THERE ARE SO MANY HILLS. Jeezzz. The first one I encountered was right after I got off the bus from the airport. What a debacle. My flight got in at 2pm and after for traveling for over 20 hours, I was exhausted. After waiting for 2 hours for a bus that was supposed to come every 20 minutes, someone mentioned to me that the transit workers in Greece were on strike. Super. I found out that the buses weren’t going to start running until around 4:00, and cab rides to the main city center (Syntagma Square) would be over 60E. Two people approached me, asked me if I was alone, and then subsequently offered to share a cab with me. At first, I thought this was a great idea. However, flashbacks of the movie Taken came rushing into my head, and it was clear that these people were probably going to kidnap me in the cab. So I avoided going with them. Stupid. The bus didn’t come until about 5pm – after 3 hours of standing waiting- and when it did come, the overflow of traffic caused a literal mob scene of people slamming up against the bus and packing it probably 3x capacity. I was one of the last to get on the bus and legit almost went into hysterics. Luckily I was too tired.
I got to the (kinda sketchy) hostel and went out to grab a bite (authentic chicken souvlaki yummm), then got lost for an hour as it started to get dark, and finally found my way back. Allison (Norman) and Kristina (Harter)- my travel buddies- arrived circa 3am because one of their flights got delayed. Yikes.
Needless to say they were tired the next day, but we all rallied to wake up at 8:30 and get going on the ancient sights. We hiked the hill up to the Acropolis and walked around the Parthenon and erechtheum, temples, and theaters. It was really hot and steep, but pretty sweet. Then we walked down to the Agora (marketplace) and got some more ancient dust on our feet. hawt. I wish I remembered more information from my History of Ancient Greece class (amazinggg, I highly recommend it), but alas most of McInerney’s lecture points escaped me. After walking around the ancient sights, we headed to the new Ancient Acropolis Museum which was phenomenal.
Quick lunch break (Greek Salad and pita, so delicious) and then we shopped around a little before heading to Lykavittos hill. Great, more steep slopes. Allison had read that it provided a spectacular view of the acropolis and the metropolis of Athens at sunset, so we decided to take on the challenge of climbing the “hill” (re: cliff). It was definitely worth it. Beautiful sunset, and a nice rest at the top. My legs better be dayum good after this. My calves are yelling at me.
On the way down my legs felt like jelly and were shaking but it was fine. We had dinner near our hostel and got free wine while watching some authentic Greek dancers at the restaurant next door. It was perfect. Then they got Bakalava and I got asked if I was a cheerleader? Gotta love American stereotypes.
Then we headed home to sleep until our 5:30am wakeup call for our early ferry to the island of Ios.
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