from everything we were told about athens, mike and i both expected athens to be a really polluted, dirty city. it wasnt as polluted as i expected, but it definitely would not qualify as an attractive city.

our hostel, athens backpackers, was located right next to the acropolis metro stop and was walking distance to all of the sights and cool parts of town. the hostel had a roof top bar, and it was so cool to be up there at night because you had an awesome view of the acropolis and parthenon all lit up.

our first day in athens we were pretty tired so we did not do a whole lot. we did go to the national archaelogical museum, which had some artifacts that were incredibly old, like 500 bc. after that we walked around a little bit more, and went to dinner in a part of town called plaka. up until we got to plaka i thought athens was kind of a dump, but plaka had nice restaurants and was alot more clean and colorful than the rest of the city. the highlight of the first day occured after dinner and may have been the funniest moment in our trip so far. so after dinner we came back to our 12 person room, and we were the only ones back in the room. mike decided to go down to the loby and get a bottle of water, and in that time two of our roommates, these two nice south african girls that we had met and chatted with earlier in the day came back to the room to crash for the night. at the time mike came back to the room one of the girls was in the bathroom and the other was sitting in her bed on the other side of the room. mike walks into the room toward our bunk, doesnt see or notice the girls, and just blasts his loudest fart of the trip. mike sees my face and just freezes, like the face of someone who s*** their pants but doesnt want to say anything to draw attention. i break out laughing, and the girl in her bed waited a few seconds because she didnt know what to do, and then started laughing so hard she started crying. the girl in the bathroom then started laughing to. it was so loud she heard it from the bathroom with the door closed and the sink running. i havent laughed that hard in awhile.

despite mike gassing out or room the night before, these two girls wanted to come sightseeing with us in the mourning. we first went to the acropolis and bout a ticket that allows you unlimited access to the acropolis and 4 other museums for 48 hours. it was one of the first times we had successfully gotten a discount on a museum pass. usually we tell the cashier that we are students, and then they tell us there is not a student discount even though there is a sign that says there is a student discount. then we have also tried to get the unemployed discount, but that hasnt worked even though it is actually true. anyway, the acropolis was pretty amazing even though there were several cranes around it doing some sort of restoration. it gave us an amazing view of the city. the other museums and sights were cool as well, but really were nothing compared to rome. nothing seemd as well preserved or as well presented.

i gotta go before my internet runs out. yamas