From Rome to Athens,

Hello folks, I am now in Athens, it is nice and a little cheaper than Italy, but really, I need to get out of Europe, it is eating my money like a great monster.

I made a bit of a gruelling trip to get here, overnight train from Rome (the italians have conceived an ingenious train seat that is uncomfortable in any position), arrived in Bari at 6:30 am, then an overnight boat to Patras in Greece, departed 6:30 pm, arrived 1pm the next day. Strange experience, I was travelling the cheapest ticket, which means you are on the deck. So me, and another guy were sitting on the carpet outside where the cabins are, in a very nice ship. We plugged in the computer, watched a couple movies, drank a couple bottles of wine, and ate some bread, fruit, crackers and cheese. We made a nice time of it, and then did our best to sleep on the floor. Next day arrived in Patras and found a train to Athens. Now staying at the very nice Athens Backpackers hostel. Weather is nice, maybe 15 degrees or so I think, sunny yesterday, cloudy today.

On my first night in Athens, I went with another traveller to go find some food. We left the hostel, and a dog started following us (see the pic). Followed us for a long time, but seemed nice, and was wearing a collar so I assumed it belonged to someone. Turns out that actually it is a street dog, and the government gave it a collar and shots, then put it back on the street. Nice street dogs though, at least for us. So later that night, a group of us leaves the hostel to go drinking. Well this time we have about 6 dogs along for the ride, and they are our guardians, a little too eager I might add. Anyone, dog or human comes near us, and they start freaking out, one poor bastard got completely surrounded, dogs jumping up on him, barking and nipping, he was absolutely terrified. Very strange, but, we felt save LOL.

As usual I am low on time, so another blog entry that consists mostly of pictures, and some video this time.

YOU MUST WATCH THE VIDEO. (damn, i can't get the video to upload, been trying for 2 days, maybe in next entry, it is hilarious)

It is the changing of the guard in front of a government building, and if i didn't film it myself, I would not believe it was real. I also seem to have managed to break my camera (put too high of a voltage in), so I don't know what I will do about that, there may not be pics or video for a while.

Anyway, check out the pics, and watch the montypythonesque video.

Tomorrow I start travelling toward Istanbul, and expect to arrive on the morning of Christmas eve.

I may not get to eat turkey, but at least I am in Turkey.

oh, and merry x-mas if I don't blog again by then.

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