So, quick recap of Sofia before moving on: We stayed in the train station, as we were only there for a few hours. We drank grapefruit Fanta and ate microwaved bread rolls filled with cheese/hotdog/salami, were annoyed by an obnoxious beggar/con teen and a man running after us offering "information" even though we were AT Information at the time. Back to the Cyrillic alphabet.
Okay, Athens:
Our train was couchette-only - wow, I'm glad we've avoided those. No head room, a tiny space to sleep in, and uncomfortable. Never again if we can avoid it. Also, the 2 other people in our cabin were two women from Spain - we spoke a bit in Spanish and it was an amazingly painful experience to hear myself talk.
In reading "The Genius of Language" (a book of essays written by English-language writers whose first language is not English), I'm being drawn to all sorts of languages to learn - French, Danish, Dutch, Yiddish, Italian, Portuguese, Scotts, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Greek, Russian, Latin... But if I can't even keep two foreign languages in my head at the same time, how can I begin with the others? I'm very frustrated with my rapidly-declining Spanish; if it's my preferred language and I'm losing it by being here (and my German's not getting much better), why am I here? Hopefully I'll find a decent Spanish-language class next semester and all will be well.
Athens itself has been lovely. The weather was beautiful today, and we got to just walk around and see a lot of ruins, parks, and kite-flying. We had a delicious (yet rather Germanesque) lunch; my potatoes with a wine sauce and cheese were amazing. Thanks to our staying overnight here, we were able to come back and rest our tired knees and feet before dinner (gyros have, by the way, won a permanent place above döners in my heart).
As we wandered around, we saw a huge amount of (possibly stray) cats - but even if they were strays, they were clean, gorgeous, healthy, and very sweet. Possibly due to the novelty of domestic-seeming cats in the streets, both Jay and I were enamored by the little kitties.
In many ways, Athens is very much the quintessential Greek city I'd envisioned: white-washed houses, warm weather, happy people, delicious food, and a relatively laid-back lifestyle. This is definitely a place I'd love to return to.
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