Well... I made it to Athens with no excitement. Believe it or not but the ferry from Iraklio to Pireaus was actually on time - the one time I really would've rather it be late. Arriving at 5:30am is never ideal. But I found a friendly Greek to help me get into the city and I found a really great hostel in the Plaka district - right under the Acropolis!
At the hostel I relaxed for a few hours talking to the others in the courtyard - other Americans believe it or not - before we all decided to check out the Acropolis. Really neat! But I must admit I liked the Mystras ruins better... Such a traitor to tradition :) But I had fun wandering around Athens trying to check out the rest of the classic Greek and Roman ruins. This sounds like it should be easy but it's not. Aside from the Acropolis the other ruins don't see many tourists. So while you know where it is on the map, the entrance could be anywhere. And it can take a long time to walk around an entire site. I never did get into the Olympian Zeus temple - but I did see it from outside the gate from all angles!
Everyone I talked to says Athens is a horrible city but I really enjoyed my stay there. Even when I got out of the Plaka district (Plaka's the nice, old part of the city) I had a lot of fun just wandering. I do wish I would've been able to get into the archaeological museum though - the rumors were confirmed. The museum's closed until the Olympics for renovations. Oh well - that just means I'll have to come back!
I did have an adventure trying to leave Greece. I planned to take the train from Athens to Patras and then catch the ferry to Bari and then another train to Rome. Well... The train from Athens to Patras left about an hour late and went so slow that we lost another half hour on the way. Normally I wouldn't care at all. Except this time I only had a 2hr leeway in there. So I was really worried I'd miss the ferry into Bari. And I wasn't sure I would be able to get into Rome for my flight on Wednesday without this ferryride. But luckily I made it with about 15min to spare! Running with a backpack isn't much fun let me tell you... The ferry ride was uneventful. Really like the Minoan line though - we had a nice pool, bar, disco, casino, restaurant, etc to entertain us. Made the 18hr ferry ride easier to take. Sleeping on the deck this time wasn't quite so bad. It did rain (must always be raining on the Adriatic) but not too much and I was under some cover this time. So now I'm hanging out in Bari with nothing really to do. The early trains to Rome were booked so I'm on the 16:15 one (arrived in Bari at 8:00). And it's started raining. Looks like I'll be heading to the train station soon in search of cover. Oh well - at least I'll get into Rome with plenty of time before my flight!
That's all folks! Looks like my travelling days are over for awhile. Next on the agenda is to get back to MN, hang out for a couple weeks (gotta get a certificate of entry to the UK in this time - they changed the law on me!!!) before moving to Edinburgh around Sept 27. I'm really excited to start Uni again - should be a lot of fun.