Easter in Greece, not so much fun

April 5th - Athens - beach

We woke up this morning hoping we could get some things accomplished, possibly a museum or something.  No such luck, they're still not open.  We should have known, or remembered, that nothing on Monday after Easter is open.  Kelsey needed some new headphones so we headed towards Public.  On the way we noticed that not a lot of places were open, uh oh.  We get to Public, all doors locked and no lights on.  Kelsey went around to every door, not quite sure why.  While we were at the last door some man came up to us and asked us what we needed.  He told us that it wouldn't be open until tomorrow, we figured that, Greek man. We were a little worried at that point since we still had to buy ferry tickets to get to Santorini.  We head back to the hostel where I opt up 3 euros for one hour of internet and off we go in search of a ferry.  We eventually found one, very pricey.  I'm just glad we got it figured out.  It stressed me out and I was not happy at all that morning.  Close to when my time was up, Scott, the Aussie, came and asked us if we were going to go to the beach with them.  We said yes, and asked when they were going to leave.  He said pretty soon.  We headed up to our room to change and get our things together for the beach.  To get to the beach, we had to take the metro, a bus, and then a train (which went right by the Olympic Stadium, I have no pictures because I thought we would go by it again, and we didn't).  We got to the beach and found a place to lay down.  The Mediterranean Sea was a gorgeous blue and the sun was shining with no clouds in the sky.   Someone had sunscreen, thankfully, so I made sure to use it!  I touched my toes in the water, but it was freezing so no jumping in for me.  I laid down some, read some and watched Scott play this sort of ping pong type game with some guy he just walked up to.  This game has two sort of big paddles, and you just hit a tennis ball back and forth, no table like ping pong, but the paddles are wooden.  Around 5pm or so it was getting a little chilly and we were hungry, so we headed towards the train station.  We got on a train that turned off the track we had come from.  Scott didn't really know what was going on so we got off at the next stop.  We assured him that the train was going to Syntagma and we know where that station is.  We walked to the next stop and waited a while for the next train to show up.  I was getting pestered because I hadn't bought a ticket when we first left.  I said it was fine and nothing would happen.  I again tried to buy a ticket a little before the train was to arrive and had no clue as to how to run the crazy ticket machine.  I gave up and hopped on the train.  Luckily, we were not checked, which rarely happens.  We got off at Syntagma an waited while Kelsey headed across the street to buy a "supper", crackers and I think cookies.  Silly Kelsey.  Two other boys who were staying at our hostel showed up so we then all walked to a restaurant that sells gyros.  I got two with just meat since I didn't know when I would be eating the next day.  They were pretty good.  We then headed back to the hostel where I went up and changed and then joined the other folk down in the hang out/lounge area.  We all just talked for a while until people started to slowly leave.  Kelsey and I then headed up to our room to start packing.  Oh joy.  It was a semi early night for us since we had to leave the hostel around 6am to get to the port.  Another successful day, and I'm very glad we finally got to go to the beach.  Easter holidays/spring breaks are supposed to be about relaxation.  Hah!  Cheers