Greece so far

Well today I left Athens, almost halfway through my time in Greece. I can't believe this trip is going by so fast! I remember sitting in Marseille thinking I would NEVER get here, but here I am sitting in my hostel in Athens, about to head to Thessaloniki for a week. But let me rewind to the beginning of Greece: so we spent over 24 hours in trains, busses, and boats, finally arriving at 8am in Corfu. The 13-hour ferry we took was definitely...an experience. We don't have to show our passports or anything, just walk up into this very derelict-looking loading dock (soon to be full of cows), past cars and freighter trucks, finally arriving at the passenger deck. Which wasn't much nicer. There were some couches, tables, and chairs, all a bit shabby and a faded blue color--mostly full of Romanians heading home. Now I thought I was out of place in Marseille. On this boat, I felt so WHITE. Julia (who has red wavy hair) leans to me on our little section of threadbare couch we had claimed and says, "do you feel...watched?" Every single person on deck was shamelessly staring at us for the first few hours on the boat. After that, they switched to sporadic staring when they got too bored screaming at their children. or at each other.

About an hour in, one of them decided to talk to me: this cute little boy around 3 years old. He gave me a piece of bubble gum and faked me out for a high five...it would have been nice to know what he was saying to me, though. We also met this man around 65 years old from San Francisco that was cycling across Europe. He was really nice, but a bit bizarre when he pulled out a little debbie cake and a mini bottle of vodka, says "it's my birthday!" and scarfs both down in front of us while talking about how expensive coffee is in Italy. Then he cut in half his ENORMOUS map of Greece and gave it to me, in case I got lost.

We didn't have a cabin on this boat, so we had to sleep on the deck couches. I spent the night with about 40 Romanians sleeping on the floor and couches, at least 5 of which had sleep apnea. And one old lady on my right who kept shoving her feet into me...so that was my first night of no sleep in the week to come. We arrived at the Pink Palace in Corfu--GORGEOUS--and the first thing they do is give you a shot of pink ouzo. At 9 in the morning. The next day we did a 4-wheeler safari where we rode around the whole island: up mountains, on beaches...I had trouble believing whose life I was living it was so spectacular. But mostly, it just felt good to be driving something! It's been wayyy too long since I've been behind the wheel (or handlebars) of a motorized vehicle. We spent the next day at the beach, then took a night bus to Athens. The bus wasn't so bad, we were just really tired when we arrived at 5am. Then we got lost about 4 times, I sat on a bench and cried for about 15 minutes, then once we finally made it to the hostel I tripped and busted my lip open on the bed frame. And I lost my memory card for my camera so all of my photos thus far are gone.

On the upside, I got plenty of sleep, saw the Acropolis and Parthenon, hit the Athens markets, and had some great moussaka, souvlaki, stuffed grape leaves, gyros, baklava, spanakopeta, and the works. Nothing like feta and flaky pastries to make you feel better :)

I arrived in Thessaloniki this evening after a 5.5 hour train ride, got lost, found a Starbucks, and now I'm re-couping with an iced coffee before I set out again to find my hostel. Item one when I arrive: laundry.