The Saga Begins: Greece, Greece, Greece!

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Day One: Arrival into Athens
Beep. Beep. Beep. The alarm goes off at 4:15 am and reality hits: Greece is here. All those months of planning, wishing, and excitement…about to be reality. It was pitch black outside, windy, and cold…a typical Oxford morning. Our backpacks were loaded up and we were ready to bike down to the stations. The road was wet and we were about half way there when all of a sudden Mitch throws on his brakes. “Oh Shit.” I knew it was bad. “Tara, I FORGOT my passport”. I am not going to write what I said but as you know a passport is a pretty big deal when you are traveling between countries. In fact, its vital, crucial, mandatory however you want to say it. I look down at my watch: 4:56 am. The bus leaves at 5:10 am and we are about a mile and half from our dorm and 2 miles from the station. What does that mean? It means there is no way in hell that Mitch can bike back to the dorm, get his passport and bike to the bus station before the bus pulls out at 5:10am which means we miss our

bus in London to the airport, ULTIMATELY meaning Tara and Mitch are not going to Greece. All these thoughts are flying through my head as I try not to break down into a million tears. (This whole little mental realization thing took me about 5 seconds) In those 5 seconds, Mitch had down a 180 and was flying back to the dorm. I began biking toward the station questioning whether I should just leave behind my idiot boyfriend. I mean who forgets their passport before a trip to the Greek Islands? I mean really? I get to the station around 5:05 am. Mitch is no where in site. I mean realistically there is no way that he is going to make it. I am sitting on the bench with a big fat frown on my face and pure rage flowing through my veins. I was going to rip his head off. 5:09 am…the bus is about to pull out all of sudden I hear this desperate scream “TAAARA TARRRRAA” as this chicken calfed wonder comes flying into the bus station and skids out to lock his bike while simultaneously throwing his huge backpack on his back. I was suddenly overwhelmed by hope and begged the bus driver to wait. There is my man, my superhero, my very own Lance Armstrong. He comes running towards me in a dead sprint, sweat streaming, panting, eyes glazed, nostrils flared…”WAITTTTTTT”. 5:10 am…the bus pulls out with Tara and Mitch aboard. I wish I could describe to you the scene that followed once Mitch sat down in the bus seat. I don’t know if you have ever heard someone have an asthma attack but in that moment…Mitch made that look like child’s play. He was like a fish out of water, flopping on the seat, sweat just flying off him, calves swelling. It was absolutely hilarious. I decided that I wasn’t even going to get mad at him for being such an idiot because of his miraculous 3.3 mile bike ride/run into the dorm to get his passport in 14 minutes. The people on the bus had no idea what to do with my incredibly out of shape boyfriend who just completed the toughest athletic challenge of his life at 5 in the morning with a 30 pound backpack on his back…I mean let’s be honest, those calves can only take so much. I am convinced that there was divine intervention.
We got to the Stansted Airport a good hour before our flight and boarded Aegen Airlines on time and extremely thankful. To our pleasure, we found that Aegean serves a three course meal on the plane and free alcohol so we celebrated…3 and a half hours later we touched down in Athens, Greece. And oh were we ready. Our initial impression of Athens was well…Mexico on crack. It was dirty, crammed, smelly, and all really tan people (aka: no white people). Of course, we booked a wonderful hostel in the ghetto where we had some wonderful encounters with the local dogs, cats, and bums. Classy is our middle name. We found out when we got to our “hostel” that they did not have any power and transferred us to a nice hotel up the street. Awesome…not. After the initial shock that “Hey Athens is a complete shit toss and our moms would freak if they knew where we were (as they are probably doing as they read this, at least mine is. I put money on it)” we decided to get as far away from our hostel for as long as we could so we went into the central part of Athens: Plaka. Such a scenery change…there were tourist shops, delicious foods, oh and white people. The shops sell the coolest things from Greek shields and daggers to strange statues with enormous penises (they are all about the fertility thing here, perhaps why Athens is so freaking overpopulate?). We walked smack dab into the Acropolis which was lit up beautifully in the night sky. The acropolis sits up on a huge hill an overlooks the city…it was amazing. In that moment, Mitch and I forgot about the morning Tour de France, our temporary residence in the ghetto, and the fact we were starving. It was a great moment. Neither of us had stared at something so old and full of history. Now that we were intellectually and visually satiated, we decided to get some real satisfaction and headed to this adorable little café at the bottom of the Acropolis hill for some Greek gyros. We decided to hold off on the Ouzo and wine and just stick with water straight out of tap as we are both BROKE which also led to us both ordering the cheapest item on the menu. Surprise, surprise. After our riveting little dinner, we jumped on the metro and traveled with our hoodlum friends back to our hotel in the projects that had suddenly become the hot spot in town for all the 13-14 year old kids going through their awkward stages (come one we all had one)…Mitch and I were just not to excited to walk into our room to hear the hot water pipes banging like a jack hammer and the ten year olds dancing to techno in the halls. Greece is two hours ahead of England, and Mitch and Tara being the Grandma and Grandpa they are decided to turn in at the crazy hour of 10 pm. We were planning on an early morning and one intense day of seeing what Athens was really about…

Day Two: Exploration of the Athens

Shocking. We actually woke up early, 6:00 am to be exact. I wish I could say that we got a wonderful nights sleep but that is hardly the case as the thirteen year old ruffians seemed to be partying in the hall all night long. At one point, I felt like they were sitting on the bed. It was ridiculous. So, we both woke up to the blaring alarm with heavy eyes and weary bodies but excited nonetheless. I mean we were in Athens! Our “hotel” came with a breakfast buffet which happens to be Mitch and I’s favorite thing because you can eat as much as you like. However, these Greeks are smart and know that if they put really crappy food in the buffet people won’t eat as much and they will save money. The buffet was far from desirable as the highlight was the hard boiled eggs. Mitch was quite disappointed because there appeared to be thinly sliced French toast in one of the hot plates but really it was just over cooked eggs. We stuffed ourselves with bread, tea, and hard boiled eggs and then got the heck out of that joint. We went down to the train station to lock up our bags as we were switching hotels that night because our ferry left very early on Sunday morning and we needed to be close to the port Piraeus. When we got to the train station to lock up our bags, one of the lockers had a charge of 72 euros which meant that it had been locked for God knows how long…meaning one of two things: 1. The person is dead (my theory) or 2. There is a terrorist bomb inside (Mitch’s theory, in fact, he is convinced). Regardless, we locked our stuff up and headed on the so-called metro to the tourist section of Athens: Plaka. We got to the Acropolis right around 8:30 am when it opens and got in free because we were students (saved us 12 euros). It is a wonderful thing that we got there early because little did we know that literally thousands of old, saggy, and wrinkled tourists bombard the Acropolis. These tourists are all between the ages of 100-200 years old and come off the cruise lines that arrive in the morning. These people are ancient and I think there last dying wish is too see the Acropolis. They take their walkers, wheel chairs, personal servants whatever up the steep hill to the Acropolis and they could not be more annoying, the American ones in particular. I mean you have Mitch, a Greek god, and me, his Greek goddess, literally just flying up the hill passing these old people like they are cones. All along the way, all you here is “Well when I was young we did this..” and “Oh have you been here and there” and “122 years ago when I was 20 I went here…” and “Honey do you have my glasses because I can’t see the Acropolis..” I felt like it was an all out war between these old people on who had gone where, who had seen what, and who had the most in-style walker. Age is not a kind thing. Anyway, Mitch and I were really stunned at how amazing the Acropolis and the hill it sat upon really was…We spent a good 2 hours just walking around reading (or I guess you would say staring at) the inscriptions in the giant pillars and admiring the beautiful statues that were somehow still intact (minus the nose and penis, they seem to not be able to stand up to the test of time and weather…hmmm). The sun had just started to pop up when we had gotten to the entrance of the Acropolis and the overall scene was amazing. It sits on top of a high hill in the center of Athens and you can literally see for miles from the top. The big, cracked, and weathered columns are holding up some of the most intricately decorated structures we have ever seen. It is incredible that they are still intact after so many years of rain, wind, and destruction. We took a bunch of pictures, knocked a few old people over for fun, and decided that we should head down and check out the rest of what Athens has to offer. We headed to the ancient Agora which was littered with hundreds of fallen and collapsed structures that really just looked like a big field covered in ancient ruins. We went into Hadrian’s Musuem and saw some awesome artifacts that were recovered from the different archeological sites. There was a Spartan shield as well as hundreds of pieces of gold jewelry, swords, and even a small human body that was mostly intact. It was crazy! Statues are just everywhere around here, literally everywhere you go there is a statue from a million years ago. We went to Hadrian’s library next in honor of loving and brilliant (PhD) mother. My boyfriend, Mitch, does not read. In fact, he cannot even force himself to pick up a book and read it which is the antithesis of myself (opposites attract?). However, this library was his kind of place: a huge green field with a few hundred collapsed columns and not one book. He felt truly inspired. By this time we were both starving which is not a new feeling but felt that we should eat after our miles upon miles trek around Athenia. We went to this cute little café in Plaka and got chicken gyros which were delicious. We encountered a flock of young American girls who I caught taking a picture of us because we were “so adorable.” It was kind of strange, but we just let it slide as this is not the firs time something like this has happened to us. Our legs were exhausted and our bellies were full which meant we were not up for walking. There was this really awesome train that looked like a toy train called the Sunshine Express that took tourists around to all the major sites. Bingo! Tara and Mitch boarded for a mere 3 Euros student price and basically passed on the train as we went around Athens. It was the perfect break that we needed, and felt revived enough to go check out Zeus’ temple and Hadrians Arch. They really sound cooler than they are as it really just is big huge columns toppled over and some rubble and debris…but it is like a million years old so it is pretty cool. It was around 4 by this time and Mitch and I were spent as far as sightseeing goes, I mean it takes a lot out of you to walk everywhere and stare at stuff for hours on end. We got back on the “metro” which we later found out wasn’t the metro at all which meant that the map we had been religiously following was completely and totally wrong which ultimately meant that we got everywhere on pure luck. Funny how life works. We picked up our stuff at the train station and made our way down to our new hotel by the port Piraeus. Hey good news, Piraeus is just as ugly and nasty as Athens but there were some really entertaining crazy psycho people wandering the streets. We picked up our tickets from the ferry station after a wild goose chase to track down which of the thousands of offices was the one we had purchased our tickets from. The hotel was about .7 miles from the port and we walked along the bay and saw all the different cruise ships that contained all those tourists. The hotel was simple and nice, just what we needed in a budget accommodation. The only downfall was the room just smelled Greek and that really isn’t a very delicious smell, but hey you can’t have your cake and eat it too. After settling in and freaking out because they had CNN, Mitch and I were starving and decided to have a nice romantic dinner at the local McDonalds OH. MY. GOSH. I don’t know what’s in the water in Piraeus but these people were absolutely nuts. Mitch and I are expecting a nice laid back cheap dinner of fries and burgers…which we got, but not without witnessing the following: we are seated in the middle of restaurant just casually eating our burgers when realized that we are literally surrounded by drunk and crazy bums. The man to our left is so wasted and high that he is literally falling off the seat with his head resting on the ground pretending to hold a newspaper. The two woman to our left are spitting into a cup and collecting all the McDonald’s cup they can cram into their dirty plastic bags. The man in front of us has passed out and is laying on the floor, cigarette in hand. The man behind us is delusional and is yelling in Greek to his imaginary best friend seated beside him. He goes as far as to signal to him to come over and then starts yelling and arguing with him. It was absurd and Mitch and I just looked at each other and laughed. Oh the life we live! We scurried home after our McDonald’s dinner show, and got into bed. Little did I know that our devotional would lead us into a deep 2 hour religious conversation. It was intense but wonderful, and I can already feel God working in our lives through these Bible studies we have been doing together. Life is beautiful. Sleep was a necessity as we had to wake up at 6 am to embark on our journey to the islands, the highlight of the Greek adventure…Beaches, Motorbikes, Gyros, Calamari, Ouzo, Wine, and Sunsets…Tara and Mitch lead a rough life. Here we go!

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