So the typical gang met up for lunch at eleven thirty. After that we jumped on the bus out back to Ommonia to do a little shopping. The girls scoured the flea market and the shopping neighborhoods for various souvenirs and dresses. Brianna wanted one that made her look like a goddess. Meanwhile, Gabe and I looked for the existence of men's clothes. Really, It's a s if men don't wear things here in this country, because aside from souvenir t-shirts there was nothing but metro stuff. (For future reference, Alec was there also, but he left because he got bored.)
Meanwhile, the taxi strikes have continued past the forty-eight hour strike. (We were supposed to go out for dancing tonight, these circumstances forced us to, well, not go dancing.) We passed by the main square where protests were proceding, and found a reporter and a cameraman looking for an English speaking person to interview. Without really knowing what they wanted, I responded, and then they put me up for an interview. They asked if the taxi strike has dampened any of my plans or affected my stay in Greece in any way, I told them we had to adjust to it and use the metro and buses. I haven't had a chance to watch television, so I'll never know if I got on TV here. But one of my friends took a picture of me being interviewed so that's good.
Meanwhile, protests moved onto Ommonia, affecting our bus transit back to the ship. From the bus stop we could see a huge crowd of people walking and holding up a banner. We weren't sure whether we should try to find an alternative route back, but then we ran into this nice old lady (who I shall refer to in this as "Grandma") who helped us get back to the ship the first night. She guided us to another bus stop, and we were able to get back just fine. The girls organized a little thank you note card to give her; I could have hit the deck in my attempt to hand it to her. But you have to be surprised how people can help one another, even with language barriers.
Two string instruments and a football jersey later, I still have at least fifty euros left, maybe sixty. Say what?
That said, my Greek team is Olympiacos. (Spain was FC Barcelona , Italy was Bologna FC (Bologna wasn't very touristy so I didn't see any of those for sale), and I don't have one for Croatia, since Dubrovnik doesn't have a team.) I wouldn't wear Panathinaikos, the clover inspires anger (see Declan Sullivan). Also, conveniently Olympiacos is based in Piraeus.
Today I don't feel like doing anything, mostly because I have an FDP about gay pride in Athens at eleven, so it's not like I can go buy more jerseys or something (I would so be down though if I had time). One thing that was interesting is I met Nadia, the interport student from Bulgaria, who was happy to tell us about Varna, its beaches and attractions. Though they speak a Slavic language, the writing is in Cyrillic, so my head is about to explode. This is the first country where we all are going to be pretty much lost, except perhaps maybe a Bulgarian student. I'm looking forward to seeing where this will all take us, some will hate it, some will love it. I look forward to the challenge.
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