A is for Athens

As you all know I was in Athens this past weekend and I really enjoyed it. It was probably my favorite place I have traveled to thus far. Athens is clean, friendly and fun. All of the people are very nice. They dont all speak a lot of English but they try to speak as much as they can to help you out.

Athens is also a foodies dream! I ate lots of kebabs and meat on skewer. For breakfast each morning I bought very large fresh doughnuts from vendors on the street. The first night I was there I ate a this locally owned family restaurant where the wait staff reminded me of the family out of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I even saw a guy carrying around a bottle of Windex. When they learned it was my first time in Athens they brought be a free dessert of yogurt and honey. I also got to visit the Athens Central Market. It is a large market that is made up of there smaller markets; meat market, seafood market, and the vegetable market. Now, the market is not for those with a weak stomach or for those who don't like to think about where there food comes from but it is a really cool experience. There were whole animals skinned and gutted hanging up, pigs heads, the biggest pigs fee you have ever seen, whole livers, chopped livers, pork, and steaks. You name it and it was there. The fish market was neat too. It had all kinds of fresh and frozen fish. Squid, lobster, salmon, grouper, sardines, clams, oysters or sea bass; if it once swam you could buy it there. It was very fun and enjoyable to walk through the market and observe the commotion. I went back to the market later that day to have lunch in one of the restaurants located in side the market and had an amazing meal! There were no menus in this restaurant and the place was full of locals. I was the only American or tourist in the place. The waiter quickly realized I didn't speak Greek or know anything about what they served so he took me up to the counter, showed me what they had, asked me what I wanted and sent me back my table. When in 2-3 minutes I had a wonderful bowl of soup and a whole snapper (minus the head guts thankfully). All of this cost me only 7.80 Euro. I would highly recommend a meal in the market to anyone traveling to Greece.

Shopping! Why no one talks about the shopping in Athens in beyond me?!? I would put the shopping in Athens up against any city in the world. Seriously, New York Milan Chicago Dallas Atlanta, Athens has them all beat in my book. It doesn't matter if you want couture, designer knock, affordable shopping, touristy stuff, antiques or junk for a flea market, you can find it all in Athens. Sundays are by far the best day for fun and random shopping, none of the legitimate stores open, but all of the tourist shops are open and literally the entire city center turns into a flea market with everything from from antiques to knock of hand bags. These are the best knock offs I have ever seen too.

Oh Yea! Athens has lots or really great historical sites too and they are very affordable. As a student it only cost 6 Euro for me to see all 6 archeological sites and the new acropolis museum. They were all very interesting and I enjoyed them a lot more than the sites here in Rome. From a historical preservation stand point there has been a lot more reconstruction and intervention than you find in Rome. We can debate for hours as to whether or not this is good or bad, but I really appreciate the way they have preserved the sites.

On Sunday, I went to the Byzantine Art Museum. My visit was not so much about seeing the Byzantine Art, though it was nice, but about seeing the special Andy Warhol Exhibit they were having. It was very interesting.

I also got to see the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown solider twice. Once on Saturday and then again for the formal changing of the guard at 11 am on Sunday where there are more guards, a band, and people laying wreaths.

Despite my rocky start to the trip I had a WONDERFUL time is Athens. It was a blast and I would go back in a heart beat!

PS It is hard to believe but I will be home 2 weeks from Tomorrow.

Passport Nightmare!!!

So...for those of you havent heard the story or are wondering what is up withthe strange facebook post here it is. As you all know I was supose to head to Athens this morning. I packed last night and got up at 7 this morning. I gave myself and 30 minute window in case something went wrong, and I got out of the house 15 minutes earlier than I planned (and that is about where the good morning ended). I got to the elevator adn relized I forgot to grab my passport, no problem I thought I will just run back in a get it (I also thought man I am glad I relized that now). So I went back in the apartment and my passport was not where I kept it. I proceeded to turn my apartment upside down looking everywhere. Eventually I gave up on finding it and pulled out the photocopy of my passport and called my mom (it was Mid-night in the states mind you) to see if she thought I would be okay. We both thought/ hoped that the copy as well as my American Driver license would be enough since I was staying in the EU. So i proceed to catch the bus that took we to catch that the train that took me to the airport. I got through security no problem and to my gate. As i was proceed to board the plane the sweet lady at the desk looked at my documents and asked me if a I had a letter from the police stating I had reported the passport lost or stolen, I told her know I just lost it this morning. She talked to the man and the next counter and they said therewasno way they could let me on. At this point I was holding back tears as I continue to talk to kind man at the other counter abotu what i neeeded to do.

After talking to him I called my wonderful mother who had told me to call her when I got the airport with an update (at this point it is 3am in the us mind you). Sometime between my dad answering the phone and my mom getting on the line I just lost it and was bawling in the middle of the airport. She told me not to worry, go back to my apartment and look at getting a new flight. So I did. I was able to calm myself down and regain my compsure as I sat on the train and listened to my iPod. It real is amazing just how amazingly soothing a train ride is. I think it must be like what babies feel like when you put them in there car seat in the car and they fall asleep.

I got back to my apartment and began putting my apartment back together and thinking about just what I could have done with my passport. And the I remembered. I had put it in my coat pocket in Milan last week. Sure enough there it was in my coat pocket! After finding my passport I sent my mom a text telling her I had found it, and I began to look at new flights.

I am flying easy jet one of these cheapo discount airlines and they dont do refunds so I had to buy a whole new ticket to Athens. I made the purchase and 200 UDS later I will depart for Athens in the morning. I am trying to just look at this morning as apractice run. A dry run as my teacher Mrs. Smith use to call it in high school. She use to tell us about how growing up hermom would make them do dry runs of the first day of school before each school year started. I guess God just felt I needed a dry run on my Athens trip.

I should have known my mom wasnt sleeping last night because she called my 7 am Memphis time to see how things were goign and if I had found a flight. She really is amazing and I love her a lot!

With me in town there were 4 of us who didnt have family in town for the Holiday so my roomate who loves to cook tried to cook something that resembled Thanksgiving Dinner. We had Turckey and a fresh vegtible medly. It was very yummy and then we had Ice cream and Fresh Fruit Tort that I bought form my favorite pastry shop. I have been looking for a reason to buy one all semester and this seemed like as good as reason as any. After dinner we walked up to Piazza Nevona to see a Christmas Festival that we thought started today but apparently it doesn't kick off until tommarrow but it runs through Christmas so we will check it out again later.

Though the day started out pretty aweful it ended up being very nice. Plus, I will still be able to enjoy the weekend in Athens.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I am so greatful for so many things at this point in my life that I could right a whole blog on nothing but that and perhaps I will later next week. To all my friends and family you mean the world to me and I miss you dearly. I cant wait to get back to the states and celebrate Chirstmas with each of you. I am bless to have learned so much about myself this year. Once again Happy Tanksgiving to you all.

PS I am using the computer in the apartment again and the speel check doesnt work so pleas forgive the spelling errors. In case you didnt know by now there are many things in life you can count on me for, but one of them is terrible spelling and another is that with out fail I will loose something. Luckly, though, I have gotten better about both of these habits with age. Perhaps if I live to be 100 I will out grow one or both of them!

Update

I figure it has been a few days since my last post so I better update the world on what is going world. It has been an average week here in Rome filled with class site visits, and the first day to sleep-in in about 3 weeks. That great day came today. I slept until 11:00 it was amazing. This afternoon I went to lunch with my friend Mary Beth and then went to class at 4. WE had class at 4 because we did not have class this morning. Things I have setteled into a routine here which is nice. Tomarrow is Thursday which means the worse class of the week. We are meeting out on a construcation site for a new government build wich will be pretty cool. Hopefully the professor isnt planning of also lecturing becasue the site is about an hour away from the class. But this woman is crazy so who knows.

I am looking forward to this weekend. We are headed to Florence. It should be a wonderful time! This week I have also booked my Thanksgiving trip to Athens, and my weekend trip with Catherine to Cinque Terre. Both should be amazing trips. I plan to book the trip to Salzburg next week.