Afternoons

Strawberries – 5/29/07, Athens, 6:04 p.m.

Sorry I didn’t update yesterday. It was a long day. We got up and we were supposed to go to the highest point in the city to get a really amazing look at the city from above. However, it was pouring. So we had to nix that. Instead, we (read: my professor) decided that we would walk around the city and have a bit of an orientation session. Dear Lord, was that a bad idea! First of all, we were in a group of 17 and that’s always cumbersome. Second, it was raining – hard – and the majority of us didn’t have umbrellas. Third, my professor isn’t really the best to walk around a city with because she gets really excited about buildings (modern and ancient) and ruins and things and so we had to stop all the time. We stopped a lot of traffic. Not fun. We ate at a lovely restaurant for lunch yesterday. I had lamb and potatoes. It was delicious. Although, the portion was HUGE! I couldn’t believe how big it was. I couldn’t finish it all, nor could many of my classmates. We came back to the hotel after a while and collapsed. Brianne and I took naps. It was lovely.

At about 9, we (me, Brianne, Megan, Melissa, Kelly) went wandering to the Placa in search of a good restaurant. See, here, everything shuts down at about 5:30/6 and then reopens at about 8:30/9. Dinner is very late. The last couple of days we’ve had an early breakfast, lunch at noonish, and then a snack at 4/5, and then dinner at 9. So the 5 of us found a really great restaurant down the street in the Placa and sat down. We all had a Mythos, which is a Greek beer, and very much enjoyed ourselves. It was only about 50 Euro for the 5 of us to eat, which is good. Here, they charge for bread and water, which is strange; but at the same time, you tip only 1 or 2 Euro, so I guess it evens out in the end.

Today, we got up early (we met our professor at 8 am) and went to the National Archaeological Museum. It’s only about a 25 minute walk and almost a straight shot, so there’s no real way to get lost, which is nice. We were there for a long time, though. My professor has a habit of getting really excited about museums, which is nice, but tedious for us, especially because she doesn’t really speak loudly enough for all of us to hear her. Anyway, we saw a lot of really cool things, many of which I got photos of. I’ll be sure to put them somewhere, whether here or facebook or snapfish, not sure yet. After we finished at the museum, the day was ours. A group of 6 of us wandered down Stadiou street and Ryan and I bought phones. Then we stopped at the Pita Pan pita place, which was good, but not as good as Quick Pita, and more expensive. Then we bought some strawberries from a lovely street vendor. They were SO good! I paid 2,5 Euro for 1 kilo, which was nice. They were absolutely delicious and a great way to cap off our lunch.

We came back to the hotel and took a quick nap before Brianne, Whitney, and I walked down to the Placa again to do some shopping. I bought a lovely sun hat, but am still in the market for a nice sarong. We’re just hanging out here, reading, snacking, until dinner. Then we’ll probably wander down to the Quick Pita. We did a lot of walking today!

I miss you all and I hope you’re all doing well!

Xoxo, Ally