Athens: 1-3 October
After island hopping, we went back to Athens and hung out with our new Greek friends who hosted us the last time. It was really nice and relaxing. Nelly, the daughter of the family, took us out to a place called Beer Academy where I had the most delicious unfiltered beer of my life. Or…at least within the last 14 months. We spend the entire night with her and didn’t go to bed until almost 4am. It was really fun. We spent the next day hanging out with them in the morning over a yummy breakfast and then spent the rest of the day in Athens. We climbed up to the top of this hill that gives a view of the entire city, which was pretty cool. We also went to the Acropolis museum, which we missed last time. And after we were done with all that, we went to a MALL! It was very exciting. We had their version of Panda Express and I ate orange chicken, which for some reason I had been craving. We were going to watch a movie too, but didn’t have time.
Corinth: 3-6 October
We woke up early to spend some time with our hosts before leaving on the 3rd for Corinth, where we would stay with an old friend from soccer of Craig’s, Kosta, who is Greek-American. When we called Kosta to tell him what train we were taking to Corinth, it turned out he was taking the same one just a stop away. So we chatted the whole hour on the train. He gave us a little walking tour of the city and then we headed back to his house where his mom had prepared an amazing lunch complete with local organic wine. Then we went to their land where they were growing grapes and picked a good 7 pounds of them to munch on. The next day he showed us around another part of the area and then we went bowling. It was the first time we had gone bowling since leaving the States and we had a lot of fun. Afterwards, we had the best gyros that we have had so far in Greece. And his mom let us do our laundry there, which was magical. Kosta and his whole family were amazing hosts and it really felt like we were in America with the American-ran household with Greek flare. The next morning, we got up super early to catch the train back to Athens to catch a bus up to Litochoro.
Litochoro/Mt. Olympus: 6-8 October
Once we arrived in Litochoro, we were automatically blown away by it’s charm and how warm and friendly it was. It was everything that you would imagine and ancient mountain town to be. We were picked up by Perry, the owner of our hostel, and hung out with him for a good part of the night. He was super helpful with all kinds of information about climbing the mountain. We went to bed early (9pm) in order to get up at 4am and be well rested. Since we had to wake up so early that day, it was no problem; we were exhausted! We were eating breakfast with Perry by 5am and we were leaving the hostel by 5:15am to head up to the start of the trail. We were hiking by 6:20am. It was pitch black, cold (luckily Perry let me borrow a woman’s warm windbreaker that he had at the hostel), and a little intimidating since we were the only ones around. Our imaginations definitely got the best of us while we were hiking in the dark. On one occasion though, Craig and I both heard an animal coming towards us from the forest and were completely freaked out. Craig threw a rock in it’s direction and we kept on hiking. The trail was really gravely and when we stepped, our shoes would throw back rocks and we would think it was some nocturnal animal coming to get us so Craig would hear a rock fall from his step and throw another rock frantically in it’s direction, which would get me freaked out and then both of us were imagining things. A little while down the trail, we decided that we were way too freaked out to continue, so we hid against a big rock and waited for the sun to rise. Did I mention it was cold??
Once the sun rose, it was a 2 hour hike up to the first official rest stop where most people who do the trail in 2 days sleep. We didn’t stay there long; just long enough to buy some supplies and use the facilities. We kept going and after 45 minutes or so, we really hit the hard part of the trail. It was barren and rocky and very steep. It was definitely a challenging hike. Once we got to the top, which we had no warning we were nearing it (that would have helped us push through if we knew the end was near), we were super happy and energized. We got really lucky with the weather too. Normally, the weather isn’t as good this time of year, but it was sunny and cloudless for 90% of our hike. At the top, it was still windy and cold, but it was definitely manageable.
Going down the trail seemed to take forever. In reality, we were going down much faster than we were headed up, naturally. Once we got down to the parking lot where we started, Craig asked this older couple if we could hitch a ride down to the town (which is a totally safe and common practice, according to our hostel owner). The guy gave all kinds of excuses why he probably can’t take us, but the wife was wonderfully nice and talked him into it. Turns out, they were from New York. He was originally from Greece and she Brazil and they had lived in the States for the last 40 years. She was really nice to talk to but he was absolutely insane. He basically was completely arrogant about Greece and shot down any thought that there might be something better or equally good outside of Greece. He even stopped the car to admire the view and then told us that we would never find a view like that in California. I’m quite sure he had never been because the view we were looking at is littered all over the Californian countryside. But we were getting a free ride, so I kept my mouth shut.
We leave tomorrow for Thessaloniki, where we got lucky again to couch surf. Then the next day, we are headed back to Italy to Milan. Enjoy the pictures!
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