Greece (a few millenia of history in two days)

My journey to Greece began at 9pm in the Belgrade train station where I boarded a night train for Thessaloníki. I opted to spend an extra 6 or so Euros to get a bed in a three-person cabin as opposed to the 6-bed couchette. I ended up with a Serb and a Greek guy who were about my age and pretty cool. The ride went really quick as I lay mostly unconscious on the top bunk. My sleep was really only interrupted for border control at the exit to Serbia, entrance and exit to Macedonia and entrance to Greece. The total ride to Thessaloníki was around 15 hours. I expected to stop there and spend the night (I arrived around 1pm with the time change) but it was raining pretty hard and there's not a ton of unique stuff to see there anyway (at least that's my impression - no offense to any Thessalonians out there).

So, I hung out in the train station there for a couple hours, bought a feta and tomato sandwich and then busted out my old Eurail pass for the 6-hour trip down to Athens. That train ride was ok, except that the designer of the seats must have had a crazy-shaped anatomy which he referenced strictly and accurately in designing the ergonomics of the seats.

I got into Athens and caught the subway to a hostel recommended by my guide book. I was very much looking forward to re-establishing my interhuman ties with other travelers in the hostel. This, however proved a vain desire as there was no common space in the hostel and my roommate in the half-empty (or full) four-bed dorm was a middle-aged woman from Palo Alto who slept solidly for virtually the entire time I knew her.

At night, I walked around Plaka (the area immediately below the Acropolis) and grabbed a (you guessed it) gyro for dinner. Oh, but it should be noted that the drink at this particular gyro joint came in a large paper cup with a lid and was...filled with ice! My reunification with my old friend "ice" was perhaps as fulfilling as I'd hoped my reunification with backpackers would be.

After enduring the sounds emanating from my roommate all night, I awoke the next morning and had a breakfast of cherries before heading up to the Acropolis. The Parthenon was very cool in spite of the scaffolding that enjoys prominence throughout the Acropolis. Perhaps even more interesting to me, however, was the ancient Agora (marketplace) that sits just below the Acropolis. This was the common area which was frequented by Plato, Socrates and Paul as they engaged in casual and spontaneous philosophical discussions with the Athenians of their day. It was really cool to walk where they walked. I also took a few minutes to sit on the hill where Paul taught his first Athenian convert who later became Greece's patron saint.

I spent hours wandering the Acropolis and Agora and then headed back to the hostel to plot my next move (there really isn't a ton to do in Athens aside from the Acropolis). There, I met to American ex-pat girls who were in Greece on day one of their senior trip. We talked for a while and ended up going out for drinks with a couple from Madrid. After a few expensive Cokes I decided to turn in so I could catch a ferry the next morning to Chios in the Aegean Sea near Turkey...my next destination.