Athens, Greece - Day 1

Well... the traveling was anything but over!  We got extremely lucky in finding an incredible cab driver, which we now claim we owe for our lives.  After casually strapping our bags into the trunk of his mercedes, he took off for town, giving us a small guided tour of the rather slummy surroundings.  He explained that the heart of Athens lies just behind the mountain, which is visible from the airport, and even stopped on the side of the road to give us a look at the 2004 olympic stadium!  He told us of his family, his offer to move to the US to pursue a music career in a Greek restaurant in New York and even showed us book of signatures from his clients, one of which was from Louis Vuitton, who he says is a friend and calls for taxi service any time he is in Athens instead of using limousines.  Anyway, the excitement occurred once we showed him the address of our hotel, Soho.  We chose the hotel from hostelbookers.com a relatively trustworthy site, that offered tons of decent reviews on the hotel, many of which mentioned the sketchy location, but downplayed the flaw.  He gasped when he saw the address and said there is no way we should stay there and asked if we could cancel.  Being unsure of the policy, we asked to go to the hotel and decide for ourselves.  The area, Manandrou, was just as he explained, full of vagrants, immigrants, police, "bastards and black prostitutes".  Lauren and I went into the reception to handle the cancellation while Dan stayed with the driver to protect our exposed luggage from the thieves - some of which they saw openly shooting up drugs!!  We were able to cancel and Demetrius, the driver, took us to another hotel, The Jason Inn Hotel, where he has taken other people in a similar predicament.  This hotel was nearly twice the price, but way better in terms of location, views and amenities.  Plus, they gave us a deal on the rate due to the situation!  Demetrius left us with a business card, an offer to help us with anything else we may need and a wallet full of euros for rescuing our trip to Athens!

Once in the room, we fired up the air conditioning, showered, checked our computers and called back home, then made our way up to the rooftop bar/restaurant for a glimpse of the alleged views... (for the record the shower here was smaller that my dorm closet at SLU, so that made for three hilarious encounters!)  Back to the views - our jaws dropped!  We could literally see straight to the Acropolis, the enormous, mountain which contains the famous parthenon.  We could see the parthenon, bits of the Agora and a beautiful temple of the god of fire.  We took a seat, assisted by our friend from the front desk, ordered some Mythos, the local beer, and enjoyed the sunset and subtle illumination of the famous sights!  We took countless photos of the structures and the sunset, which is nice to have out of the way!  We met an terribly chatty man from Oklahoma who had been to Athens several times to speak at churches or something and he explained the layout of the city and about the historical sights.  We were itching to go out and explore, so after finishing the drinks and taking a quick shot of ouzo, a Greek spirit with a very strong anise flavor, (It went down smooth!), we walked five minutes from our hotel to the center of the tourist district of Psiri (Prissy, as we call it).  This was a picturesque cobblestone street, lined with bars and restaurants filled with people, late on a Monday night!  We stopped at a cafe for a drink (more Mythos) and Lauren ordered an order of fries because she is perpetually hungry on this trip.  The cafe seated us outdoors and played hilarious 90's music like TLC's No Scrub. haha!!  We loved it.  Lauren later dropped a full bottle of beer on the street and shattered it.  The waiter didn't seem happy, so we pounded the beers and fries and moved on.  We stopped at another interesting place with colored lighting, loud music and beautiful views of the Acropolis.  We had a different local beer there, and Lauren ordered more food.  Long story short, the food never showed us, so we left nearly empty handed.  Dan had stolen a beer glass from the last bar unbeknownst to us and proceeded to do the same from this bar.  With a little help from me we managed to make it home with three very nice and very free, Greek souvenirs.  We made a pit stop at a gyro place and Lauren and I bought pork gyros for 2€, which is deceiving because it feels like paying for food with quarters, but really equates to about $3!  Either way, the gyros were delicious and definitely hit the spot.  We made it back to the Jason Inn Hotel (We are not sure why it is both and inn and a hotel, for that matter, shouldn't we attend Saint Louis University College..) polished off the gyros and happily and sleepily ended night one in Europe!!

View from our hotel restaurant 

I don't want no scrub... 

See ya Mythos!