Greece!!!

The final leg of our European tour took us to Athens Greece. It took us nearly two days to get there!!! I couldn't believe it. After visiting the New Moon set, we trekked back to Rome, picked up our bags, and waited for our overnight train to Bari (the port city on the other side of the country). Mind you, most of our train rides were quite pleasant. But we must've been too spoiled cause this last train was a mess!!! Hot, sticky, nasty, and a whole lotta filthiness. I'm glad that was the last ride for us cause i don't think I would be able to do that again. LOL!

Anyhoo...we arrive in Bari around 7am, thinking we could catch a ferry soon. WRONG! The next ferry was scheduled to leave at 6pm!!! So we had to wait AGAIN! But, when we did get on the boat, it was so dang huge, we found a corner in the lounge (since we bought the cheap deck tix), and made house. The ferry ride to Patras, a city 3 hours away from Athens took about 18 hours! So, let's see:

Rome to Bari: 6 hours
Bari to Patras: 18 hours
Patras to Athens: 3 hours
Total traveling time: 27 hours!!! Not including the 12 hours of waiting.

It was quite the adventure. But worth it...cause we made it to Greece!!! Athens was not what I had expected. It was pretty dirty and dusty. But I didn't really care too much about that. All I had on my mind was....BEACH!!!! When we got in, we found a cheap hotel close to the metro station, and not too far from the Acropolis. That was cool! So much history there. But my favorite part about the whole trip was the water. Our first beach was kinda dirty cause it was a "free" beach, so the "sand" consisted of pebbles, cigarette butts, trash and dust. Lol. Kinda like a dirtier Waikiki. A whole lotta hairy old men in speedo's too. Soooo not cute. So we caught the bus a few miles down the road outside of Athens, and found a cleaner, less crowded beach. The water was so cool and refreshing, we imagined we were on the island in Mamma Mia! Hahahahaha! For realz...me and Ane sang the WHOLE soundtrack. It was pretty hilarious.

Later that day, we bussed down to Sounio, home of the ruins of Poseidon's temple, to see the most amazing sunset. It was a great way to end the day.

Being in Greece was definitely another memorable experience to add to the list. However, I just wish I had gone there first. By the time we got there I was so broke, I couldn't make it out to any of the other islands. So that is why I plan to go back and do a cruise in the Mediterranean. That seems like the best way to do it!

Now that I'm at home, and I ponder everything that I've done, I still can't believe it's over. I can't believe I actually got to experience all that I have. Goes to show that once you put your mind to it, you can make anything happen!