Erechtheum, one of the three buildings of the Acropolis.

Last night I returned from being in Athens. We had a weeklong break before the semester started and Athens is the city I had most wanted to see. It is also the furthest from where my friend and I are planning on touring once classes are over. Coincidentally, this friend, Kim, also had a break and also wanted to visit Athens. She lives in northern Spain though, so we made plans to just meet in Greece.

I left Granada on Wednesday morning by bus. The ride to Madrid takes five hours, including a half hour break at the midway point. I had decided to spend the night in Madrid, then make it to the airport for my 11:30 am flight on Thursday. I had directions to my hostel from the internet and didn't think the trip would be that hard. Well, I was mistaken. For starters, I had accidentally written the directions from the airport to my hostel instead of from the bus station. I asked a gentleman for help and he kindly pointed me towards the bus. I paid the fare and sat down to see a bit of Madrid. My trip lasted all of about four minutes. It turns out that two stops down the line was the end of that particular line. At a loss, I got off the bus and began to walk in what I was guessing the right direction. My hostel was right off La Puerta del Sol which is not only a major plaza, it's somewhere I'd been twice before; I assumed there would be signs to guide me. I walked for a bit and eventually decided to get on the metro. I had to ask another stranger to please tell me where we are on the map so I could figure out which line to ride. Finding my hostel was pretty simple after that.

I got to my room and met the rest of the travelers. They included a Korean girl, a Norwegian guy, an Irishman, a guy from Puerto Rico and a girl from Latvia. It made me giggle to see that we were all from entirely different countries yet we could communicate because we all knew English. It would occur to me later that I was the only non-bilingual person in the room. (I'm working on it!)

The Irish guy was named Conor and he asked if I "fancied getting a bite to eat." I've heard a multitude of accents in my travels, but I have to say that the Irish one is my hands down favorite. It is so lyrical and has a way of making even the most mundane phrases sound pretty. Anyhow, I agreed and we went out to discover our options. I didn't really care what we ate, but you know what he ended up choosing? Kentucky Fried Chicken. I kid you not. It was the first fast food I had eaten in Spain. Afterwards, we went to an Irish pub because he really wanted to see his team play. His team turned out to be Manchester United which is a football team from England. I intended to only stay for part of the game as I hadn't slept much the night before. (We had a going away celebration for those leaving.) But football, or soccer as we call it, is more interesting than I had initially believed. It is more fluid than American football and they don't stop the clock every 3 seconds, which I appreciate as I have a short attention span and watching a four game just doesn't excite me. Manchester Utd won the game with a score of 2-0. The same guy, Cristiano Ronaldo, scored both goals. If you follow world soccer at all that's probably a familiar name to you. It wasn't to me and Conor told me that Ronaldo is only 22 and might just be the greatest player at the moment. Whoa. Talk about skill and pressure.

Anyhow, I got up the next morning to make my way to the airport. My flight was at 11:30 am but I wanted to allow plenty of time in case I got lost. I had planned on taking the subway and was shocked to see how many people were doing the same thing in their efforts to get to work. Seriously, have you ever seen those clips where the doors open and people just spill out of the train? That's exactly what was going on. I was thankful I had chosen to bring just a small bag instead of a larger duffel or suit case. I made my way onto the train not really seeing any space, but those already riding were old hands at cramming one more in and shifted so I fit. I got off at the Terminal 1, 2, 3 exit not knowing which terminal I actually needed. There are only four terminals in total so I figured my odds were pretty good. Plus, I had flown into Terminal 1 upon first arriving in Madrid. Then came another surprise: you have to pay to get out of the subway. I mean, I'm sure Madrid's airport isn't the only place where this is in effect, but I don't ride a whole lot of underground trains. In fact, I think it would be wildly beneficial if there were some sort of class in those kinds of manners for small-town people. I grudgingly paid the fare and made my way up to the main area. I couldn't find my flight listed on the big screen and finally asked someone who worked in the airport. Well, good thing I hadn't bet on it: I needed to be in Terminal 4. He showed me the bus I needed to take and I jumped on. I was wondering how far away this terminal was. The answer soon proved to be "quite far." As in we got on the highway and drove for about 15 minutes. I'm glad the man told me about the bus because there¡*s no way I would have found it or the terminal on my own. The rest of the trip was pretty standard.

Skip ahead to landing in Athens. Again, I had copied directions from online on how to get to my hostel. I couldn't find the metro so I opted for another bus that was supposed to be leaving in twenty minutes. I left the terminal and easily found the bus. I waited calmly for about 30 seconds before a man, whom I deduced was the driver, got on. He spoke none too happily and pointed across the road. Unfortunately, I don't speak more than three words of Greek and had no idea what he was saying. But I got off the bus and crossed the road. I found a ticket station so assumed he was telling me to purchase a ticket, which I did. When I returned to the bus he again pointed and talked. I showed him the newly purchased ticket, and he got progressively less happy as he continued to point. I thought he was trying to tell me to get on the bus in front of us. I tried that only to find that that particular bus was going somewhere else. Finally another Greek man made a "just be patient" gesture. Turned out the bus driver was on break and had simply wanted me to wait on the opposite curb until he crossed over. See? A class on public transportation would have told me that.

The bus ride was about an hour long and ended at Syntagma Square. I recognized this area from my online directions. These directions were for the metro, however, and mentioned that I should switch lines and go one more block. Well, heck, I can walk a block. I left the Square going in what seemed to me to be the most logical direction. I walked past McDonald's and various shops, not seeing the street I needed to turn on. Then I happened to look left and that's when I saw it: the Acropolis. I've mentioned that I really wanted to see Athens, but really, I only wanted to see the three buildings that made up the Acropolis. It seemed to me to be a beacon, standing there on the top of the hill and lit by lights. I knew my hostel was located an extremely short distance from the Acropolis and turned towards it. I soon found myself walking down darkish, small street ways. I might have been getting just a little worried, but yet another helpful stranger led me to the right street. I found my room and met the only other person there. She was from Madrid and spoke both Spanish and English. We talked for a little bit and determined that we both wanted to go see the Acropolis in the morning.

At breakfast we added another person to our little party. He was a 22-yr old American from Memphis. I was thrilled because he was the first American I had met outside of Granada. Even better, he had just graduated with a political science major and had taken the Athens tour with someone working on his PhD in anthropology. He was a veritable fount of information on not only the buildings but the people who had built them.

The ruins are interesting, but I have to admit to being more than a little disappointed that the Parthenon is under construction. I understand that, of course, such a building should be preserved but it simply lacked its stark power with metal scaffolding sticking out everywhere.

Afterwards we ate a lunch of chicken souvlaki and returned to the hostel. Kim's plane was scheduled to be landing within the hour and I wanted to be around when she got there. The Memphis guy suggested a quick trip to a bookstore and I agreed because I adore bookstores. The bookstore was huge and contained a ton of books in both Greek and English. Kim texted my Spanish friend to say that she had made it to the hostel and I left to go meet her. Three things would have made the next hour and half of my life a lot happier: a.) a cell phone so I could have directly texted Kim, b.) a grasp of the Greek language and c.) a better sense of direction. I have no idea why this is such a problem; in America I could find my way out of the middle of a dark cave, but in Europe I get turned around quicker than a spinning top. I began walking in the direction Memphis guy said. When I came to a fork in the path I chose to go right, thinking I needed to go more towards the Acropolis. I spent the next hour and fifteen minutes in a big state of lost. Several factors compounded my status. The biggest was that I was in the same area I had been lost in previously and had toured ruins in. Therefore, everything looked just familiar enough that I knew I wasn't in-the-middle-of-nowhere lost, but I couldn't recall which way to go. Another was that I was unknowingly on the wrong side of the Acropolis. I finally returned to the Square and went in a different direction. It took me eight minutes to get to my hostel. Eight minutes! By that time Kim and some other girls had gone in search of food so I waited for a bit. When we were happily reunited, Kim said they had booked tours from the hostel. I hadn't really wanted to go on the tours, desiring beaches over education. But I also wanted to spend time with Kim, so I signed up. Saturday's tour was to Nafplio and on Sunday we visited Corinth. Both places have historical importance and are simply beautiful places as they overlook the sea. I'd recommend wikipedia.org-ing them. Our guide was the one whose mom sent him the peanut butter cups. He was born in Greece but spent the last how many ever years in Ohio. He was almost 24 and spoke English like a typical frat guy so the trips were fun.

When we returned to the hostel, there was a message that the Super Bowl would be aired at midnight. We went to watch it (Super Bowl in Athens!) but it was just pre-game info. We decided not to stay for another hour until the game started. We woke up to hear the Giants had won. I dont really follow football but everyone I know was cheering for the Patriots. Oh, well...better luck next year.

On Monday, we started our day shopping. It didn't take long before we decided that we didn't really want to be shopping so we returned to the hostel to ask how to get to a nearby island. We took the metro to Piraeus and then caught a ferry to Aegina. Once there, Sam decided we should rent motorbikes. None of us had ever driven them and it was very fun to learn. We zipped around, following the gorgeous coast. Greece has very clear, blue water surrounding its coast. After a while we decided to find a place to eat, completely forgetting that Greece also follows the siesta plan and the restaurants were closed. We turned around and headed back to where we rented the bikes. That turned out to be a good plan, because two-thirds of the way there my bike ran out of gas. Our gauge was broken and we had intended to fill up, but the gas station we passed was closed for siesta. I stayed seated on our little motorbike and pushed that way. Every now and then, Kim would give a push. Luckily, none of the trip was uphill. I think that time was probably the most fun of the whole trip. It was so funny to be pushing the bike around and flying downhill just from gravity. I could see people laughing as they passed us, but hey, we were laughing too.

We eventually got the bike situation fixed and found lunch. I tried swordfish for the first time. I give that a thumbs up. It doesn't have a strong fish flavor and reminds me of the seafood version of steak.

We retuned to Athens and gathered our luggage from the hostel. The metro stops running at 11:45 pm so we decided to go to the airport at about 10 pm as we all had early 7am flights. Nine hours in an airport can only be described as mind-numbingly boring. I was left so tired that I actually feel asleep somewhere between taxiing and take-off. I woke later to find we were airborne and had been for some time. I feel asleep again and woke in time for breakfast. Even in a deep slumber, I know when it's time to eat. :)

I landed in Madrid and was immensely grateful to finally be able to communicate again. I made it to the bus station in good time and waited not so patiently for three hours. Getting on the bus was a happy moment because I knew I was headed home. Going to new places rocks hardcore, but there really isn't any place like home and for the time being, home is Granada. I missed my family's cooking and knowing where I was. Five hours later, I was finally back in Granada. I took the bus and got off two stops early. No big, because I'm familiar with this part of town even if I'm not so familiar with the bus stops.

So what did we learn from all this? Get good directions to and from places and ensure that you understand them. Maybe take one of those handy language phrase books. Remember to smile even when times get crazy because, hey, those times make for pretty awesome stories later. The coolest people you will ever meet on a temporary basis will be found at hostels. I loved how friendly and helpful every one was.

The next trip we take will be to Dublin and Galway for St. Patty's fun. I'm glad we had a sort of trial run by going to Athens. By the time I return home, I'll be a veteran traveler!

Hasta luego, amigos.

PS. I will be writing on a more frequent basis in the future so you won't have to read pages and pages at one time. Sorry about that!