Well, last time I promised you a little bit about my traveling companions. These are some of the few people I would ever consider spending 20 consecutive days with.
I met Tina, Jon and Kyle during orientation, which was like the third day I was here. Our program took us out to lunch after a bus tour, and I ended up sitting by Tina, who introduced me to Jon, who introduced me to Kyle later that night when we went to a traditional Greek nightclub. I guess we all hit it off, because I can’t really remember a time after that that we weren’t hanging out pretty much every weekend. All three of them go to Iowa State, so maybe it’s my native Iowegian blood that makes us all get along so well. Anyway, they’re all cool, laid-back people. Which is a good thing, because when we would run into stressful situations, they were there to calm neurotic, control-freak me down. It worked out perfectly.
The end of our Athens trip, however, wasn’t stressful at all. I left off last time after the rest of the group (except our friend Di, who was staying with us until the next morning) left to go back to Thessaloniki, and we were stuck in the suburbs of Athens trying to find the train station to take us back downtown. We found said train station, after a scenic walk through the town, and it took us back into Athens. We got to go past the Olympic stadium/complex, which was really neat. We grabbed our stuff that we left at the hotel, and then caught the metro to our hostel– the first hostel I had ever stayed at. It wasn’t as bad as I had imagined– those hostels came later 
. After taking naps and working on booking stuff for the rest of our spring break, we finally headed out to find some dinner. By this time it was almost 10:30, and everything in our neighborhood was closed. So, we decided to head over toward where our plans were taking us that night, where we found a takeout pizza place. We finally got our food at like 11:30, and famished, took it to the nearest seating– the stoop of an under-construction apartment complex– and chowed down. After dinner, we decided to go find the club we had decided to go to for the night, which happened to be right across the street.
So I purposely haven’t said anything about the club yet, because I wanted my more conservative readers (hey grandma!) to be able to enjoy the first half. I wasn’t sure if she would approve of her favorite pseudo-Greek grandchild going to a gay bar for a drag show. But oh well, it’s out there now. Grandma, stop reading!
So yeah, we’re there at the gay bar, and we’re getting strange looks because (a) we’re five Americans at a tiny Greek gay bar (Greeks aren’t so big on being out– they don’t necessarily embrace the gay community, so there aren’t a lot of gay bars, and most of the patrons show up by themselves– not in big groups) and (b) none of us are gay. Which I don’t think they could tell at the door, but certain members of our party were slightly uncomfortable at the beginning. Anyway, so we buy our tickets, which include two drinks and entrance into a raffle, and head inside. We get our drinks and claim a table and chill and dance a little until it’s time for the show to start. The drag queen comes out, dressed in a fabulous red dress, with a red boa and a slightly cheap looking blonde wig. He does a song, which is nice. Then, he grabs a big bucket full of tickets and starts working the crowd, getting other patrons to grab the tickets and posing for pictures. He’s reading the numbers in Greek, which is a little hard at first, but it wasn’t too hard to recognize when he called one of our numbers. The look on Kyle’s face was priceless when he realized that he had been picked.
Now, a little more about Kyle– I want you all to be able to picture this as vividly as I can. Kyle is like six feet tall, and very thin. He also looks strikingly similar to Jesus. I think it’s the hair– long, blonde and curly down to his shoulders. So, picture this: Blonde, Jesus-looking kid getting a lap dance from a drag queen. Blonde, Jesus-looking kid being instructed to go out to the lobby. Blonde, Jesus-looking kid winning THREE HUNDRED EURO for getting picked in the raffle (and being part of the stage show). Needless to say, he was pretty pumped about it. The rest of the night is kind of a blur– Kyle buying everyone drinks because he’s now a wealthy man, dancing with Di and Tina and our new favorite gay Athenian, Sebastian, and taking taxis back to the hostel and entertaining our cab driver with our valiant attempts to speak to him in Greek. Overall, it was definitely the best way I could think of to start our spring break.
The next morning, we left the hostel and booked our ferry tickets to Italy. We then caught a bus to the port of Patras, and chilled until like 4 PM when we got on our ferry for the 15 1/2 hour journey to Italy. Next time, the ferry ride, Bari, Roma and Vatican City. But now, it’s Ciao time!
(sorry, I couldn’t resist the bad pun).
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