Day 17 (part 2): Santorini to Athens, ATH to LHR

Today was by far the longest day of the trip. Literally. Because of the magic of timezones, June 26 was approximately 27 hours long. Almost all of them spent in transit. It started with a 6 hour ferry ride from Santorini to Athens aboard my favorite ship, Blue Star 1. Once we arrived in Athens, I (kind of) navigated the metro to get from the port, Pireaus, to the city center.



Since it was only 7am, there was a lot of walking through empty streets and drinking of freddocinos.






(this is where the genius of the large backpack became apparent, no way would I want to lug a suitcase through an ancient city)

Once 8am rolled around, it was time for ruins. There was a small mishap with the Acropolis only accepting cash and me having given away all of my euros. However, with my backpack stowed in the cloakroom, I was able to go a-wandering.









Soon it was time to leave Athens and make my way to the airport for my flight to London. The only mishap of the day happened while I was waiting for my flight to London. You see, sleeping on a ferry isn't exactly comfortable, so when I saw a bank of seats in the terminal I decided to take a wee nap. Unfortunately, I had parked myself outside of a gate for a flight to Cyprus. So, when the flight went into final boarding, a "fellow passenger" came to get me for the flight. I will say that being woken up from a deep sleep by someone speaking to you in Greek is a slightly frightening experience.
After that, (thankfully) the rest of my day went smoothly. A 3 hour flight to London, an hour tube ride into the city and then up to our rented apartment.



Immediately after my arrival, we all headed out for a pub dinner. So, I got to watch the US lose to Ghana in a british pub, where they are not American friendly.

Lastly, in Athens I saw some pretty sweet graffiti. This was definitely my favorite piece... for obvious reasons. (it's also the only time an emoticon is acceptable)



Until later,


e