With continued economic struggles and unemployment among the many challenges Greece faces at the moment, this blog title seems a bit callous. But Brandon and I are doing our best to help the economy by having a good time, which we have been doing successfully.
On Friday morning, I went to the airport to pick up my friend, Nancy, and her classmate, Alison, after their flight from Paris in the wee hours of the morning. Poor kids: they camped out at the airport in Athens until I got them around 8 am.
From there, I took them to their hotel near the Acropolis. Even though I should know that area very well seeing as how I've stayed there for a few weeks in 2009 and 2010, I somehow managed to take us in a gigantic circle. I felt bad since they both had their luggage. If I were them, I would've been pissed at me. They were gracious and nice about it.
They were somewhat tired, but they decided to come hang out with me and Brandon since it was early in the day. So we made our way over to Exarchia Square. Brandon was supposed to meet us there but he ended up getting lost for 45 minutes because he turned one street too early. Oops.
We were getting hungry, so we went to lunch at this co-op place in the neighborhood. Thanasis had taken me there last year, so I remember it being good and relatively cheap. We ate like kings, and the server thought we were so strange for getting some of everything. Normally, they only eat one main thing with sides. We all had a couple of main things. Soooo good.
Definitely filling though. In fact, Brandon helped clean off the girls' plates too. Pig! Haha. JK. That's normally my role, but I haven't eaten much on this trip.
Later, we went back to their hotel, and they found out that AAA had screwed up their booking. So they didn't have a room, and the hotel was already totally packed. So there was a lot of waiting and phone calling, because Athens is 10 hours ahead of PST, and they needed to talk to their rep in Las Vegas.
Long story short, they ended up not getting a room and crashed at Doros' place with me and Brandon. It worked out fine, but it was pretty funny having people just sleeping all over the place. We also went out last night with Thanasis, and it was definitely a long night.
We woke up this morning, and I half expected to see a chicken running around (like in The Hangover). In a very atypical move, I had another coffee this morning (had two yesterday). Crazy.
I also picked up some nice pastries from a Greek bakery to bring to Thanasis. He looked pretty tired from our night out too. Everyone else looked pretty refreshed. :P
Nancy, Alison, and Alex finally got a hotel room at a nice 5-star (Greek rating system) hotel near the Acropolis. It's a nice hotel and has the highest rating, but 5-star in Greece is not like 5-star in the U.S. I'd say this hotel is more of a 3 and a half maybe. But it's still nice.
We helped bring their stuff over and ended up swimming in the pool. Awesome. We all got a bit more tan today for sure.
For dinner, we met up with Taso, who treated us to a wonderful dinner since he felt so bad about their hotel troubles. It was really great to see him. Last time we saw each other was also in Athens for his wedding. The food was great as usual, even though I really didn't eat much.
In the evening, we went to a bar in Plaka to meet with a fellow Fulbrighter, who has been teaching in Athens this year. We met Stephanie at the Berlin Fulbright Conference in March, and we had chatted about Athens (I was quite excited when I found out she was living in Athens back in March). Anyway, she had a farewell party tonight, so we headed out there for a drink or two.
Doros also came along, and my friend, Georgina, also came. She brought her cousin too, so it was great to meet her. My other American friends decided to head back to their hotel early though so they could get a drink at the rooftop bar, and Brandon joined them too. So I stayed behind and caught up with Georgina after Doros had already left. Stephanie and her friends left soon after as well, so it ended up just being me with Georgina and her cousin.
I was feeling tired because of our late night last night, so I wanted to take the Metro before it shut down. However, Georgina offered to drive me home, so I hung out longer. I ended up feeling fine, even though I got home much later than I had planned originally.
Since I hadn't seen her since visiting her in Dublin in January, we took a picture with the Acropolis as our backdrop. But it was so dark that we had some troubles getting her camera to work. So we used mine, and it turned out well.
It was crazy to see so many people still out. But I suppose I shouldn't be surprised: it was a Saturday night in Athens. Georgina and her cousin were really very nice to drive me home, but it didn't end without some adventure.
The protestors in Syntagma Square decided to sit in the middle of the main street, which caused a major traffic jam at 3 in the morning! We took pictures and waited for quite a while to get out of there. Pretty crazy stuff.
Definitely filling though. In fact, Brandon helped clean off the girls' plates too. Pig! Haha. JK. That's normally my role, but I haven't eaten much on this trip.
Later, we went back to their hotel, and they found out that AAA had screwed up their booking. So they didn't have a room, and the hotel was already totally packed. So there was a lot of waiting and phone calling, because Athens is 10 hours ahead of PST, and they needed to talk to their rep in Las Vegas.
Long story short, they ended up not getting a room and crashed at Doros' place with me and Brandon. It worked out fine, but it was pretty funny having people just sleeping all over the place. We also went out last night with Thanasis, and it was definitely a long night.
We woke up this morning, and I half expected to see a chicken running around (like in The Hangover). In a very atypical move, I had another coffee this morning (had two yesterday). Crazy.
I also picked up some nice pastries from a Greek bakery to bring to Thanasis. He looked pretty tired from our night out too. Everyone else looked pretty refreshed. :P
Nancy, Alison, and Alex finally got a hotel room at a nice 5-star (Greek rating system) hotel near the Acropolis. It's a nice hotel and has the highest rating, but 5-star in Greece is not like 5-star in the U.S. I'd say this hotel is more of a 3 and a half maybe. But it's still nice.
We helped bring their stuff over and ended up swimming in the pool. Awesome. We all got a bit more tan today for sure.
For dinner, we met up with Taso, who treated us to a wonderful dinner since he felt so bad about their hotel troubles. It was really great to see him. Last time we saw each other was also in Athens for his wedding. The food was great as usual, even though I really didn't eat much.
In the evening, we went to a bar in Plaka to meet with a fellow Fulbrighter, who has been teaching in Athens this year. We met Stephanie at the Berlin Fulbright Conference in March, and we had chatted about Athens (I was quite excited when I found out she was living in Athens back in March). Anyway, she had a farewell party tonight, so we headed out there for a drink or two.
Doros also came along, and my friend, Georgina, also came. She brought her cousin too, so it was great to meet her. My other American friends decided to head back to their hotel early though so they could get a drink at the rooftop bar, and Brandon joined them too. So I stayed behind and caught up with Georgina after Doros had already left. Stephanie and her friends left soon after as well, so it ended up just being me with Georgina and her cousin.
I was feeling tired because of our late night last night, so I wanted to take the Metro before it shut down. However, Georgina offered to drive me home, so I hung out longer. I ended up feeling fine, even though I got home much later than I had planned originally.
Since I hadn't seen her since visiting her in Dublin in January, we took a picture with the Acropolis as our backdrop. But it was so dark that we had some troubles getting her camera to work. So we used mine, and it turned out well.
It was crazy to see so many people still out. But I suppose I shouldn't be surprised: it was a Saturday night in Athens. Georgina and her cousin were really very nice to drive me home, but it didn't end without some adventure.
The protestors in Syntagma Square decided to sit in the middle of the main street, which caused a major traffic jam at 3 in the morning! We took pictures and waited for quite a while to get out of there. Pretty crazy stuff.
Anyway, I'm home now, and I'm ready to crash. Tomorrow, we go to the beach with Thanasis, so I'm pumped. This trip has been a blast, but it's flying by too quickly. I wish I could stay for Taso's program, but alas, I have a Fulbright research project to wrap up.
Till next time,
Sam
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