My week began very slow and ramped up as it went. The beginning of the week involved work and then back to the flat which was quite uneventful. The most entertaining aspect was learning that my friend BT had set up a London online dating site in my name. Maybe I will try it out at some point… =)
On Thursday, BT continued our London theatre experience with Billy Elliot. We ended up going the inexpensive route for a night out at the theatre, beginning with a £2 meal deal and a couple of drinks. I loved the show but I must admit that I was a little surprised with the scene where little boys are dancing around in women’s dresses and putting on lipstick =)
Friday I also stayed in to pack for Greece. My manager and I were flying out Saturday to have a couple of tourist days prior to starting our client work on Monday. I was so excited for the trip that I couldn’t even sleep! Saturday morning came quickly and we flew from London’s cold overcast skies to Athens 90 degrees blue skies. We took a taxi from the airport to our hostel, which happened to be in the middle of some of the narrowest streets I have seen in my life, with small cars parked bumper to bumper. The taxi driver missed our turn and instead of turning around to come back down a one way street, he decided to flip the taxi in reverse going ass-backwards up a oneway street where the mirrors practically touched the cars on either side. Well done though, because we made it to our hostel without a scratch. As we were checking in, I said to the receptionist guy that we need to divide the price by two, because my manager and I were splitting the room. He grabbed his head on either side and said in the most anxious crazy voice, “I am an ART major not a MATH person! I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT!” We literally had to slowly calm him down and convince him that we would figure it out. Didn’t the Greeks practically invent mathematics? Wow, crazy!
We spent the rest of the day walking around the area, which was right next to the Acropolis and the Plaka. We walked all around looking for the Plaka (an area filled with shops and restaurants), but couldn’t seem to find it. We ended up walking in the opposite direction and came to find out that we had been walking around the Plaka outside of our Hostel and just didn’t know it. Saturday night, we went on an expedition to find a bar that the bartender at our hostel recommended. He warned us as we left, “Don’t show the taxi driver the paper that I wrote the name on, and only pay 5 to 10 euros!” A great warning, because the taxi driver dropped us off at a random block after I mentioned that we were only going to pay what our “guide” had told us. He probably would have driven us somewhere very far and left us after paying three times more. In the end we found the bar by asking at the little street vendors who would try to give us directions in very poor English or just by pointing. We danced the night away and returned home safely to wake up early and hike up the Acropolis.
The Acropolis was extremely impressive and had a spectacular view of all of Athens. Apparently some of the columns had been reconstructed in the wrong place so now they are trying to rebuild parts based on historical information. .. ooops =) We also went to the Acropolis Museum to see the current statues and other sculptures that had been recovered from the site. The entire museum was built on ruins so clear flooring had been installed in some areas so you could see the remains of the columns that had been there hundreds of years ago.
Today, work started at about 10am after the client picked us up at our hotel. Traffic was extremely bad due to a truckers strike going on. (What is it with Europeans liking to strike?) Around lunch time, as we are discussing the current financial controls in place, there is a loud trucker horn that starts repeating in beats. Interesting… Next thing we know, it sounded like every trucker in the city was laying on the horn. It was an hard keeping a straight face at first because I thought it was so entertaining, but after about an hour, it started to get a little annoying. =) We ended our trip and evening at the top of the Hilton Athens at Galaxy Bar with a glass of a Greek dessert wine. The view of Athens and the Acropolis was spectacular!
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