Athens...a phenomenal city

Sooo...where to start. Yes...we got a late start yesterday. A little jet lagged still, we slept in and then got ready for a big day of sightseeing. Well we show up at the first place, the Ancient Agora, all excited about what we are about to see. Well, Greeks apparently still consider this the winter season and all sites close down by 3 in the winter season (Rick Steve's failed to mention that in the book)! So we had about...45 minutes to sight see. We did the best we could... Brandon said, "How will they be able to kick us out? This place is huge..." Well...sure enough, 1/2 hour later there were like 20 people yelling at us from all angles that they were closed and we needed to get the hell out! (Well, they probably didn't use those EXACT words:) We were appalled! It was 3 in the afternoon! What the hell were we going to do with the rest of the afternoon? We couldn't figure out if Greeks closed up shop for an afternoon siesta and opened things again later, but everywhere we proceeded to go after that, places were shutting down! What do they do? When do they work? We went to a museum...closed. We went to the market...shutting down. So we ate some food and took a little siesta ourselves...I mean they really don't leave you much of a choice. I think we are the only people who have ever visited Athens and not been to the Acropolis! It's like sacreligious! Oh well...not much we can do about it now...we are heading to Santorini in about 1/2 and hour. Hopefully we can see it on the way back:(

Last night, however, was great! Athens by night is much different than Athens by day. Some parts of the city look very dirty, with graffiti everywhere. But by night...all the store fronts open up, there's outdoor seating everywhere and it's a whole new ballgame! It was great! We ate dinner with some friends we met at the hostel (2 guys from Australia, and a guy from California currently working and living in Romania). Dinner was good and then we headed to a few bars. We soon found out that drinks are rather expensive...$8 for a Heineken...but ouzo (Greeks love ouzo) is rather cheap...$2 a glass. Ouzo it was! It tastes like black licorice and is rather strong...but oh well...we made do. We tried a few places and finally ended up at a real Greek hang out. They were playing Greek music and dancing...well Greek I guess. It was sooo fun! They pulled us into their circle and we danced with them....it was great! Top experience of the night. They were very nice and we had a great time. We finished the night at about 4 am. Yes! 4 am! I can't tell you the last time I was up that late. But I guess when you don't eat til 11 and the bars don't get going til 1, that's normal. We had a gyro and called it a night. It was fabulous!

A little tired today but off to Santorini! I will write asap. Love you all!