EuroTrip Day 37 (Rome Day9/Athens Day 1)

...... so once 7am came around, I woke the fellas up. I hopped in the shower, finished getting ready, and waited for my friends to finish getting ready. Dave was somewhat well rested since he knocked out earlier, but Eric was hurting……..bad. Tired, hungover, and groggy… I’m sure he didn’t feel that great.

After finishing getting ready, we headed to the Termini station and took the Leonardo Express to Rome Fiumicino Airport. Dave was taking a different flight to Athens, so we split up. Also, Eric was leaving at 6:45am the NEXT DAY, but he didn’t feel like paying for a room that hed have to leave early anyways, so he decided to wait in the airport for 12 or 14 hours or whatnot.

I got my boarding pass and headed to the gate. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed for 30 min. This may not sound too bad, but when you haven’t slept and are looking forward to taking a nap on a plane…… it seemed like an eternity.

Finally, the time came to board the plane. Got on, and just knocked out. I woke up to eat a meal and drink some soda, but for the most part, I slept on the plane. It’s amazing to see how much my battery recharges after a one hour nap.

After landing in Athens International Airport (by the way, the tarmac (sp?) is HUGE there). We basically stopped in some middle area and had a bus take us to the terminal. I immediately saw Dave and waited for our bags. I’m not going to lie, I was pretty worried about the language barrier. Sure I was a little worried about Italy, but I could deduce what things were since I speak English and Spanish.Greek, however, is a TOTALLY different ball game. Lucky for us, almost everyone we encountered speaks English pretty well (many spoke it perfectly).

We exited the airport and took the train to central Athens. One of the first observations I made was the weather. Sure it was hot, but THANK GOD it wasn’t as humid as Rome. The heat was MUCH more bearable. The climate in Athens is dry, similar to Los Angeles. Dave and I headed to the hostel and just relaxed for a few hours and had some drinks. We found a good little gyro shop about a block or two down from the hostel and a cool little square for us to sit and enjoy them in.

Also, we met some really cool people while hanging out at the hostel. We met these two girls named Kim (yes, they were both named kim). I believe one was from South Africa and the other was from England, if I’m not mistaken. We also met a crazy smart guy from Norway. He’s a writer and is taking time off from writing a text book. Crazy eh?

Dave and I made our reservations at different times, so we had different rooms. This prompted us to meet his roommates. This guy Mike and his friend from Los Angeles, one of which had lived in Germany for the last year (he was desperate to go home). We also met this guy Chris from Texas who was his roommate. We also met this Australian chick who teaches literature in China. We got into some debates/discussions, and she has some wild views of the world, but it was good times for sure. Overall, all of them were very nice people.

We all ended up hanging out in the court yard of the hostel. Once late night early morning came, I was just crashing hard core. I guess one hour of sleep wasn’t enough to suffice staying up late again (although it was kind of late when I went to bed). I went up to my room, turned on my iPod and just knocked out. Put it this way, I don’t think I was awake 15 seconds before falling asleep. I know I turned my iPod on, but I seriously don’t even remember what song was playing.

Anyways, I have to get going. Tomorrow, it’s ACROPOLIS time!

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