We arrive in Athens and it is dirty. Dirty and busy. It’s a city filled with a medley of people who are drinking Freddo cappuccinos everywhere. Some areas were nicer than others. We sat in the center of syntagma using the free wifi to find where we’re going to sleep because it certainly won’t be on these streets of this city. We find a hostel and walk for 20minutes only to find out it is fully booked. The woman at the front told us to look at some hotels, there are plenty in the area. We check out a few hotels and they are all fully booked. We come across one hotel and there are three women standing outside, in neon tight fitting short clothing, they honestly looked like prostitutes, I look at Daniel and think this is probably not where we want to stay, I tell him not to bother asking but of course he goes to ask anyway, and the hotel was full. I guess this city has a lot to offer. We finally stumble on to this small hotel-Hotel Artemision. From the outside, the lobby and the elevator, the hotel looked pretty good and the cost for a room at the hotel was the same price we would’ve paid for a hostel, 25 euro per night. Well we get upstairs to our room and this hotel is a shit hole. The room is outdated and doesn’t look very clean, it is filled with bad artificial lighting, something resembling that of a prison. The walls were dirty and the bed soiled and dark. The pillows were stained and we had one bathroom that we shared with an entire floor- which usually is okay in a hostel because they keep the bathrooms clean. The only thing keeping us from the dirty mattress were clean sheets that didn’t even cover the whole bed! I had to use the restroom so I go to the one on our floor. There are two stalls. I go to lift the lid of one of the toilets and a fly flies out and there’s a giant turd sitting there almost touching the rim- I’m mortified. I go to the next stall and there’s shit sitting there on top of a pile of toilet paper. Do people not know how to flush? I go to another floor and find a clean toilet- but it doesn’t flush! There’s no water to flush any thing! Not only that, in Greece you are not to flush any toilet paper down the toilets, your supposed to place ALL toilet paper in a trash bin beside the toilet. So when you lift that bin you smell and see everything. I mean soiled toilet paper covered in poo, some toilet paper as yellow as a crayon and some covered in blood- yes a bit gross, but true. After this mess, we decide to go around and find something to eat. We find this huge pastry shop, everything looked so delicious! We decided to go for dessert before we ate dinner and we got two free cookies in addition to our sweets, maybe it’s because we were being so nice to the cashier and he taught us a few Greek words or maybe it was customary I don’t know but we liked it. The officer on patrol there gave us directions to an authentic Greek restaurant. It was called Neon and it was very good. Daniel ordered moussaka and I ordered a Greek salad with some artichokes ( I can’t remember the name of this dish but it was artichokes, with potatoes and carrots cooked in olive oil with lemon juice and dill, very flavorful) and a traditional Greek beer which was very aromatic. I will caution all those going to Greece- the bread is not free, it usually costs about a euro and they bring it out without you asking, if you eat it, you pay for it. However the bread goes well with traditional Greek meals to soak up the oil and absorb the wine. Traditional meals are eaten at a relaxed slow pace and wine is cheap here. We went back to the hotel to get ready to sleep, it was very hot in the room so we had to open the doors leading to the balcony. The one good thing about this hotel was the balcony and the check out time which was at 12:00 PM. We leave the hotel the next day with our backpacks and decide to explore Athens. We hopped on the metro towards acropolis. Acropolis cost 6 euros for us with our student IDs and they had a place where we could store our bags for free… What’s crazy about all of this is they don’t check for tickets at the baggage place…and then if you enter from the backside all they ask for are student IDS not tickets….so does that mean that we could’ve gotten in for free and still dropped off our luggage? I think so. After two in a half hours of exploring and walking we finished our tour and headed to the port to catch a ferry to Santorini.

Tid bit for the day: Follow the seven P’s: Proper Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance. If we properly prepared for a place to stay we would’ve had a place to stay that we had thoroughly checked out. But we tend to do things spur of the moment which doesn’t always leave us with much wiggle room. But we’re learning.

** side note: all markets and restaurants are closed on Sundays in Greece. If you need to eat a bakery is your best bet. After 5 or so they sell all their pies for 1 euro, which is a pretty good deal.

“He has said to me to go to Israel. My name is Miriam, it’s holy, and I am from Holland on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. I have nothing, no passport, no money, I get everything through gods will.” Miriam was small and blonde, she knew a lot and was on a journey of her own when we met her at the port on our way to Greece. She had confessed to crying a few days earlier for her travels have been lonely and asked if we could be her company for the ride over. We said yes. She boarded with us onto the second class deck, we sat there for a few hours talking, but she generally kept saying that she was on a pilgrimage. I was a little skeptical at first, to tell you the truth I thought she was suffering from a mental breakdown , while Daniel held open arms. The wind started to pick up and the deck became an uncomfortable place to sleep. Two other travelers came up to us and asked us where we were sleeping, and before we could answer said that they were sneaking into the airseats section inside. Miriam scoped it out and 30 minutes later we were sitting peacefully in cushioned seats with no wind and a tv to watch as we dozed off to sleep. There was absolutely no one in there at 9:00 pm around 10:30 you could see the other travelers walking in glancing around to make sure they weren’t going to get caught. To tell you the truth, I think 97% of the people that slept there didn’t reserve a seat, and no one came to check! I don’t think anyone cared.

It was morning and we just hit Igoumenitsa. Miriam had mentioned she needed a swimsuit as she was going to use that as her way to bathe herself at the beach. Having brought an extra pair, I gave it to her. She told us that she was traveling without a passport and that her only way into Jerusalem would be through Syria, it was gods will that she not take a passport for he’ll bring her protection. I think she’s very bold and has a very strong faith regardless of her family and friends believing in science more than a god. I truly wish her all the best. We arrived at our destination Patras, and there we parted ways with Miriam.

Tid bit for the day: When traveling you have no idea how much shit you can get for free, literally. You just can’t be scared. People are lazy, everywhere! Just walk in and they don’t ask, just sit, or talk to people and be very polite. It can get you a lot. Smile. And if anything happens….well, you didn’t know.