Siren

1. Whispers from the Sea

        The redeye to Athens seemed to go on forever; it was actually about ten hours but seemed like twenty.  You know that feeling of anxious anticipation when you want to be somewhere and can't wait to get there already, that was me for 10 hours.  Caleb and I both did end up sleeping a little, even though my mind was racing with the adventure ahead of us.  We arrived in Athens at about 10am on a Wednesday.  Our flight to the island of Kos in the Dodecanese chain was later that evening at around 8pm.  So we had a lot of time to kill. We collected our luggage and talked about what we should do in the interim as we hiked through the vast expanse of the airport.

 "Ivy, I think we should head into Athens, grab lunch and maybe see the Acropolis; I would like to do more but I am not sure if we have enough time."  Caleb said. 

"Listen as long as we don't miss our flight to Kos, that's sounds like a good plan.  I certainly don't want to spend the day at the airport." 

"We'll have plenty of time don't worry.  We'll just make sure to catch a cab back at 5pm or so.  Let's go find a locker to store our bags and catch a cab into the city.  I am starving too, that plane food was awful."

"I know it was disgusting, how can people eat that garbage?  Let's get a move on sweetie."  I smiled and he led the way.

        We dropped off our bags and in a locker and found the taxi stand. There was a line so we waited patiently as the scorching Athens sun belted down on us. I brought out the suntan lotion and started applying it to Caleb's face, neck, ears and arms, then I put some on myself.  I didn't want us getting burned and ruining our trip.  We came up to the front of the line and jumped into a minivan like taxi.  Caleb asked the driver to bring us to the Acropolis.  He barely acknowledged us with a wave of his hand as we started into the city.  After 20-25 minutes, we started to hit heavy inner city traffic.  Like most big cities, there were a lot of crazy drivers, honking and yelling at each other.

"Hey Caleb look at that guy on the motorbike over there, he has his little girl sitting in front of him. They both aren't wearing helmets!"

"Oh yeah, I see him.  Holy shit look! He just drove up on the sidewalk to skip all the traffic!"

"I know wow.  I see other motorbikes on the sidewalk over there too."

We both looked astonished that was allowed.  We continued on into the city for a few minutes, taking in as much as we could.

"Look, I found our lunch!"  I said, pointing to the right at a McDonalds and laughing.

"No chance baby!  I didn't come all the way here to eat at McDonalds."  He exclaimed as we both roared out laughing.

The taxi dropped us off at the base of the Acropolis and we surveyed the area.  The area was filled with tourists and many shops, cafés and restaurants with outside terraces.

"Let's find a place to eat first."  Caleb said.  We looked at menus to several restaurants then just gave up and selected one that was busy and looked clean. 

        We were seated at a small table under an umbrella and thankful for it, the sun seemed much stronger here than Boston and with the lack of sleep we were starting to feel worn down.  Having looked at the menu before coming in, Caleb and I both knew what we wanted.  The waiter brought over a pitcher of ice water with fresh lemon and filled up each of our glasses.

"Welcome to the café Plaka.  My name is Nikolas and I will be your server today.  Our specials today are Lamb Gyro and Chicken Souvlaki.  We also serve a nice house white wine that is very sweet and refreshing on days like this. 

"Ok thank you, I think we are ready to order." Caleb said looking at me.

"I will have the Greek Salad with Chicken Kabobs please."  I said, I wasn't too experimental food wise.