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Published: June 21st 2008
I've never done this travel blog thing before, but i hope you enjoy it. Athens is hot. Really hot. My flight was uneventful, Ottawa to London wasn't anywhere near as bad as that Tel-Aviv flight I've done a few times. I had about 10 hours in London, but I had to switch airports, so I didn't mind that it was such a long time. I just took the airport shuttle from Heathrow to Gatwick, and then chilled and had a coffee until I could check in. Easy Jet doesn't have pre-assigned seating, so it's kind of first come first serve, and I was probably the first person to check in, so i got the first seating group. Apparently Europeans aren't aware of the massive amount of leg room in the exit row, so i scored myself an exit-row window seat, which was just fantastic. Too bad my window didn't open and my seat didn't recline. I guess this is to be expected on a budget airline. At the athens airport, I grabbed a taxi to my hostel, and was probably overcharged, but it was late, I was tired, and I didn't really care. I checked into my room (which was full of fellow Canadians) and headed down to the hostel bar where I was provided a free welcome shot of Ouzo (ew?) and met a few fellow travellers. Headed off to bed after that, and let me tell you that it is almost impossible to sleep when it's 35 degrees in your room. The next day, I got up early and took a nice hot shower, then with my new friend Kooshan from Toronto, we walked over to a bakery and devoured some warm Feta cheese pies, then headed to the National Archaeological Museum, which was full of statues, and vases(it was air-conditioned though). I suppose after the first 20 they all start to look the same, but there was an Egypt section that was really cool with mummy tombs and stuff. I have some pictures that will follow at some later date. After that we took a nice hour-long stroll over to an area called Gazi (with no relation to that shady area in the middle east) that had some lovely trendy restaurants. After drinking most of a beer, i decided to take the metro back to my hostel for a nap. I finished a really crappy Danielle Steel book my mom had given me, and slept for a while. Got up and took another shower, and then headed back down to the bar where I met some Americans from Cali. Called it an early night, and definitely opted for the A/C so I could actually sleep. Today I switched hostels, because the one I'm at right now is located like, next door to the Acropolis, and really nice, as opposed to the one I have been staying at for the last few days. It was in a bit of a shady area, although not too bad. This one is much nicer, so I'm happy I switched. I got a great room too, with a bathroom in it, on the top floor with a big balcony, and my room overlooks the Acropolis. Tomorrow, my plan is to take the walking tour around Athens, they take you to all the important sites, so that should be cool, as long as I bring like, a gallon of water and wear SPF 40000. There is a nice kitchen and a roof-top bar here. Lots of Canadians and Australians... (there are always a ton of Aussies at every hostel) . The day after tomorrow I meet up with my Contiki tour at our hotel, and I've heard such good things about the islands, so I'm really excited. Hopefully everyone will be cool! I've heard from people that Athens isn't a very nice city and that you shouldn't spend too long here, but so far it seems really nice. If you changed the signs from Greek to Hebrew, you could easily be in Tel-Aviv. It's very Mediterranean here (as one might expect, based on it's location) and it's a good thing I can deal with heat. I suppose that's about it for now, hopefully I'll be able to give you an update again in a few days. A big shoutout to my lil bro Michael, cuz it's his birthday today and he turns the big 19!! Lots of love from Athens...xoxox
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Yael
non-member comment
what up
Hey Marissa!!! Enjoyed the blog, never really read a blog up until now, glad ur doing well, miss you....viva Athens and Contikit...wish i could be there with you!!