’t stop trying to imaging how crowded it would have been and how many people had walked on this ground.

After this, Brendon had the idea of going to find a movie in Athens somewhere and just walk around. John Paul agreed and Ali was indifferent, Kate and I were dragged along. We hopped on the subway and went out randomly exploring with with sort of an intended direction but not really. Honestly, I thought the idea would have been good if I had been by myself, but its not really randomly exploring when you have to follow the lead of another… so I was pissed the whole time and irritated following these two who were taking us. I really considered just going off on my own but when I got that idea out of frusteration, everyone was lost and couldn’t find our way back to the subway, and we were in a rough part of Athens. You could just tell. Finally after walking a good hour, we found a more lighted district called Omomoia Sqaure, which nwo that I looked it up on google, the description was this: “Central Transportation Hub. A very central square of Athens, kind of abandoned, filled with junkies, drug-dealers etc.” with shops and pharmacies even though they weren’t the tourist types, we were away from the tourist part of Athens. We stopped in a gelato shop that had more flavors of gelato than I had ever seen in my life. It had shiny chrome and a huge, but expensive collection. I think I paid 5 Euro for just two scoops, baileys and some other wacked out flavor. At this point I was starting to feel a little rumble in the tumble. After that we decided to go back, so we walked to find another trainstation and it took us back to our humble abode. At this point I was ready to sleep and was actually feeling a little sick in my stomach, went the bathroom and went to bed. I couldn’t sleep the whole night, I knew I had a fever, and had to keep going to the bathroom. Everyone was planning on going to the Archeological museum in the morning I knew I wasn’t going to go because of my condition. I slept through their departure and all the way until 1:00pm when they returned from the museum and various othrer adventures I was so disappointed to miss. When I woke up they had just eaten and I was ready to go to the museum on my own because I was not going to miss one of the greatest museums in the world just because I was crappin my brains out. So I got up and went out to find some diahreia meds at the pharmacy around the corner, which I still have as a keepsake, then I got a pastry even through I wasnt hungry and went to the museum, not far from our hostel. It was free because I was a student which I was very much appreciative of. WOW. Even though I wasn’t feeling well, this was one of the most relaxing afternoons of my life, to be able to just take as much time as I wanted to browse through the thousands of years old collections and be in the presence of the these artifacts about which millions of pages are written in history books. After four or five hours the museum unfortunately was closing and kicked us out. I went back to the hostel where Ali and I decided we wanted to go one more time to see the ACROP. The others wanted to stay back, I was still feeling really crappy but I wasn’t going to waste my time in Athens getting better. So we went to Monastiriki and went on top of the Areopagus again since our tickets to these things were valid for two days. We walked through the agora again and down into the market. Browsing through street vendors we were taking more and more time and soon it was time to leave again, but we stopped on our way before that to see one more ancient site, I believe it was the Αέρηδες, or tower of the winds and then went back to the hostel. when we returned to the hostel we found everyone else outside the room playing backgammon.it was probably around eight o’clock and I decided that I’m going for something to eat. I also got food for Allie. I went out of the hostel made a right and then another right and went back to that same bakery near the subway I bought a pastry which its taste will forever be in my memory because it was a cream filled pastry that had been sitting out all day. I didn’t know it when I bought it but the cream was hard and with the cheese so I assumed it was legit. After that I felt even more sick and had a very restless night the rest of the night feeling still sick. We woke up early early in the morning for our departure out from the Athenian train station to Thessalonica and I went _____ one more time. Then we headed on a rush to the train station some what late. Once we got there we had to buy first class tickets because it was the only type left to get there. We couldn’t afford to wait for a later train because we needed to be ontime to the airport for our flight…