Back Home: In Athens

Yes! We are finally back in Athens and it feels like coming home.

Anyways, the day in Thessaloniki turned out to be pretty good. We relaxing and walked around and hung out. We also decided the square of every city/town is our favorite place to hang out.

The next day we walked halfway to the bus station and decided it was too far so we took a taxi. We took a bus to Litochoro, the town at the foot of MT. Olympus. It wasn't a clear day, so it was hard to see the mountain well. Litochoro is a very nice town, very picturesque. It looks like a resort town. The town square was our favorite part. We quickly found a hotel for 15 euroes each and settled in there. We ate at a cafe for lunch and hiked up towards the mountain. We stopped at a little closed cafe and hopped over the fence. We were all standing by the fence, looking over into the valley when we heard a large crash. We looked in the direction of the crash and saw Joel laying on his back, with a lamp post clutched in his hands and in between his legs. I guess he had attempted to climb it, two feet on the fence and his whole weight hanging on the platic lamp post. He had to take a 10 minute time out to recover.

The mountain path we took was actualy a cement aquaduct. It had a cool view of the mountain and led to the source of the aquaduct with was also several very pretty waterfalls. We walked back and the guys took a much steeper trail up the mountain, and I was gimped by my knee so I sat at the bottom and waited, feeling foolish.

The rest of the night we walked around the town, made sandwhiches for supper and played cards. We also met a young couple from oregon. In the morning we bought pastries and took a taxi to the bus station. There we caught a train, which we were supposed to take to the next town but the guys couldn't figure out how to open the door and we were stuck on the train to the next town. We had to wait 20 minutes in the rain until another train came to take us back. From Katerini we took a 5 hour train to Athens, and then walked to Hotel Lozanni. Kelly Ann and the parents were already there waiting for us. We ate gyros and I did laundry. Then we went out for gelato. I got Bounty and Coconut. SO GOOD!

Eric and I took 2 hours to get to airport to pick up Dayna. We got on the subway at 11 planning to make it there for 11:30. Her plane was due just after 12. Well the train we were on decided it was done for the night and stopped 4 stops before the airport. Then a woman said we could get on the train going to other was and go 2 stops back and take the bus because it was 24 hours. Another man also told us that. After we got there, the man there siad we just missed the last bus. We were soooo mad. We had just went so far back and the taxi was going to be that much extra. But then we saw a bus that said airport but the guy wouldn't let us on. ARGH. We waited there for a long time before we finally asked someone and she told us to go wait on the other side! We had missed like 3 buses on that side cause someone else told us to wait there. That bust was pulling up just as we were getting to the other side so we had to run and flag that one down as well. It felt like it took forever to get there. Finally we made it to the airport, almost and hour after Dayna got there, 1 1/2 hours after we planned to get there. We took the bus back, way cheaper than the planned taxi, and walked 20 minutes back to our hostel. We got to sleep just before 3.

We slept in late, like 11:30, but it was ok cause it was actually 10:30 because of the time change. Today is Ohi (No) Day in Greece, so the parents were scared all the sites would be closed. We walked there anyways, and it turns out, instead of everything being closed, everything was FREE because of the holiday! YAY! So today we explore the Acropolis and the Ancient Angora for free! I am really dissapointed because the Acropolis Museum is closed, and it sounds really cool. After that we had lupper in Plaka (gyros) and Kelly Ann and I bought awesome sweaters. Her's is black with dice and mine is black with stars.

Then we walked back to the hostel and now I am writing this. Tonight we will probably just hang out and go to get gelato because it is amazing!