The Beginning of the Bus Tour

We woke up far, far earlier than I'd hoped (I wanted to sleep until, say... ten or eleven), staggered blearily into breakfast, and nearly fell asleep in our food. Or, maybe that was just me? It was hard to begin a habit I don't normally have... I never ate breakfast at home. At other peoples' houses, yes; never in my own home, then.

When we'd gotten our luggage sorted out (my Luggage ate some of my peaches when I wasn't looking), we stumbled outside only to be greeted by the most entergetic morning person I'd ever seen: Athens native and tour guide, Vickie. She very happily introduced herself and our bus driver, Yorgos (whom was called George by my fellow Alabamians), and herded us into the bus. As we drove, she told us of Greece's history and got to know our Fearless Leader a little better. She managed to keep Lee awake for a little bit longer, at least.

Our first stop was the Pass of Thermopylae, where two memorials stood in honor of the Spartan/Persian war in which the Spartans were outnumbered 700 to 300. It was awe-inspiring to me, because I've always been empathetic to the underdog. ^^a Yup, I'm a hopeless romantic all the way, de gozaru.

Next, we drove into the mountanous range (don't look down o_o) to see the four monasteries and two abbys on the mountaintops. The only one we could enter was Holy Meteora (which had spikes on the door o_O eerie...), and while I couldn't get pictures of the chapels or the Holy Hand Grenade Patrick and I found, I did get shots of the doors, the gardens, and some distant shots of the monasteries. Preeeetty mountains...

We stayed overnight in Kalambaka, where I had my first taste of Ouzo (I didn't like it, but Katina did) and two different red wines. One tasted like cough medicine, and the other vaguely reminded me of envelope glue. Eeew... >_> Mum never has to worry about me getting drunk in the wake of a fit of rage/depression/what have you. Not unless I can find something alcoholic that doesn't... taste... like alcohol. We stayed up 'til 12:30 talking, and finally fell into bed around oneish.