Last night in Athens

It's nearly 5 AM friday morning, and I can't get the internet to work. The last 24 hours have been rather fascinating. I started out this morning with a decision to head to the beach. I found the bus, after much confusion, and eventually ended up heading south towards the beach. I missed the stop, and decided to see more of Greece, so I rode it to the end. I also heard that Zeus' Temple was at the end. It's not, you need another bus, which I decided after waiting quite some time, wasn't coming.

I stepped into the local supermarket, bought some lunch items, and found a bus heading back towards the beach. This time I did get off - and went to check out the healing spa waters. Eight euros for a dip in some mineral waters wasn't my cup of tea, and I crossed the street to the park. I wasn't keen on paying to use the beach, but since I had come this far, I figured I might as well. Beach was alright. Very level, clear water, warmish, but very windy. I spent the rest of the day there, and then came back to the hotel in the evening, via bus as well.

I was starving, the lunch stuff was awful, so I went to the cafe next to mine. It was a neat little place, somewhat modern and trendy. The outside tables were all full, and so I sat at the bar. Vasianna, the bartender, was having a slow evening so far, and so she spent her time chatting with me. As I eventually finished up my sandwich and drink, she was kind enough to invite me for a drink after she gets off from work.

I returned to the hotel, and met two girls in their senior years of school, Alice and Amy. Alice goes to Stanford and happens to know Gus, a guy I went to High School with (Rachel and I ended up accidentally crashing his Bar Mitzvah many years ago, we just happened to be at temple, and his parents were kind enough to invite us to the lunch after. We ended up having a very interesting conversation with Dick Morris.) We compared travel notes, and after a while they kindly invited me as well to go out tonight. Wow, three nights in Athens, and all the invitations come the same evening! What poor luck. I came back to my room to find worse luck.

The Air conditioner had been leaking water all over my clothes. Everything I wanted to pack tonight needs to dry first! The hotel offered to change rooms, but that doesn't really solve my problem of not being able to pack. I said I would handle it in the morning, layed out my stuff and took a short nap.

Vasianna sent me a message, and I headed down. I thought we would walk, but we went to her car, and were off to another part of the city. It was a long drive, but nice to see areas I wouldn't have seen otherwise. We arrived in a nice neighborhood, and went to a modern bar called chic. Two beers and a glass of oyzu, for me to try.

It is still to recent from the Vodka night with Maurizio (woke up still innebriated the next morning when I needed to fly from Rome to Athens), and I couldn't stomach it. After some good conversation, we headed to a Souvlaki place - I had the chicken, and then she dropped me off. All in all, about three and a half hours. I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, she won't be around tomorrow, she has a friend in town from London, and will be heading over to see her.

I also stayed out late, and thus Amy and Alice were already in (their key was not in the cubby at the reception at least). I sent them a text message and hopefully we can get something together food wise tomorrow. I enjoyed exchanging travel stories with them both, and they had some great ideas for Istanbul. I doubt it was one of them as I imagine they are sharing a room, but when I passed their floor, at around 4 AM, someone was having a really good night. They must have heard my footsteps on the stairs, I heard a man's voice tell the woman to be quieter, and then it continued. She was giving a Meryl Streep Performance, to steal the line from a silly movie I saw last year.

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