runlindsayrun

Day Two

Our Toronto - Zurich flight was so full of kids, I'm not really sure how to describe it. No question, the loudest flight I've ever been on. But there was this funny little girl who kept on turning herself upside down instead of walking through the line in the terminal, and frustrating her parents - much to our amusement. Come to think of it, it probably wasn't that funny. We were just extremely sleep-deprived at this point.

On the flight, they were showing a European version of America's Funniest Home Videos, which was probably not funny - but seemed like the funniest thing in the world while we were watching it. Again, sleep deprived. Which also happens to be one of the torture methods I've been reading about...

The dry stupid airplane environments also caught up to me on this flight - and I got a nosebleed about half an hour into the flight. EW. It turned into all kinds of drama because we were close to the front of the plane, and the drink cart had *just* passed us. Meaning that the path to the 'regular' class washroom was totally blocked. I got up and asked a flight attendant if I could please use the first class washroom, explaining the situation despite his crappy English. Apparently, this was a HUGE deal. He finally let me, but made it VERY clear that this was an exception. Excuuuuse me. Anyway. The situation ended sans drama, but it was kind of a weird, un-Lindsay-like little mini-adventure.

By 3 pm, we were checked into our hotel, and allowed ourselves 20 minutes for a catnap. Totally against the rules of international travel, but we were SO tired.

After that, we were ready to explore our new neighbourhood. Well, really we were just ready to sleep. But a little walking tour distracted us from that for a little while. We checked out the nearby Plaka neighbourhood - full of tiny cobblestone streets packed tightly with shops and restaurants, mostly really touristy. The area is kind of tucked between the Temple of Zeus (which is across the street from our hotel) and the base of the Acropolis. Very cool, because it makes it extremely difficult to get lost - these sites are so incredibly high up, you can see them from almost anywhere.

We also found the Aeropagus, which was basically just a big rock with stairs up almost to the top. We climbed it (me with a little bit of coaxing), and the view made the effort worth it. This rock is where the first homicide court was held, and it's also where Paul used to preach and convert people to Christianity.

From there we walked for a while and, despite all the tall monuments, we found ourselves a tiny little bit lost - and it was started to rain. On top of that, some of Athens' wild dogs decided they'd like to join us on our walk (Lindsay was largely unimpressed). We turned down a narrow side street, and found ourselves outside a restaurant boasting a full Greek menu and an umbrella-covered rooftop patio with an incredible view of the Acropolis. Sold. And totally worth the FOUR FLIGHTS OF STAIRS to the top. Ugh. Geoff bravely sampled the stuffed lamb, and I stuck with moussaka and calamari. All amazing. We were so full, but decided that we still needed to try the baklava for dessert - and it was so incredible. Geoff suggested adding an exclamation point to that last sentence. The baklava was that good.

(!)

We walked back to the hotel in the rain - the LONG way, kind of unintentionally - and 'crashed' would be an understatement...

Labels: Greece, Joints in Motion, My Life, The Boy, Travel

posted by Lindsay @ 1:24 PM