Greece, Part Two - Relaxing before my Introduction to Iceland

Following from the last entry, I still had a few days left to spend in Athens before heading back to London after the guys headed out. As one last hurrah with them, we all made our way to the Archeological Museum in Athens because our guide books said it was one of the top European museums. Personally, I disagreed. Maybe it was due to my general lack of interest towards a museum that solely focused on Ancient Greece or that we had been to so many museums at this point that I no longer had the patience. Although you may not believe it, spending an afternoon in a Museum can be one of the most exhausting things you can do. I don’t know if it is the walking, reading or attempted learning but it really just takes it out of you. Fortunately for me, the rest of the guys shared the same sentiments and we only spent about an hour in the museum before we all decided to call it a day. I wished them farewell, grabbed my camera and headed off towards the Acropolis for a day of sightseeing.

It isn’t entirely clear or well marked how to get up to the Acropolis from the ground so I just sort of headed up the plateau via the less strenuous routes and, before I knew it, I was looking out over Athens from a rocky outcropping. I didn’t really understand how big Athens was until I got above it. As I made my way from one hill to another, and finally up to the Acropolis, I realized that I couldn’t see a city limit in any direction except for the Mediterranean to the south. I won’t attempt to test my literary skill by describing how stunningly gorgeous the view was because I took enough pictures for any 3 people so check out Facebook instead! The beauty of the views, however, shouldn’t take anything away from how cool the remains of the Ancient Greek Acropolis are. Considering that those structures date from more than 2000 years ago it is kind of ridiculous that they are still standing, especially given how massive they are. From the top of the Acropolis I spotted a cool old amphitheater, the original Olympic Stadium and busy public square that I wanted to check so I made my way down there after exhausting all there was to do at the Acropolis. A few hours of walking around and exploring later, I was absolutely starving and needed a meal so I made my way back to my token gyro stand. Before I headed back to the hostel I made sure to check out the “Athens Flea Market.” In all honesty, it’s more of a collection of posh shops than a flea market but, like usual, it’s always fun to browse at things. Also, for the record, the part about Europe having cooler shoes than us still held true in Athens.

When I got back to the hostel I found a new guy who had inadvertently took my bed so, naturally we got to talking. Turns out he is an architecture student from Illinois studying in Versailles for the year and was on a trip to Athens and then some Greek Islands to do some sketching. Sounded like a hell of an academic trip to me. We talked for a bit, introduced ourselves (he was Phil) and he invited me to a hostel a little closer to downtown where his friend was staying. Apparently it had a miraculous rooftop bar and a great happy hour so I couldn’t resist. Turns out his friend, Jeff, was actually a 45 year old, married man with a wife and kids who had decided to head back to school to get his architecture degree and took on the tremendous undertaking of spending a year abroad. I can’t image how hard that would be with a wife and two young kids at home. Anyways, the happy hour turned out to be spectacular so we all enjoyed our fair share of beers and conversed about everything and nothing for a few hours. When we headed back to the hostel, I had planned on going to bed but, like usual, there was something going on that I couldn’t resist joining. Maxi and a few new hostel arrivals were on the roof so I headed up there and enjoyed the rest of the evening with them.

The following morning (well, late morning) Maxi and I headed down to the main square to meet up with some girls he had met while travelling in Eastern Europe. We did introductions and then headed to catch the tram down to the beach. The 45 minute ride to the water wasn’t ideal although finally getting to the beach made it all worth it! The four of us literally did ABSOLUTELY nothing all day and it was marvelous. We just hung out, listened to music (one of the girls ended up being a country fan which was great because I hadn’t listened to it for ages!) and soaked up the sun for hours. It saddened me that my flight back to London was the next night at 6pm because I had been having such a great time. That all changed when I got back to the hostel that night and started hearing about all of the flights being cancelled thanks to Iceland’s lovely volcano. According to the news that day, airspace might be reopened by Saturday afternoon so there was a small chance my flight me still be on. Knowing my luck though, I figured it would be best if I went to the airport in the morning to see the status of everything. I tried to keep an open mind about whatever might happen that day because in all reality, how bad could it possibly be to be “stranded” in such a wonderful place? Positive vibes of course! I finally managed to get to bed decently early after a wonderful conversation about Pikies (like those in Snatch) with the resident bartender – turns out that the movie’s depictions are pretty close to real, not just a Hollywood fabrication.

I got up in the morning, gathered my things and headed to catch a bus to Athens International Airport. All I wanted to do was check with Olympic Air to see what the status of my flight was and either get a new flight or hang out all day until my flight took off. Consistent with my luck, the Olympic Air queue when I got there was about 2 hours long and at least double any other line. So there I sat, neither the clock or the line seeming to move. When I finally found that my flight for the night was definitely cancelled, I obviously figured I’d be able to get something in the next few days but it turns out that, due to the cancellations, all flights were backlogged until a week later! My heart suddenly dropped and my optimism faded. I really didn’t have the money to hang out in Greece for another week despite how much fun it may have been and I also had to get to London by Friday to get some things from the guys house that I had planned on picking up. There was also the issue of the paper I had due the following Tuesday which I had budgeted myself a week to work on before this had happened. I checked with other airlines and the story was much of the same. Suddenly, I had no idea what to do and started searching for creative ways to get back to this lovely little island. Step 1 was to call the hostel and let them know that I would for sure be spending another night there…..

The journey will continue shortly for those who are interested! It’s quite the epic tale I assure you.

Cheers until then,
Patrick