Group of friends who went for an adventure in Athens.

A picture of our octopus friend when he was a soldier.

Knocking the octopus with a stick for the cute old man.

Street in downtown Athens.

Mini Coop. This ones for you Dad!

Beautiful flowers in downtown Athens.

Overlooking the Port while eating lunch on a cliff.

Seth was pulling an Elvis style unbuttoned shirt while

we were waiting for the metro.

The old Olympic Stadium in Athens.

Today I woke up too early for comfort. Lunch duty had to report to the kitchen at 6:45 a.m. to prepare the table for sack-lunch making. All in all, I can't complain; we got first choice on sandwich selection. And considering I got up so early you would THINK I would be on time for our departure... but no. Calle and I cannot seem to be on time to anything. We were the last ones on the bus, where everyone was early for our scheduled departure.

I got to make a new friend: NEIL! We were seat buddies during our adventures in Athens. It was really great to put a personality to a new face. On the bus we were given whisper sets- which are devices where we can hear the director speak at a normal voice level and moleskin- to take important notes on. Our huge Mercedes bentz bus toured us through many parts of Athens and the surrounding cities. Most of the morning consisted of historical descriptions, stops along the way, and of course too many photographs. By noon we were all starving and stopped at a lookout over the water to eat our delicious sack-lunches. We ate on the top of a cliff and I enjoyed the company of Seth, Devin, and Calle.

And onward the day moved. We found our way to the middle of Athens. The massive group of Americans was able to form smaller groups and spend some time exploring the streets. I went with Calle, Cabot, Jordan, Seth, Justin, and Jane. As we maneuvered our way through the streets, we found ourselves at a Port. The beach was calling our names, but the water was cold. To our surprise there was a man beating a squid nearby. This was something we could not pass up. Attempting to greet the man in Greek were our hesitant “Yasas.” The man greeted us back with hello. Apparently Americans are easy to spot in Greece. Our style is three years behind the Grecian world.

The squid man started talking to us (while still beating his squid) and asking questions. He wanted to know facts about each of us and what brought us to Athens. His English was very precise. He had traveled to the United States before, but he had gotten kicked out and sent back to Greece. Twice. He invited us to go eat at a seafood restaurant by the sea. I got the memo that he sells his squid there, or that he is just really good friends with the owner. Im not really sure. Either way, he left us with the squid to go and talk to the cook. We were to beat the squid, (still not sure why, something about the ink, and the fact that it was still kind of moving) and Cabot, Seth and Jane took action. When he came back, he cracked invited us to the restaurant. There was a pile of dog poop right where we were standing and he kept saying “Watch out for the s***!” and then laughing. I’m not sure if he knew that it was a vulgar word for excrement but he said it about thirty times because we all could not contain our laughter.

On the way to the restaurant, which was right down the street, he warned us about “yellow cards.” He gets them from the owner when he is too loud, and he knew that we were gonna need to simmer down at times. We arrived and were seated at a double table. He offered us all beer but we refused, so he ordered coke for all. The table was soon full of fried calamari, squid, vegetable salad, and bread. The food was delicious, a bit different than American style calamari. Some of the squid was just cooked, tentacles and all. It felt a little spongy but was cooked well with seasoning and olive oil. We had a hard time downing all the food because we had just eaten lunch. Then the waiter brought out a pink pepdo bismal colored paste. I figured it was dessert so I tried it first, a whole whopping fork full. As it entered my mouth he said it was fish eggs… to my horror I was disgusted, not only by the taste but the idea of what I was putting in my mouth. I had a hard time getting it down because of all of this, and the fact that Cabot had me laughing like crazy. He wanted to know if it was bad, but I didn’t want to say it was horrible.. So he tried it too, much to his dislike. Apparently you were supposed to eat it with French fries. I missed that memo.

While we were eating the man asked more questions about America and told some of his stories. He sang some Stevie Wonder for us and we got to talk to his wife on speakerphone when she called. They talk in English. I believe he said that she was from America and a teacher. He met her when he was over there with a few of his (good looking) friends. He said they were all very good looking back then. He told a story of how one time his friend asked to say good morning in English and he told him it was f. you. EEK!! That caused some chaos. Which was funny because later I had asked him what the proper term in Greek was for good night, because we only knew good morning. He got a mysterious face and we all realized he was about to tell us something that did not mean what I was looking for. Laughter rang out across the table, and a yellow card was thrown from the waiter!

Our time was running short so we had to get ready to go. The man gave us his number and name (which I can’t pronounce) and told us to come back to see him and he would bbq for us the squid he had caught and then teach us how to Grecian dance. He was the cutest old man! Maybe in his 60’s, and had the biggest sausage fingers I had ever seen! He would not let us help pay for the meal either, that it was his treat and he had money. We promised to come back and see him and then headed back to meet the group at the Congo Palace Hotel, which is where Harding used to house their residents. I don’t know why we ever moved because the place was beautiful!

We all took our places back on the tour bus and made our way to the top of a mountain where the Temple Poseidon was located. I didn’t have words when it came into view. The structure was beautiful. I am not used to seeing such old architecture. Photo’s were being snapped left and right as everyone tried to capture its structure. We walked around and went down the other side of the mountain to the water front. It was very rocky but made for some great pictures as well. A devo would have been great down there but the wind was out of control and everyone was chilly.