06 July 2009

Athe-kos

Grant, Me, Kris on our bunkbeds at the Aphrodite Hostel.
Kristin, Me, Grant, Anna downing our ORANGE JUICE shots. See below.

Kristin and I on the balcony of our flat in Athens. It's so hot in Athens and no one has air conditioning, so they just go out on their balconies to cool off in the evening.

Our third day on Mykonos morphed into our first day in Athens as we collapsed into somnolency on the ferry. Our skin was pillaged, our eyes demoralized, and our hearts so inflated with adventure they beat through our shirts like the pistons in a Porshe. We left Mykonos as one might casually place Huckleberry Finn- a classic in so many ways- back on the bookshelf until time has passed and breath has been caught. Our dreams turned to Athens and the two days that lay ahead for ancient discoveries and more gyros (we were very hungry on the ferry).
We arrived in Piraeus, the Athenian port, and after a 45 minutes subway excusrion we popped above ground like gophers and headed for Mikhael Voda Street. When we arrived at the Aphrodite Hostel it was a paradise more to our liking. The Hostel was perfect in every way: an English speaking receptionist, a hand-crank elevator, computers with internet, a bar offering free shots for all newcomers, a private room with bunkbeds, inspirational notes written under the bunkbeds, not so inspirational notes written under the bunkbeds, showers with lights in them, air conditioning, and a balcony! For the first time in four nights I looked forward to going to bed. The bunkbeads were incredible sturdy; we know because we practiced our syncronized flips off of them. We have two great doubles routines going. Not only were the Hostel and rooms great, but we found a gyro stand and a bakery within incredible propinquity to Hostel Aphrodite; we promptly declared the gyro stand homebase.
Arriving at the bar later that night, we were greeted by a cheerful bartender who asked us if we were ready for our shots. We wished she was referring to malaria vaccinations, which we would have welcomed with open arms (pun intended), but alas, she was offering us alcohol, and a very small bit of alcohol at that. We had a committee meeting and the Temptation Reduction Chairwoman, who had done such a magnificent job on Mykonos, prouldy told the bartender that none of us were interested in picking up booze in Athens. Instead, she offered us orange juice. I think my OJ had pulp in it, but it's hard to tell when there's only room for one piece of peel in your shot glass. Was it there by accident? Was it pulp?
The accommodations at the Hostel Aphrodite were wonderful, and for the first time in all my experiences in Greece, I got a full and healthy night of sawing logs.

2 comments:

siovhan said...

you make me so happy.
and you write so well!
i'm still jealous of your adventures.

Jessica said...

I'm glad you had fun in Athens! I would've loved to come to that hostel after the one in Mykonos. I'm also happy you ate lots of gyros, but I'm sad I didn't have any while I was in Europe! Those are pretty good.