March 16

This morning I woke up at a very reasonable 9:00. I took my time getting ready for the day and finally made it down to breakfast at 10:00. I am sad to say that the breakfast here is pretty dismal, just basically some sort of breakfast meat and cheese. The coffee is actually pretty good – not Nescafe! – and I had a few cups of that, before finding the super market and getting some fruit for breakfast. I also found some of my other favorites: natural peanut butter (though it is twice as expensive for half the amount as in America), soy milk, muesli, bread, and salad fixings. For some reason they hate to make change here, at least change in the form of coins. If you don’t have the right combination of bills and coins, so that all you need back are bills, the person behind the counter sighs and reluctantly hands over a couple of (precious ?) coins. I’ve even been denied a coffee when I only had a 10 euro bill and the price of the coffee was 2.50. It’s very strange.
After my shopping trip I headed back to the room. I put away my groceries in places where the maid wouldn’t easily find them as I don’t think they would be too happy to find out that I have about 3 grocery bags worth of food in one of their rooms. But, there is a fridge to store the perishable items, so I know it isn’t all that big of a deal. I had the inspiration to pack a lunch and eat it on the acropolis of the hill that flanks one side of the town. There is a medieval fort up there and I heard from others who had already climbed up there that the view is amazing. I thought bringing a lunch, a book, and a blanket would be the perfect way to spend the afternoon, and I was right. It cost 2 euro to enter the fort itself, and I didn’t bring any money with me, but I found a little place to sit and read just off to the side and spend 2 hours enjoying my lunch (peanut butter and banana sandwich and an orange), gazing out over the city and the sea, reading (Captain Corelli’s Mandolin), and getting some sun. When the clouds started to roll in around 3 o’ clock, I headed back to the hotel. Oh and, another reason I wanted to visit the acropolis’ fort was because Krentz made a comment that he’s heard that there are exactly 999 steps up to the top, but he’s lost count every time he’s tried to verify this number. Of course, I tried to count as well, but going up I lost count around 400 steps. On the way back down, however, I was determined to come up with a number and focused very hard. I may have slipped up by a number or two, but I came up with 888 steps. When I told Krentz the number I reached, he said he wasn’t surprised that it was less than 1000, and thought it would be even lower than 888.
The rest of the afternoon went quickly, but I didn’t do much besides read and relax, which hey, is a pretty great way to spend the afternoon. I went out to dinner (yes, I actually went out) with Allie, Caroline, Emily, and Louisa at this little tavern close to the water. This town is full of restaurants and cute little shops. There are plenty of places to walk and I am looking forward to the outings I will have while here.
I’m back in the hotel now, and taking advantage of the free internet in the lobby. Several other people are in the lobby as well, so the internet is slow, but the most important thing is that it’s free, so I will wait without complaint. It’s bed time soon. We leave tomorrow at 8:30, but this time it will be cereal for breakfast in the room, instead of oatmeal in the kitchen. I’ll still go down around 8:00 and down a few cups of coffee as fuel for the morning. Bus rides always make me tired, and I need to combat the drowsiness as best I can.