Athens and the Acropolis

beautiful sunny gorgeous meditereanian (spelling error) weather. cloudless blue skies. cool breezes. could anything be less perfect? imposing yet graceful ruins. the acropolis was fabulous. perched on top of a hill overlooking the whole city of athens, its surrounded by lush green gardens and broken bits of past civilisations. athens stretches from one end of the horizon to the other. the sea appears mistily in the distance, almost obscured by the sheer mass of humanity packed in a tight cluster below. far away you can vaguely make out distant islands: aegina and poros? the acropolis is a paean to the might of greece civilisation. built as a tribute to their goddess athena, it serves also to emphasise the lengths to which greek society has progressed.

a pity especially when you compare it to greek society now. greeks seems like a nice bunch of people, with friendly even chivalrous men a la italian men. but it also has the most lascivious. in 1.5 days ive already been picked up twice and by increasingly dubious people. within 2 minutes of sitting down and me ignoring him completely, this chubby balding dude was telling me abt his sex life. waaaaaad???

that aside, i like greece. its everything i've dreamt of and... more(?). too bad i only have 1.5 more days and ive already signed up for a 3 island tour to visit the nearby islands. it was actually 88 euros but i bargained it down to 73. still expensive but i figure it'll be worth it, afterall it'll save me the trouble of hunting down transport.

i remember when i was a kid we did that when we went to london. i also remember back then we didnt stay in hostels but in cheap b&bs but those were fun too. the paris one was in the attic and had a quaint slanted roof. it wasnt 5 star lodgings but it was great fun and comfortable all the same. i remember the baguette we bought which broke into half even before we ate it. so silly :)

this trip has taught me a lot. now i tink im so used to travelling alone because of the great sense of independence. i can go anywhere do anything without having to niggle naggle with a travelling companion. but its also made me appreciate human comfort more. sometimes when i see something especially poignant or heart wrenchingly beautiful, i wish i had someone to share it with.

there are so many things i want to do and so little time! i still want to visit morocco, go on safari in africa, backpack india, climb in nepal, see lamas in tibet, travel china, eastern europe... russia... so many places so little time... even a year would not be enough. i only have 3 weeks left of this trip and im going to visit paris, spain, portugal, brussels, london. i hope there's enough time to properly explore the place.