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Yasas!
Hello!
I hope this email finds you well. I am sitting outside of the bar at my hostel in Athens Greece. One of the cheapest hostels I have ever stayed in - and the location screams why. Outside after midnight you have to weave through prostitutes who are as young as 14 and through countless junkies. However, do not ever let that deter you from staying at Hotel Lozzi. The people here are top notch - as friendly as they come. A guaranteed way to meet people and to find out all of the hot spots to take in, get travel advise, etc. is to jump into the hostel's bar - which opens at 7 and closes whenever you're finished drinking (last night however we weren't finished - but they closed the bar anyway) When you first enter the bar you're greeted with a free shot of ouzo (an ainse infused cheap cheap drink mixed with grenadine...soo sweet) after that you can pave the way to a night of fun with cheap absynth (2,50 euro - a drink) yes with sugar and on fire... amstel beers and drinks that only go up ,50 when you double up. Last night many beers, much absynth, and a few shots of ouzo somehow came to a whopping 5 bones. All smiles here!

Getting here was an adventure in itself. Saturday I was enchanted by an amazing night of giggles and hilarity with Gingi, Kate and Shawn - a perfect sendoff - even though we were al a little slow moving Sunday morning. Sunday night's flight to London went alright - our stopover in St John's had one of the roughest touchdowns ever. it was so black outside and the plane slammed onto the runway. Seconds later we were greeted with, "well folks, in case you haven't noticed - we have just landed in st john's"

Spent the day in London - London is lovely. Everything is old and beautiful and the architecture is really fantastic. All of the buildings are tan, grey - which make everyone look vibrant and the greenspaces a huge asset to the city. I did all the do's - Big Ben, Tower Hill, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Westminister Abbey, St.James Park - etc etc. Spent the night at Gatwick airport, then an early am flight here - to Athens.

So for two days I have been on tour in Athens. When I first arrived - honestly - I found the city really amazingly dirty. With little vegetation and white rock everywhere... the route that the hotel gave me to get there had to be the worst possible way to get to the hotel. So after I checked in I went for a little stroll to grab some eats (holy tzatzki!). Got back to the hostel and met a fella named Ryan from just outside Big Sur in California - huge history buff. So he asked if he could take me on tour. Why not? We headed straight for the national park next to the parliment buildings. Being in the middle of a huge amazingly beautiful greenspace instantly changed my views on greece. Instantly.

From here we went to the temple of Zeus - which took 500 years to complete. This is the largest temple in Greece and the gianormity of it is definately breathtaking. We then toured around Syntagma and Plaka - just north of Anafiotika (Acropoli - where the Acropolis is). Peeked into a few Greek Orthodox Churches (most people here are Greek Orthodox - the rest of the population are mostly Jewish, Catholic, or Muslem) - these churches are really wee. Really tiny - but the artwork explodes over every inch of every wall. The age of it tells tales of years and years of people believeing and worshipping, quite humbling.

My favourite area of Athens is deifinately nestled onto the hill going up to the Acropolis. The closer you get to the site, the older things seem to be. Roads disappear and winding paths with nestled houses packed into such a small area - it is really just something wonderful. We had a bite to eat on a rooftop restaurant looking out over the whole city - across the city is a monastary resting on the top of a huge hill. At the restaurant, I had a greek salad. Yes Gingi, They ARE called greek salads. The olive oil here is so clean and so great..mm... The salad had a huge piece of feta (whoot - everythin's betta with feta) So..... by 2007 feta can only be called feta if it is made in Greece. Which is great for greece - but about 2/3 of feta made comes from outside Greece. hummm (now hum and rub your chin) . The feta in Greece is so pure and white because it is made using mostly sheeps milk (can have up to 30% goats milk). The animals in Greece, because of the low amount of vegetation, have to graze over huige areas. Which means that the feta is really low in fat - and it also means that the animal grazes on more then just one type of vegetation - both are better for the animal - and of course, effect the quality of the milk. The salad itself didn't have much lettuce. Hardly any at all and that is how it is done here. Lettuce doesn't grow much here, so they use it in a very limited manner, another cheap marketing ploy by your local north american restauranteur? (now that is the 'thing' that you will learn today.)

Going to a restaurant in Greece you pay a seating fee - usually 1,50 - this covers your table and the bread they give you. Usually when you are looking for a place to eat the owner of the restaurant will stand on the street and try to lure you in. Very sneaky.

So on return from our meal - we winded down the hill back to the hostel, past shops owned by J-Lo, Kelly Osbourne, Bvlgari, Marks & Spencer, Dolche and Gabana (you get it) in the middle of these shops, in the middle of the street were glass coverings where you could look down and see old ruins of the city below - pretty neat.

Got back to the hostel - hit the bar. Met Mark and John - Aussie brothers heading to Zante to work just a few mins from where I am staying. I met Mathchia from France, a guy who left today to work on a sailboat, and 2 guys from Canada (who quickly disappeared when 2 cute Aussie girls came out).

Today I mostly wondered about Athens taking pictures, I am holding off going to the Acropolis until Kate get's here. I spent a long time in the park - doing a bit of Yoga and reading. This evening I ate at Eden (www.edenvegetarian.com) A veggie restaurant :) (yay) Veggie Mousaka, holy yum! Heading back I stumbeled upon a protest/concert. Met 3 wonderful ladies who loaded me with stickers (yes John, one has your name on it) and gave me the low down. The European Social Forum is happening for the next few days in Athens - http://www.fse-esf.org/ "The European Social Forum (ESF) is an open space where civil society groups and movements opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism, but engaged in building a society centered on the human person, come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, to formulate proposals, to share their experiences freely and to network for effective action. " The concert I went to was to support immigrants who were living in Greece, to protect the kidnappings of immigrants from Palestine in Athens, and as an anti-racism movement. Bands from all over the world were playing - people were dancing, waving flags... I then met a lady who was telling me more about the forum - a guy, Jeff, heard me speaking and asked about me being from Canada and in Athens... Jeff is the national spokesperson for a coalation in the US of vetrans from the war in Iraq. He was telling me about the 13 months he had spent in Iraq and how the only thing he can do now is focus on turning everything negative in his mind, into something positive by speaking to people about the war, and how horrible it is.

Really amazing. So now I must give this computer to someone else - but I wanted to update all of you. Tomorrow I head to Zante, where I will be for the next 6 weeks.

Friday I start my volunteer work with Archelon. (which, I just found out over a beer with Mark and John, has been the location of two "small" earthquakes last month - just 5. that's all. Why that isn't on the Greece websites, i don't know...)

Parakalo Be Well, Tread Lightly
Adnio,
Stacy