Leaving Athens and on to Milan!!!!!

Monday, January 14th
We woke up to horrible pouring rain on our final day in Athens. Torrential downpours, with cats and dogs and easily just as wet as any Pacific Northwestern city. So we agreed to catch a cab to the metro station. We're only about a 10 minute walk away but that's more than enough time to make us miserably wet for the rest of the day. Once that was settled and the water mopped off up from the window that was left partially open, we polished off the last of the chocolate covered Belgian waffles that we were saving to take home. Sorry folks! They were delicious and so was the coffee that LeAnne made that no one appreciated. As we were getting ready to leave, the rain suddenly stopped! We were very thankful to be able to save a couple of euros so we took off for the metro station on foot. In Athens, you need to have a special ticket to go to and from the airport because for some reason the regular metro day pass isn't good enough. We only found this out the day before by reading the ultra-fine print on the windows of our metro. This was good because otherwise if you get caught you will have to pay a huge fine, or in our case since we don't have the money, be stranded in a Greek jail. Ha just kidding. But not about the fine part. Some poor Chinese girl didn't realize this apparently and got slapped with a big fin. We were sitting pretty close to her and could hear her pleading with the train guy to give her a break. She was an exchange student from Austria and had all her luggage stolen in Barcelona, including passport and money. She had about 15 euros left in her hand and was just trying to make it back. Unfortunately the train guy didn't give her a break. We felt sorry for her because this could easily have happened to any one of us. Barcelona is not a great place to be in terms of pickpocketing. Several of us had noticed zippers open on our bags after riding in metros and a couple of us had even felt hands in our pockets or purses. This is also where we think Natalie's wallet was lost/stolen. Amanda gave the Chinese girl a bit of cash and we all promised to pray for her on her trip back to Austria, that she would be able to get back into the country without her passport etc. We made it to the train station without any difficulties and spotted a Greek McDonalds! Natalie went for the Greek salad and the rest of us indulged in Big Macs and fries. There is a reason one of us is skinny. Amazingly enough, all our luggage was within the weight limits this time. We were over by a couple of kilos on our previous flight but the check in person had kindly given us a break. Our flight was pretty uneventful. Amanda stole the seat next to the cute guy and Char had to sit by the old man but that was the extent of it.
Once we arrived in Milan, we had to take a 45 minute bus ride from the airport to the central train station. Apparently our hoel was about 300 metres from the station, according to our ever trusty directions. We unfortunately left our tape measures and compasses at home. After walking about 1000 metres, we realized that we were pretty much going in a circle. So we asked directions from a Chinese guy who pretended he couldn't speak English, from an Italian who pretended we weren't even talking and from a store owner who spoke English and gave us very helpful instructions. "Go either right or left, and that's where it is." Why thank you! How come we didn't figure that out?? Finally someone gave us proper directions which confirmed that we were already on the righ track. This was good since it was dark, still pouring rain and we were carrying big backpacks weighing well over 50 lbs each as well as a couple of smaller carry on bags. Not that we were having any problems with the weight. TAKE THAT, certain persons wo shall remain nameless, that think girls can't carry that much! In the words of Natalie, Boom Yakka Shah! We found our hotel about 2 minutes later. It was called simply, The Best. It was pretty good and they recommended a great Italian restaurant down the street. The desk clerk even called ahead for us and the maitre'd was waiting on the street for our arrival! No red carpet, sorry, but everything else was pretty fabulous! We had a dashing Italian waiter, who was a major flirt. Did we mention that he was 50 and slightly balding? He piled food onto our table, stuff that we didn't order and we only hoped the bill wasn't going to have any crazy surprises for us. He got a little grossed out by Amanda's request for fetticine wih grilled chicken and white sauce. Evidently they have some Jewish background an mixing milk with meat is not a good thing. Ha actually we don't know. We all ordered different things and split them. We had Chicken Fetticine, Spaghetti with meat sauce, Spaghetti with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella and Gnocci with blue cheese. Dessert included fresh apricot tart, fruit and cream cups and white chocolate mousse cream puffs. He even gave us a couple for free! Our waiter has the same phone as Amanda and wanted her to bluetooth her ringtone to him. She couldn't figure it out in Italian but managed to set his background as our photo! As we asked for our bill, he brought us even more food! Some Italian fried puff pastry that was very good. We all agreed that this was probably the best meal of our trip and definitely one we had been looking forward to for a long time. So we went back to the hotel and rested our very full bellies.

Char and LeAnne