Arrivederci, Roma, but Γειά, Athens!

I'm in GREECE now!

Well, Thursday was our last day of classes, and we went to the Jewish Catacombs and the Christian Catacombs at S. Callisto. The Jewish Catacombs were both way cooler and way scarier, we had to use our own flashlights because it was super dark and I couldn't get The Descent out of my mind the entire time, haha. It didn't help that the Stooges kept telling me tidbits from the Saw movies, either, or that at one point, Vicki shrieked and stared at something right over my head, which turned out to be a fuckin' huge cave cricket, GAH. S. Callisto was like being herded like cattle, it was pretty lame. Then that evening was our review with KG, and a bunch of us outlined our final essays early so we could go out. Most other people hadn't finished their outlines yet, so it looked like only a small group of us girls were going out for drinks at the Abbey (me, Meagan, Ashley and Kristin) but then we convinced Adam and Royce to come, and Shyam said he and Ishanee would meet us later.

So why is it that we find all these great clubs and bars during our last week? The Abbey had Strongbow on tap, decent Long Islands, AND free ladies' shots with every drink we got; we were pretty stoked, haha. Meagan and I decided there was no way we couldn't go dancing for our last night in Roma, so we all headed out. Adam had been wanting to head back, and then Royce, Shyam and Kristin decided to go back, too, but the rest of us all still wanted to go to Anima. Sure, it was just four of us girls, but we figured hey, we can handle it, right? FALSE. Don't get me wrong, it was a lot of fun, and some of the guys there were actually pretty cute, but there were SO many guys and they were all SO grabby, ughh. I sent our boys, "I am going to KILL you for bailing on us!" texts (haha, they all felt rull bad the next day). But srsly, I thought we were going to have to hold Meagan back from pulverizing some of them, and it was defs time to go after I got forcibly pinned up against a wall, ew. Still, epic, crazy whirlwind of a last night in Roma!

Friday were our midterms, which didn't go too terribly. Ashley, Harvey, David and I visited Glass for our favorite cappuccinos one last time. When I told Francesco, our usual barista, that it was my last day in Roma, he pretended to faint behind the bar, aw. After getting back to Via Rasella, Kristin and I decided to do some speed-shopping. Well, more like I wanted to and she was nice enough to accompany me, haha. I got some gifts for people back home, as well as a sweet Italia track jacket for myself, woo! Then I had to race home and get ready for the farewell dinner, which was SO amazing! Six courses of sheer mouthgasm and good conversation with some of my newest favorite people in the world over two and a half hours, it was incredible. The goodbyes with the professors were hard, I'm going to miss the hell out of them (and Albert couldn't even make it; I was so sad!) but we're already making reunion plans for whenever they visit Texas, haha. Then we had to HAUL back to Via Rasella because it was already like 10:15 and we'd wanted to be at Barberini by 10:45 but I hadn't finished packing yet. I got back to Via Rasella and packed like a madwoman, basically, running around frantically and throwing things into suitcases. Ashley, Royce and Adam came to see if they could help me, and then got all our stuff down to the street where everyone came to see us off, and THEN some of the group even accompanied us to Barberini and helped us get all our luggage there! Hugs GALORE and promises of P2Roma reunions were made as Stephen, Kristin, and I raced to catch a metro to Termini. Srsly, I love this entire group so hard, I miss you all already!

We made it to Termini with plenty of time to spare despite getting out of Via Rasella later than we wanted to. Our train was delayed a bit and the ride was SO long (six hours overnight, longer than the Pisa adventure!) but we still arrived in Bari on time, caught a shuttle to the airport there, and made our flight just fine. Getting from the Athens airport to our hostel was kind of ridiculous: we had to take like a 45 minute bus ride to Syntagma Square, a metro to Omonia Square, and then walk to the hostel itself which was exhausting dragging all our luggage, but we made it! And our hostel is super nice, all things considered. It's the Aristoteles Hotel, and we get free wifi in our rooms, complimentary breakfast, private bathroom, they clean our rooms every day... for fairly cheap, too.

So basically all we did yesterday was -- well, first, have the most amazing gyros EVER, haha -- but then we went to the National Museum of Archaeology. It was HUGE and Stephen and I were pretty over the Classical/Hellenistic stuff (given our past month in Rome), but the Egyptian exhibits were really cool. Today, we wandered the Monastiraki flea markets, climbed the Acropolis, and saw Hadrian's Arch, the Temple of Zeus, and the Olympic Stadium! It was tiringgg, and I already have ridiculous tan lines, haha. OH, and I got the shit owned outta me by the Greek mosquitoes last night so it kind of hurt to walk today because my entire left shin is covered in mosquito bite bruises, ugh. Other than the heat and the bugs, it's all been amazing so far. Oh, and we got more of those amazing gyros, and watched lots of HIMYM together in our hostel.

Now I should really be getting to bed because we're getting up hella early tomorrow to take a super long bus ride (two hours) down to Cape Sounion to see the Temple of Poseidon! I actually don't know any Greek (besides "thank you," although I still catch myself saying "grazie" and "ciao" all the time, haha) so I'm not sure how to sign off on these Greek blogs, but good night!