Sat, Sept 16

I had breakfast at the airport and freshened up then hopped on a bus to Piraeus Port just outside of Athens (it’s the main port on the mainland that you would go to if you wanted to get to one of the Greek Islands). I locked my heavy luggage in a locker for the day and headed to the train station close by.

Tony and I decided to meet at Iraklio (on the outskirts of Athens) on a bridge right over the train tracks. I got there in about 45 mins and phoned him when I arrived since I saw no such bridge anywhere! To make a long story short, we were on different train lines; they stopped in the same city but in different stations, so Tony had to taxi over to where I was. The train Tony was on was also broken, so it took way longer than it should have but finally we met up!



We went for a late lunch at a cute café and had yummy pizza and just chatted for 1-2 hours. Then we were going to do a bit of shopping but Tony found out he had misplaced his Army ID which would give him 20 days of “prison”. “Prison” for those of you who don’t know, is extra days added onto your Army duration. In Tony’s case 20 days is the max he can get because his last day is Aug 9, and he starts school in Canada in Sept. In other words he was stressing out! We checked the train station Info and the cab drivers to see if there was some way we could find out if it had been found. No luck! It was almost time for Tones to catch a train back so we just gave up looking and had some juice at a café and hung out till the train came. All together it was about 4 hours that we could hang out and it wasn’t long enough! I had fun even though things didn’t go smoothly because I got to see my Tones! (I found out once I got home that his ID was found right outside the Army base…yay! It must’ve slipped out of his pocket when he took his cell out.)

Once we said goodbye, I headed on a train back to the port. I had to switch trains in Athens and had a few hours to kill till my 10pm ferry, so instead of connecting to the other train I got out and walked around. I had no map of Athens but I could see the Acropolis through the buildings so I headed straight for it! It wasn’t far and I walked right up to it. I couldn’t go all the way up because it was closing but I had a great view over all of Athens and the Acropolis! It was really nice walking around the streets and looking in shops. I stayed in the very touristy crowded areas so I didn’t get lost. After a few hours of exploring I got on the train back to Port Piraeus, picked up my luggage, and got on the ferry. It was a 5 hour trip and I was lucky enough to get a couch to myself so I slept the whole way. Linda was there to pick me up at 3:20am.



M