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Marina and I were the last to abandon the ship (well some rats might still be there, we don·t know) and we took the train to Sintagma again where we found a place to have a brunch and we were reflecting the past boat trip a little bit. She is really my little sister :-). We exchanged the stories from the others we had not known and made some nasty comments...I think that is actually THE reason why women go to Cafes so often.
Around noon I dropped Marina at the bus station and tried to get a taxi for drinving me to my host. What some of you might not know - I am a couchsurfer at www.couchsurfing.com - a place where people all over the world offer their couch for sleeping without costs. The good thing is that you get to know to locals and if you are very nice (and lucky, showered, shaved and not smelling) they might even show you around a little bit.
So I tried to get a taxi to my first host, Zoi. Well it's strange with taxis in Athens. There are as many as in NYC but none of them
wanted me. "busy", "not my direction" and "" were the answers before they left. Our fellow sailors even were dropped by a driver before. Also from the Marina to Sytagma they charged us 25 Euro. On the way back we paid 8!!! So I really start to hate them. But as always when you are frustrated with something (like the greek friendliness) you are immediately proofed wrong. A bus driver (in a bus!) stopped in the middle of the road and asked me where I wanted to go. I told him and he explained me the way while the cars behind him were beeping like a bunch of howling wolves (all taxis, hahaha. I knew I would get them somehow). So I decided to walk with my 20+ kilo backpack and that was the best I ever could do. Yes - Athens was as dirty, loud and smelling as we had experienced it the first day but it's funny how you can change your attitude. Still dirty, loud and smelling - I LOVED IT. On my way through small roads I saw a lot of green spaces where you would never expect them. And an incredible number of bars, nice
bars. Some even nicer.
And all the Kiosks (mini markets) selling cold drinks when you need them most...great.
I was very much looking forward to meet Zoi because from her mails I could already say we would like each other. And what should I say - she made me feel at home from the first minute - took my backpack and while I ate the lamb chops she had cooked, she massaged my back and was dancing Flamenco for me...Ah wait...the heat made me hallucinating...haha. There was no massage, lamb and Flamenco but a perfect host. We had a lot of talk at her kitchen table and I was not missing warm water, high-speed internet and TV at all :-) It's funny to see that our incredible life standard in Germany actually means nothing when you got good company.
In the evening we met a friend of her - David - at a bar and hat some very nice :D food... I really recommend to try Crete sausage and smoked beer. Zoi is a DJ and so we had a lot in common. We visited an Anti-Racism-Festival at first and it was a really long walk through dark
forest and dangerous street and our track was the Zoi said a life would go: in circles. So after circling around the town and changing direction for the 241th time we finally arrived at the festival. It was nice there, they had two stages. The highlights were some greek singer - more or less traditional - and a girlie band. Why are women so sexy when the play an electric guitar?
Anyway, we learned and took a taxi to the next place, the bar Sansibar, where Zoi uses to Dj sometimes. It was a very small bar with nice music and a LOT, i repat a LOT of alcohol. I introduced a drink there - the Tequila slammer - which I actually got from the Greek island Ios 20 years before and we had 4 of them along with some "natural" Tequilas...It was really, really funny, we laughed a lot and both were a great company. So in the end we arrived home around 5 a.m. and i fell asleep before I even closed my eyes. Pictures to come later
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Eddie B
Edgar Barguiarena
Good Stuff!
Cant wait to make it to Greece myself. Seems like Zoi was a great hostess, I might have to look her up when I get there! Glad to hear everything is going well, I look forward to hearing about your travels in Asia.