Last Days In Athens

March 1, 2007

Athens, Greece

Last night was spent in the relative comfort of the Astor Hotel, in Athens. I felt like I knew where everything was (especially the internet, which is my lifeline to the outside world), and where to get food, and how the hotel worked, how good the breakfast bar was, which was also important because it dictated how good my lunch was going to be, and what to do with my free time.

I tried to sleep in late this morning, but because we have been waking up super early every day to get to the archaeological sites, sleeping in for me ended up being about 7 am. I woke up and laid in bed until I could not stand it anymore and then headed down to breakfast, and I ended up arriving downstairs close to 8. I think if I had woken up that early at Davidson I would have been highly disappointed in myself, but as it is I had a lot to do that day and I enjoyed being able to make the most of my morning before our plane left. I met Jess Bradshaw for breakfast and did a little bit of pleasure reading before catching up on the blogging that I had missed over the past few days. The air was crisp but the sun was out and I really enjoyed being able to stay in my pajamas a little bit longer than usual, relaxing, and talking to my classmates on the trip.

About midmorning I went running, back to the now familiar panathenaic stadium, and ran around the whole top of the stadium and to the hills that frame both ends of the opening. When I reached the top of one I could look out over the entire city, and see the acropolis and the Parthenon from my perch. It was a pretty cool feeling. I did several laps around the top of the stadium before returning to the astor.

From there, it was a quick shower, some internet poaching in Syntagma Square—which has the fastest internet that we have found so far in the trip. I actually managed to download several episodes of Desperate Housewives when I was there, which made me feel connected to the rest of the world in a way that isn’t really possible when you never watch TV, all of the newspapers are in a foreign language, and any time that you spend on the internet occupied with checking email and updating the blog. It felt really nice.

Then we all boarded the metro for the long flight to Turkey.