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View from outside our hostel
Note the lack of tan.
(follow the tan progression throughout the photos.)May 4/09
(This one will similarly be a doozy. enjoy though!)
On our plane to Athens on Aegean Airlines, we get served a Greek dinner of pasta, Greek salad with a massive chunk of feta cheese on it and bread rolls.
Once again, it was delish!
Mark my words - from now on i'm only traveling on flight companies from a diff. country - just solely for the food.
After watching Bride Wars (bad movie.), i passed out unconscious, and unbeknowst to me, Michelle proceeded to sketch my graceful sleeping form, complete with open mouth, neck rolls, and probably a little bit of drool. awesome.
When landing time came, I was in for an amusing treat. Unlike Air India, where the plane landed in silence, when the Aegean place began its descent it was met with great enthusiasm from the many Greek passengers on board. The plane was filled with exclamations of "WHOA" "OOO" and "OOPA!".
When the aircraft finally landed, it was greeted by a large hearty applause.
This definitely introduced me to the social, enthusiastic culture of the Greek people!
First impressions of Athens: A bit rundown, dirty, very old buildings that looked like
Ruby posing
The restaurant we were eating at in the Plaka. they were ready to fall down...
As michelle and i wandered around trying to find our hostel, 2 greek men called to us offering their help.
We gratefully accepted. After they steered us to the right direction, one of the old men sad that he knew Chinese, and said "JEH JEH!".
Now my Chinese isn't great, but i recognized it at first as "thank you" in mandarin, but as i was walking away, i realized that in Cantonese, it meant, "Penis".
So...let's hope the old man meant the former.
At the hostel, Athens Backpackers, we met up with Annie, Ruby and Karen to find to our delight, that our room had been upgraded to a suite with ensuite bathroom, kitchen, 2 private balconies and tv.
We walked around the Plaka afterward, which is a series of small streets filled with souvenir shops, restaurants and cafes. It was beautiful! The roads were so narrow and store merchandise and cafe tables would spill-out into the narrow cobblestone roads. So what we thought were pedestrian walkways, we were unpleasantly surprised when a car came barreling towards us causing us to dive out of the way onto the one foot wide
Moussaka
I may have spelled it wrong. walkways which were actually for the pedestrians.
The cars just BARELY fit through, but that didn't' stop them.
Back @ the Plaka, one big thing i noticed was that everywhere in athens there are stray dogs wandering around! But they didn't' just wander, they plop themselves down in the middle of a walk way and just lie there.
Half the time, i honestly wonder if the dog in front of me is still alive or not.
Apparently tourists can bring the strays home if they want.
anyone want a dog for a souvenir??
So we wandered around, then decided to find dinner, and there were no shortage of choices. Restaurants must hire ppl to hassle tourists on the street..because everytime we pass a restaurant there's always a dude trying to usher us inside! After much wandering, and many growling stomachs, we settled for one in, what seemed like the center of the Plaka.
Sitting outside was amazing. It felt as if I was still indoors because of the narrow roads, taller buildings, adn well lit streets surrounding us. We could only see strips of the sky peeking through teh tops of the buildings. It was surreal!
Our
Us at the restaurant.
Note Annie's face.
Note the really bizarre dessert in front of us.
Orange juice + sugar = not very good. dinner was 11 euros (17 CAD), and came with a mixed salad, bread app, main dish, dessert and a glass of wine. My main dish was a Greek specialty, Moussaka, which looksl ike a lasagna but has potatoes, egg plant, pasta, veal meat and feta cheese, all smothered with a cream sauce.
mm.
So sitting outside, watching the sky darken, while sipping wine with friends - it was a great peaceful feeling!
The greeks do this well, becasue throughout our athens journeys, we found that all restaurants had tables outside and they were always filled with Greeks eating, drinking, relaxing and socializing.
During the dinner, annie got drunk off a glass of wine (she's asian.), which made for an amusing night. After diner, we shopped for souvenirs. Each store had EXACTLY the same thing, the "All-Seeing-Eye" merchandise (literally, just an eye.), busts of greek gods, greek vases, oilves, olive oil, olive anything..etc.
And of course, my friends ate it up and bought tons back for their family and friends.
MY family and friends on the other hand...yea..you made friends with the wrong backpacker.
While some still shopped, Ruby and I decided that it was time to try the
Greek street up to the Acropolis
At night, this tiny street is filled with tables. national Greek drink, Ouzo.
While it is usually served on ice in a glass, we decided to be like the college students we are, and ordered them in shots.
I gulped it down excitedly (i had very high expectations as everyone in greece talks about it), butttt..
i ended up coughing and holding my burning nose (i swear i half snorted it up..).
Sadly, i am not a fan of ouzo. It tasted ilke black licorace. and yea. i don't like black licorace.
but it did it's job if you know what i mean, and back at the hostel, i passed out.
ATHENS PART 2 coming up nexxtt!
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allen
non-member comment
haha, neck rolls, you fatty.