Our European Adventure

Every Sunday, Athens has a big flea market. It’s hilarious, all the wackos come out to sell their wares. We strolled up and down the cobbled lanes and streets, barged our way through hordes of people just stopping for a look, and laughed at the guys with their illegal fake Louis Vuitton bags sprinting for the hills with the cops chasing after them.

Since we couldn’t get a fake Louis Vuitton bag we bought shoes instead! Saphira got really upset when I wouldn’t shell out 90euro for a pair of cool skate shoes for Jordan (Mel’s nephew). We did however buy a few pairs for ourselves, which made packing our suitcases that night even more difficult!

After the markets we headed up to the Acropolis (we caught the bus most of the way) and in our search for the ticket booth, were pleasantly surprised to find out that we had come on a “Free Day”. Nobody pays! So we traipsed up the hill with a little more spring in our step than usual.

Had fun looking at the ruins and also observing the other tourists. You really get to see the best and worst of people when you are travelling. The princesses who thought it would be clever to walk up to the Acropolis in stiletto boots and lacy tights just so they could do their model poses on the marble stairs were absolutely hilarious, as were the American tourists who all tried to outdo each other explaining the history of the Acropolis in extra loud voices. Our favourite of all was nanna climbing up to sit on the wall and look hot, but instead spending the entire time trying to stop her skirt from billowing up around her like a balloon! Oh yeah, people are great.

After we gazed out at the views we made our way back down and had hot delicious crepes at an overpriced restaurant with awesome views from the terrace, then hopped back on the bus (we had to run, it was very funny) to get some sandals from the poet sandal maker. This guy’s been writing poetry and making sandals for about a million years. He thinks of it as a “double career” although I’m not sure how well he goes with the poetry. His “self-published book of poems” is basically just photocopies of some of his poems stapled together, but what I read of his poetry isn’t half bad. Plus John Lennon and Sophia Loren have both worn his sandals, which apparently makes him cool.

We missed out on the poetry, but got us some sandals – not quite matching, although not different enough to be considered anything less than LAME! Went home hugging our purchases and giggling excitedly about the possibility of WEARING them tomorrow on NAXOS! Woohoo!

*Little aside to the poet sandal maker story: We first visited just for a minute to see where the shop was and what it looked like, and decided to come back later so we didn’t miss out on daylight hours for the acropolis. When we went back the second time to check how late the shop was open, the loud American family who had been there taking up all the space in the shop the first time, said REALLY LOUDLY and RUDELY, “They’re back, oh look, they came back!” and they were all looking at each other and chatting about why they thought we changed our minds and came back. It was so friggin’ rude! I was practically touching them, the shop was so small, and they were talking about us like we couldn’t hear them! Ever since, we’ve been imitating them and laughing about them – saffi does the best impersonation of their twangy accents!