Big Changes

November 27-29th--I write to you from the port city on the island of Naxos, five hours by ferry southeast of Athens. The sun is shining (although it's a cool 60 degrees F), the waves are crashing a minute from where I'm sitting, and life is good.

After updating the blog Tuesday night, I went out to a sports bar and met a trio of English guys in Athens for a vacation. I hung out with Matt, Duncan, and James until late at night, as we followed some people to an Irish pub on the other side of the Acropolis. If you're reading this, guys, thanks again for the drinks and the good conversation. I'm serious about the Chicago thing.

Trying to act out how lost we were at 3 AM.

Wednesday morning and afternoon I took a three hour walking tour around the center of Athens with maybe the worst guide in the history of the world. He was only a year older than me, had been living in Athens for 6 months, and did not know how to tell a coherent story for the life of him. And oh Lord the bad jokes. "That's such a bad joke. Gotta love bad jokes, though."

No, I don't, Mike. He also had an annoying habit of referring to almost everyone in history as a "badass". I actually stepped aside for a second to write down this quote so I didn't get it wrong.

"He was so badass they imprisoned him because he was too badass, let me put it that way. You know the movie V for Vendetta? It's kinda like that..."

Aargh. Despite all that, the tour was only 5 Euro, and I got to get around and see some of the sights.






After returning to the hostel, I headed down to the flea market with a plan. I wanted to buy a cheap guitar.

I've been missing the ability to play music lately, and since I won't be taking any more plane flights until the end, I thought I could buy a guitar and then resell it at a market in Morocco. I wandered around a little bit in Athens till I found a tiny little shop filled with antiques and a couple instruments. He showed me a nice looking classical acoustic guitar and asked 100 Euros for it.

And then I haggled for really the first time in my life. After 15 minutes or so of complaining about my student budget and how I had seen this and that at other stores, I got it for 70. Not bad, and hopefully I can get some of my money back at the end.

I took the Metro to the port of Piraeus, 20 minutes away, stopping on the way to buy a coconut stick candy from a street vendor, which immediately became my new favorite food.


At Piraeus, a cramped, dirty little port city, I found the office and bought my ticket for 27 Euro, then grabbed some food from a bakery and got on board. The ferry was really nice and spacious, even a little luxurious. I played guitar out on the deck, slept, and wandered around. We got into Naxos around 11:00, and I fought through a swarm of people telling me about their cheap rooms (I think it gets a little desperate here in the off-season) to walk down to my hostel, which is really a cheap hotel.

I made a reservation for a dorm room for 9.50 Euro, but the sleepy looking older Greek man I woke up put me into a big single with a double bed, promising that I'd pay the same price. He was welcoming and accommodating, and that bed was magnificent.

This morning, I woke up to this.


It's time to relax and explore Naxos.