06/15/01: Day Three, but really only the end of Day One, at 9.45pm.Wednesday afternoon Mom and I flew to Vancouver and got a connecting flight to London. Thursday afternoon we had a nine-hour layover, so we took the tube into London. We went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, and sort of to the Science Museum (does the gift shop count?). Also had some dinner in Leicester Square. It was so fabulous to jaunt into town and run around. Good fun. I love London!

Thursday night we flew to Athens, arriving at about 4.15 AM, local time (ten hours ahead of PST) today, Friday. A driver met us at the airport and drove us to the Hotel Oscar Inn, in the Omonia district. Oh, and Mom's bags somehow got sent to Copenhagen, boo hoo. I could't sleep when we got here, and I wanted to get an early start exploring. So I organized my stuff and finally got a shower and all that. Mom was not happy because I was waking her up or something. Whatever!A little later in the morning (my god, I can't believe that was just today! crazy), she finally agreed to get up and go with me on my expedition. So we walked through town a little bit and wound around the long way to get to the Ancient Agora, then climbing up to the Acropolis and the lovely, wonderful Parthenon. I still can't believe I'm actually in Athens! I was at the Parthenon! I've been waiting so long for this. Anyway, it was lovely up there, despite the construction and the ever-growing crowds of tourist groups. The sun shone brightly, and there was a refreshing breeze. I was surprised; in pictures the Parthenon always looked white, but of course it's not, it's kind of a marbly beige-type color. The view of Athens from the Acropolis is amazing. It spreads out everywhere, into all the corners that you can see. Four million people live here. The traffic is indeed crazy and insane and everywhere. It's sorta fun walking around, navigating the cars and shops and people. We passed a market area this morning, fish on one side, nuts and more fish and meat on the other. We bought some fruit and bread for our meal; after three days of business-class airplane food (pretty darn impressive stuff!), we don't need much!

So we had a busy, long day. And we were back in the hotel by noon! Strange. Anyway, then I proceeded to sleep until 8.00 tonight. Ha! I hope I can get some sleep tonight. Tomorrow morning we meet up with a tour group. I'm very apprehensive of being an actual tourist, but I suppose it is the best way to see a lot of things quickly, and to learn something about them.

I have decided that I really need to live in Paris. Not only will that be fabulous in itself, but I can visit London as much as I want. I also now know that after Paris, I'm living in Greece. Except probably not, because I know absolutely nothing of the Greek language, and I hate that. Actually, when we took the metro (very nice and clean and new! like a cleaner version of the Paris metro) on the way back today, I helped a French couple figure out where to go. French keeps popping into my head, because I'm in a foreign country and apparently French is my default foreign language. I'm weird.

So I'll just say again, I love this! Athens is really neat-o, and I'm so thrilled to be here! I'm looking forward to seeing other parts of Greece too. So write me, y'all! I want to hear from you people. I don't know how many internet cafe's I'll find in the next two weeks, so write soon!