June 21 - Bye to Laura!

Today started out kind of crappy but ended up being a cool way to end our Europe whirlwind. I woke up kind of randomly at 6:30am and took a look around - what do I not see? Laura in her bed. Not only is she not in her bed, it doesn't look slept in and Lian isn't in her bed either. I wait for about 15 min, take another look around at this point start to worry. I take a look around outside, ask the people at the desk if he's seen two small Asian girls wandering around, and then head back to my room. At this point I really start to worry. I pick up my book and start reading, determined to wait an hour or so before I officially freak out. Finally, at around 7:30am Lian and Laura roll in, coming from watch the sunrise over the Acropolis. Yeah that's right, I'd been sitting in my bed, becoming more and more worried, and these two had been having a moment with a group of the kids from the hostel. I was not a happy camper.

After going back to bed I woke up at 12pm ready to go the pharmacist to try and find some stuff to treat my hearing problem in my left ear (it being about a week now since I'd been able to hear completely from it). Eventually I got over being pissed at the fact that the two of them had seriously scared me and the three of us left for the central market area, all of us going to windowshop before heading to the Acropolis when it was cooler. By the time we got there it was 5:30pm - keep in mind though that the sun doesn't set until about 9pm and it doesn't get cool enough to walk around outside until 6-ish. I don't know if I was impressed as I should have been. It was cool to see the Parthenon in all its glory, but so much of it was under reconstuction that it took away from the overall splendor of the site. And then to read about how Sir Elgen had stolen a chunk of the artifacts from there in the past and had dumped them in the British Museum.

Imperialist bastards.

After the Acropolis we tried again and this time found the theater with the Greek dance troup. We had found the correct path on our way home last night, so tonight all we had to do was avoid the swarms of bugs that had come out with the setting sun. Seeing swarms of small bugs always makes me worry about breathing them in or swallowing them. So I walked the little path with my hand over my nose and mouth letting in just enough oxygen so that I could breathe, but covering enough that I didn't feel like I was inhaling insects. It's a fine line.

But anyway, the performance was nice. It was a really large troupe with men and women and all the dances showcased both sexes and dances from throughout Grecian history. What I did notice was that the cool hopping and special dance steps were only allowed to the men. Most of the dances were in lines and it was always the man on the end that did everything intricate and different. The women got one small wooden spoon number and that was it. Not as impressive as I was hoping for. Luckily the bugs were gone by the time the show was over (11:00pm) and the metro was still running so we didn't have to walk all the way back! Yay! Finishing off the evening with some McDonalds and talking about relationships is what I feel a fitting end to not only our time in Athens but of the trip. Because after tomorrow Lian and I head back to Berlin and Laura to China - and who knows when/if we'll see each other again?