Saturday - March 17
This morning when my alarm went off at 9 a.m., I was pleasantly surprised at how awake I was. I climbed down from my top bunk and got ready for the day. I went downstairs with Amy, Bethany and Lydia for my free breakfast that was included with our stay. I got a piece of homemade bread with jam and a hard boiled egg. It wasn't much, but hey it was better than nothing.
Lydia found out about a walking tour yesterday, and we all decided we would do that for the day. We had to be at the meeting point, which was Athens Backpackers, another hostel owned by the same company. We had to meet there at 9:55, and it was already 9:35 when we went back up stairs to get ready for the day. Lydia and Amy left at 9:45 to get there and Bethany and I left at 9:50. Kate and Jess ended up chasing after us. We weren't really keen on the directions to the place because Lydia was the one who really knew how to get there. She gave us general directions, but we didn't quite remember them to a T when we started walking there. It was already 10, so we figured Amy and Lydia and just gone with the tour and we would just do our own thing for the day. When we were walking up the main street we saw Lydia and Amy running down it and they told us they were waiting for us — the whole group.
So we power walked it to where we were supposed to meet and the tour guide gladly welcomed us and led us inside to pay the €7. We walked back outside and everyone in the group went around in a circle to introduce themselves and where they were from. There was a couple from Canada, two couples from France, a guy from California and a guy from London. It was really cool to see everyone from different places in one group.
The tour ended up lasting about five hours, when it was really supposed to be three, but the time flew by. The guide, who was very knowledgeable, led us around the entire city to ruins, Zeus's Temple, the Parthenon and the Acropolys. We weren't able to go in to any of them because you had to pay more to go in. We decided we would do it tomorrow because it was all free on Sundays.
During the tour we had a 10 minute break where we could go get food. I was going to get a gyro, but then I saw the workers shaving off the meat to make it and my stomach turned a little bit. Lydia and I went up to a place called Ever Coffee where they also had sandwiches. I was very satisfied with my very average turkey, tomato and lettuce sandwich.
Along our trip we ended up talking with the guy from London, whose name was James. He was "on holiday" as he said and was with his friend for the past two weeks until yesterday when his friend had to go home for work. He was going home on Monday back to work. Funny thing was that he was a journalist too and he actually ended up in publishing for the time being. I was very intrigued when he said he worked for the publishing company that publishes the Harry Potter books.
Here's what I saw during my five hour tour:
-Hadrian's Arch-
-Zeus's Temple-
-First Olympic Stadium-
-Zappeio: old Olympic headquarters-
-National Gardens of Athens-
-House of Parliament-
-changing of the guards-
-The pigeon whisperer-
-Turkish mosque-
-Tiny Orthodox Christian church next to mosque-
-Library of Hadrian-
-ruins-
-view of the city from high up-
-Odeon-
After our tour I was exhausted, so I headed home and relaxed for a bit. After about a half hour or so I met Lydia, Amy and James downstairs and we went on a little adventure. I grabbed a snack from a nearby food stand and we were off. We decided to just take random roads and didn't pay much attention to where we were going, but that was the fun in it.
It was really nice and interesting to become friends with someone outside of our group. James would do impressions for us on his perception of people in California or down south and they were hilarious. We also talked about differences between Britain and the U.S. and what he thought of our country. It was interesting.
We stopped to sit down for a coffee for about a half hour and relaxed. I ordered a nes cafe iced coffee with bailey's irish cream and boy was it delicious. I drank every last drop!
Amy, Lydia and I parted from James at the sports bar directly below our hostel. We told him we'd join him later in the night.
We went upstairs and relaxed for a bit and then all six of us went downstairs for dinner. I ordered the cheeseburger again just because it was that yummy. Unfortunately it wasn't as good as the first one I had, but it was still good enough for me.
James came over while we were eating out dinner and then after we were done eating we made our way to the sports bar. Kate and I stayed there while the rest of our group went upstairs to get ready. I ended up talking with the Canadian couple who was with us on our tour guide earlier in the day. Their names were Melanie and Simone, and they were the cutest couple. They were 25 and 26 and were between jobs so they decided to backpack through Europe because they figured they would never get the opportunity to do so again.
They started three weeks ago and were going for a total of three months. During these three months they planned on traveling to 19 countries...let me repeat that...19 countries! So far they've been to Madrid, three cities in Italy and were now in Athens and going to Santorini tomorrow. They were originally going to Santorini on Monday, but the Ferry workers were striking on Monday, so they had to bump up their departure date.
Melanie said that she never really travels because it's so expensive to in Canada. She said flights are typically $2000! And I thought it was pricy to fly in the U.S.
We hung out with them, James and Claud, someone we met at the bar. He was from Oregon and it was his first of 18 days traveling throughout Europe.
Lydia, Jess, Amy and I went out with all of them to an Irish bar to celebrate St. Patrick's day after being at the sports bar for a bit. There was a ton of Irish music playing and leprechaun hats everywhere. I decided to be irish and have a guinness, which was alright I suppose...not much of a beer drinker.
-Jess and Melanie-
It was a great way to celebrate St. Patty's day. If I couldn't be in Ireland to do it, I may as well be at an Irish pub!
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