Sun, Nov 26 - Athens/Milan

This day started off well and ended badly. We woke up to church bells and Greek hymns at around 10ish. The three of us headed out to Piraeus to buy Tony’s ticket. He had to catch the 3:30 ferry.

Then back to Monasiraki where Tony bought some Army gear and we waited for the metro to take me to the Airport. I hate saying bye! I tried to keep the tears back when I was on my way. At least I’ll get to see him at or around Christmas time! So that helps.



So now, feeling lonely and wanting my Tones, I had to do the rest of my trip all by my lonesome. I checked in at the airport and on the plane I had to sit right beside a young couple, which usually makes me miss Tones even more. But this couple was constantly calling each other names and I felt so lucky to have such a great boyfriend.

Ok, so this is where it got stressful… Long story short, one of the main reasons for this trip is for the passport stamp. And when I landed in Milan, I just walked right through and received no stamp. It’s because it’s part of the Schengan Region and it turns out, I needed to get out of that whole area. So on the bus trip to the Milan Central Station, I decided the easiest thing to do was book a train to Switzerland (not part of the S. Region) When I got to the Station, I found a ticket booth and ordered train tickets to Bern and was told I would leave the next morning at 10:30 and come back early Wed morning.

I took the metro to the stop where my hostel is and realized I didn’t know how to get there from the stop. There was one sign in the station pointing in the general direction so I just walked that way down a main road. It was dark, empty, and prostitutes were hanging around; not the nicest of areas.

I finally found the hostel, checked in and decided to check my train tickets to make sure what time I had to get up. To my horror, the ticket guy gave me the completely wrong ticket times! It said I had to leave tomorrow at 6:30 am and that I’d come back the same day (which would give me about 2 hours in Bern). I was soo mad! I didn’t want to go all the way back to the station to change them, so I thought I’d just catch the earlier train and change the other one later. I also didn’t have an alarm clock, so I had no clue how I was going to get up! (I had to get up at 5am). Once I got to my bed I phoned Tony long distance in tears because I was stressed and wasn’t having a good time at all. He made me feel better but we couldn’t talk for too long. Then I just went to bed with all my clothes on so I didn’t have to change and wake up the others in my room in the am. I barely slept because I was paranoid of sleeping through and missing the train. I just laid in bed awake checking my watch every now and then.

M