I Got Robbed In Greece! [Part 1]

In March this year, my sister G (that is literally what I call her), and I went on a 2-week trip to Greece. The title of this post is what I have decided to name this trip. I feel the two weeks I have spent in such a foreign country has changed me. As I have read in a book shop in Athens International Airport, "The world is like a book. For those who do not travel, they only read one page.", travelling and just seeing the world in a different perspective really changes a person's point of view in not only the world but life itself.

G and I planned this trip for half a year before we actually decided to go. My sister had never went on holiday abroad after she moved back to Hong Kong. I, on the other hand, went on a tour around Europe then Hokkaido, Japan a few years later, so I have some experiences of what to expect. The woman did not believe me when I told her "Things sometimes would not go as you expect", until she learnt it the hard way...

March 27&28, 2018

Our flight was scheduled 1:20am, so we arrived to Hong Kong International Airport a few hours before. We had an interchange flight to Doha, which took around 9 hours, then another 5 hours to Athens International Airport. I didn't believe it then that I was actually in Athens. This is irrelevant but the secondary school I went to split up different tutor groups named after the capital city of some European countries, and I was in Athens. The top building. The one with Art, Music, and Drama! And I was proud to be in Athens!

Anyway, once we arrived in Athens, Greece, I lost track of time. Literally. I felt like I was time travelling for the past ten or so hours. It was epic. It was around 12pm then. G and I took the train to Syntagma, where we made the mistake of not changing our mobile sim cards. We arrived at the entrance of the train station where we realised it was pouring rain. Hard. Our umbrellas were in my suitcase, so I quickly took them out. But a woman and a child (who said they came from Syria), came up to us and asked us for food. I told her we're tourists, and she was like "Yes, yes". I was like, bitch, I meant because we're tourists we do not have food. I didn't actually say that but I guess she took it the opposite meaning thinking we do.

After we got away, G and I dragged our suitcases around in the rain trying to find our hotel. It was so dumb I'm telling you. It was not a good first memory of the trip. But the rest of the day was great. It had stopped raining, and after we settled in, we walked around Syntagma and admired the views. But the one thing we both expected was that it is hard to find food in Europe. I mean, relevant food. Normal food. Like an actually meal. And even then, they are not cheap. I'm not complaining, but I knew then that my diet was officially messed up.

This was what I ended up eating that night:

March 29, 2018

In the morning we went to see Greece soldiers and walked around the National Park in Syntagma. At the entrance, we were observing the map of the park when an elderly man came up and told us to watch out for our bags. I'm usually very paranoid but the man made me even more paranoid. Thanks.

The park itself was quite nice. We were a little cautious of mosquitos, but overall it was a nice stroll. I rarely go walking in a park nowadays since in Hong Kong bigger parks are far away and not as nature friendly as they are in Western countries (I mean space and air).

Afterwards, G and I went around Plaka District to shop for souvenirs and we came across this shop that sells penis keyrings. For reals. There were quite a lot of souvenir shops that sold them but this one had a giant penis with legs right on their doorstep, it was quite interesting actually. Do you want to see a photo? I will insert it in later.

Around lunchtime, we bought ice-creams. I had a hazelnut and chocolate brownie ice-cream. But that was all I had until dinner. But it was not like I could eat anything else then because afterwards we spent most of the afternoon in Acropolis and Parthenon. You know, the famous temple in the centre of Athens? It was under restoration, though. Oh well, just being there was already enough. And the photos weren't that bad either. We spent some time atop, looking down on the city of Athens, where I took that photo of the Greek flag I plastered the first thing on this post. We were going to go to the Acropolis Museum afterwards, you see this building here:

That was where we were going to go. But apparently it closes at 5pm because it wasn't the summer, in which it would close at 9pm. Great.

By the time we walked to the museum (and found out it was closing), my right leg started to hurt really bad. (Probably because I usually do not exercise and me walking that much made my body go "WTF?".) So I dragged my leg back to the metro station because I couldn't anymore, lol.

But guess what I had for dinner that night?

Don't worry. Those are Gyros. With Pita. They are roasted meat stuffed in a slice of bread (similar to pizza bread) along with a bunch of enhancers such as tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and so on. The tomatoes were one of the best I have tasted. I highly recommend it. If you don't mind the messiness of the aftermath, that is.

I'm going to end Part 1 with this picture I promised, IN FULL GLORY:

Stop scrolling if you do not want to see!

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Kakkoii ne?