Athens: officially in Greece!

Athens. What can I say?! Let's start with the fact that I decided to couchsurf here and my host has been absolutely wonderful! Her name is Myrto and her boyfriend is Giannis and they have been the  most welcoming people. I got here early in the morning on Tuesday and I will say I was exhausted after leaving Geneva at 4am. Once I landed I took the train into the city where there was some complication while I figured out how to get a hold of her... Realizing we had just agreed on the metro stop and not where to meet once outside of there. In addition, it seemed to take forever to get from the airport to the city and I was worried she either had been waiting forever or had given up. Let's add to this situation that I had no phone or internet and therefore no way to get ahold of her. SO. I got out of the metro and walked around a bit trying to look for another young female who might appear to be looking for someone... No luck. After about ten minutes of total confusion I found a sign at a cafe saying free wifi so I walked over and asked the person at the counter to put in the password. I called her via skype with of course the worst connection possible and she couldn't hear me at all. Giving up on that I switched to sending a text of my location also via skype and she found me! Yay!

Once we met up we had a short walk to her apartment which is super cute as is her adorable dog tunni. (Not sure if that's how you spell it) right away she welcomed me into her home and we sat and chat for awhile before she allowed me to take a nap :-) which was wonderful considering I was running off hardly any sleep. When I woke up she fed me a delicious meal (a super yummy dinner that's a real local standard-basically chicken in puréed tomatoes with species and then with something like homemade egg noodles) after that her and her boyfriend insisted on taking me out for a sweet. I tried orange pie. It was super good but totally a weird texture. After sweets and singing them the dorky sorority version of the Greek alphabet, they took me to their favorite summer spot for a drink. It was this awesome little place on top of a huge hill, all outdoors, and dimly lit. I ordered a simple greek beer Alpha since I was literally sweating my ass off. It was so hot for me. I also tried this traditional liquor, Raki- plain it was awful and sooo strong! But you could also order it with cinnamon, honey and spices and that was much better. Some of their friends joined us, one I really like, Aggeliki, who I will talk about more a little later. We had a really nice time though and I honestly couldn't have asked for a better welcoming into the city . 

The second day was slightly less exciting except I was lucky enough to meet Myrto's mom who came to town! She doesnt speak a lot of English but we found a way to communicate. What was really luckily about her visit was being able to try some of her homemade cooking. She brought this big traditional dish-pastitsio. It was SUPER yummy. Basically beef, noodles, and cheese in a casserole type dish. Her mom was really nice and I just wish we could have talked more. We did get some time together the next day when we went to see the acropolis since I failed at finding it on my own that day.

The visit to the Acropolis was actually really awesome despite being the most touristy thing you can do in Athens. There is something about knowing just how old it is and being in awe of the things mankind have been able to create. I will say it was bloody hot that day! Like sweltering and we had to literally climb a mountain. It was pretty intense but quite rewarding once at the top. After taking the token photos we went back down to meet back up with Myrto's mom. She was in heels and decided not to go up with us. Unfortunately after a delicious over priced icey, Myrto had to go to work and left her mom and I to see the Acropolis Museum without her.  This was also pretty cool considering it gave a bit more context to what I had just seen. 

Other notabale events from Athens: getting to meet Myrto's friends, relaxing and having a beer with them, buying a new pair of sandals, which the jury is still out on whether they are comfortable or worth the price, having my first officially Greek Slouvaki which is a Gyro. Above all else was the wonderful weekend away of camping.. Which isn't really Athens and why it gets it's own post :-)