Stranglers

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The first day here our program coordinator thought it would be cool to give us the lowdown on Athenians. We were told to basically never trust any of them. Ever. For anything, forever. Apparently everyone from Athens is trying to scam us, scare us, steal from us, or steal us. Our coordinator really made it sound like there was going to be stranglers around every corner waiting to strike. I was so ready to see some stranglers, I bought new batteries for my camera and everything. So far, no stranglers. However, there are many extremely intimidating little old ladies. Maybe it's a trap, and they'll shed their skin and become stranglers and strangle us or do something else that's equally as traumatic and horrible and violent. At this point, I almost hope so. I mean, I brushed up on my Tae Kwon Doe and everything, I'm ready to be attacked, ok guys? Pass the word on if you know any ruthless Athenians. I was slightly disappointed when I started meeting locals and everyone was so nice to us. They helped give us directions, told us some helpful tips when it came to traveling, and pointed out fun places to go. Obviously, I had my guard up the whole time. Literally, my fists were up and I was ready to defend myself, while an adorable 70+ Greek woman gave me a coupon for the tram. I got a definite strangler vibe from her for sure. Look, I'm not trying to say that I'm not taking danger seriously, but in all reality, Athens feels like everywhere else. As long as you're smart, stay in groups, and stay away from bad areas, you'll probably be ok.

Anyway, a couple Americans on the trip with us asked if we wanted to hike up to a monastery with them that looked pretty sweet. We had seen it for the first time the day before when we walked into the square to catch a tram to the beach, which was beautiful by the way. So we managed to build up the courage and leave our apartments, despite the fact that we would probably be savagely attacked by Athenian locals. I know it's shocking, but we decided to take our chances. SPOILER ALERT: We were fine! I know you were all worried.

So we walked back up to the square where we'd seen the monastery from afar. We were unsure of how to get to the base of the site, so we just started walking toward it. You could see the monastery from everywhere, which was perched on top of a small mountain. We aimed for the mountain and began walking through the city. We asked several people for directions, and eventually found the stairs that wound up the side of the mountain. We began walking up. It was a tough hike, but all of a sudden I turned around to wait for Keira who was behind me, and I saw the city. What seemed like millions of rooftops looked back at me. I could see over the tops of the trees, and the large apartment buildings that circled the small mountain. The giant city of Athens looked tiny. It was incredible. I felt invincible. Then I got attacked by mosquitos, stumbled while running away from them, fell to the ground and cut my foot. ....So I'm not invincible, it's cool. I still have welts from the brutal attack, but it was definitely worth it. We continued climbing and eventually reached the top, where we took about one hundred pictures. We went inside the monastery and it seemed to knock me right back to my childhood. There was a donation jar next to a bagillion candles, and luckily I knew what to do with them, thank you Sunday School. I dropped a euro into the slot and took two. I brought them over to a shelf of sand, sitting in front of a stained glass window and lit them, sticking them in the sand. I said a prayer for my family, like I used to when I went to church all those many many many many many many many many many years ago. It was a really nice moment, until my stomach growled so loudly, I'm sure I interrupted at least 42 people's deep confessions to Jesus. I literally turned heads. I mean, I didn't blame my stomach, I was starving. I found my friends and we got dinner on top of the monastery as the sun went down over Athens.

Stay tuned for my next post: Gazi-- The Greek party scene.
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