Yesterday, we spent the day in Athens as we were scheduled to meet up with Taso and his group for a tour of the Acropolis. To our pleasant surprise, that included a stop at the New Acropolis Museum as well. While we waited for the group (they arrived slightly late), Brandon saw this neat piece of graffiti work.
After the museum tour, I honestly was in no mood to walk up to the Acropolis at 3 PM. It was already nearly 100 degrees, and I've visited the tourist site twice before and lived just under it for six weeks in 2009 and two weeks in 2010. I've had my fill.
Nevertheless, it was very gracious of Taso to allow Brandon and me to tag along on this tour, and since Brandon had never seen it before, we went up. After a brief explanation from our tour guide, Taso and I just headed straight for shade to have a one-on-one chat, while the rest of the group went to explore the ancient ruins.
It was a nice chat, and I am so grateful to have such brilliant mentors to connect with all over the world. I look forward to lunch with Taso and his wife, Nektaria, on Thursday before I fly back to Berlin.
After a busy afternoon of errands, Brandon and I went to Exarchia Square to have a drink with Thanasis, Tasos, Jenny, and other Greek friends. As they called it, "Greek yoga." We had a blast chit-chatting, and I'm so glad I got to see Tasos again after he was such a great friend to me last year. He felt bad that he wasn't able to host me at his place this time, because his family was in town. Talk about hospitality.
He offered to take me and Brandon to the beach today though, so we heartily accepted his offer since we were planning to bus it out to some beach anyway. Plus Tasos always has great taste in everything, so we knew we'd be in for something good.
Brandon and I headed back to the apartment, because we'd invited Georgina and her cousin over to our place for dinner. But we all got there too late, and she had to run to meet up with cousin for a drink after all. She invited us to join them, so we decided to have a quick snack and head out, even though I haven't gotten more than six hours of sleep a night this week. Fatty snack...that was the fattiest sausage either Brandon or I have ever cooked. Georgina took a tiny sandwich compared to our gigantic ones. Healthy.
We went to a bar that I actually visited with Doros and Anna last year. It was pretty cool, and we had a good time with the girls. A friend of theirs also came, so we had a nice chat. It was also Georgina's birthday at midnight, so we sang happy birthday and had more drinks. Then they dropped us off at our apartment after promising to come with us to the island of Aegina on Wednesday. Super.
This morning, Brandon and I were woken up by a phone call from Tasos. He was calling to tell us where to meet him, but he also shared some sad news. His good friend, Spiros, whom I know from Exarchia because he owns a convenient store, lost his mom last night. She'd been in the hospital for the last two months, so at least she's now in a better place.
But Spiros was the guy who told Tasos to tell me last year that I had to return to Exarchia to visit them, because I "was part of Exarchia now." Spiros is a good guy, even though we can barely communicate with each other, since he doesn't speak English and I don't speak Greek. Nevertheless, I asked Tasos to share my condolences and told him that we could cancel our trip if he needed to stay around.
Tasos said it was okay though, so off to the beach we went. We drove out east of Athens toward Marathon, where the great Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC. This is an important moment in the history of Western Civilization, because the Greeks defeated the formerly "invincible" Persians. If the Greeks had lost, who knows how the world would be today.
The beach was a place where you paid for parking and a spot on the beach. Compared to some of the beaches closer to Athens, it's quite cheap. And there was the national volleyball championships for young girls going in.
We could definitely get used to this life...
Since we met last year, Tasos has been a great friend, and I'm happy we had the day to spend with him, just like we were able to spend time with Thanasis on Sunday. I think Tasos had fun too. His girlfriend joined us later too, and she's also extremely nice.
The water was very clean, and man, it was just heavenly.
Even though I forgot to charge my camera batteries, it lasted long enough for Brandon to get some funny underwater shots.
I'm so glad I convinced him to join me on this epic one-week vacation. I know he is too, after all this incredibly generous and warm Greek hospitality we've experienced.
Tasos even got us some club sandwiches for lunch. Delicious. The pita and cheese I'd shared with him for breakfast (bought at the grocery store last night) was a kid's meal compared to this stuff.
Tasos is also a man of history, so he had his book with him. Greek history in Greek. I read Greek history in English. Haha.
After an afternoon of swimming and sun, we headed back to Athens, since Tasos was meeting up with Spiros. Plus there was supposedly a protest in Syntagma this evening, so we wanted to avoid any trouble. On the road between Athens and Marathon, you can see a blue line running through the middle of the road—it is to mark the run that the Greek messenger took when he ran back to Athens following the Greek defeat of the Persians at Marathon. It's supposedly what inspired marathons today, and there's a statue to commemorate the guy who ran. You can see it up ahead in the road in this picture.
Once we made it back to Athens, we started to prep food for Doros and Anna. Because Doros was so kind and allowed us to stay at his apartment all week while crashing at his girlfriend Anna's, we told them we wanted to cook them a nice meal.
We made Brandon's white wine pasta dish with a few tweaks. But it was still delicious.
And we baked a few chicken thighs, which were completely and utterly delicious. We also made them Greek salad, which is almost a sin. But hilarious nonetheless. I think they appreciated it, and we had lots of nice Greek white wine to down it.
Doesn't that look yummy?
It was nice to catch up with them and just show our appreciation. I've known Doros for two years now, and we've had the chance to chat each time I've come back to Athens. I'm so grateful to have him as a friend, because to me, he represents what it means to be a "global citizen." He thinks globally and acts locally.
All in all, we had a successful day, and it's hard to believe that tomorrow is our final full day in Greece. It seems fitting that we'll be spending it on an island with Georgina and her cousin. Then we'll try and meet up with all my friends, American and Greek alike, to go out for a few drinks at night before packing our bags for our trip home.
I've thankfully received an extension on my final report, so I've got a week after this energizing vacation to finish up my work in Berlin. Then I will be busy again with the HIA International Conference in Berlin and then spending time with the UW Summer in Berlin program. So much exciting stuff going on!
But first, I will enjoy my last day or so in Greece. I may just want to "miss" my flight on Thursday. :)
Toodles,
Sam
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