Eurotrip - Featuring The Heff

Hellooooo!

The next stop saw us arrive in Athens, capital of Greece. About an hour out of Athens we stopped at a place for dinner. On occasions we have to buy our own dinner, and this was one of those. The only food we could find at this bus stop was a place called Goody’s. Now despite what the name may suggest, do not be misinformed. It was a strange set-up for a fast food joint. On the outside, and even the inside, everything looked like McDonalds, and that was precisely what I was expecting. When hit with the menu, we were slapped in the face with the palm of confusion. From the club sandwich, chicken burger and onion rings, to the more surprising mixed grill, salad bar and beer tap, no-one was sure whether this really was a fast food joint or a restaurant. Regardless of how much range they had, everything was shit, except the coke and beer. My mixed grill included three pieces of ‘meat’. I know one of these was supposed to be chicken, but the other two are still a mystery to me. Andy had a club sandwich that appeared to taste of nothing at all, but still managed to retain the texture of a sandwich. I hear that’s all it had going for it. Ben discovered that our chips were hollow, so all we were really eating were pieces of batter. In the end, the moral of the story is don’t go anywhere near Goody’s, because they’re actually Baddy’s.

Our campsite had a pretty strict rule against noise, so the entire time spent in the campsite was almost a fun-ban. It did have free WIFI though, and due to the no noise rule, I gave me a good chance to sit down and write some e-mails. It’s not often the opportunity comes around.

Early in the morning we set off to see the city of Athens, starting off with a guided tour of the Acropolis. Benjamin and myself are bloody hopeless tourists. I thought it was a city and Ben only knew that the word that existed. For me, the only interesting part was listening to the mythology behind it all. It was fascinating, and I’m tempted to delve further into the topic. I do wish I’d been interested in it all before I came to Greece. The structures themselves proved to be awesome to look at too. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it already, but about 90% of the buildings and structures we’ve seen are half covered in scaffolding. It seems that Europe as a whole decided to start maintenance and re-construction of their historic and cool buildings at the same time. The Acropolis was no different I’m afraid. Looking out over the mountain the Acropolis is situated on gives a full panoramic view of Athens. At this point you realise how much the Greeks love their architecture. Every house looks the bloody same, with the same coloured bloody roof and the same bloody courtyard.

Our tour guide then got on our coach and with Dave, our Czech coach driver, took us through Athens on a broader tour of the city. It was interesting to see the damage caused by the riots. Every bank and ATM had been attacked somehow, either with paint, rocks or fire. Half of the ATMs around the city had been smashed into and were out of order. Judging by the tone of our guides voice, I think it’s safe to say that the general public of Athens were not happy with the whole situation. She seemed to be very upset about the bank that was alit, killing (I don’t know numbers) many people. Thankfully the riots were well and truly over when we were there.

After a big morning of walking and sight-seeing, the tour split up into mini groups (Everyday we get to join a different group) and we decided that we needed some giros. Our last experience with giros left me needing more, it’s bloody good stuff, and is the kind of food that would make a drunk chap very happy at the end of a night. After roaming through the many streets and visiting the flea market, we checked out the Parliament House. In front of the house are two guards that stand perfectly still for an hour. Every hour on the hour, the guards are changed. When I say these fellows stand still, they stand still. We managed to see the change over as we arrived at exactly 3:00, and it looks ridiculous. Whoever decided on the way they march must have been a prankster.

In an electrical store similar to JB hi-fi, there was a massive computer section. I needed something to backup all my stuff on, and so I decided on a portable hard-drive. I figure 320GB should keep me out of trouble. What made me happy was that all the demo computers around the store had internet. This makes it possible to walk into the store, use their free internet for an hour and walk out again, no questions asked, and bloody oath that’s what a large majority of us done. Everyone checked their facebook, e-mails and bank accounts and bought nothing.

Ben, myself and Andy all decided to buy hard drives so we could get everyone’s photos after the trip. We located the cheapest 320GB hard drives we could find, and found that 59.95 was the cheapest we could get away with. After much contemplation over which colour we were to get, Ben and I settled on black, and because Andy wanted to be different, he went with white. Before walking to the desk to pay for it, Amanda (A music/anime/wine loving girl on the tour) noticed that Andy had picked up a 500GB hard drive by accident. After checking the price tag and seeing it was still 59.95, we had to go and check the rest. For some reason, the black, pink and purple 500GB hard drives were 89.95 Euro, but the white one’s were the same price as the 320GB’s. We knew it was a mistake, but we tried our luck anyway. Andy and Ben paid and got through fine with their big bastards, but I managed to get in a line with some old bird who looked like she hated me since she first saw me. She picked up on the problem, so I had to walk out with my measly 320GB white hard drive which I paid the same price as the other two. Bastards.

All in all, Athens was a great place to just walk around and look at stuff. Most Greek people are more than happy to help, and although most of them (especially the older crowd) can’t understand us, everyone knows what each other is trying to say. A good example is a restaurant. The owner understands that you’re loving their food, and you understand that they want you to enjoy yourself - and then pay.

This morning we picked up 14 new people, mostly Canadians and Australians, with the odd Kiwi dispersed. Again, they all seem like friendly people, and I don’t think it will take them long to gel with the group. It’s going to suck learning new names again though. Leaving two of our campers behind this morning was pretty tough though. Because they were only on the 22 day camper, we leave them in Athens, and the new people are on a 24 day camper, who will now stay with us for the rest of the journey.

About three hours after leaving the campsite, we arrived at our first pit stop where we usually have a feed, a stretch and use the W.C (Water Closet, or a toilet as it’s known at home). At this point a rather large realisation dawned on me. Yesterday I had a plastic bag full of all my important stuff, like phone, wallet and my new hard drive. It was also half full of rubbish, so this morning I pulled out all the important stuff and shoved some more rubbish in there and threw it in the bin. After going through an extensive search through my day pack, and backpack with no sign of wallet, I’m beginning to think that my wallet was not sufficiently taken out of that plastic bag and may therefore be well on the way to the dump. We’ve rang the campsite and asked them to stick their heads into the bins to have a look. A phone call came, and a wallet was found, unfortunately for me, it wasn’t mine. I’ve ruled out every possibility bar two. Either my wallet is in that bin, which I’m almost 95% sure of or it’s in my tent somewhere. I’m hoping for the latter.

With that, I’ll leave you all.

Bye!

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Luckily for me, 5% is still a possibility. As soon as we arrived at the campsite yesterday, I ran straight to the luggage compartment and threw out my tent. After ripping into it and feeling a little square lump, I thought it almost too good to be true, but it was there. It was a beautiful moment, and I’ve never felt such a wave of relief in my life. Apart from that, there wasn’t really anything else to report on from Kavala. The place was a hole and was only used as a stop-over. To me, it didn’t exactly seem like a touristy sort of place. Every child watched with intensity as we walked past in search of cheap nasty wine and no-one spoke a word of English. At the only ATM in the city, we managed to have a 10 minute conversation with three old Greek chaps, with no words actually understood throughout the entirety.