Day 1, The Adventure Begins!

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Today was exhausting, but wonderful. I guess it's not really today, as I've been traveling for the past two days..... I arrived in Greece this morning, slightly shell-shocked by the fact that I'm actually here. What an adventure! On the flight I was surrounded by honeymooners all going to the islands, and made friends with a couple of them. It was actually quite hysterical, because on our flight, the Americans were mainly seated in the back and the Greeks in the front. Where we were all quietly reading our books or gazing blankly off into space, the Greeks were having a festival. Laughing, talking, clapping, it reminded of me of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," which is wonderful!! They were all so happy, the entire 4 first rows of the plane were just having a ball, and put us slightly dour Americans to shame ; ).

Arriving at the airport, I managed to find my way to a bus downtown (after tripping over 3 people), from there I carted my two absurdly enormous bags (I have an internship, I can't pack light! (excuse)) up and down streets trying to find my hostel. What a tourist I must have seemed! The hostel is lovely, although there are some getting used to's. I spent about an hour fighting with a handheld shower (ahh i miss showers at home!) and getting into contact with Becca. We finally met in front of the Parliament building and decided to walk around the town.

Although Athens doesn't hold the same charm for me as Paris does, it has somewhat of a hectic crazy vibe that surrounds you when you're walking. Beware of the mopeds and cars, they don't stop! The old part of town is really beautiful though, and happens to be exactly where my hostel is! As for the people, they are curious, and they like to sell things. We had several salespeople follow us down the street, literally a block, telling us that they had the best items in town. One man pointed us to all of the sites, then promptly asked to take a picture of us (??), very strange. I've heard that it's a scam, but nothing's happened, so I'm really not sure what that was for, maybe I will never find out.

I am apparently not supposed to go with Becca's group for "security reasons," but I've decided that it's a free country, and I might as well just sneakily follow them on public transportation (oh yes, I now know how to use the buses, the metra's a different story, but I'm getting there). So tomorrow I'll be stalking them to Cape Sounion! And the Acropolis is tonight!

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