Yassou from Ellinika!!

giggidy giggidy...giggidy goo

What it is!! So I'm pretty sure last night was the absolute best time! We had dinner at the hotel, eh..ok, but then after dinner, we decided to take a walk and wait until 8:30pm when the roof top bar opens...well, our walk turned into a cray night of beera! We just started walking, not really knowing where we were going and found this hub of locals and coffee/beer/food shops. Everyone sits outside, drinks the conversation away, so we decided to join them! You can imagine 15 americans, in the middle of Athens, taking up a sidewalk section in front of a liquor stand! It was awesome! So for the first experience out on the town we had to try ouzo! For those less cultured folks than I, it's a liquorish drink that is indigenous to Greece. It's nasty as hell, but it definitely gets the job done!! Normally it comes in a shot glass, we thought, but they put it in a thin tall glass, over ice. So everyone got one and we were trying to figure out how you're suppose to drink it, sip or chug, you know...so we asked Maria, our server, and she informed us that sipping is the way of the whoa...sipping kinda makes you feel like you're going through some type of ancient chinese torture, so after about 10 mins, we were all like, forget this dude, and just chugged the entire glass! Wowzaas! A good beginning...

So we hung around for a few hours and then decided to go and find a local bar with some live Greek music. We found the best freakin hole in the wall! Of course that was after getting refused entry to another establishment...anywho, this place rocked! We were definitely the only foreigners there, but everyone was accommodating, or just stared. So of course we ordered up some drinks and then this 6 person band came on stage and rocked the house out yo! The lead singer was a girl that resembled Amy Whinehouse, pre drug days, if she was from Greece. The music consisted of Amy Whinehouse, REM, and I believe a Tom Petty cover as well, but all in Greek! They also had several originals that were stellar. So it was totally bad@ss! They did sing a few English songs, felt sorry for us I guess, but they began to love us! Of course you know me, hollerin' after every song! I guess the Greeks show appreciation differently than I do. ;) Then we finally made it back to the hotel after stumbling around Athens for about an hour...apparently the hotel was a 10 minute walk from the bar...oh well!

Today we had our first scholarly business visit. We went to an accounting firm in Piraeus, which is a major shipping hub outside of Athens. The CFO was a really cool guy, and after I went over all my Greek sentences I learned over the course of last night, he was very excited and impressed with my pronunciation! So far my vocab consist of - A beer please. One more beer please. Toilet. Hi (which is the title). Thank you (which is the toughest for some reason, it sounds like 4 sylabols, but it's only one word...efharisto...sounds like f-ha-ris-to) and Good Afternoon. So not too bad for only being here 1 day. Anyway, back to today's visit. Well, actually, that's all about today's visit. After our meeting, we came back to our hotel and went to this cafe a few blocks away. It was so freakin good! Lamb, pork, chicken, stuffed tomatoes, feta and tomatoes, the BEST olives, crepes, and coke! =) We all got something different and just passed it around and gorged ourselves! It was awesome.

In Greece, from 2:30 to 5:30 is Siesta time...businesses close up and everyone takes a nap or just chills...it's fabulous! I went out by the pool and took my famous power nap and now it's on like donkey kong! It's 5:15pm right now, meeting at 6 to go on top this hill, highest point in Athens, have a beer and watch the sunset. Suppose to be mad dope yo. From there, Athens is our playground. We got tickets to a soccer, or excuse me, futbol game tomorrow! That is gonna be real sweet. I'm sure I'll have 78 picutes and a blog to talk about it!

Well my dear manson followers...I must be off now.

Oh, and nobody really drinks beer around here! At the bars, it's Heineken, Amstel Light, or liquor...hhmm, just thought I would tell you that.


Kalinikta!