After dinner last night, we met James and his new friends Claude (from Portland, Oregon) and Melanie and Simone (a French-Canadian couple) at the sports bar downstairs. The bar was getting crowded, so we made the executive decision to follow James to a bar called "The James Joyce," which we had seen earlier in the day.
Unfortunately, James' sense of direction isn't as good at night and/or after a few drinks because he lead us all over Athens. We were actually circling the Acropolis looking for this place, until we caught a promising glimmer of green and yellow lights coming from down a street.
The James Joyce was hopping. Our group immediately got split up in the overwhelming crowd. Everyone and everything was green and two guys on stage were playing some kind of weird Irish music. Eventually we got our group back together with everyone but Simone, who had told us he needed to say good-bye to "some people" before running off into the mob. Melanie told us she would stay and look for him and the rest of us moved on.
We found a restaurant that was a lot more calm and decided to hang out there for a little while. It didn't take long though for us all to realize just how tired we were, so we made our way back home; getting lost again but not minding since it was such a beautiful night.
This morning we met James and Claude at the Fish Cafe, then did our own tour of Athens. We went into the Acropolis since it's free Sundays and around some of the other ancient temples.
The Acropolis is amazing (I mean, it is the Acropolis). We saw the Parthenon, of course, and the Erechtheion, and they were beautiful. I feel like the ruins here are a lot similar to the ruins in Rome and I think that unfortunately diminished some of the awe factor here, but it was still incredible to walk around these ancient buildings. Also, the view from the top of the Acropolis is breathtaking. We spent most of our time up there just sitting and watching all of Athens spread out below us (and posing for about 200 photos).
After the Acropolis, we went back to the lookout hill we visited on our tour and laid around talking and enjoying another beautiful view and perfect weather before moving on to get lunch (gyros again) and do some shopping in Syntagma Square.
The Square was packed and we ended up getting split into three groups within the crowd. Bethany and I gave up trying to find everyone and began making our way home, hoping to find at least part of the group there.
We ran into Jess, Kate and Claude near the Acropolis Museum and Caitlin, Lydia and James back at our apartment, where Claude left us to go meet a group from his hostel.
James left a little before dinner, this time for good since he was heading to a soccer match, then returning to England on a late plane tonight. We said our good-byes, then the six of us girls went out in search of dinner.
We ended up wandering until we found a promising-looking restaurant called Plakiotissa Taverna Mezedopolio (say that ten times fast). I liked it because everything in the restaurant - from the furniture to the walls to the chandeliers - was green. A little old man brought us bread, olive oil and vinegar, and water with our menus while the two-man band tuned up. We were the only people in the restaurant until our food arrived, so we were slightly concerned, but this turned out to be one of the best decisions of our time in Athens.
The band struck up an upbeat tune in Greek (this is the first place I've been in Europe where they listen to their own music and not music from the States) and soon our waiter was out clapping his hands and singing along while we followed his lead and clapped along with him.
The staff were all in a great mood and made us feel like guests of honor when they brought out our dinners (rice and meatballs for me). They continued serenading us throughout dinner with a mixture of Greek music, American oldies and Beatles tunes.
Once our plates were cleared away, the manager asked which of us was the best singer. We pointed to Jess since used to sing in a chorus. She protested, but between us, the band and the manager, she ended up standing with the band and singing through "Let It Be" with them.
After that, the manager called the rest of us up and taught us how to dance. We did some sort of Greek circle dance that involved sidestepping and kicking and it was tons of fun! After we thought we had the hang of it, the manager stepped out to let the six of us dance on our own while he stood back and clapped in time.
Once we had the circle dance semi-mastered, the manager pulled out a chair and set it in the center of our circle. He had Caitlin stand on it and told her to dance while we all danced around her. At first she wasn't sure what to do, so the manager called a guy who I'm going to assume was the dishwasher out of the back of the restaurant and this guy showed us how to dance.
Caitlin tried to copy him, but he was really into it, with a lot of hip-shaking and jumping around. Caitlin tried her best but ended up inventing her own dance on the chair.
We danced with the manager and the younger guy and sang along to the songs we knew from the band until all the other guests had left. It was nearly midnight when we left and at least Lydia and I plan on getting up early tomorrow to fit in a bit more sightseeing before we have to be at the airport at noon for our flight to Santorini.
Today was such a full day, I can't wait to crawl into bed. Hopefully I'll sleep better tonight than I did last night. It was cold and loud in our room because we accidentally left a window open... Won't be doing that again.
The Acropolis is amazing (I mean, it is the Acropolis). We saw the Parthenon, of course, and the Erechtheion, and they were beautiful. I feel like the ruins here are a lot similar to the ruins in Rome and I think that unfortunately diminished some of the awe factor here, but it was still incredible to walk around these ancient buildings. Also, the view from the top of the Acropolis is breathtaking. We spent most of our time up there just sitting and watching all of Athens spread out below us (and posing for about 200 photos).
 |
| Me, Lydia, Caitlin, James, and Claude in front of the Parthenon. |
The Square was packed and we ended up getting split into three groups within the crowd. Bethany and I gave up trying to find everyone and began making our way home, hoping to find at least part of the group there.
We ran into Jess, Kate and Claude near the Acropolis Museum and Caitlin, Lydia and James back at our apartment, where Claude left us to go meet a group from his hostel.
James left a little before dinner, this time for good since he was heading to a soccer match, then returning to England on a late plane tonight. We said our good-byes, then the six of us girls went out in search of dinner.
We ended up wandering until we found a promising-looking restaurant called Plakiotissa Taverna Mezedopolio (say that ten times fast). I liked it because everything in the restaurant - from the furniture to the walls to the chandeliers - was green. A little old man brought us bread, olive oil and vinegar, and water with our menus while the two-man band tuned up. We were the only people in the restaurant until our food arrived, so we were slightly concerned, but this turned out to be one of the best decisions of our time in Athens.
The band struck up an upbeat tune in Greek (this is the first place I've been in Europe where they listen to their own music and not music from the States) and soon our waiter was out clapping his hands and singing along while we followed his lead and clapped along with him.
The staff were all in a great mood and made us feel like guests of honor when they brought out our dinners (rice and meatballs for me). They continued serenading us throughout dinner with a mixture of Greek music, American oldies and Beatles tunes.
Once our plates were cleared away, the manager asked which of us was the best singer. We pointed to Jess since used to sing in a chorus. She protested, but between us, the band and the manager, she ended up standing with the band and singing through "Let It Be" with them.
After that, the manager called the rest of us up and taught us how to dance. We did some sort of Greek circle dance that involved sidestepping and kicking and it was tons of fun! After we thought we had the hang of it, the manager stepped out to let the six of us dance on our own while he stood back and clapped in time.
Once we had the circle dance semi-mastered, the manager pulled out a chair and set it in the center of our circle. He had Caitlin stand on it and told her to dance while we all danced around her. At first she wasn't sure what to do, so the manager called a guy who I'm going to assume was the dishwasher out of the back of the restaurant and this guy showed us how to dance.
Caitlin tried to copy him, but he was really into it, with a lot of hip-shaking and jumping around. Caitlin tried her best but ended up inventing her own dance on the chair.
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| Caitlin, Kate, me, Kostos, Bethany, Jess, and Lydia with the band. |
Today was such a full day, I can't wait to crawl into bed. Hopefully I'll sleep better tonight than I did last night. It was cold and loud in our room because we accidentally left a window open... Won't be doing that again.
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