The past two days have been busy, busy, busy. We finally met up with the relatives- they were so sweet and wonderful. Although I can't speak much Greek, I was surprised to find that I could follow along with almost everything they were discussing with Yiayia. Aliki and Andreas (Yiayia's cousin and her husband) took us to breakfast at the Grand Bretagne, a very old and famous (and FANCY!) hotel in Athens. Apparently all the movie stars and royalty stay there when they visit Athens. The food was wonderful.
After that we went to pick up Aliki's sister, Nia, and went to eat AGAIN. I swear I did not stop eating for even five minutes yesterday. The advice to leave food on your plate to signal you are full does not hold true with our family- no matter how much I left I kept getting more shoved at me! :) We had a long visit at Nia and Aliki's homes and I was glad to find out Aliki's daughter spoke English so I had someone to chat with for a bit.
Andreas drove us through Athens, and people here drive crazier than anyone in America. Lanes exist, but I think Greek men see them as a challenge to express their individuality and therefore drive pretty much in the middle. At one point I looked over and saw another car getting closer and closer to the my side of the car until it finally scraped up against us- yikes! But that must be an everyday occurrence here because no one pulled over and exchanged insurance or anything like that. I'm so glad Yiayia decided not to rent a car!
It rained and poured all day today, so unfortunately there were no demonstrators in Syntagma Square like we thought they would be. The streets were very crowded with taxis and cars because of the public transportation strike. We braved the floodwaters in the streets to do some major shopping since we leave tomorrow by train for Lamia! :)
Well that's all for now, off to bed since we have to get up early tomorrow to catch our train. Kali nixta!
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