GREECE!

(I wrote this about 3 days ago...)

Life in the great city of Athens was brief for us, but a day longer than we expected! After our whirlwind of New Years, not sleeping and consecutively boarding our flight to Greece, we were t-i-r-e-d. It had been a long 42 hours but we were happy to peel off our toques and pack away our coats and scarves. The weather in Greece is beautiful! Not shorts-and-flipflops warm, but sunny and highs of 22s (some days). On our arrival day, I got my first taste of being scammed as a tourist, and my extreme fatigue almost made me miss it. This anger fueled my second scam, on the second night while we Nick and I were enjoying a fancy meal... but I acted bravely and stuck up for my Tourist-Eating Rights! Ha! Take That! In hindsight, both incidents were fairly insignificant, but it's the principal. And I was sick of being ripped off because my skin was white.

Greece is wonderful... I really like it here (who wouldn't, though!) It seems pretty ethnically diverse, though mostly with a middle-eastern flair. Our first full day, after recuperating of course, we set off to see the sights and immerse ourselves in history. We came face to face with the epic Acropolis Site, where the Parthenon stands proudly, side by side with the Temple of Athena. It's gentle cracks and decay giving voice to the decades of fortitude withstood. A masterpiece, and a mystery. It was awesome. Post-Acropolis, we fought our way through the crowds and down the busiest street in Athens: Ermou on a Saturday. Lining the streets were make-shift shops, men trying to sell their goods from the blankets they spread on the ground. Every 3rd person is trying to pawn the same crap thing: from Knock off Gucci Purses to Watches, Calvin Klein undies to pirated DVDs. Chaos and Colour exploding, and whole lot of yelling.

On Sunday, we were to hop on a ferry that would take us to our next destination. Unfortunately along the way (on the subway towards the port) we had to pull an emergency move which made us late... and we missed our ferry! Ah! But in the end, it worked out alright. We just headed back to our trusty hostel and stayed another night. We were able to check out the National Archaeological Museum, which is a bit of an icon here in Athens and experience a few other typically-Athens things. Monday morning, attempt number two proved much more successful and we boarded our ship that bobbed it's way across the sea towards the Cyclades. Our four-hour ride landed us in Paros, an unbelievably beautiful place. It is from here, the island of Paros which I write, wishing all of you were here.