On my last day in Turkey I went from Izmir to Selcuk, to Ephesus, which was a beautiful ancient city, it was very nice…
I arrived on the island of Chios where I met a friendly American traveling around, we had a nice cheap dinner together, of course it was amazing Greek Slouvaki. I bought a ferry ticket to Athens and later that evening , after spending about 3 or 4 hours on the island I left. I bought a cheap ticket which doesnt really mean you have a seat. I bought a deck seat. Which are plastic chairs outside in the crisp Agean windy air, or I had the option of finding a hallway or unoccupied couch in a somewhat smoky hallway inside the ship to sleep on, which I was lucky enough to find one of these. However, the couch was too short and I woke up several times with a stiff neck or cramped legs and feet. I think the floor would have been better. So, after a terrible night of “rest” I arrived in the port of Athens at about 7:3o AM. From there I took a metro to the city center and hiked up to the Acroplolis to see the Parthenon and of course many other great sights. The experience was really cool, seeing and touching marble that had been constructed into something so beautiful so many centuries ago, it really was quite an experience seeing them.
Me on the ferry to Athens
I explored the city all day, finding things from centuries past, while I was on my way to Ancient Agora I stopped by a cafe and asked the guy if they had dolmathes, he said sure I can make you some. They were delicious. Although according to my couch surfer in Athens, he probably just got them from a can, which is okay because they were still fantastic! Unfortunately my couch surfer in Athens had to work late and was not able to meet me early, so I spent all day with my pack on looking at the monuments. I ran into an American who was speaking at a convention for nuclear physicists and we had a nice walk and talk and he showed me to the arena where the first olympics were held, it was beautiful and made of marble.
At one of the places I visited there was a museum inside the area you paid to get into. I pulled a Larry Schnell and walked in the exit of the museum, I realized later that you had to pay extra to get in. The museum was great!
The next day I went to the Acroplolis Museum, which was brand new. I went on the first day it was open to the general public. I got there fairly early too which was nice. The best thing about the museum was that it cost only 1 Euro to get in, because they were running a special promotion period for one year. 
The museum was amazing! Brand new, perfect everything it was great! They had 3 floors of stuff to see, and the first floor has a glass bottom, and you are walking over an archeological dig site, so there are ancient ruins below you and gorgeous marble statues inside the museum. They were everywhere. Oh, a quick note to all women who may potentially go to this museum… the second and third floors are glass as well and you see the first and second floors below you in some parts, so do yourself a favor and do not wear a skirt.
After visiting the museum I hopped on a bus to Trikala in the Meteora region of Greece. This area is where the monastaries are high atop the cliffs. It is a beautiful area. My couch surfer in Trikala works for a telecommunications company and is on call and was planning to go with me to hike around the monastaries, but he was called into work while we were driving up there. This was okay because he dropped me off and I hiked around fo a while. The monastaries were closed, but I got a lot of great pictures of them from the outside along the cliffs. I was expecting Mike (the Couch Surfer) to call me soon, but being that he works with computers and things of this nature, they can tend to be a bit time consuming, so no call. It was fine so I just kept walking. I could have stayed in the nice town by the mountains, but I decided to just keep walking. I figured that okay, it will be less farther he has to drive. About 3 towns and 11 miles later he called me and he found me walking along the road. He couldn’t believe how far I walked. After he picked me up, I was of course exhausted, and starving. We went back to his place for a quick shower and then headed out for dinner. He took me to a great cafe, where he of course took care of the ordering. We were two people sitting at two tables pushed together and 6 chairs, both tables were filled with food! It was amazing! It was one of the best meals I have had. It was great because there were so many differnt foods in front of me, and none of them were “mine” or “his” they were ours and so it was great, just great Im salavating just thinking about it .
The next morning he took me back up to the monastaries early enough so I could actually go in before they closed. They were beautiful. I went to Great Meteoria, it was amazing how they were able to build such a beautiful building on the top of a cliff. The inside had a few museums and displays, it was really cool. I think I pulled another Larry Schnell here, and got in for free. I saw no sign to pay, but when I went to another monastery they asked 2 euro to get in, unfortuantely it was not worth 2 euro. I continued to walk around the area until Mike picked me up again from the top of one of the mountains. I decided to go with him to his next job. Like I said he is on call for a telecom company. He is a “maintenance guy” doing all sorts of things at the base stations at the top of mountains. So, we started driving to the middle of nowhere, and he even let me drive his car for a while, I certainly miss driving, nice car too. We started up a dirt and gravel road and kept going up until we were on the top of a mountain. Once we got to the base station there were a few wild dogs up at the top, 2 were fairly cute, and the other 2 not so much, once inside the gated area he said “hey go look over there in the corner” there was a dead cow rotting against the fence. It had likely fallen down part of the bank and broke its leg, after being unable to move for several days it likely died of starvation, the skin and “meat” surrounding its head was gone, and all that was left was the skull. It was pretty nasty looking.
I learned a bit more about telecommunications, which was really cool because it applied to what I studied at UNR, and I got to help him work on telecom equiptment on a mountain in Greece while the dead cow rotted away. The stench from the cow was terrible, the entire top of the mountain smelled terrible. Unfortunately the air conditioning vent in the equiptment room was taking in the awful smell and there was no escaping how awful it smelled. The dogs were busy tearing apart the cow, which opened up new pockets of abhorring stench. While working with computer equiptment in a tiny smelly room, obviously something is going to go wrong with the electronics and it did, forcing us to stay longer in the smelly room. Once we were done, we ran out of there and got in the car, while the dogs chased us down the mountain. Because the dogs were A. Stray and B. eating a smelly cow they brought the stench with them. We were yelling at the dogs and driving fast down the dirt road hoping we could evade them and the stench but no such luck, at least for a while, when Mike got out and chased them with a squirt gun.
On the way down the mountain he called and ordered food at a small cafe he knew of in a small village. The food was ready when we arrived, and again we had fablious Greek food, a lot of food. It was amazing, the meat (beef was actually sheep and cow in a patty, among other things, the lamb chops were very fresh. Amazing food! The Greek salad is amazing too, very simple, but unlike the Greek salads served at resturants in America, I would say the closest thing to them is the one my mom makes . (and I aint just sayin that cuz shes my mom).
Falling asleep on the car ride home we got back well past midnight and I slept for a good 10 hours that night. Woke up had some Spanikopeta, and ran out the door and caught the train for Thessalonaki where I am now staying with another couch surfer. It is pouring rain and I just got back from seeing a play with his cousin and her friends. I couldn’t understand any of it, and like I said, “its all Greek to me”…
PS: my host is playing miserlou on his guitar right now…
