No Regrets!

We took a quick flight to Athens and then made our way to our hostel in the middle of the city. Mandy took us out for a walking tour around the city center.

Athens is no jewel. It’s dirty and boring, lacking the life and character that big cities should have. The most annoying thing is that toilet paper cannot be flushed. Ancient 2-inch sewer pipes (vs. 4-inch pipes in most other modern cities) mean that you have to dispose of your spent toilet paper in a little bin next to the toilet. At the same time, Athens is not the complete shithole that most of my friends made it out to be. It’s decent.

The Acropolis, an imposing hill in the middle of the city, is the highlight of Athens. On top of the Acropolis sit temples built 2500 years ago. Amazing how old it is, and it shows. Most of it is crumbling, though there seems to be an ongoing effort to preserve and reconstruct. The polished and slippery marble steps up to the top make me wonder how many millions of shoes have climbed them.

The view from the top is impressive. The white, limestone buildings of Athens stretch as far as the eye can see in every direction.

So we walked around a bit. After a few minutes of appreciating the architecture and historical significance of the place, we were ready to go.

The Greek people are a melting pot of Mediterranean looks. There’s some beauty there, but there also seems to be an air of depression and defeat to these people, something I felt about the people of Budapest. There’s not a whole lot of warmth. And I’m not sure I’ll ever be OK with the pushing out of planes, into subways, into buses, through lines… That shit drives me crazy. And there are cats. Lots of cats.

This was the last day of this G Adventures tour. On our last night together in Athens, we bar-hopped and enjoyed a smashing view of the illuminated Acropolis. Gave hugs, said our goodbyes, and that was it.

This morning, I scrambled to Panathenaic Stadium, site of the first modern Olympics and, with the 2016 Summer Olympics currently in Rio, a fitting end to my stay in mainland Greece.

Next, I’m off to Santorini. I’ll be on my own for a couple of days on my own, and then my friend Conrad will be meeting me to join my adventures for the next couple of months.

I’m now sitting at my gate waiting for the plane, which seems to be delayed due to high winds. Next to me is an old man clearing his throat every 90 seconds. Hypervigilance sucks.

A woman just walked through the gate, using a leash to pull a reluctant dog behind her. In a feat of balance rivaling that of a skilled ballerina, the dog continued forward motion with its front legs while suspending its rear legs in the air to produce three exquisite and equidistant turds on the carpet.