Acropolis and the Plaka
Very early yesterday morning we disembarked from our cruise ship. It was a great cruise overall. I wish I wouldn’t have been sick for most of the evenings. Anyway, we took about an hour just riding in the bus, looking at all the sights while our hotel rooms were being prepared. We saw the theatre where the last summer Olympics in Greece were held in 1896, the temple of Zeus and the Acropolis from afar.
After stopping for less than half an hour at the Caravel we were off to our guided tour of the Acropolis. It was very interesting but unfortunately it had lots of metal supports and stuff. I’m not sure if that is going to be there permanently but it rather destroys the illusion a little. After the tour we got expensive slushies and petted the stray dogs!
In the afternoon, the tour bus dropped us off at the Plaka, which is a great big indoor and outdoor market, great for souvenir shopping. Our first priority was to get lunch, so, tired of all this healthy traditional Greek food we headed to McDonalds (where I got a McRoyal, the European name for a quarter pounder)! But there were these tiny little forks on all of our trays, and we didn’t know why! They were shaped like tritons and upon observing the locals we saw that they were for eating fries with. Jeremy Klassen brilliantly dubbed them ‘fritons’ and we happily ate our fries with them.
After meeting back at the cathedral, whose bell was ringing the entire day because it is Easter weekend, we walked for about half an hour back to our hotel. When we were through with dinner we all met at my and Kim’s room where we played the card game Scum and then pretty much went to bed!
Following breakfast this morning, Kim and Gill and some others went to a Renaissance art show at the Hilton. I kind of wanted to go but I was feeling a bit dizzy from the boat still, and all the walking we did yesterday. So Alex and I just rested for the morning on the roof of the hotel. After the sun got too hot we went back to my and Kim’s room where the rest of our group met us after the art show. We decided that we wanted to go back to the Plaka but none of us wanted to actually walk there. Gill had noticed that there was conveniently a metro station close to our hotel and another one right beside the Plaka entrance. So, guess what we did!
The metro in Greece is basically like an underground c-train but is probably twice as fast. It was so fun and cut our travel time down by a lot! It was lunchtime when we got off so we stopped again at a different McDonalds than yesterday, where we tragically did not receive ‘fritons’! How the hell were we supposed to eat our fries with no ‘fritons’? Well, we ate them Canadian-style—with our fingers! The place was packed so we went to eat on the terrace where we had to split up because of lack of seats. I was eating across from Selby when this cute little boy, I’d say maybe six or seven years, comes up beside me and puts two roses on the table in front of me and says, ‘please’? I didn’t ask him the price, mainly because I wasn’t in present need of slightly wilted flowers, but if I had to guess, they were probably way overpriced. I tried to decline him so he kissed me on the cheek and said, ‘come on, please?’ probably seven times before frowning and walking away. I felt kind of bad, but you know it was probably his dad or some other guy that just hired the kid ’cause he was cute and people buy stuff from him.
This was the day I wanted to finish all my major shopping since I’m pretty sure the prices on the little islands we’re going to next are going to be outrageous. So I did more or less buy everything along the lines of souvenirs today.
My second experience with seven-year-old Greek boys also happened this afternoon. Alex and I were browsing one of the outdoor shops in the Plaka when suddenly this kid comes up, kicks Alex in the foot, yells, ‘shut up!’ and proceeds to kick me in the butt and run away with his friends. Alex and I just looked at each other and said, ‘what the heck was that?’ We thought later that they might have thought we were Americans, and doesn’t everyone want to kick Americans in the butt? No, I’m kidding, but Alex was regretting not lashing out in angry-sounding Polish: Kurde mol! Jak ci zaraz tu dam… co wy robicie?!
After taking the metro back to the hotel, we had dinner (liver soup with entrails… kill me now!) and heard word of a game of Scum happening later. I was planning on going but found out that Megan was going to an internet café so I went with her instead. Alex, Kevelyn and Theresa also forfeited Scum and came with us. We got slightly lost on the way there—following Kevelyn is not a smart thing to do! So the other four of us turned around and eventually made it to the café. It was very cool inside, with bright techno-y lights and all. I was reunited with my true love, the internet, where I chatted on msn to my family, checked my e-mail and went to Kim’s forum. There were no new posts, what’s up with that? It was quite cheap too: just over two Euros for an hour which I split with Alex.
I’m very tired now, and tonight is the last full night of sleep I’ll get until I’m home, so I’d better get to bed!
