SAY WHAT?!

Today was a little awkward. I'd grown used to being with Lianne, and other people beforehand for over a month and it doesn't bother me that I'm by myself, but I felt a little off without her here today...
I mean, I had a nice routine going on... We'd spend the day doing God knows what and then we'd get back home, have supper somewhere and talk to our peoples afterwards...
I still talk my people every night... I even made a phone call to Canada this afternoon.  Thank God for computers (and phones).

I went to Athens today and visited two museums. The first was the Numismatic Museum which houses countless ancient (and modern) coins in the very house of Heinrich Schliemann (Google him!) --- Pretty cool!

I went to the Cycladic Art Museum down a few blocks afterwards and was so impressed with the Cypriot Art wing --- So colourful!

I walked in the Plaka for a little bit after for a little over an hour -- bought a kitschy, but light souvenir.

I was a little skeptical when I got to Syntagma Square in the first place this morning, because of the riots that went on a couple weeks back.  But, the police presence is so strong that I was fine. It's unfortunate because around the square, everything is up-scale and nice looking. It's just that stupid sqaure that is a PITA... It's right in front of the Parliament, which is right in front of the Presidential House... Need I say more?
Anyway, I'm taking it easy tonight --- hope to talk to a couple people... that's all folks.

HOLY SKATA!

You know the song 'Billionnaire' by Bruno Mars? Well, it just came on... I'm rocking to it and next thing you know: 'I want to be a billionaire, so f-ing bad..'

SAY WHAT?!

Christo Hesus! I forgot I was in Europe -- where they are more concerned with violent/gory movies than nudity and swearing... OK THEN!

LIGHTS OUT MY HOMESLICES!

Play That Music!

The second bit of homesickness just hit me tonight.  I have the music channel on in my room on the plasma TV and the latest American singles are playing on rotation...
J.Lo's 'Dance The Night Away' (this brings me back to so many good little memories from not too long ago...!), LMFAO's 'Party Anthem', Rihanna (which they totally overplay, but all good in my books!), Nicky's 'SuperBass' which is a guilty pleasure of mine... and then dumber ones like B. Spears.
My point: they are playing a Bon Jovi documnetary as we speak --- the band's coming to town on the 20th... I saw them live in May with my mom and DAMN! That concert started my summer on such a high note --- SIGH! Damn, that was a great concert!

I've picked up some Greek since a little while ago and I'm able to understand most of what people are saying on the streets or what going on on the tube... SWEET!

I just went for a walk and picked up a nice little Starbucks... I knew this would happen the minute Starbucks would be within my reach!  I hope Amsterdam doesn't have one close to the airport... I already know that they do though... SKATA!

I love Greece: I don't even have to turn on my iPod. The TV's playing all of my guilty pleasures, plus Bon Jovi!!!

BUENO!

And Here's to My Last Week

It's almost 10AM and I'm moseying in the lobby of my hotel where thankfully they have computers with speedy wifi.  Lianne left this morning and is heading back to our Oh, Canada and I'm already missing her.
I think us being roommates, and simply meeting each other was meant to be. 
I remember when I came in late at the hotel in Pylos, FIVE weeks ago (already!), I walked into the classroom, spotted her and the minute class was over went right up to her and said, "LIANNE!!"  We went up to our room and I started a mad rant about Air Farce as if I was talking to my long lost best friend.  We clicked just like that.

We always got along and whenever we got on each other's nerves --- which was rare, but it happens to all of us --- we didn't need to say anything, we just knew not to step on the other person's toes for a while. 

It's a little freaky when I think about how we just started talking on Facebook around February and I suggested an extended stay after Pylos to Santorini and around Greece... Who does that with a complete stranger???!

Well, she was no stranger for long, because we were and are the best of friends.  Bless her heart, she took care of my drunken butt on that famous Saturday and packed my stuff when I didn't come home until freaking 30 minutes before leaving Pylos... She's awesome.

I've checked out of the double room a little over an hour ago where we've been staying in since Santorini, and walked across the hallway to my single room --- no sweat. 

This hotel is fantastic. I recommend it to anyone who wants to stay in Athens.

What a Schmoozer!

After the Museum, Lianne and I had supper nearby where we TOTALLY got schmoozed.

"Hello, how are you?"
"Fine, thank you"
"Where are you from?!"
"Canada"
"Ahhh, Just for you: 10% off!"

If it makes any difference, we were going to walk into this restaurant anyway. DONT ROLL YOUR EYES!

Lianne and I shared a small jug of potent red wine. I had swordfish, again and Lianne had lamb.  Lots of sparrows fluttered around... I don't know what it is about Greek birds, but DAMN, they look vicious as HELL. One almost flew into my face and another almost landed on my fedora. The waiter shooed them away for us and was a total schmoozer himself... A cute schmoozer, compared to the first schmuck we ran into.

I've been on a mission to buy a statue of Poseidon. I'm hoping I'll find something near Sounio since the Temple there is of Poseidon, but after supper, we walked the street and the wine kicked in.

Oh, great.

I look over to Lianne and ask her if she's feeling it... Nope.

UGH.

We walk into a jewellery store where I bought a nice replica of a coin depicting the owl of Athena... but, the ring I wanted I did NOT buy. We bartered, but I wasn't about to pay 20 Euros for something that was worth 5. 

'I say good day'

It's 9PM and we head towards the metro station. We're going down the escalator when Lianne and I both start laughing...

Oh, dear.

When in Athens?!

We get to Piraeus - which is no sweat - and walk back to our hotel.

You can thank my photo-memory for getting us back to the hotel, because I had no problem getting us back. 

Once there, the guy at the desk looks at us and gives us a 'Paul' look. (Good ol' Paul from our home in Pylos. The looks he gave me,especially after that one night with Kansas and the other - morning when I got in, just in time for the bus...! OOPS!)

Hello!!

We got to our room where I talked to a couple of my peoples online and Lianne to hers on the on the phone.

What a day!

Hey Dionysus! What Up Zeus!

The heat was really up there, but I didn't want it to affect our day in Athens... I also didn't want to drag and push Lianne everywhere. She had been here and seen these monuments already last year --- She's awesome (have I said this already?!)

I knew that I would come back later in the week by myself since I was comfortable with the metro so we stayed around in the Southern part of the Acropolis region and visited a couple more monuments:

The Theatre of Dionysus ----

Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Zeus ----

I could tell Lianne was good with just sitting by the site so I went ahead and walked around it.  It was so peaceful and quiet... It was a good 10 minutes. Only a few columns are still up with two at the opposite end still erected.  One column has fallen like a stack of dominoes next to these two and although it's a shame that not much has survived, it is still a sight to see.

Off to Nafplio!

Our last day together was spent doing a trip back to Nafplio. We cabbed to the sketchy intercity bus station I had gone to a month ago when I was hopelessly trying to get to Pylos. 

We ended up just missing the 9:30 bus so we waited for the next one at 10:30.  The same gypsies were bumming around, but thank god they didn't bug me, or Lianne this time around.

The bus ride was only two hours. The town's only across the Isthmus and I love travelling towards my destination.. more often than actually arriving there...

We went for lunch first and thank god the restaurant had high-powered fans spraying water that turned into coldish air once it reached us...

We had planned on climbing the 1000 steps up to the AcroNafplio, but I finally drew the line.  There's only so much I'll do -- I think I pushed myself well past my usual limits this past month and a hlaf that I decided to take it easy --- for once. Lianne was real happy to hear this, because she didn't really want to go up there too... Next time; when it's not blistering HOT.

So instead of climbing up 1000 steps, we went back to our favourite gelato shop.  Good compromise eh?!

We did some window shopping afterwards and went back to that damn shop where I got a really nice FAKE silver ring.  UGH.  I saw the exact same ring in the glass case and could feel my head bubbling.

I asked how much it was and thankfully, for her sake, she gave me the same 'discount' that I caved in at the first time around. 

If I could roll my eyes big enough for this freaking episode, I would.

At least I didn't get ripped off from the rip off... UGH. I'll just fix my damn beautiful ring when I get back to Canada.

The heat had sky-rocketed to a whopping 45 degrees abd we had had enough.  We went back to the small bus station, just missed the bus to Athens and waited another hour --- at least the A/C was working great.

The trip to Nafplio was good, despite the heat.  I think what made it worth it, at least in my books (besides the gelato) was that the bus took a backroad near the Isthmus and I got a clear view and SHOT of the ISTHMUS!

BUENO!

The Beauties of the Parthenon

After touring around, we headed for the New Acropolis Museum where I sat, in awe, in front of the West Pediment -- what remains of it and its plastered reconstructed bits (to help people visualize what the heck is going on).
There they were: Athena and Poseidon, right in the middle, depicted in their battle for the patronship of this ancient city.
Lianne was around, looking at the friezes. The museum's top floor is placed parallel with the Acropolis and designed to display all of the Parthenon's features as they would be seen on the actual monument.  Does this make any sense?

It was amazing.  I had written my final paper for my museum studies class on the Elgin Marbles and repatriation, so to see the Museum's marbles and how they placed replicas of the missing marbles in their rightful location on the museum walls was OUT OF THIS WORLD!  (Kind of like when I saw the actual Modigliani painting at the MET a few years ago after studying him for a year.)

Before even entering the museum, there was a glass floor where the public could see the ancient ruins during the Roman occupation --- right underneath of the Museum! Anyone who knows me will be surprised to read that I actually walked over the glass floor... God, I hate glass floors.

There was a glass fence inthe middle of this terrace which revealed ancient drains and wells... I've seen my fair share of drains this past month, considering I WORKED ON EXCAVATING A DAMN DRAIN. Loads of worldwide coins are dropped into them or right next to them...

I closed my eyes, made a wish, flipped my euro coin and it landed right into the wishing well. 
I'm hoping my wish will come true --- I wished for the same thing back in Pylos on my last night there... If you wish for the same thing more than once, doesn't that mean I have more of a chance of it coming true, eh???

I think so eh... RIGHT?!

Ohhhh, My God!

After the Archaeological Museum, we headed back to Omonia Square where we hopped on the metro and headed towards Syntagma Square --- closer to the Plaka/Acropolis region. 

We both wanted to visit the New Acropolis Museum and that was going to be open until 8PM so we got off at the Akropoli Station (tells you everything you need to know doesn't it?) and headed towards the Acropolis.

I think I've mentionned this before, but I wasn't as excited I you think I would be to see the Acropolis... But, that soon changed when I caught a glimpse of it.

HOLY SKATA!!!!

It is amazingly beautiful.

Pictures do not give monuments like this do not do them justice... It was OUT OF THIS WORLD. 

We slowly climbed our way up to the base of the Acropolis where we made a pit stop for something COLD since the heatwave began to hit Athens this week. (We got lucky and missed half of it since we were in Santorini) Holy Hell --- it was so freaking hot --- 36 degrees and it felt liek there was no air at all. 

We got our tickets, which were good for all the major monuments around the Acropolis too and started climbing up the marble steps. 

The minute we reached the Propylaia (ancient entrance gates) the wind picked up and almost blew my beloved Fedora away!  OHI!

We walked through and low and behold ---- the Parthenon.

It's one thing to see it in x-number of textbooks, but to see it with my eyes ---- Aye Dios Mio.

The East and West pediments are almost all non-existent on the actual monument, but you can still see heads of horses at on of the tips of the East pediment... The picture you see are looking at homies is next to the Eastern side of the Parthenon.

Lianne and I took our time here and visited the Erechteion -- next to the Parthenon on the Acropolis where the Caryatids are 'displayed'.  I was in such an awe that it was only when Lianne said, "wait 'til you see the real ones in the museum!' that I came back to Earth and remembered that the real Caryatids are in the New Acropolis Museum ---- my bad!

Still, this was incredible.  I can't wait to show you people all of my pictures --- I gots some good ones!