7/4/11
After breakfast today (note: the breakfast -- always set, buffet style at the sports bar downstairs -- seemed to have perfected the art of foiling eggs unevenly: as in some, but not all of the eggs are cooked. Add to the jiggly eggs the fact that they were also not washed with cold water prior to serving meant that the eggs were very hart to peel indeed). Annie and I stopped by Backpackers (name of the chain of hostel) to pick up the refund for the Delphi trip and then, at the recommendation of the receptionist, decided to go to Syntagma Square to see the changing of the guards at 11am (the performance only happens every Sunday at 11am). Since we had the time, I dragged Annie through the Zeippion Garden, past the Zeippion, and into the National gardens (of the death by monkey infamy). It was a very nice garden, shady with plenty of ponds, some of which contained a multitude of turtles and some, koi.
Koi always seems like a very Asian element to me. It's astonishing how much their popularity seemed to have caught on with the rest of the world. It's like Feng-Shui, but less annoying and misinterpreted. (Though admittedly it will harder to misinterpret a fish, I suppose).
We also encountered a small zoo-like enclosure with chickens, geese, peacocks and goats.
Trust me, we were as surprised as you are.
Note: did not spot any monkeys though.
With the remaining time we went one street norther of Ermou to track down a famous candy store (from the 20s? 30s?) but unfortunately the store was closed Sundays. Instead we went to the one next door, where I got sweets for my parents and labmates. We paused briefly at a bakery / cafe next to Syntagma where we both picked up pastries (having firmly established that we can feed ourselves quite well with Greek pastries for just under 2 euros each) (I got something that had cheese and an entire sausage inside, and Annie got a cappuccino and a chocolate croissant) and we whiled away the time sitting at the bar stools in the cafe until we went over to the suddenly very crowded area in front of the Parliament Building and saw the guards change. All the pompom'ed shoes sold in the souvenir shops suddenly made a lot more sense, after that.
And if you've ever seen photos of the guard change -- yes they do do the whole exaggerated leg movements and the uniform sleeves are really that...billowy.
From there we braved the metro (which was surprisingly nice and have reduced price tickets for students, much like the archaeological sites) to Omonia, walked up 3rd Sep. to the National Archaeological Museum. Due to the lack of guards, or so the museum informed us, the vase and pottery collection was not available for viewing. However, there were enough exhibits that, with the allowance of non-flash photography, we lingered for about four hours. There was a temporary exhibit on myth & coin that was particularly good.
We retired back to our hostel at that point, where Annie and I split a load of laundry (5 euros to wash, 2 euros to try; ridiculous yes, especially given at the second highest setting in the drier most of our clothing were still damp afterwards) before we ventured out for food. We decided to dine out our last night in Athens and managed to find fries with cheese that are actually fries, with cheese,
as opposed to the random baked potato slices that we have been subjected to thus far
as well as roasted lamb with pasta where Annie was able to identify the bone as, I believe, the distal end of a femur of a juvenile animal.
Having friends in different fields is often times awesome.
Then we tried the custard-bulee-caramel-something, which I've decided was the equivalent of flan, and yogurt with honey because I figured I should have Greek yogurt at least once while I'm in Greece. By the time dinner was over it was nearly nine, and we briefly detoured to the shop across from our hostel where I got a mini-bottle of ouzo for dad, more to appeal to his sense of humor than his taste in alcohol. Then it's to the fun world of packing before we called it a day.
7/4/11: actual date and not journal date
Departed from hostel at 9am in the morning, after breakfast. Annie walked me down to the metro and we made plans for me to visit her should we miss each other during winter break, which currently seems likely given that there's a fair chance that she will spending spending Christmas in Egypt (Egypt!). Took the metro (red-line) from Acropolis to Syntagma, switched to the blue line to Doukissis Plakentias, where it took approximately three more carts before we got the one for the airport (hypothesis: 4-5 carts is needed to generate enough passenger for one to the airport). I was nearly at the airport before I saw the sign at the end of the cart that said that metro tickets to the airport cost a lot more than the usual 0.7 euro tickets, but I saw no ticket machines at that station and so resigned myself to getting fined should anyone come to ticket check. Luckily no one did and I arrived at the airport at around 10:20am. There was an unexpected part where, upon hearing that I was traveling alone, the security guard confiscated my ticket and made wait in a chair while my fellow passengers proceeded through. It caused a few moments of panic (what about my ticket? What did I do?) before I was taken aside, my bags were taken apart, and I was told to turn on and off all my electronics, including my tiny mp3 player, and had all my things taken through x-ray again, twice. Then I was taken to a closet of a room and patted won thoroughly before I was finally allowed through. I nearly forgot my new hat in the x-ray bin, which would have been a minor tragedy, as I quite like my hat.
...and that's the end of the scribbling in my sketchbook. From this point I can continue from memory:
Aside from the part where I suddenly learned a bit more about airport security than I wanted to, the rest of the flight went smoothly. New Jersey was just as mall-like the second time around and I had to fill out a form for customs though I had nothing to declare but if we didn't have redundant paperwork I suppose a lot of people would be out of jobs. Flight back to SD also proceeded well -- despite of the fact that the flight was slightly delayed the pilot was able to make up for it during the flight so that we arrived slightly early (and SD was much prettier from above at night than it ever was on ground. The real issue came with the taxi, which my parents made me promise to take instead of public transport.
See by the time I arrived and was standing outside the airport? It's past 10pm at night. A lot of people, very few taxis. Repeat a slightly milder version of the Athens taxi experience, except I'm alone and it's past 10pm at night. There was also unexpected traffic on the Five because of drunk drivers, which was unpleasant, but I did arrive home safely, opened all the windows, showered, and collapsed into bed where I slept all the way through until next morning (did not manage to sleep on the flights back). Then I transferred my wallet and cellphone to my laptop bag and tottered off to work at 8:30 and spent the rest of the day feeling surreal.
Well, that sums that up.
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