After partying like rock starts in Mykonos, we took a high speed ferry back to Athens. And that’s just about the time when I remembered exactly why we told ourselves we would not party the night before a travel day! It was the longest 2-hour boat ride in history. And let us not forget just how much history they have here in Greece!

Once we arrived in Athens we were still absolutely exhausted. We were also absolutely famished. Since we knew this would be our last opportunity to savor the succulent souvlaki down at Thanasis restaurant, we mustered up the strength to have one last meal there. It was heavenly. It was also dangerous as we were now going on about 36 hours of no sleep, with a full belly of souvlaki, fries, and tzatziki sauce. We could have easily passed out right there on the spot for a long overdue hibernation. But no! We are soldiers damnit! So we hiked back to the hostel for a much more appropriate nights rest.

The next day we boarded a train for a 5-hour train ride to northern Greece and the city of Thessaloniki. Initially I was fairly unimpressed. The weather was gloomy, the city is in the middle of being ripped apart to install a subway system and I was feeling a bit under the weather. That was all about to change. We had arranged to meet up with a couple of lady friends we met on CouchSurfing.com for a coffee. Eri and Georgia met up with us at our Hotel and then proceeded to kidnap us and take us out for crepes and then to a nice cafe overlooking the water.

After getting to know them over a few drinks, we felt confident that they would not be selling our organs on eBay the next day. So we joined them for a night out on the town at their friends newly opened club.

It was here that it was officially decided that Greece has the highest BPC index (Babe Per Capita).  So many ridiculously beautiful women! Don’t get me wrong, Stockholm was impressive in that regards, but I’m sorry, Greece takes the cake when it comes to overall good looks. So ya, after picking our jaws up off the floor we partied with our new hosts and their friends late into the night.

The next day (Sunday) was also a bit gloomy, so we were going to call it a work day. However, as I mentioned earlier, the Internet is “teh sucks” here and there was no connectivity all day. So we ventured out and spent the day inside one of Thessaloniki’s museums. They had a REALLY old dude (a 200,000 year old hominid)…

…a really pretty headpiece…

…a really expensive mask…

…and a really heavy receipt…

The next day (still no Internet access) we met up with Eri again who took as around the city to show us some more sights to see such as the White Tower.

…and a really modern “globe”…

…near some really great guys.

(that’s Alexander The Great on the horse by the way)

We ate some really great food…

…by the really calm bay…

…followed by some really delicious desert.

Eri and Georgia were absolutely awesome hosts and really showed us the best of what Thessaloniki had to offer. They single-handedly turned an okay experience into a great experience in their city, and it was because of them that we extended our stay here a few extra days. Thanks ladies!

This island is one of the most important mythological, historical and archaeological sites in all of Greece as the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. And like Athens, it is literally littered with ruins…

The ancient god of the sea Poseidon resided there.

As did the more modern god of video games, Qbert.

Entrance to the theater was free…

…since I knew the guy selling tickets.

We waited around for the prisoners to be throw to the lions…

…but when they were a no show, we threw our hand up off in defeat…

And hopped back on the boat before the island closed.

Yes, for those wondering, the island really does have hours of operation.

Just continuing with my tradition of naming blog posts after Ice Cube references.

Wondering why there haven’t been many blog posts lately? It’s because we’ve just been taking it easy the past few days. Not really doing much sight seeing. Just relaxing on the beachs of Mykonos.

The water is perfect here!

All of the buildings on the island are pure white with colorful doors and windows.

Walking down the narrow and windy streets you’ll encounter a few friendly pelicans just hanging out.

You’ll also find crêperies that make both savory and sweet wraps.

The island is littered with now-defunct windmills, but they still make for a picturesque backdrop.

And if you are so inclined, you can pull up a chair for a nice dinner by the water.

On the way from Athens to the Greek island of Mykonos.

I can’t say that I have a whole lot of recent experience on large sea vessels in the US. Do they have WiFi? If not, they should. It sure helps to make a 5-hour boat ride go by quicker. So far on the trip I’ve blogged by land, by sea, and by train. One day soon perhaps from a plane. We did have some WiFi access on a bus in Ireland for a brief moment, but it dropped off as soon as we left the terminal.

I’ll try to catch up on the Greece blogs in the coming days to bring ya’ll up to speed with what we’ve been up to. In short: Athens == Awesome.

…with gyros! Yet no matter what we do, we just can’t stop eating them!

Maybe it’s something in the Greek beer Mythos…

…or just maybe it has something to do with all the awesome people we’ve met in Greece that always want to take us to their favorite pita palace.

Whatever it is, we just can’t stop eating them. They are so damn delicious! We’ve had souvlaki 4 times in the last 2 days. It’s making us crazy I tell ya!

And don’t even get me started on the tzatziki sauce. Oy vey!

This morning we met up with our tour guide Despina at The Parliament Building.

We arrived just in time to watch the goofy changing of the guards routine.

Or was it the changing of the goofy guards?

Either way, it was quite humorous to see just how serious they were, prancing around in kilts and stomping their pom-pom tipped shoes on the ground.

Despina talked a lot about some of the ancient history as well as modern history of the Greek civilizations, including how the newer subway lines that were put in place for the 2004 Olympics had to be diverted due to new archeological finds. Everywhere you look in the city you’ll find old artifacts from thousands of years ago.

In most cities these artifacts would be quickly scooped up and placed safely away in a museum where no humans could touch/ruin them. Here in Athens however it seems as if they have such an abundant supply of these artifacts that they are on every corner without any protection from people at all. They have more marble then they know what to do with.

Apparently the Christians found something to do with it all. According to Despina they would tear monuments down and use the marble to build their churches up. Yet another strike against organized religion. She went on to explain the fundamentals of the Pagan religion which actually seemed quite civilized. In paganism gods where regular people and there was no such thing as sinning or asking for forgiveness because the gods (again, regular people) would make the same mistakes as everyone else. None of this mystery man in the sky mumbo jumbo.

Anyways, enough of my preaching. Let’s get back to the tour…

Around the corner from the orthodox church was a sponsorship monument, The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. That’s right, the ancient Greeks were the inventors of modern day advertising!

Moving further up along the ancient road we encountered The Theatre of Dionysus which was a major open air theater right at the foot of Acropolis.

The theater could seat as many as 17,000 people and included special VIP seating for some dignitaries with their names engraved in the seats!

Later on the Romans came along and ruined the theater and turned it into a fountain for their toy boats. Jerks!

Next up was the uber-cool Odeon of Herodes Atticus.

This amphitheater could only hold a paltry 5,000 people. Psht! It is actually still in use today (with rebuilt seating) for major concerts.

After fighting off the packs of wild sleeping dogs…

…and the packs of wild fat tourists coming in off of their cruise line, we reached the entrance to The Acropolis, and feasted our eyes on the Parthenon!

The great temple of the Greek goddess Athena…

…and the Dutch god Jasona!

Also on The Acropolis is The Erechtheum, an ancient Greek temple built in the honor of the legendary king Erechtheus, who is said to have been buried nearby.

In front of the temple is The Sacred Olive Tree of Athena…

…that sprouted when Athena struck a rock with her spear in her successful rivalry with Poseidon for the city.

Sacred Shamcred. We’re hungry! We want olives!

Ohh lookie here! A sacred olive.

Jay thinks it was spoiled but I’m sure it must have bestowed some magical powers upon him.

Before leaving The Acropolis, Despina pointed out Areopagus or the ‘Hill of Ares’

which is where democracy was first born when a radical politician named Cleisthenes took charge after an army from Sparta overthrew a dictatorship. Way cool!

Also off in the distance we could see some still standing ruins of ancient Angora.

Of course we just had to explore that too!

After all that walking we were beat…

…so on the way back to the hotel we swung by The Library of Hadrian…

…to check out a couple books to read while we rested up for tomorrows adventures.

After further research online and talking to some locals about how to best catch a boat out of Cairo, our original plans turned out to be unfeasible. So instead we are leaving Cairo today via plane to Athens.

For all you keen eyed readers, you can probably already tell from the clues in this photo that it’s a travel day. Besides the more obvious clue that Jay is standing by a sign that says Cairo Airport, he’s also wearing his official travel day uniform.

Throughout the entire city of Cairo there is no shortage of uniformed armed guards. However they don’t exactly instill a feeling of safety. Many times they are passed out at their post in the hot sun. Other times they are standing around scratching themselves or picking their nose. You might expect the security teams at the airport to be a little more on their toes. That wasn’t the case at all. You see, we didn’t have any printed tickets or boarding passes (we booked online and don’t have a printer).  Like most airports, in order to get through the security check they want to see your tickets. The problem is the ticket counters at the airport are AFTER you walk through “security.” So what does the guard do? He lets us walk right through security without tickets. And we were each carrying giant 1.5 liter bottles of potentially explosive H2O! I’m pretty sure the guy monitoring the x-ray machine screen was using a braille keyboard too.

In defense of the Egyptian security forces, the Kuwaiti team didn’t look much more alert either. If you look closely, there is a guy sleeping in the back of this military vehicle.

Don’t ask me why they even have a presence at the Cairo airport.

This is the first time I’ve been in a high-winged plane that I wasn’t flying myself. The Avro RJ-100 is a pretty small plane, but it still offers some pretty cool views of Cairo and the surrounding desert.

And the best feature of all… it lands safely!