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I woke up in Rome on April 26
th and would fall asleep in Athens, isn’t modern travel wonderful! My trip from the hostel to the airport was easy enough; I just hopped on the subway to the train station and took a train to the airport. I got to the airport with plenty of time so I just settled in with my book to wait until boarding. I was flying Ryan air, one of many of Europe’s budget airlines. When flying Ryan air I was told to make sure to arrive early since they do not give seat assignments. If you arrive late you have to take whatever seat is available and if the overhead bins are full you have to pay to check your bag; two very good reasons to get there early in my opinion. Only one bad is allowed to be carried on, and they do mean only one; which means women, including me, were stuffing their purses into their carry-ons. Since I was only traveling with my backpack and day bag it was a tight fit getting my day bag into my backpack. I’m thinking of it as good practice for next month after I mail home
my suitcase.
The flight itself was just a couple of hours, which is a good thing since the seats were so close together. Getting the better price comes with sacrifices. When we landed I made my way through the airport following sings for the trains. After walking out into the sunshine and heat towards the train area I had a moment of panic, what am I don’t in Greece, this was never part of my plan, I haven’t even done any research on what to see or the best times to do things. How could this happen, I’m so unprepared, plus I packed in such a hurry I’m sure I forgot something important! I don’t have a Greece guidebook, or phrase book how am I going to get around and communicate?! Every sign I saw was in Greek and English, which was nice and helped me calm down, but it did make me wonder what do all the travelers from Turkey, Italy and the rest of Europe do. I quickly found the area to catch a train to the city center, and since I had printed out directions to the hostel before I left I knew exactly which train
I needed to catch, I thought.
I first tried an automated ticket machine, and picked English, then tried to figure out which ticket I needed. After a few minutes I gave up and went to a ticket counter with a person I could show my directions to and ask for the specific location. It turns out I had to take a train into the city and then take the subway system to the hostel, which involved switching lines. The subway system was easy enough to follow so I didn’t have any problems with the transfer between lines or finding my stop. While on the train and subway lines I was surprised to see young kids walking through the cars playing accordions trying to earn money, and still others trying to sell tissue or batteries, anything to make a few dollars. I guess this is just a sign at how bad things are for the Greeks right now.
I’m off the subway and I walk to street level, I have my directions and am walking in the correct direction. One problem, I’m supposed to go ten meters and turn left. I don’t know how much ten meters is. I see a busy street up ahead and figure that must be it, so I walk to the intersection, it isn’t it. I and up going around the block and wondering for a bit until I come back to where I started. I try again, this time I notice a small street not far from the metro stop and turn down that. The hostel itself is very difficult to see because there are big orange trees in front of the sign saying Athens Backpacker. I only noticed it because there were notices posted on the door about the rooftop bar which I know the hostel to have. I go inside to check in and find out that I am not at that location but at a location a few blocks away; they give me a map and I head out again. This time with much better luck, I found the place on the first try. I got the keys to my room and headed up. My bed was in a 6 bed co-ed dorm style with private bath and kitchen area for the room. Upon going in only one bed was taken so I had my choice of bunk. I picked a lower bunk because they are so much easier to get in and out of.
The other person in the room was a guy from Detroit name Ron; he had already been there ten days and was planning another two weeks because he had hurt his ankle and wanted to give it time to rest. Ron was an interesting character I would find out over the next few days, he wasn’t working back in Detroit so when he got the foreclosure notice on his house he decided to take off to Europe for a few months. Since he has been in Europe he has decided to couch surf during the summer back at home and sell the rest of his possessions and once the weather turns head off either to South America or to western Asia, where he heard he can live cheaply. While laying low in Athens he had started constructing a solar oven out of cardboard and newspaper he had found in the trash. He did have to purchase a pan, foil, and clear plastic wrap in order to complete it though. The maiden voyage of his solar oven he cooked French fries which turned out below his expectations, he put the fries in the pan in the morning and out on the balcony of our room, and figured he could have them for lunch. When he put them into the pan they were frozen. The fries did thaw and get partially cooked but they were not done by any means. Ron figured his problem was he didn’t thaw them first. He also informed me he was a well-known graffiti artist in Detroit. Alrighty, good to know I guess.
The second night a guy from China came in; he was very nice and even gave me a packet of tea and chopsticks! Other people were in and out during my time in Athens but I didn’t really chat with them. I spent the remainder of the day wondering the tourist area and browsing, one thing I realized is that I didn’t pack the right things. This could have been caused by the rush I was in or the fact that I was still a little dazed after the events of the morning; either way, it was hot and all I had were jeans. Since I knew I need to purchase something light and breezy to wear I decided to spend my birthday shopping! I called it an early night so I could be fresh in the morning for a tour I booked through the hostel. I was worried about waking up since I didn’t have an alarm clock, or any clock for that matter, since those were things I used my iPod for.
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