To make it to the airport with plenty of time, we left the hotel at 7 this morning. I didn’t end up going to bed as early as I would have liked, but hey, I’m young, right?
Last night, my charger to my laptop died. I’m not sure why, but the light wouldn’t turn on anymore and my computer’s battery is shot, so it basically won’t function unless it is plugged into the wall. I tried to find a charger at the airport with little success. I had high hopes for Athens, however, as it is a big city and also a university city. We landed in Athens and got through customs without any problems.I am going to Santorini for Spring break, but before we leave the mainland, we will be spending two nights in Athens with Caroline as the ferry doesn’t run on the weekends. At this point, we were technically on Spring Break, but as we were still en route with Krentz (he is spending his break in Athens), it didn’t really feel like we were on our own yet. But, it was nice having him help us figure out the public transportation. Because of construction the metro around the airport was closed, so we had to hop on a bus and then get on the metro. When we got off at the right station, just the three of us, we felt it. Spring Break! A full week off!
We found our hostel just fine and checked in. We were staying in a four person room, but lucky for us, the fourth girl never showed up, so we had the room to ourselves. The room consisted of 2 bunks bed and a bathroom, but we really didn’t need more than that. Krentz had told us to pack towels, and up to this point I was irked that I had, but this hostel didn’t provide any towels, only bedding. So, in the end, kudos to Krentz.
The first thing I wanted to do was find a charger. I talked to the guy at the front desk and he marked out the electronics store section of town on a map. He wasn’t optimistic about my chances, saying the best could hope for was a generic brand. The hostel had experienced a similar problem to mine and purchased a very testy generic charger. I decided I wasn’t going to give up hope until I head exhausted all my options. Caroline and Allie just wanted to rest for a bit, so map in hand, I headed out into Athens. After trying 4 different stores, I found a pc specialty store. I was directed to the service department and by golly, the man behind the counter had a brand new, updated version of the dell charger for my model. And it was cheaper than the price the hostel desk guy offered as a typical price! I was so pumped! I had brought my laptop with me to make sure it worked and I almost cried when it turned on. All I had been getting when I tried to turn it on was a scary red light where my battery indicator is.
Jumping for joy (I literally pumped my fists into the air when I got to the street), I headed back to the hostel. We set out for a late lunch at this promising restaurant I passed while on my charger hunt. We were all very pleased with our meals.
After lunch we wanted to go stroll around the city a bit. The fortified side of the acropolis wasn’t far, so we headed down one street and walked till we hit it. On the way we passed a few clothing shops, including an H and M, where I purchased cheap, but much need pair of lounging around pants. So far I have only had my pj pants to wear around the hotel room, and then change if I needed to go to the lobby for some reason. But now, I can just throw these on and they are much more appropriate to wear outside the room. But after a bit of shopping, we headed to the back side of the acropolis and took some great pictures of Athens. We passed though a neighborhood and the traditional little passageways are so narrow that if the windows had been open we could have reached through opposite windows with one arm extended through each.
We stopped by a grocery store on the way back to the hostel and grabbed a few things for a light dinner. I grabbed a box of muesli, an orange, 2 bananas, and some yogurt. When we got back to the room, I realized that I forgot to purchase some plastics spoons. Allie had also forgotten this necessary instrument, but we made do by fashioning spoons out of the cardboard packaging. The only problem was that these “spoons” only lasted about 7 mouthfulls as they quickly became soggy. We went through about 5 or 6 in the process. The whole experience was extremely amusing.
As there was no fridge in the room, I set the third yogurt container on the balcony outside. The temperature gets pretty cool at night, and I have been using windows and balconies at backup fridges whenever I have purchased yogurt and not had a fridge (I think it’s been about 5 times so far).
At this point, we were exhausted from the day and went to bed early. I’m pretty sure I fell asleep mid conversation.
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