Quick!! Look!! This is Athens
Last year I had every intention to go from St. Pete to Kiev and then to Athens. So when my wallet was stolen in Pete, it derailed my trip. I would make it to Greece, but Kiev would have to wait.
When I was planning my trip for this year, I decided early on that I would go to Kiev. And now I'm really glad I did!! It was a blast. I had no intention to go back to Greece. But as I was putting my map together, I asked Natasha if there was any place she might want to meet me in that part of the world. The next day she told me that she wanted to go to Greece. So here we came.
WHEN IS NATASHA GETTING THERE?
The night before my flight I had a feeling there might be a problem, and I seemed to remember that her flight came about an hour after mine. I forgot to pack her itinerary, but it was on the Internet, so I thought. Of course this all occured to me right before going to bed the night before.
I tried to get my dad to look for me - my Blackberry facilitated the communication, but he couldn't find her itinerary. So I jumped out of bed at 8am the next morning, and I ran to the closest Internet cafe. Of course I forgot to put it on my website :( I managed to dig it off my home computer, and I found out that she wasn't landing an hour after me...it was more like 15 minutes.
DID SHE MAKE HER PLANE?
Fifteen minutes after I landed, I was still in baggage. There was an electronic board there to indicate on which carousel a flight's bags would come out. I thought I would see her flight on that board, and I could meet her in baggage claim. I waited 30 minutes - no Air France flight. So I exited.
It turns out that there are two seperate baggage claim areas at this terminal, and her flight was due to come out of the other one. I checked the arrivals board, and her flight was delayed. Good thing too, because I was already late. I saw a flower stand and assembled a bouquet and ran to her exit.
175 POUNDS - UGH
Someone tell me why I need 175lbs of crap every year. I told Natasha to meet me outside if she missed me in the terminal. So every 15 minutes or so, I would walk outside to see if she was there. Then I walked back to her exit. So there I am with one pack on by back and one on my chest with a bunch of flowers in my hand circling throught the terminal every 15 minutes - for an hour!! I was sure she missed her connection.
And of course she walked right past me. I'm watching every person come out of customs, and somehow missed her. Then just as she was coming back in the terminal from outside, we saw each other. After a quick hello kiss we headed for the metro, which we caught, and within the hour we were in downtown Athens.
DAMN!! THIS CITY IS DIRTY
Athens is as dirty, loud, and ugly as I remembered it. Natasha and I popped up out of the underground about 3 blocks from our hotel, but I had no idea where it was. So we grabbed a cab and checked-in. I booked the room online, and requested a double-bed. When we got to the hotel, I was told they were out of doubles. So I tried to bribe the guy into "finding" us one. And of course there were no double beds to be found. 
We slept on two twins pushed together. Did I mention their rock-like characteristics?
The next morning we headed to the same travel agent I used last year, and booked 7 nights in the islands. We would spend 3 nights on Naxos - or Nachos as I like to call it - and 4 on Santorini.
YOU CAN'T MISS THE ANCIENT GREECE
It would have been a huge mistake for Natasha to be in Athens and miss Ancient Grece, so we rushed directly from the travel agent to Monastirakki - and back 2500 years.
We left the travel agent at 11am, and our ride to the
ferry would pick us up at 4:00pm. We moved fast. First through the ancient city center and then up the mountain. It was nice and hot - we were wearing shorts and flip-flops. So when the taxi picked us up at our hotel, we were sweaty, dirty and smelly.
We boarded our ferry, and found our seats. We would arrive in Naxos in 5 hours. And tomorow morning, after two days of travel, we were going directly to the beach.
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