Brian on the Road

Sorry for the delay on this one. I'm sure I'll forget about 1/2 the stuff we did in Greece. Sorry.

We arrived in Athens early in the day and made our way to our hotel, which was fairly standard except that the front desk controlled the A/C in our room, which was odd. We got some 'authentic' Greek food - read: Gyros and started for the Acropolis. We were actually on the wrong side to get to the entrance, so once we figured it out, we made it to the entrance.

Being a complete idiot, I knew the Acropolis had the Parthenon and the temple of Nike, but didn't realize there's a lot of stuff there. It was unbelievably hot (I'd guess at least 100) and there's no shade anywhere. There is a nice breeze occasionally because you're above pretty much all of Athens. I don't know what it is about giant old buildings and me, but I was amazed. Stupefied. Just the scale of the Parthenon is unbelievable. I've seen a million pictures of the thing, but nothing can capture how incredible it is. If it was built two weeks ago, it would be incredible. The fact that it was built around 490 BC boggles my mind. The rest of the site is quite impressive as well. If you're ever near there, go see it.

We met up with the rest of our posse throughout the afternoon, which included Sean, Seth, and Brian I. I was designated Brian II for unknown reasons. We walked around for a bit and then hit the roof-top bar for drinks and the sunset. (see pics) From there it was off to a really excellent dinner including the requisite Ouzo. We hit several other bars in the area that night, and found that there doesn't seem to be an open container law (as with most other places). Yea.

The next day the rest of the crew hit the Acropolis while Sara worked and I tooled around running errands. We were debating when to head out, and reached consensus just in time. We were on a 2:40 flight to Rhodes. We got a bus at 1:15. The Athens airport is about 45-50 minutes by express bus. Yea. A mad dash later and we made the flight with a few minutes to spare and we were on our way to Rhodes.

Rhodes is quite large and on the other side of the Aegean. How Greece ended up with it stupefies me. We stayed in Rhodes town where we toured the Old City that night and made plans to go scuba diving the next day. Chalk up another one on the 'Stuff Brian's never done before' tote board.

The next morning we cruised down to the dock to meet Nick, our Aussie dive master and get going. We set off for the harbor we would be diving in and I got the crash course in how to scuba dive. The rest of my crew is certified, but they seemed to be paying attention anyway. After learning a few hand signals and how to equalize my ears, apparently I was ready to strap a giant tank on my back and put my life into the hands of (very nice) total strangers. The real divers went first, so I hung out and looked around the harbor and sunned. When it came time to suit up, I was a little nervous but thought I had a handle on things. Once I had the tank and whatnot on, it's really not that weird. The hardest part for me was to 'breathe normally' because, well, I never think about breathing, but now it was all I was thinking about. We eventually dove down to about 8 meters (~24 ft.) and fed some fish and checked out the sea life. Got this cool picture demonstrating that I need a hair cut and that I needed a donut. The other group went out when I came up and I went back out when they came back. Went down to about 10 meters in another direction. I think I got the basic hang of things and even learned (on a semi-emergency basis) how to clear my mask of water. Wish I had learned that when I was 10.

We headed back for port, where the Colossus of Rhodes was rumored to have been built. There's some argument over where it actually was or if it ever was, but one thing is for certain. In the episode of Ducktales where they travel back in time, it was standing on some huge cliff. There was no such cliff anywhere on the island. Damn you Ducktales. There are two stone goats marking where its feet may have been.

We took off to get dinner (obligatory delicious Greek food) at an ocean-side restaurant, where we spotted a diving platform about 100 yards off shore. It was a high-dive built of concrete with smaller platforms and the main one to jump/dive off. After dinner Brian I said he was going, and after some goading and peer pressure, Seth and I both joined. It wasn't the tallest thing I've ever jumped off, but it was a little intimidating. It's definitely the tallest thing I've ever dove off. After several dives/jumps, we swam back in and headed home. We have video, which I'll try to post.

That night we went to several bars, picked up pictures from our dive, and met Nick and his sister at a heavy metal bar. It was surreal. After staying out way too late, we made a bee-line for our fairy, which was my own personal test in holding myself together. (Note to self: Do not go out until 4am and expect to enjoy a boat at 8:30.)

We landed on the island of Kos, where we were meeting our boat we had rented for the week. It was a 47 ft. sailboat which slept 10. We had seen pictures, but that was about it. We made it down to the marina and found that a) we had a boat b) it looked really cool and c) we couldn't get on yet, as it was being cleaned. We toured around Kos for a bit and then met our cook, who introduced herself as 'Helen' but in reality was named Elaina. She helped us shop and get supplies. Later in the day we met Andreas, who in reality was named Andreas, but in double reality was most likely the inspiration for the show MacGuyver. With that we set sail...