Tuesday was a free day in Athens and I decided to do some laundry and go to the doctor. Well that was two strikes before noon. I managed to turn my whole load of laundry pink (thank you Plaka pants) and there was a Metro strike and none of the cars were running until later that evening. Pink laundry and no doctor visit. Excellent. Cuzi, Kylie, and I decided to do some souvenir shopping since we had nothing to do. Later that evening a group of us decided to go bowling and we had SO much fun! We did a round of fun bowling and were having a blast until the ball got stuck on Cori's thumb and the guy working at the alley basically had a heart attack. So we quietly finished our game and headed back to our hotel, saying goodbye to our friends staying at Hotel Dioskouros.
Wednesday we woke up, ate breakfast, and met our class outside the Byzantine Museum of Athens. Once finished there, we walked to the Benaki Museum, looked at a few things for class, and our day was over. Cuzi went to the hospital with me after class to get my INR tested (these nurses are getting good at understanding my poor Grenglish language). We returned to the hotel, made Greek Salads for everyone in the room for lunch, and just hung out, discussing religion and those types of simple topics (ha). Later that evening, our room decided to do a "Plaka Pants Power Hour". Now I choose to avoid mentioning my drinking habits on this blog, but I felt compelled to tell you all about this because it was my first power hour and we all did it in matching pajama pants. Now you are all disappointed that you weren't there. No worries-I took a picture of us. That was basically how the night ended, knowing we had an early morning for our exam review at the CIG.
The Plaka Pants Power Hour at Backpackers
Thursday we headed to the Canadian Institute (CIG) for a review session for our exam. Afterwards, we split for lunch and made our way back towards Backpackers. Jake, Geoff and I cooked up chicken parmesan and spaghetti for dinner, and then we took off for the Olympic Stadium where Greece would be passing the torch flame to England for the upcoming Olympics. Princess Anne and David Beckham (!yes in person!) received the flame and processed out of the stadium, getting directly on a plane for London. It was definitely a one-time experience for us! The torch always begins its journey in Olympia, Greece (home to the first Olympic games), then ventures through Greece, and then begins its journey through the host country a couple of months before the opening ceremony. After the torch passing ended, we headed back to the hostel and decided to chill in the downstairs bar for Karoake Thursday. Quite entertaining. That is, until Sam somehow convinced Cuzi, Cori, and I to join in with her and sing "Mambo No. 5" by Lou Bega. It was the hardest decision ever because I hate to sing in front of people but I love Lou Bega. Well my love for Lou won and we sang-and ended up having the time of our lives. We met some friendly Canadians and guys from UConn, chatted them up, and then headed to bed.
The priestess of Olympia passing off the torch to an important Greek political figure (the explanation over the speaker was in Greek)
Princess Anne and David Beckham processing out of the stadium with the flame
Friday morning we had our first exam for John's class. Definitely my favorite exam of the trip. I thought it was easy and it focused on things that John actually told us were important. We all returned to our hotel for lunch (I made pasta salad) and watched "Anchorman" for our siesta time. Eventually we all fell asleep but then woke up and ate again (chicken fajitas by Sam and Geoff, bravo). After dinner, we all showered and got dressed and the girls from Dioskouros came over to go out with us. We headed downstairs to the bar where we met the Canadians again and joined in on their card game (which involved drinking, shockingly). We hung out and played a few games for a while longer and then decided we wanted to go out dancing in Gazi or Syri. About 10 of us (mixed from our group and the Canadians) headed out and somehow got split up. Cuzi and I were partnered up but neither of us knew where we were supposed to go, so we wandered around with some of the guys for most of the night, giving them the "historical tour" of Athens (the nerdy students that we are). Eventually, we gave up looking for the other group and attempted to get into this flashy club: denied. We couldn't help but laugh because the bouncers were trying not to laugh at us. So we kept walking and eventually found a dubstep club. Now mind you, I have never even heard of dubstep, let alone danced it before. But it was surprisingly easy and enjoyable and Cuzi, the boys, and I dubstepped like crazy for a bit. Once we realized we cleared the dance floor (literally all the locals had stopped dancing besides us), we headed back for the hostel. We also came to the conclusion that it was 5am and we had class at 8am. Typical Americans ;)
Saturday morning was a rough one and I think even our professor knew it. We visited a few churches around Athens, made a pitstop at Starbucks, and continued on looking at churches. After the tour, we stopped at the Islamic Museum which has some incredible artifacts! Once we finished there, John's wife, Amy, stopped in to give us background information and a tour of "Modern Day Athens" (which included Omonia Square, brothels, and places for good Pakistani food). We then stopped for a program lunch at a Chinese restaurant. After I finally couldn't keep myself awake any longer, we were released from class and the group headed home to Backpackers and Dioskouros. Tonight was the big soccer match that Jake had been waiting for, so in honor of his team, Chelsea, a group of us agreed to go out to The James Joyce Irish Pub to eat and watch the game. After a much-needed nap, the group from Backpackers headed out to the pub, passing by the Canadians on our way. We told them to meet up at the pub later if they wanted. Once we got there, we had some food, a few drinks, and Cuzi, Sam, and I indulged in our first Irish Car Bomb. It wasn't too shabby. Anyway, we watched the first half of the soccer match at the bar (tied 0-0), and decided that it was way too crowded and chose to go back to the Sports Bar at our hostel to finish watching the game. Once we returned we watched the intense game against Bayern Munich (spelling? I am not sure) and ran into the Canadians again, who supposedly showed up to the pub after we had left. Whoops. Sorry guys. So we finished watching the game with a few of them and in a shoot out, Chelsea won. For not loving the sport of soccer it was a pretty fun game to watch. After the game was finished, Cuzi, me, and 2 of the Canadian boys hung out in the lobby until 3:30 am chatting the night away, knowing the next morning was coming way too quickly. All in all, this stay in Athens was my favorite and we definitely had a lot of fun.
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