Day two, tecnically. Or, God works in mysterious ways

On a technicality I was actually awake for both days 1 and 2, with no sleep to separate them. Hooray time zones!

Today is also one of the finest examples of luck, coincidence, divine intervention, the good side of human nature, or whatever you prefer to call it, that I have been on the receiving end of.

My flight from London to Athens was rather unremarkable - only about a 3 hour flight that I mostly slept through. Toward the end when I was actually conscious I had a fascinating conversation with the fellow in the seat next to me, who just happened to be from near Athens. After talking about the language a bit, and getting a few tips on pronunciation, he explained that getting to the Acropolis area from the airport in anything but a cab was a somewhat difficult task for a non-Greek speaker. Lambros graciously volunteered to accompany me as far as my metro stop to make sure everything went smoothly.

Naturally, they didn't. British Aiways lost my main bag, so after 45 minutes of fighting with their desk (mostly me listening to my new friend fight in Greek), we got a receipt and a call back number and left the airport. From the airport there is a tram that takes you into Athens, within the reaches of the Athenian Metro system. However, our tram/metro swap station was apparently non functional, causing us to stop three stops farther away than expected. No problem with Lambros at the helm - we found the metro and boarded the proper train. Three stops later, the train stops and the conductor tells everyone in Greek that the line is non functional for one stop up the track, meaning that we needed to take a bus to board a train on the other side of the obstruction..

Anyway, after almost 2 hours on Athens public transport, I finally made it to my hotel, eternally indebted to a man I'd known for 15 minutes. I'm convinced that I would have ended up in Omonia (according to Lambros, even the police don't venture there) without help.

The Acropolis is an absolutely unreal sight in person. It is breathtaking in photographs but no picture could possibly convey the massive scale of the building. The lighting at night adds to the surreal effect, and even in my jetlagged and mentally exhausted state I couldn't resist taking a walk around the thing after a round of Dolmades (stuffed grape leaves) and another crash course in Greek courtesy of my waiter.

I'll add pictures when I'm in less danger of passing out from sleep deprivation.