Hi. My name is Tracy and I foolishly left my computer in Cyprus when I went to Paris and London last week. Now I'm in Athens and I have at least one million things to type. Should I tell you about what happened in Athens today? Should I start from March 21st when I first left Cyprus? How about that entry that I promised Ashley about my last day in Egypt? I swear I would start vlogging to make my life easier if my hair would be consistently decent. Bahh. Here we go. Athens first. Paris and London in bits and pieces. Italy and Spain coming in a few days.
You ready?!
FYI - I didn't want to bring ALL my gadgets on the road with me because God forbid I leave something along the way, I refuse to replace it until I can pay for it in USD. With that said, my memory card reader for my camera is in Cyprus safely tucked away in a drawer. Next week, I'll post a link to my FB album so you can see the pics from Greece, Italy and Spain separate from the blog entries. Cool? Thought so! =)
Athens
After returning to the ghost town that is Makedonitissa to regroup after Spring Break Pt. 1, a very small group of GLS students and myself left for Athens this morning. The founder of GLS, Dr Polamides, his wife and the accountant, Elena, and another staff member Eleni are accompanying us on our journey through the Mediterranean. I have a bad habit of not sleeping before I go on exciting trips and I was a total zombie from the apartment until we landed in Athens. We fly out of a very calm and low traffic airport in Larnaca, Cyprus that requires minimal brain capacity to make it through. If you have your passport and you know how to read, you can make it through no problem. I grabbed an Apple Danish at this yummy cafe and knocked out one of their comfy purple couches until boarding time. Before I fell asleep I was able to ask Eleni some questions. She's pretty awesome. She started working with GLS about three years ago after speaking with Dr. Polamides, who was her student adviser at the time. She finishes her MBA at the end of this year. A masters at 23? I respect it! And while she's working on it she gets to have the coolest job ever?
"What do you do at your job?"
"Oh, go on trips with American kids to the Mediterranean for ten days twice a year."
I'm sure it's only cool because she gets to go to the Mediterranean. Imagine working for a study abroad program in America and having to accompany international students to places like New York and D.C.? Doesn't seem nearly as fun.
I had a window seat plus a row to myself on the flight and I definitely fell asleep as soon as I sat down. Like, before I put on my seat belt, before I turned off my phone. Sounds more like I passed out when I think about it. The roar of the engines woke me up when we actually got off the ground and I got myself together. Apparently planes CAN fly even if there is an electronic device turned ON. Go figure! Lol. Please don't intentionally break that rule the next time your on a plane. That was really irresponsible of me! Tell me why I slept so hard that I missed the in-flight breakfast too. I was TOO upset because I saw the flight attendants coming down the aisle and said,'I'm just gonna close my eyes for three seconds but I'll hear 'em when they get close.' The flight attendants were nice enough to bring me a vegetarian plate when I woke up in a panic 20minutes later. Airplanes and airports aren't that exciting so I can spare you the remaining details.
On the way to the hotel, the poet in me awoke from a long slumber and I threw a lil sumthin' sumthin' together. I'll post it as a video. It'll be more entertaining. Greeks drive on the left like Americans and they have toll booths on their highways. It was nice to see something that reminded me of home. Until I saw the price. 6 euro 50 centieme? That's a meal. Chill, I'll take the local roads. It took about 15min to get from the airport to the hotel and the ride wasn't that scenic. When I flew over Greece on my way to Paris the aerial view was amazing though so I anticipate more scenic views before I take off again. We're staying at the Crystal City Hotel somewhere in the heart of downtown. Despite the slum-like surroundings, the hotel is exceptionally nice. I'm sharing a room with Gillian (what's new?) and our balcony overlooks the crumbling balcony of an abandoned building.
We had a free day today so after a refreshing little nap, the whole lot of us (minus the escorts) ventured downtown to the Athens Flea Market. We walked it instead of taking public transit so we could take in the sites and enjoy the seventy degree weather. Along the way we encountered a cluster of African men who were too excited to see me. It wasn't anything different from walking past a group of men anywhere in the world and I was polite, saying my Hello's and Thank You's when I needed to and barked on the one man brave enough to grab me.
My roomies were freaked out by the interaction and Lauren attempted to admonish me and tell me that I need to be careful. This from the girl who walked off into the desert with two men from the netherlands in the dead of the night in Egypt. PLEASE, -_- . I had to explain that A. I can handle myself just fine (I'm from Brooklyn and I go to school in Baltimore. C'mon son) and B. it's polite to speak to people who greet you in passing instead of walking past without saying a word and looking rude.
Anyways, we passed a million shops before we got to the actual market and I was confused because it looked like everyday household shopping instead of tourist stores. Brooklyn readers, imagine Bobby's broken down by each department and in individual store fronts. We also passed an alley that looked like an outdoor meat market and a few pet shops too. After walking down "Bobby's Road" for what seemed like eternity we found Monastiraki Square which is where the flea market begins. There were tons of Africans selling all sorts of bootlegged goods, restaurants, fruit stands, a mosque, and hoards of people. Gilly got a patent leather multi colored patchwork Prada bag for 20 euro. Not bad if your into knockoffs! We shopped around for a bit and I found a few nice souvenirs but didnt buy anything because I wanted to shop around for the best price. I found out later that the markets are closing early tomorrow for Easter so I hope I can make it over there in time after our walking tour.
All the shopping made me super hungry and I persuaded my group to stop for an early dinner at this cute restaurant. I don't remember the name but I took a pic of the menu so I'll ask someone to translate tomorrow. I ordered Moussaka which is eggplants, ground meat and custard. Just imagine meatloaf with a Greek twist. It was really yummy and then I put some hot sauce on top and it was banging! While we were eating/people watching the bootleggers ran past our restaurant like three times attempting to dodge the police. I would have given up and went home but they were awfully relentless.
After we ate, we continued browsing through the flea market. I impressed Gregorios, a merchant, with my ability to write my name in Greek. He sells wire nameplates with Greek lettering and his sales pitch was "Come let me write your name to show you!" I told him I already knew how, wrote it out for him and pinky promised to come back and buy something for him tomorrow. My favorite shops at the market were the shoe stores with the young staff playing West Coast gangsta rap. The Nike store was playing "Gangsta's Paradise" and this ladies sandal shop called Reply was playing "Gin and Juice." Random!
We got back to the hotel pretty early after shopping so Gilly and I decided to go for a walk . around the neighborhood to find Jenny a good luck charm. Her life has been a series of silly unfortunate events these past few days so I figured she needed a pick me up. We walked opposite of downtown just to switch up the scenery but a native approached us and warned that there is a "teef" problem in the area and we should go. My sense of adventure and my warped sense of risk agreed for once and we head back in the direction of the market. I got Jenny a Mati "evil eye" bracelet from a skeevy little store for 2 euros. On the way back to the hotel I randomly bumped into my friend Samantha who I was in London with last weekend. She's staying at a hostel nearby and we're gonna try to linkup at some point. Second time I've seen a familiar face from home while abroad.
I'll tell you about the first time whenever I get around to writing about Paris. It's 2am and I have to get ready for bed because I have to blogging the same day did not help me get the entry out any faster but at least I got it out of the way. OH! I forgot to tell you how i almost got pick-pocketed! I'll tell you about it tomorrow 'cuz I am too sleepy but just know that you cannot swindle a swindler!
Nite Guys! Hope you enjoyed it.
Hi Bugga,
ReplyDeleteVery entertaining. Keep it up.