Greek Bus Drivers Are the Real MVPs
If you can't tell from the name of this post, I've had some great bus drivers on my trip here in Greece and you will hear about them in this post.
We ended our bus tour on Sunday sadly. I had a lot of fun, the people in our group were great! I also loved our bus driver, Dimitri (the one who looks like Robert De Niro). He parallel parked a bus and squeezed us through streets that I never thought would be possible. There were times when I looked out the window and saw trucks just inches away from the window! There were several occasions where we all applauded him and his amazing skills. Our last stop on the tour was the battle site from the movie 300, Thermopylae. When we got back to Athens we had supper with a nice lady named Lyt from our tour group. She does a lot of solo traveling so it was nice to hear about her travels.
On Monday my mom and I decided to go to the National Archeological Museum. It has tons of sculptures, pottery, jewelry, and bronze. It was a really interesting place and we ended up staying there for 5 hours! It was crazy, that place is like a time warp and it took all of our energy out of us. Don't judge me but later that night I watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding 1 and 2 because I have been craving it for the past month! Let me just tell you, it was very satisfying watching it while being in Greece (like when I watched Mama Mia!), I know the movie doesn't take place in Greece but it was cool seeing things I never noticed before and knowing more about Greek culture while watching it.
Tuesday, my last day in Greece!! I've spent almost a month here so it is crazy that this was my last day!! We decided to do a one day island cruise. We went to Poros, Hydra, and Aegina. It reminded me that I love the Greek islands the most! All of Greece is nice but I definitely like the islands the best. We didn't have too much time on the islands so we mostly just walked around, looked at shops and took pictures. There was a clock tower with a great view on Poros. Hydra is an island with no cars, there are only donkeys and horses! Apparently it is an island of artists and poets, a lot of famous people live there. By the time we got to Aegina we were exhausted and could hardly walk around. Just when we thought we wouldn't make it back to Athens without falling asleep the boat brought out a band to play Greek music and some dancers to perform some traditional Greek dances! Then they pulled us up to join in the dances! They taught us some moves and we started dancing on a moving boat, which was quite difficult. I almost fell on a few people. Then the traditional dances turned into group dances like the Macarena (for any of you people who know Go Noodle all I could think of was the Maxarena that we did in our classroom all the time!) which turned into a dance party. This definitely woke me up! The adventure didn't stop there even though we had been going nonstop since 6 that morning. On the bus ride back to our hotel our bus driver had to stop in the middle of the road. Just a few cars in front of us the police were putting up red and white tape across the road. There was a protest or strike that was shutting the streets down! Traffic was already building up and we were surrounded by other buses. Everyone started trying to turn around. There was hardly any room but these bus drivers were making it happen. Our driver was amazing! I swear bus drivers in Greece should get a medal or something with all of their slick moves and aggressive driving they do. He found another route to all of our hotels and we made it back! I thought for sure we would be sitting in traffic until the protest was over. It was a great last day in Greece!
Here it is Wednesday, I fly out to Budapest today and I thought I would be able to go to the airport later in the afternoon so I could sleep in while my mom would fly out early in the morning. Then we were told there would be a transportation strike today...of course, I've been here for almost a month and the one day I want to leave they decide to have a strike! I think this is a sign that I shouldn't leave. Unfortunately that means no cheap way to get to the airport unless I take my mom's free shuttle so I had to get up early and go with her to the airport. So here I am at the Athens airport for the long haul. I'm doing everything I can to pass the time including writing this.
Coming up next, Budapest!