This is my last post. Took a ferry yesterday to Mykonos island for some much needed R & R. Don't you agree? However if you know me I can't stay still for long. After arriving here in the afternoon I spend about 3 hrs before I had enough of just laying there. Went to grab something to eat and heading back to the hotel. Ironically enough I fell asleep fast. Something about the sun, water and waves. That cold salt water did feel good on my calves. This morning I finally got up around 8 and was ready to head out to the beach again. This time I set my timer. My ferry back doesn't leave until 2 so I figure I can stay at the beach for 3 hrs. I made is 2hr and 40 min before I had enough. I can't wait to get back to Chicago and be a productive citizen again.
My goal was to go up as far as I could. The highest peak Mitkas was 2918 m. The second highest Skala 2800~m. I made it somewhere around 2700 before I fear of going back down outweighed my desire to go up. It was an interesting experience. Would I do it again. Not alone and I would probably invest in some hiking poles. My legs got a work out, my knees are killing me. Brother B - Am I still boring? Brother S- You told me to learn as much as I could. This is what I learned from this. 1. The estimated trekking time is BS. I don't know how fast they expect you to walk. 2. Do not assumed the meat in spagethetti and meatballs is beef. Didn't taste or smell like it and i didn't ask. It didn't take long to stop eating it. 3. Of course the only non African black person you meet is while you are hiking up and he's hiking down. And he's in flip flops. Also, he hiked up barefooted. I'm not calling anyone crazy, but... Ummm.... Yea. 4. Cold shower at 2100m vs traveling all day without showering for two days. I think I'll taking the first option next time. Little Sis- I'm starting my vacation portion. Hitting the beach tomorrow. Now onto a few pic. The only reason you guys are getting any of this right now is because I have to wait 20 min after calling the reception for hot water to shower. Yeah I know I just said cold shower next time but that was at 2100m. I'm at sea level now with access to hot water. If I waited all day I can wait a little more. And then you get higher and start seeing things like this. But it too far you back out now. It's worth it though for views like this Okay so last night I arrived in Thessaloniki and was immediately removed from my ordinary routine of keeping to myself. My hostel dorm was a four bedroom, mixed and it had a kitchen. Of course I just had to cook. I made pasta covered in sausage, pepper tomatoe sauce. Hey I had to work with what was at the market. as I was cooking one of my roommates struck up a conversation with me. Frankly I don't see anything special about being American but it's okay. Anyway after I got ready for bed I was invited by the newest addition to the dorm to go our for drinks. What the hell!! There's a group of Herman student doing research it (on the history of the Turkish exchange after WWI) so Agee of us went out. There had already had a few drink. Long story short. Ordered a Long Island, barely had the drinks and in if the girls stands upand knovks over another strawberry daquari which ended up all over my pants. She had leggings under her skirt and I ended up in her skirt and she tied her scarf around her waist. Whatever she was drunk. They still wanted to go dancing but as it was close to 2am on Wednesday, not much is open. We ended up cramming in a taxi back to the hostel.
Next morning was perfectly fine since I only had one drink. My dorm mate suggested we explore the city together I was okay with that and we did. Had fun. Interesting to talk to someone since I haven't the really the entire time I've been here. She's from California but is studying Korean at a university in London. And on a vacation in Greece for a week. We did explore the city. Even saw some peacocks!!!! Have never taste so good. Add in onions, peppers, feta and some olive and you have yourself a Greek salad. OMG you just don't know how I loved it. And guess wha, I wasn't told when I ordered a chicken gyro that it wasn't vegetarian. I'm back in a country where it's acceptable to eat meat with your veggies. It's been raining slightly on and off all day so I only visited the Acropolis (Parthethon) and the temple of Olympios Zeus. All in all I say that three sites for 12 was a very good deal and when I come back before my plane leaves if I want to visit others than I can definitely do so. On to pictures.... And fur a real treat. Cats!!! Oh yea, after a few days. I found another lion. It's 9 am and I'm just chilling in my room. Surprisingly it a two bedroom and last night I had no roommate which is perfectly fine with me. I'm taking the time and enjoy this plus it not like I have anywhere urgent to be. That's one thing I've notice about Europe in general, no one in a rush to do anything. Not like us American anyway. When I was in Venice I went to the post office to get some stamps. I bought ten since I had been slacking with post cards from Ireland. But anyway I actually couldn't find half it them, later. I'm sure I'll find them when I get back, and I'm supposed to be so organized. Anyway the post closed at 1:30. It's barely. I got there about 12:30 and there was a line of course and apparently they take care of lots if things at the poste italia not just mailing thing so it was taking very long. At 1pm the guy behind the counter, there was only 1 started telling people who came in that he was closed. That stated a uproar if course. If you never seen little old Italian ladies yelling in Italian. It's a little scary. But anyway I stated where I was. Some people left, a few stayed but my thought process was I was already in line, it's not closing time yet. You are gonna sell me my damn stamps. He did, abs I didn't even have to argue in Italian. Bit anyway back to Greece. How do you have a ship enter port at 7am. There's a new port (2-3 years old$ and a old port about 5km apart. Online says that there is a few shuttle running between the two every 30min. And if course the train station is by the old port. No problem right? Nit when the shuttle doesn't start to run until 10am. And if course the taxis drivers know this so they are just lined up waiting. They come talk to a few people trying to get them to use the taxi. Too put it bluntly no one said a damn thing to me. To be fair I only noticed them trying to persuade the men. Yea yea I know the whole thing of you talk to the man not the woman but hey do I have a companion with me. A few people took the taxis, I went inside to ask for information about the shuttle and that's when I confirmed it started at 10. BS. So I take the taxi. The guy asks me where I'm headed , I say athens and he 'a like where. It sorta seemed as if he was trying to get me to take a taxis all the way there. Ummm no I good. I gonna take the train. But a train doesn't run from patra to athens. I know I'm taking a bus to kiato and then the train from there. (I wanted to scream. I know what I'm doing just take me to the train station which is also the bus station by the old port, also put out that damn cigarette!). He said something like the next bus isn't until 1 pm) and you wonder why I thought they were lying about the 10am shuttle. Cause I knew that a bus left at 8:45. And I just barely made it 10min before departure. Even had enough time to go next door and get a cappuccino. So a little over 1 hr later I was at the train station, and then another hour in athens. Yeah right like I was gonna take a cab two hours, especially with him smoking. You have got to be kidding me. I finally made it to athens. It took some time to figure out my way mainly because the train did not take me directly to the main station which was not far from my hostel but closer toward the airport. The nice attendant wrote the name down of the stop that I was suppose get off but she didn't spell it correctly. I ended up having to get off at a random stop to look at the map to see where i was suppose to. Only needed to more stop ahead so that worked out and knly added 10 min to the time. It took for another train to pass. Luckily like Ireland there is both the Greek word and the English word. At least on official typed signs. So I was able to distinguish were I was going. My maps app in my phone was barely no help at all since Siri decides she only want to show the Greek word and blot. The translation. So yeah trying to figure our which stop to get off at involve a lot of looking back and forth to make sure I had the right word/station And the saying " it all looks Greek to me" was definitely true. At least French and Italian I could make out want something was with a liittle common sense. But anyway I went to one set of ruins. Yesterday. I love Greece already. One 12€ ticket gives me access to 6 sites(ancient agora, theatre of Dionysus, roman agora, kerameikos, temple of Olympian Zeus, Hadrians library) as well as Athens Acropolis and the Parthenon. Yesterday was only the ancient agora. I decided to wash and hang some of my clothes since I needed to and ended up wearing my flip flops since I foolishly washed all my socks. And walking in flip flops over gravel is not fun. (Gymshoes today) So there was a lot of vegetation. A displayed mention that none was actively growing when they first started preserving the site but after archeological evidence indicated that there was indeed plant life they plant about 40 native species in the areas. It was cool that they have plates that the next of the species. The few I saw were oleader, myrtle, and pear. So I'm technically in Greece now. Only one more hour until we land?, dock?. Very interesting being on a ship for 18hrs. I have mixed feelings. It wasn't crowded as I was able to spread out over four seats to sleep. I had access to wifi he entire time. Who listened to streaming music the whole time. I DID! While I love my playlist it was a little nice to get a variety I music. And while I can keep adding songs to my offline playlist, download times have varied. So anyway. Pictures. Only a few though as I spent most of the time in and out of sleep. Oh yeah I also thought to be productive and twist my hair. See not completely lazy.
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