Athens

To Athens! But first, a Viennese coffee and chocolate muffin at the Budapest airport. I was short on sleep (for a change) and the sugar rush was much needed. Pretty sure I still managed to pass out on the plane though.

We landed, caught a cab to our hostel, thanked our friendly and informative driver Costas, dropped our bags off in our room, and made our way to the Acropolis. This ancient site of theatre and temple to Athina had countless remains of stone strewn about as you ascended the hillside.

Knowing our time in Athens was short--just one night--we decided to walk around the Plaka (old town) a bit and see the parliament building before heading back to the hostel for happy hour and our eventual night out.

The party began with welcome shots of the infamous Greek alcohol Ouzo, with a couple new friends who later joined us for dinner. After returning to the hostel for more drinks and meeting a bunch of fellow travelers, a group of us went down the street to the sister location of our hostel and kept the night alive. When that bar closed, we went to another nearby spot called Tiki Bar which turned out to be a ton of fun and a fantastic way to end the evening in Athens.

We danced most of the night away, and wound up getting maybe three hours of sleep. But while we were out, we made friends with a couple girls from our hostel who were also going to the islands the next morning. So we all agreed to travel together! We had arranged a ride from Costas, so the girls (Brittany and Danielle) hopped in our cab and then Joanie and I bought tickets for the same ship--to Mykonos.