After a stressful flight, with customs ordeals and a very drunk Zoe, we arrived in Athens! On arrival to the hostel we found out we were actually staying in a studio apartment around the corner, which was an extremely pleasant surprise, a kitchen, lounge room, bathroom and bedroom!! I soon got a message from Ethan saying he too had arrived, and was in fact in the room above me. My heart was racing and I sprinted up the stairs, knocked on the door, but only received silence in return. after some more knocks and a few feeble calls of 'Eth?' I was confused and went back down to my room for wifi- turns out he was room 13 of the building next door, so I headed to reception, and there he was. After 2 months without seeing his face i could hardly believe it was real and he was actually standing in front of me. I shakily walked over and gave him a huge hug before the tears started to escape me (happy tears of course). We headed up to his room and i gave thommo a big welcome hug too before the three of us went for a stroll through the local area. The entire time i continued to stare at Ethan (must've seemed like I'd turned into a creep) but purely out of disbelief, I just couldn't accept the fact we were in athens together and i wasn't dreaming. It was a strange sensation which took hours to fully shake. We stopped at a greek restaurant for a drink which soon turned into dinner. My extensive knowledge of the greek cuisine (cheers Karantzas') came in handy as i helped the boys order a starter plate and introduced them to the wonders of tzatziki, eggplant dip, saganaki, dolmades and spanakopita. My newfound love for wine was tested once again as we shared a litre of quite tasty red. Eth and I opted to treat ourselves and head to a fancy hotel and as the clock struck midnight, it was our one year anniversary, which completely coincidentally we were now spending together in Greece, fate hey?
The perks of hotels extend much further than a big comfy bed and free shampoo, buffet breakfast is the ultimate highlight to any stay and after months of a backpackers breakfast I went to town and stacked my plate with eggs bacon and every single other ire, that did not contain gluten. We met back up with the girls and Thommo and commenced mission one- the acropolis. We climbed to the top in the stifling heat and thousands of selfies later, our descent led us to a greek cafe for an ice-cold frappe (after of course, Ethan was interviewed for a greek TV station!!) We stumbled across another tourist attraction, ruins which we initially thought were the site of the first Olympics, but later realised they weren't, I'm still unsure what they actually were.. The acropolis museum which had been recommended to thommo was really interesting and my history nerd side was out to play as I read and examined every detail in the museum. We were all starving so we decided to test out the famous greek gyros which was to become my staple diet for the next month in Greece. 2.50 euro for pita bread stuffed with meat, salad, tzatziki and hot chips sounded like such an amazing deal but no bread for me, of course means get the same as everyone else minus bread, on a plate, but pay triple the price. Luckily, it tasted incredible so there were no complaints from anyone only grunts of enjoyment as we silently munched down our food. Below our hostel was a sports bar playing the Wimbledon final which was a lovely way to enjoy the rest of the warm afternoon and lead into the evening. To share in England's joy of a home grown victory, we shared a bottle of red Zoe and I had lugged all the way from Tuscany. We headed up to the rooftop bar for some more drinks and a beautiful sunset overlooking the acropolis, a huge box of hot chips to share was the icing on the cake to a lovely day.
4.40am was excruciatingly early to wake up but I'd decided to spend an extra night I'm Athens with Ethan so I had to say my farewells to the girls, despite the offensive hour. Eggs and bacon started another day (heaven!) and we walked around town aimlessly for a few hours, before another few were spent people watching and relaxing while the boys sipped on frappes. We found another ruin once again by chance and explored the old library before Eth and I checked into a hotel for the last night. The hotel was so cheap and I was confused as to why, the room was huge with a TV, free minibar and nice bathroom, yes there was a few homeless people near the entrance, but they were harmless, I had found us am absolute bargain! A few hours later we left to meet thommo for dinner and the reality behind our fantastic 'bargain' of our room came to light as we walked past junkies injecting themselves only metres away from our hotel... Lovely. Dinner on the other hand was actually lovely, salad wine and a moussaka all for 10 euro, my tummy and pocket were both very very happy. As apprehensive as I was to head back towards our hotel, we had no option so I held Ethan's hand like a little child and we made it back unscathed.
Early starts unfortunately had been common in Greece and today was no exception as eth and I checked out at 6am and headed to the port for our first greek island, Mykonos- party central! I was excited to party after a sufficient 3 day detox post sail Croatia (even though I had still drunk every day) and with the boys coming too I knew we were in for a good time. Armed with peach Amita juice, my new greek favourite and a packed to oregano chips we boarded the boat and slept our way to Mykonos.
No comments:
Post a Comment