Greek Dream Part 2: The Upgrade!

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Fun fact!

I got accepted into some of the most competitive journalism programs in the area and after chosing the one I felt was best, on a drunken whim, (instigated by some elders in my program) I DROPPED OUT and changed my major so I wouldn't have to take Political Science. 🤔😣🙏

Oh, 18 year old, heart-broken, past self of mine... You silly, silly child. Also, side bar: if you can't get a tattoo drunk, maybe you shouldn't be able to drop out of your program either? 👌🤔

That change in my degree structure came with major complications including a very limited amount of classes I could choose that weren't mandatory to graduate. My two (count 'em, TWO!) electives ended up being 1) Greek Civilization and 2) Witchcraft. I can now confidently say I have put both of those to good use so it's wonderful to know those four years were spent wisely! 🤔😅

So anyway, there I was with all of my packed away knowledge of the ancient Greek World and all it's stone ages👌🤔, wrestling with the new city and unknown streets, oddly un-phased by the surprising chill in the wind (definitely not summer time in December!) and I felt overwhelmed with excitement to be in one of the most recognized and historic cities of human times.

I got off of that long bus ride from Albania, cursing myself for my idea to trek us what felt like half way across the world. Ellen, my Australian friend I met way back in Zagreb had decided to come along and we were tired, hungry and our sim cards stopped worked as soon as we crossed the border so we were at the mercy of Athens' streets and THAT didn't seem very appealing...

I'd saved the directions from the bus stop to our swanky Airbnb I rented us and Ellen had been busy sweet talking this cute Greek guy the whole billion hour bus ride so he lent us his hot spot and sent us on our way through the bustling streets towards our condo over looking the town.

It felt hard. Do you know what I mean? The city felt 'hard' and cold in the graffitied streets we were winding through. Fear crept in as the words of Ellen's lover-boy from the bus passed through my mind "That's not s great area, be careful especially at night." (Love me some fear to go with my travels! 👌

Ok, OOOKAY.
Being careful. Moving forward. Moving faster. *Why is everyone staring at us? What are they doing over there? Why are they following us? Why am I carrying my passport in my purse? Please don't let us get robbed. *(Real thoughts on the go that tend to come up in such circumstances by the way!)

Finally, we got to the approval from the "you have arrived" geo-located position of our trusty pal Siri but no one else had 'arrived' except the rowdy men sitting next door betting on some sports program and staring Ellen and I down like we were next for dinner.

We found out it was too late in the day to get internet on our phones, the sun was setting and it was freezing the skin off my back (I'm not used to cold weather anymore, remember?) So I walked into the nearest hotel and after batting my eyes, connected to their Wi-Fi. The manager on duty checked my reservation once I was able to pull it up and gave the number on the receipt a call to see why we had shown up to an empty, reserved accommodation!

A foreign language was suddenly flowing at the speed of light into my ear as the phone was held up to me. I recognized my name and the word 'wait.' so being too tired to really give too much of a rat's butt, I handed back the phone and said 'sure' to the man searching my face for an answer.

The friendly manager told me to have a seat and wait as the owner of the condo was on his way over to collect us to bring us to the 'other' property. Well, we'd had some good and some not so good experiences booking accommodation online during off season so I wasn't very convinced we weren't going to be left sitting on the bench all night.

After about half an hour a small, Albanian man in his early 20's came rushing up to me apologizing and ranting about something to do with payment and cancellation. I let his words waft through my mind as he took a bag from my hands and started whisking us off into the other direction. I followed directly behind him, watching his brown hair lightly catch wind each time he took a swift step, rushing us to wherever he was going.

I could not to this day tell you what he was saying to me along the way but we kept following him anyway, dragging groceries and too much accumulated goodies for such an impromptu get away down the alley ways of such a large and populated town.

Finally, we showed up to this old building and he ushered me into the teeny elevator while I was carrying my over sized back pack. Hyper-ventilating occurs in just such a time of stress and lack of personal space. I don't love being crammed into small areas so much. He reached across me and pressed the 'penthouse' button, trying to beckon the others to get in with us. (Ya right!) There could not have fit a small child in that space so I don't know what he was thinking but I wasn't about to die in an elevator crash my first night in Greece so I got out, allowing Ellen to get in and took the stairs.

Apart from almost having a heart attack carrying half my body weight up a billion stairs to the top of the building, I was stunned when we walked into this beautiful penthouse overlooking Athens. The sun was fading into the night and the city was lit up like diamonds.

That's when everything he had been saying hit me and translated in my mind. We were being moved to this much more fancy location and he wanted me to cancel my previous reservation. Not a problemo, sir. Happy to oblige! 😅 Hot water, kitchen, washing machine, MORE THAN ONE TOILET?! Ya, could definitely be OK with the minor inconvenience for the life upgrade! 😍

We were over looking the stunning views below in a penthouse in Greece with so many rooms we kept losing each other and the best part was, it was going to be for the same price as my previous booking. Yep. Yes please. Yes. Yes. Yes!

The next step was to chase down all of that mouth watering Greek food I had been dreaming about for months on end (photo tease below!) That little outing led us to the next chapter in this adventure so if you're still waiting for the icing on the cake of all this, stay tuned! ;) 😘

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XO, Cece

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