Athens-Istanbul

So. Athens.

It's really no secret that Greece is having some trouble right now. Like, in almost every capacity. The country is pretty much falling part.

In short, there's a trash strike, a transportation strike, an archeological strike, and I'm sure many other strikes. A plethora of strikes going on in Greece right now.

However, despite the overflowing and fiercely stinky piles of trash littering the streets (I had to cover my face to keep from gagging) and the fact that some of the most major ancient landmarks are closed (because there are so many other things to do in Athens besides look at ancient ruins?) I really had a pretty good time there.

On day one I went sight seeing, saw the Acropolis museum (the Acropolis was closed due to one of the aforementioned strikes) and then wandered around the city and saw other more conspicuous ruins.

Day two I went to explore the markets because quite frankly I am sick of museums and wandering around from tourist attraction to tourist attraction. Really I love just exploring cities, so that's exactly what I did. Also Greece was unseasonably cold, so I needed to buy clothes that were warm. And I did that as well.

I spent no less than three hours just wandering. It was fun. I also encountered this really cool store called 'Remember Fashion' which is run by a really cool little Greek guy named Dimitrius. The store itself is a favorite of the Chloe Sevigny, Darryl Hannah, and The Ramones (I went in there to look at a vintage Ramones shirt that was hanging in the window, next thing I know one of the attendants was showing me a photo album of various polaroids of celebrities that visit the store). Dimitrius was probably one of the most enigmatic and charismatic people. I wasn't in the store for 30 seconds before he asked me:

"You are artist?"

"No" I said, "writer."

He perked up instantly. "Writer!" he said "Writer! I am writer!" He showed me two books of his poetry, complete with English translations and artwork on each page. He asked me what I wrote, I told him I wrote short stories and some poetry. He showed me one of his recent poems and asked me what I thought, I told him I liked it. Then I asked if it would be OK if I corrected his translation a bit. He was ecstatic.

Next thing I know his attendants were escorting me around the store showing me all of Dimitrius' work while he shouted from behind his desk "Show her the dresses! Show her the sweatshirts!" and they weren't even really trying to sell me anything, I think he just wants people to look at his stuff.

Aside from having a big book of polaroids of celebrities, he also keeps a book of people who came into his store that are artists, writers, poets, sculptors, photographers. The man is something of a collector of artists.

I walked out of there with two tee shirts (Pink Floyd and one of Dimitrius' original logos) and one sweatshirt with an original design on it. Before I left Dimitrius had one of the attendants show me more original sculptures, then he took my picture to add to his collection (Danielle-Writer-Maine-USA). I left feeling pretty happy, and also very confused. But mostly happy.

Fast forward to the next day when I missed my flight to Istanbul. Normally, not a big deal, especially since it was a really cheap flight. However, in typical Grecian fashion the airport was going to start a strike the next day. The trains were already on strike. Some of the private bus companies were on strike. So, getting out of Athens=Not. Easy.

Luckily, one of the hostel workers by the name of Anna B., a totally awesome and hilarious actress/singer/dancer/Justin Beiber lover of Scandinavian and Greek descent came to our rescue and gave me the name of a travel agent. The travel agent gave me the name of a private bus company that had a 14 hour bus to Istanbul that left at 4:30. It was roughly 3:30 when I recieved this information, so I had to book it to the bus headquarters, run to the ATM, buy tickets, run back, run to the hostel to grab my bags, run BACK to the headquarters and then get on the bus.

Whew.

The bus ride was long, it ended up taking about 19 hours because of customs, buying visas and traffic into the city. But eventually I made it to Istanbul, and here I am.

Once I made it, I went straight to the Hostel, put my bags down, and booked it to the nearest Hamami because in the past two days I have slept approximately 7 hours, I am exhausted from stressing so much and my shoulder is about ready to pop out of its socket. Really, there was no better time in my life to go to a bath house and spoil myself rotten.

The bath house was probably the best decision I've made this entire trip. I spent nearly three hours in there. I couldn't bring a camera in, but I wish I had taken pictures. It was in this really old building complete with designs in the ceiling and crumbling brick walls. It's hard to describe except to say it looked exactly like you would imagine a Turkish bath house to look like. I laid down on hot stones while a tiny Turkish woman scrubbed me down and washed my hair (she didn't speak any English, but at one point she pointed to my tattoo and gave me a thumbs up. After that she and I became best friends.) After that I went to a waiting area where I got a massage and a facial, all for dirt cheap. The woman who gave me a massage, who spoke only a little English, noticed how I kept dozing off on the massage table and told me it was alright if I wanted to sleep there for a little bit because they were having a slow day. I slept for about 25 minutes woke up to sun streaming through the stars carved into the ceiling. I finished the visit by swimming in some of the thermal pools, showering, brushing my hair, and generally feeling like a Turkish heiress. I want to go back again tomorrow to just swim around in the baths and lie down in the saunas.

Really the rest of the day is kind of a blur. I'm pretty over tired despite my day of awesome relaxation. I'll probably go sightseeing tomorrow, if I don't head directly over to the Hamami again. Honestly, I might try to move in there.