Young, Independent, Women

We are young, independent, women! – Linnea, Felicia, and my motivational phrase for lugging our massive luggage from the acropolis to CYA, them to our hotel. Mind you that it was no walk in the park, which Linnea and I did while walking down Vassileos Konstandinou street near the Panathinaiko Stadium. 

After meeting Linnea and Felicia at the Athens Airport, we took the metro into the city. We knew to stay on the blue line, and then thought it would be a closer walk to get off at the Acropolis exit and walk to our hotel. Boy, where we wrong.

First mistake: we got on the red line going north instead of west. Which in turn we had to go on the red line heading in the south/west direction. 

So, to make up for our first mistake we got to see the Acropolis. Which totally made the mistake worth it. We then got our barrings straight and headed south then east towards our hotel. I only brought one rolling suitcase so I had no trouble lugging it around. However, Linnea brought two rolling ones, which was a little more trouble, and Felicia had two rolling ones that were kinda broke. So she had the most difficultly dragging them around the city. 

While, walking to the hotel, people kept on staring at us while we struggled with all the suitcases. it probably also didn’t help that they were also noticing my bright blue/teal hair.

When we were about halfway to the hotel and CYA, we decided to put Felicia in a cab. The directions were printed in English, so the driver had no idea what it way saying. We eventually gave him the CYA’s address (in Greek) and told him to drop her off there. However, he was saying that the school was closed, while we were trying to tell him that we were walking to meet Felicia there. Eventually, we got to a conclusion and he was going to drop her off on Eratosthenous street and we would meet her there. 

So, Linnea and I walked up the street to the CYA’s academic center, and Felicia wasn’t there. We looked all around the school and decided to drop off our luggage then walk around to look for her. We walked up a steep street then walked back down stairs to find the hotel. Then we went out to look for Felicia. We walked up and down Eratosthenous and down through narrow alleys, then around the stadium and back to the school. We decided to walk down Eratosthenous one more time and go to the park (cause the taxi driver kept pointing there). We passed this cute bakery and I looked in the window and kept walking. All of a sudden, the girl who I saw yelled to us. She was one of the CYA students. 

Meeting her, she told us that she had found Felicia and they walked to the hotel together. Me and Linnea were so re-leaved that she didn’t go missing or worse. So, with that misadventure taken care of, we walked to Allison and Linnea’s apartment to see what it looked like. After we meet Felicia back at the hotel. She had already had dinner, and by this point all me and Linnea wanted to do was eat and sleep. 

We asked the hotel lady and great place and she mentioned a taverna down the street. We walked in to find it empty, and a waiter sat us down. We decided that we were going to split a meal/appetizers and waned to know what the best food was. When we called the waiter over, we asked him what was the best food. However, he didn’t speak English so he called a woman over. She asked us what we wanted and we told her the best food you have. She spoke to the waiter in Greek and then said that we could order more food later. She brought us out some delicious red wine and bread while me and Linnea waited for our food. She brought us tazizki sauce, fried zucchini, fries, and meatballs. It was delicious. However, we needed water, being dehydrated from the plane, jet lag, and running around Pagrati looking for Felicia. We  got the waited to come over, but he had no idea what we were saying and then left. 

When we were done we kept on trying to get the waiters attention after, I tried to keep making eye contact with him, but he would look away right after. We did this around 20 times, and I think he thought I was trying to flirt or something. Finally, we waved him over and asked for the check. He brought us out our check and a dessert, which was like bread pudding, but also like a slice of sugar/spices. It was good, nevertheless. We gave him the money and went back to the hotel to shower and sleep after our adventurous day. 

Day one in Athens, complete. 

About these ads