Euros Ate My Dollars

We arrived back in Athens on Wednesday, full of Greek Island spirit, but ready to move on with our adventure. Athens isn’t the tourist destination that the islands are, and you don’t find many travelers who want to stay in Athens as anything much more than a stopover on the route to somewhere else. Athens is a city rich in history and cultural landmarks, but it’s not a beautiful one. It’s dirty, loud, and traffic-congested. Still, we needed a place to break for some much-needed Italian route-planning, and we missed out on the Acropolis our first time through the city. So here we are once more!

Always looking for ways to save our dollars from the crushing jaws of the euro, we sought out accommodation in the form of hostels this time around. We had it narrowed down to two of the cheapest hostels in the city, before confirming that one of those options is on the same street as a bustling brothel. That nugget of information quickly narrowed our choices to: the other one. “The other one” is actually the Athens International Youth Hostel, and we were pleasantly surprised at its general lack of grossness after having experienced the Iraklio Youth Hostel on Crete first-hand.

The bad news is that our few meager euros only bought us bunk beds in a crowded dormitory-style sleeping arrangement, and that the hostel is in a neighborhood called Omonia. For those not intimately familiar with the city, Omonia is a seedier part of town than I would normally hope to sleep in/walk through/admit exists. To put it more bluntly, it’s the red light district. And right about now our parents are freaking out! But that’s OK. Enter Mudfish.

A co-worker of mine back home heard we were headed to Athens, and put me in touch with a college friend of hers, who now happens to live in Athens. On Thursday night, we met up for dinner with “Mudfish,” who is an American in Athens, working on a several-years long engineering contract. Mudfish not only treated us to the best dinner we’ve had yet on our trip (and I can now say that rooster is delicious!) but he also offered to put us up in his condo for the duration of our stay in Athens. A condo with A/C, internet, and no bunk beds. I may be proud, but I’m not a masochist. He didn’t have to offer twice.

And so it was that we moved into Mudfish’s condo last night. I don’t think he noticed the tears in Brittany’s eyes when she saw the washing machine/dryer. I never cry because I’m very strong, but I do hope that the noise from my hot shower muffled my manly shouts of joy.

I’m currently charging up Mudfish’s hair clippers, so that Brittany can administer my first haircut in months. Brittany wasn’t eager to try her hand with the clippers, until we learned from Mudfish that the local barber charges 20 Euros for a simple haircut. 20 Euros = 30 dollars = 3 good haircuts back home. Or, 10 jars of Nutella. I think this analogy is what finally converted Brittany. I’m going to miss my quasi-mullet, but pictures definitely to come.

• 

Comments RSS