Woah Momma

The night of the 4th (Friday) -

I got a noise complaint. I was walking out of the hotel about halfway past midnight to see if I could find a book light or flashlight when the guy behind the counter stopped me. "Sir, SIR. Are you in room 103?" I said yes and he began to tell me how my room has had several noise complaints, from 101 and 1o2. He said that a customer an hour before that had told him "I don't want to stay here. I want to leave because of the noise." He kept saying, "Please find a solution. Just find a solution. You are always leaving and coming in, the door going boom bam boom boom." He repeated that boom thing about three times. It was kind of funny. Then he told me that if I'm gonna talk at night, to come to the lobby. "I was young once. I understand. But find the solution," he ended with. The whole noise complaint thing completely destroyed my night though. I don't do well with that sort of thing. Actually, what helped me was thinking about the evil lady that lived by my family's apartment when I was a kid. I think Terri was her name. She always knocked. I think we got evicted. I'm sad because I really liked that guy who works behind the counter at night. He once changed the channel for me to an English station when I was watching TV in the lobby. I'm thinking now that maybe he just wanted to keep me in the lobby by giving me something I would like to watch on the TV. I doubt it though. He seemed like a nice guy.

Yesterday, the 5th (Saturday) -

I woke up late, around 1 pm. Soon after waking up, I walked to the Evangelismos metro stop and went to the Byzantine museum. It was all right. It was sunny before going in and pouring when I came out so I hid under a tunnel and stayed there until the rain passed. I sat there thinking and even made a little video. When the coast was clear, I walked out the gates and the guard standing in her little watchtower waved to me with a smile. I guessed that she must have thought it was cute or funny that I had sheltered myself and let me stay in there even after closing time. It was only twenty minutes past though. I got back to the hotel and watched a movie called "Ghost Town". It's kind of like "Sixth Sense" but a romantic comedy. It was good. Entertaining. Not fantastic but definitely funny. After that I got cabin fever and left the hotel again. I walked left from the hotel which I haven't done since the first few weeks of living here. I walked further than I ever had before and found so many more places than I had expected to find. I came across a tall hotel that has jazz events every Friday and Saturday at the top. I'll probably go there next Friday. They have Brazilian Jazz then. I also found countless clothes shops, some restaurants, like TJI Friday's, Pizza Hut, Applebees, some bars, cafes and other little stores. It was surprising.

I got back and started watching a movie called "Lars and The Real Girl" which is the movie about the guy who has the life-sized, anatomically correct girlfriend. It's really good so far and can't wait to finish it. Of what I've seen so far, I definitely recommend it. It has the guy from "The Notebook" in it.

Today, the 6th (Sunday) -

Oh today. Sweet sweet today. "One of the best days of my life," "One of the best since Mykonos." Those were two things I said to myself before I boarded the train back to Athens.

Today is the anniversary of a boy getting shot so there are always riots today and tomorrow of every year. That's why I decided today would be my day to get out of Athens rather than stay in the hotel. I was planning to go to Parnitha. I heard it was a great place to go hiking. The mountain is supposed to be one of the highest mountains surrounding Athens. The internet said that "the bus timetable commences at 6:30, again at 8:00 and then at 2:30. So I decided I'd get up at 8 and take a bus at around 9 or so because I figured that the buses left every 25 minutes or so.

That's cool Parnitha is supposed to be great but I didn't go. When I got to the bus station in Vathis square, close to the Omonia metro station (a very dirty square and slightly confusing to navigate for me) and I looked at the bus times, my plans changed. The internet had failed to supply me with useful information. Or rather, wrong language was used. The buses did not commence at 8. The only buses were at 6:30, at 8:00 and at 2:30. So I was about an hour late for my bus. Even though I was pissed that I missed the bus, a warm feeling of relief washed over me because I considered the idea of going back to the hotel and sleeping more, not having to worry about the risks of traveling again. I was sick of traveling. Knowing me, I did not take the easy way out. I went to the train station. I couldn't read any of the city names so I asked the information desk, "What's a town two hours away that you'd recommend?" The first place they mentioned was Halkitha, a place two hours up north near the water. After mentioning it they asked, "Do you want to go there?" I said yes. I got my ticket for the next train out which was in about twenty minutes.

I arrived in Halkitha in less than I thought, about one hour and twenty five minutes. It was sprinkling. The light rain lasted the entire time I was there. The first thing I saw when I got out of the train was a big rusty wheel. The second thing I saw were the big mountains in the distance. I focused on the closest one and said to myself, "I'm want to climb that mountain." I walked all the way around the port and across a bridge that looked just like the bridge in North Boston. There was a mountain road that I had to walk up without any sidewalks until I could find a place to start climbing. There was no easy beginning to the climb because keep in mind, there weren't trails on this mountain. That made things hard. Half the time I could climb up the rocks but at other times I had to brave it and walk through thick, painful brush. I had shorts on. That was a stupid choice on my part but it made it interesting. I climbed all the way up to the highest point and looked down at what looked like an island because there was so much water everywhere. I had thought before that the city was dirty and littered, which is was, but from high up I felt like I was seeing an older version of the city, a cleaner, purer version.

Except for scratching my legs like crazy, I didn't hurt myself once. No mountain lions either. Or snakes. Whenever a bird would fly out from a bush in shock of my presence, I thought it was an animal jumping out to eat me. I soon calmed down though and focused on the climbing. The trip wasn't like cliffhanger or anything obviously. Most of it I climbed with my feet. Occasionally I got on my hands and feet to get a better grasp. At the top, I found a couple areas where rocks were stacked up in the shape of a wall. I found that strange. I even found a dug out area, surrounded by two rock walls that looked like it might have been a tomb. I took pictures of it. I think I was just wishing it was a tomb. I tried to pick up a big rock to drop it in there, with hope that it would break through and I'd strike rich but I couldn't even roll the rock from its place. I found some pieces of rock that looked like pottery too. They had curves and parts sticking out of them that made me think they were formed by man. I took one home. I also too pictures of all this. I'm gonna show John, my Civ teacher who I think has some training in archeology also. I don't think I found anything special though cause there was a telephone pole nearby and some things that looked new, sticking out of the ground.

I went to the edge of the mountain and yelled, reminding myself of Anchor Man - "I wanted to scream it on the top of a mountain." I yelled two things - "YEAHH!!! GREECE!" and "I AM STODDY BLACKALL!!!" Hahaha, kind of cheesy but it felt good. I videotaped the second one.

Going back down was the hardest cause I started going down on a completely different spot so I had to scoot sideways across the mountain, through even more tough bushes, poking and stabbing at my legs even more. It came to the point that I would cringe when anything hit them, which was every few seconds. Finally, when I slid down the last steep decline to the winding road I first walked on, I yelled with joy. I felt so accomplished and happy that I didn't die.

I took an hour to walk back to the train station, got my ticket and still had an hour and a half until it left. I got a cup of sugary tea, which was immensely satisfying and had a semi-bad burger. It was gross but it still did the trick. The best was the chocolate crepe I had after that, straight off the stove. Mmmmmm. Boy did I deserve that.

On the train I finished "Memoirs of an Invisible Man", H.F. Saint. Very good book. I wasn't very pleased with the ending but it was an overall well written and well thought out book. The most impressive aspect about the book for me was how detailed and accurate it seemed.

I made it back, twenty minutes late for 7:00 dinner with my friends at the hotel. I felt so cool that I did all that and was now sitting at such a familiar place, in time to tell about my day. Now thinking about it, the day reminds me of Risky Business or Ferris Beuler's Day Out.

Before writing this, I studied for my Greek language final with Ricky in my room. Cody was there but he was kind of studying on his own. Michael was Skyping with family. I still feel like I have to study but I'm probably prepared for about a B+. I will study some more tonight and a little tomorrow. Maybe I could bring my anticipated grade up to an A-. That would be great. But right now I feel like watching more of "Lars and The Real Girl". By the time I'm done, Michael will probably be closing those curtains, getting his sheets ready, washing up in the bathroom for less than three minutes and then slipping into bed. I really don't feel like studying yet though. I'm sorry, I deserve to watch a little. So I'll make my later self suffer by having him study in the bathroom while Michael sleeps. I'd rather watch the movie while the room is light and I'm on my bed. All right, enough of that. Another AWESOME day. I'm so pleased. My travels are done except for maybe one more trip to the beach, less than thirty minutes away, one of these days to put the cherry on top.

Stoddy.