Jet Lag Sucks But at least I'm trying to be Productive!

Hello Peeps--
It's about 5 AM and I have been awake now for about an hour. Awesome. However I did manage to stay up until about 8 last night and then i just had to get some sleep. Hopefully this will be a short lived stay in jetlag land, but you can never be sure.

Since I am up, I may as well post some more things about the trip.

So after our short flight from Mykonos, we arrived back to the confines of Athens. We never thought that we'd be looking so forward to spending more time there. We tried to be sneaky and use our acropolis ticket again so we could take some less "glistening" photos of ourselves at the site, but alas, it didnt work out. Turns out we could use the ticket for other parts of the Acropolis, but not the main pantheon part. Boring. So basically, we had to climb half way up the damn thing in the heat only to be told that we already used the part for the parthenon so either pay 12 more euro or just end the quest. Obviously, we just ended the quest. Instead we headed down the hill and checked out the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian's Arch (or Adrian's Arch as the ticket states). It was pretty cool. Not too many people were there so we just took a bunch of dorky photos--posing on statue bases, etc.

After our tour of the Temple, we hung out by the plaka and had a Frappe (our other new favorite find in Greece was the frappe--it is nescafe...yes the powdered coffee...with ice cream. Tasty!) we decided to go back to the hotel, rest for a few and then head back out for some minor shopping and dinner.

Before we went back to the hotel, we wanted to go check out the Changing of the Guard again since we only got them at night our first time through. However when we got there, they were just at their posts, and so people were taking pics with them. After we got there i wanted to take a photo with them, but i was not trying to be up in the mix. However, the other guard that I think was the superior over the two actual tomb guards was all, no. For photo you need to stand next to the gun. Excuse me? did you just say stand NEXT TO THE GUN?! Um ok....so the photo of me is all fear stricken. I was just imagining loud noises and then the guard freaking out and drawing his weapon. But the photos are pretty funny. We thought that there would be no ceremony to change the positions of the guards, but when we asked the other guy that was there, he just gave us a look and said it would be 5 minutes. He was funny, it was like he was sharing some deep dark secret with us. We loved him immediately. Did I mention he was HOT too? Ok I probably didnt, but he was cute, and was uniformed. heh heh.

After we left Syntagma Square (where the guards are), we went back to the stanley.

We ended up not having a full dinner that day. Neither of us were very hungry, so we just shopped around and then went to this Ouzo bar called Brettos.

On our shopping trip we found this one trinket store and the owner was super nice--his name was Kostos, and he gave us a lesson on how to use the worry beads that we kept seeing around Greece as well as gave us a free calendar and postcard (so we can remember our time in the Plaka.) Oh Greek people, how you have come to embrace us! I love it!!

After shopping we stopped for a bev. The ouzo bar was really pretty inside because they have all these bottles of colored liquor stacked on these shelves that were pretty much floor to ceiling.

Of course we couldnt visit a bar without incident and so while we were there, we sat at these two stools closest to the door since the place was small and fairly crowded. Pretty much as soon as we sat down, this guy starts talking to us. At first I thought he was Jamaican, but he was just plain old American. And three sheets to the wind. First he asks our names, and I tell him my name and he thinks my name is Flute. Yes Flute, like the instrument. So I was all, um no. it's LU. so he goes. "Oh! Flu. Ok, Flu. nice to meet you." Um yeah ok dude. Flu it is. Then he proceeds to ask if Rachel and I are singers...because we have nice voices. WHOA. First of all, it's loud as hell in there, and secondly you are drunk so you probably don't have a good judge of vocal quality at that point. He was offering to buy our drinks if we could go round for round with him. He was a larger guy--kinda stocky build...we were not trying to get doped up by some random guy and then owe him for the free drinks. It's not free if you have to pay for it later. So we decline, and then he asks the bartender if he thinks we could keep up with him drink wise. Fortunately the bartender was cool and said, "No. Maybe drink number yes, but you drink strong drinks. No." Thank you, I love you. during this time, there were some tourists taking photos of the bar from the street, and then the Jamaican/American guy starts to flip out yelling, "What the F is this Paparazzi? who's trying to take my photo? I dont like that", etc etc. And so a worker from the Gyros place across the way yells out, "Hey Houston, Texas, You need to calm down" in this thick Greek accent. Awesome. Shortly after this exchange, Rachel and I changed seats, the guy brought his drunk friend to the bathroom, probably to throw up gallons of ouzo, and then they left.

Random--while we were in the ouzo place, we saw our friends, Aunt Linda, Mom and G-Ma! (ok these are our friend Chad's family, but since when we met him he was telling us who he was traveling with, they just remained in the names of the family members) So we had a lovely chat and planned to have dinner the next night since it was our last night in Greece and they weren't going to Turkey--they were just flying home to the states.

After we finished our cocktail, we headed back to the hotel and crashed out. Good times had by all.