Brendan Doms

I had intended to go out of Athens with a bang, but a lot of the people I was planning on partying with somehow didn’t make it to the bar. Oh well. So it ended up being a chill night filled with lots of conversation. The highlights include two hilarious brothers and their friend, all from Manchester, who I had accompanied to the Archeological Museum a few days earlier. I’m hopefully going to be hanging out with them when I get to England in a month. Then there was Alex, who does computer science stuff and is moving to Seattle at the end of his trip - somebody I could totally see myself being really good friends with. And there was Honor, an extremely eccentric Torontonian. And finally Bailey, a girl from MA I had met on my first night. We talked for a long time about the literary merits of The Outsiders (I am not a fan, if you didn’t know). That’s not all what you might expect from the bar in a basement of a hostel in Athens.

But my nights of Mythos (the local beer) and ouzo are over. Greece sure has been fun, and I’ve met some awesome people at this hostel, but I guess it’s time to move on. To Italy!

World War II antiques at the flea market in Athens. I sort of can’t believe that this stuff is real - but most of it looked and felt authentic.

Today I really didn’t feel like taking a bus 3 hours, seeing a musem and some ruins, and then taking the bus 3 hours back, so I decided to nix Delphi, and went shopping in the popular Monastiraki district here in Athens. It easily puts Union Square in San Francisco to shame. It is the most pedestrain-friendly shopping district I’ve ever been to. You can easily walk for miles and not have to cross a single lane of traffic.

The stores mostly consisted of women’s shoe and clothing stores, but there was also a decent amount of flea market style shopping. The craziest thing I noticed was that there was a lot of World War I and II relics available. I was shown gas masks, helmets, guns, knives, cantines - even empty mortar casings. I was interested in just picking up some medals for a friend or two who are huge WWII buffs, but the prices I was quoted were outrageous! Over 100 euros for a little piece of metal from the 40’s. And I couldn’t haggle any of them down. It’s a collector’s paradise - if you have money.

The town of Naousa on Paros. The islands sort of reminded me of Greece’s version of Martha’s Vineyard.

Going to the Greek islands has been my biggest adventure so far. Murphy’s Law was in full effect. First, Canada and I (yes, that’s how I refer to her) missed the train going down to the port. Once we finally got there, we waited for a really long time before the ferry departed late, and then we got off at the first stop the boat made. Since it had already been like 4 hours, we assumed it was our destination, Paros. But it was in fact a different island, Syros. A fact we realized 15 minutes later as the dockworkers threw off the lines. So we ran, and jumped across water onto the gangplank as they were pulling it up. Turns out we had another 2 hours of rocking the ship to go.

The island of Paros itself was very nice: really clean, full of friendly people, and it has some of the best beaches I’ve ever seen. Suffice it to say, I’m now sporting the first sunburn of my trip.

That said, I think that Cyprus was a great substitute for hopping around the Greek islands. For one, it’s a lot faster to get to since it has an airport, whereas the islands are only accessible by unbearably slow ferries. Not my favorite method of travel.

Sunset at the beach in Athens.

Me in front of the Parthenon. Yeah that’s right. The Parthenon.

Vegetarianism is a fad that never made it to Greece.

It’s true.

Graffiti. Thank you, Athens, for reminding me of this vital piece of urban culture. Turns out I kind of missed it.

Taking the subway from the airport into Athens felt like a homecoming for me. While Egypt was a totally unique culture-shock experience and Cyprus really felt like being on vacation, Greece is a modern Western country, and I couldn’t be happier to be here. The place I’m staying at, “Hostel Aphrodite” (or the “Mighty Aphrodite” to its fans) is the first place I’ve stayed that actually feels like a hostel. And for once, I’m the oldest person in the room, not the youngest.

I’ve already met a lot of really cool people here. Too many to enumerate, though I desperately want to just so I don’t forget any of them. Hannah, the Australian bartender here at the hostel, is by herself a reason to visit Athens.

I spent yesterday seeing the sites around the acropolis with Manuelita, a sweet Argentinian still working on her English. We went to the beach afterwards, and I got the chance to go swimming in the sea during a beautiful sunset.

Tonight I am spontaneously headed by ferry to an island called Paros, to experience the famed Greek island life with a Vancouverite named Melissa. She convinced me to join her after a shot of ouzo where we toasted to Joss Whedon instead of with “yamass,” the Greek for “cheers.”

Saturday I’m planning on a day trip by bus to Delphi, and maybe I can convince someone to join me for that.

On a totally separate note, I ate traditional Greek meals yesterday: mousaka (a kind of meat and potatoes pie) for lunch and a chicken-bacon kabob gyro for dinner. Yum.

And on yet another note, the only issue I’ve really run into traveling is that I use my phone for a timepiece and I haven’t been able to charge it, so I really need to buy a watch somewhere.

Larnaca - better than Miami!

Local saying.