5:19 PM: Greece/Italy '09... define "adventure."

"An exciting or very unusual experience," according to Dictionary.com. Yeah, that was it. And I don't mean that in a sarcastic or bad way. My time in Greece and Italy was exciting and unusual. I loved every second of it.

(Oh, p.s. I'm going to try to blog about this in little sections, because knocking it out in one sitting requires a bit more energy than I have right now. I've been up since 3:00 am Italian time, 2:00 am London time. My eyelids are finding it a bit difficult to stay up... we'll see how I do.)

So, I did a bad thing and skipped my beloved Cont. Brit. Fict. class on Thursday to make the flight to Athens. Athens. That would be in Greece, mind you. Greece. Just saying it made me freak out in excitement! There were lots of us going--Caris and Kristen (my across-the-hall friends), Emily, Kaytee, Jessie, and Lilly (other Webster girls), and Julia (my roomie) and her friend Becky. Julia and Becky only stayed in Athens with the rest of us for a few days, until Monday, when they headed off on a cruise of the Greek islands. But the rest of us stayed together in Athens. . . . which was definitely different than I expected. Or at least at the beginning. The metro is really nice. And that was my impression of the first night--the metro is nice. HA.

Our little hostel was located in Omonia Square, which Athenians openly consider to be the "sketch" part of Athens. Pick-pocketing is huge in Athens, and we were kind of in the hub of it. So we clutched our bags as we walked in the general direction of our hostel. We finally found it, walked a million flights of stairs, died at the top, and checked in. The two guys who run it were hilarious, or I thought they were. Ben, an Asian man (definitely not Greek) who worked the front desk, was precious and loved to show us how everything worked. And Joey, who was the manager (I think), was awesome. He gave us tons of advice (for instance, keep your purses close, especially on the metro and on buses), and, that night, because it was late and we were starving, he took us (like, walked with us) to this amazing, fairly cheap restaurant that was open late. The hostel wasn't the Ritz, but we had a place to stay, shower, and cook if we wanted (it had a kitchen, so we made spaghetti one night to save money), and that was enough.

And that's enough for right now. Until I have a bit more energy... you'll have to wait for adventures in Greece.