I woke up, after our short ride from the Pink Palace to the ferry, to people getting off the bus. I was a bit surprised when I realized the bus was parked on the ferry. I had no idea it was coming with us. In recovery mode, I had one of the girls buy me some bagel chips. Hour later we were docking and boarding the bus again. It'd be an eight hour bus ride to Athens.
Wednesday Oct 31: Pit Stop. I woke up somewhere around 1:45am. We stopped for half an hour at a greek truck/bus stop for 'dinner' ala carte since, well, bagel chips and a sandwich really don't make a great dinner. Back on the bus, I woke myself up several times with head nodding. Even though we were only had half capacity so everyone had two seats each, I couldn't get into a comfortable enough position to keep me asleep through the bumps. Arrival in Greece: 5:30 am.
Naturally, not everyone's room was ready. The other group of 3 guys on the trip were lucky enough to get a room. So the other 3 of us crashed on the floor in their room. On my way passed the desk, i was handed a package. At 5:45am in a transitional recovery/pure exhaustion state, it took me a second to realize why I had a package. My parents managed to track down my hotel and drop off their international phone. Slept for another 4 hours. Then called Home for the first time in two months. Talked to my parents 5,000 miles away from the rooftop bar of my hotel while staring at the Parthenon.
Found out EuroAdventures was giving a walking tour of Athens at 11am. James, Sean and the girls were still sleeping/resting, so i was with the original 4 again. Saw the changing of the guard in front of the Greek parliament. Cut thru a corner of the national
gardens without really seeing it. Stopped at the Olympic stadium for the first modern-day games (1896). Onto the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian's Arch. Then the Acropolis. From there were were on our own. I explored the Acropolis for a bit with the girls. Got in free with my ISIC (international student ID) card (normally €12). I'd post pictures, but the most impressive views came later.
After the Acropolis, we checked out the Plaka shopping area. Back to the Hotel. Free internet and nap time for me. Slept two hours, then got ready for our group dinner. Dinner was at the (supposedly) oldest, most famous restaurant in Athens. ..dont know the name. All 25 of us at a big table. No menu. Naturally, dinner began with a shot of ouzo for everyone. I managed to choke it down. Then they just brought us dish after dish after dish for everyone to share. Two of the bread dips were very tasty. Tzatziki was really good, but liked the eggplant-based dip even more. These were followed by meat-stuffed dolmades (stuffed grapevine leaves). Absolutely delicious. Probably my favorite. Ate 3 of them. Next up was moussaka (similar to lasagna, yet not at all). Also incredible. If not for the dolmades, moussaka would've been my favorite. Not to say that it was all downhill from there. The final 3 dishes were good as well, but moussaka and dolmades - amazing. The next two dishes were essentially the same, just different meat - pork and lamb - cut like it would be served in a gyro, with onion and triangles of pita. Actually, very much like a gyro, but without the tzatziki and tomato. The last main dish was eggplant cooked with garlic, onions, peppers and seasoning. It was ok. Not a big fan though. Desert was yogurt with honey. ...not much of a fan of that either. ..too plain for me. But overall, a phenomenal dinner.
Thursday Nov 1: Wow. First November already? First day of November and I'm enjoying sunny Athenian weather in the upper 70's. Couldn't ask for more.
Grabbed Breakfast. As always, made sure I didn't miss it. Explored Athens with James, Sean, Emily, Lesley, and Vanessa. They hadn't been on the walking tour the day before, so we hit the Olympic Stadium again. Got better pictures this time around anyway (day before was actually overcast. Today was bright blue sky. We strolled through the National Gardens for at least an hour or two before hitting the stadium. Nothing too special, but it's a huge, peaceful park. On our way back from the stadium, we saw 20 policemen in riot gear waiting on the sidewalk (happened to be right by ruins of a roman bath). As we passed them, 3 more police buses pulled up. A couple blocks later, we saw a big rally/protest. Apparently the Greek government wants to raise taxes another 3%, from 19 up to 22%, according to our bus driver.
The gang went back to take a nap. I wasn't tired, so I hopped on the internet, and then went to try and see some temples I hadn't gotten around to seeing yet. I headed out around 4:45. Made it to Hadrian's Library. Found out all the archaeological sites (also free with my ISIC card) close at 5p. I wouldn't be making it to the roman agora/temple of hephaestus. Instead, I decided to climb the highest hill in Athens. Took me probably half an hour to get over to that side of the city and climb it. Broke a sweat, but I was racing the setting sun. ..I won. Made it just in time for sunset over the acropolis. Then I waited another half an hour for the lights to come on.
Went to dinner with the gang at Hard Rock. Satisfied my craving for BBQ ribs. The actually weren't that great. Which probably helped quell my craving even more. Spent the night, after dinner, at a hookah bar, hanging out until 4am. Got back to the hotel at 4:30.
Friday Nov 2: Woke up at 8am after 3.5 hours of sleep. We were leaving Greece at 11am. I still wanted to hit the Roman Agora and temple I hand't been able to make it to. Showered. Grabbed my camera, and hit the streets. Glad I made it there before I left Greece. Temple of Hephaestus is probably the most intact ancient building in all of Athens. This thing dates back to 415 BC and it's still (almost) entirely whole.
Got back to the hotel, grabbed breakfast, packed, and boarded the bus for a 3 hours ride to port. Slept most of the way. Killed an hour and a half at Patras. Boarded our overnight ferry around 5:00.
Of all the situations where I've unexpectedly had to use German, I think breaking up a fight on a ferry from Greece to Italy tops the list. We'd been at the bar/club on one of the upper decks of the cruise.
A guy and girl on the trip went down to the sleeping room early (to save money, we only had reclining seats in a giant room, not sleeping cabins).
When they went down, they apparently woke up this greek-german asshole, who told them to shut up.
All three of them then went to sleep. No problems.
..yet.About 45 minutes later, the rest of the gang called it a night and went downstairs as well.
I don't think we were being excessively loud, but we were talking a bit and it was loud enough to wake up the crazy german-greek again.
He woke up and looked over to see the few vocal people, who'd just come down, standing around sean and vanessa (who'd actually still been sleeping).
The guy became enraged quicker than the incredible hulk, stormed over, passed the people who were actually standing around talking, goes over to sean (who by this point was at least in some semi-conscious state) and cups his mouth so forcefully that it actually looked like he was taking a swing.
In the process of his swing, he also grazed vanessa's head.
That was ultimately the determining factor betwen sean just wanting to get some crazy guy off his back and wanting to kick his ass.
I have no clue how I realized the guy spoke german. I'm not sure if I heard him say something in german, or if it was just a random word-vomit on my part, assuming english wasnt the guy's native language, and he happened to respond to it.
In the scuffle, a younger guy who worked with the crazy german-greek, woke up and bolted over to the scene to help pull his colleague away.
James took on the task of calming sean down, which took half an hour and ultimately required vanessa denying the guy ever touched her. In the big mess, I held lesley back and calmed her down.
Under the influence, she thought she could actually fight some 40 yr old guy.
Then i made my rounds.
Spoke briefly (in german) with the colleague, who was a really nice guy - and said he's worked with the crazy guy for a while and he's always been an asshole. Made my way to find james/sean/vanessa to make sure everything was ok on that front, and finally i tracked down the crazy german-greek who'd disappeared to the bar. I let him know that 1) sean was actually still kinda sleeping when he was attacked, 2) it was likely the people that had just entered the room that had awakened him this time around, and 3) The biggest reason sean was so pissed off was that vanessa had been hit in the process.
This prompted a tiny apology, as he never meant to touch her and would 'never do that,' followed by a story of how he hadn't slept in two days, as if it somehow justified attacking a sleeping person. I persuaded him to sleep in the smaller of the two rooms, right behind the bigger one, because nobody was in there and he wouldn't be disturbed then.
Then I continued talking with him (in german) for a full hour to make sure he'd calmed down and to give time for everyone else to calm down and fall asleep so there wouldn't be issues when he finally went back down.
Found out where he's from, where he lives, what he does. Talked about studying in Rome. And Germany. And somehow (no idea how), we also got on the topic of Palestinian Arab-Israeli issues. ya know, the standard get-to -know-you topics.
Saturday Nov 3: Morning was a bit awkward, with an exchange of glares between he and Sean when we walked by. We finally docked in Ancona somewhere around 1pm. Then we got a 4 hour bus ride direct back to Rome. I finally got back to my apartment around 5:30. My
EuroAdentures experience was done. What a crazy week.
