ATHENS!! So I'm skipping ahead to now, if I can I'll recap Lisbon and Merida asap! right now I have about 45 minutes until we have to leave to catch a bus to Delphi, center of the ancient world! We missed the 5:30 bus... that may have been my fault... we took the wrong bus and ended up at the wrong bus terminal... oops. But there's another at 8 we can take. We'll get there later than we wanted tonight but thats ok.

I got here about 2 am on Thursday, I left Caceres at noon (made it to the bus stop without having to sprint.. unlike Lisbon) and made it to from the bus stop in Madrid all the way through security in the airport in an hour twenty minutes!! I met a girl from Wales on the bus so we talked in English over the person between us. She's studying in Caceres too, just going home for break.

On the plane I met a couple of university students from Sevilla, they're here on vacation too. When the plane landed at 11 we took the bus in to Athens together, and we found out the Metro was closed together too! So we found our way through Athens together to our hostels.

Along the way we met a group of (loud... so definitely American) girls that were from, where else??, the U of Iowa too. They were headed off to an island too -- seems like everyone is.

On Thursday I went to Sounion -- Posiden's temple at the southern tip of Greece where there's supposedly the worlds best sunset. Which I could have seen if the last bus hadn't been at 7 pm... and the temple looked cool , but there was a strike so I didn't get to go because there was no one working the gate. Went to the beach, the water was COLD but not 'Lake of the Ozarks in March' cold so I was ok. Sunscreen was applied and I'm proud to say im not fried!!

And I didn't even get a postcard because I used my change to buy a banana and the toursit shop guy refused to break a twenty!

I miss my siesta! I slept all the way back, and everyday about 4 I get pretty tired...

On Friday I got up and went to the Cycladic Art museum, where I got a horrible look and some harsh words said in Greek when he broke the twenty. Greek = the worst language ever. Maybe not that bad but I have NO idea what anything means. At least with Spanish, French, Portuguese we use the same alphabet.

At noon on Friday Michelle got here-- there was a little confusion with the protestors and the bus not being able to stop where I went to find her, but it worked out ok. We decided not to go to Olympus-- a bummer but we wouldn't have time to get all the way up to the top so we decided not to. She and I went to a closed museum... (thanks again to the service industry's strike) so we hiked up this huge mountain in the middle of the city that is supposedly a rock Athena dropped while building her temple. On the way up we stopped at a Greek Orthodox church, which was extremely ornate; we walked in during their Mass, but someone explained it all to us so it was a really cool experience. Michelle is fearless! She walked up to someone and asked if they could explain to us what was going on, which they gladly did.

At the top there was a restaurant, as we hoped, but we would have had to work in the kitchen in order to pay for a glass of water there so we snapped a few pictures and walked back down. We stopped at a little store on the way-- my favorite way to eat, grabbing some fruit or a sandwich at a small shop-- where the owner didn't speak ANY English. He let us try some olives that were soaking in something Greek... we thanked him for that, but didn't get any of them. They had a strong vinegar taste, very strong. We got some fruit, Michelle acted like she understood while he rambled on and on to us in Greek which just made me laugh.

After that we grabbed a box of cookies and our coats and walked up to the Acropolis, which was closed of course, but it was just dusk so we climbed up on a big rock next to it to hang out and snap some pictures. A group of highschool kids from the states climbed over the rocks and thought they had stumbled into the middle of something, so we had a group of 15 students all apologizing for 'ruining the moment for us' -- even though there was about 2 feet between Michelle and I on the rock, and I didn't think she was putting the moves on me!

After that we walked down to a little restaurant to grab a bite and listen to some live Greek music. There was a group of student-aged locals there doing this dance on the dance floor in front of everyone and Michelle and I (with NO hesitation) went up and joined in. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) there are no pictures of this, only memories, and a waiter who thought we dined and dashed on him.

We did a little more wandering - Monica didn't get in until after midnight, so we had time to kill - and saw the Agora market at night. It got a little chilly so we went to this outdoor patio with space heaters and got dessert. Yogurt with honey and walnuts, it was fantastic! Monica got there with out any problems, and we Metroed back to the hostel for the night.