Hop to Athens, Greece

I drove the car back to the airport easily enough, having scouted out the way from the few other times we had to be bussed there. It was an easy 20 minute drive in the early morning. After we got to the airport, finding how to return the car turned out to be harder! We were supposed to have called the rental car office who would come to meet us at the entrance to the parking. We didn't know (or I did not understand that's what he meant when he told us 3 days ago), but the phone at the entrance also did the trick. The rental car agent came, checked and drove the car, and we met him back at the office to settle the bill. We had to go through security just to go into the rental car office, but we had done this 3 days ago and knew how to do that.

My Turkish Airline flight checkin counters had lines a mile long! I stood in line while Kevin went to see if there was a shorter line. He found empty counters at the far side! and I was able to check in with plenty of time to spare. Kevin went on his BA flight home!

Arriving in Athens about 9:30am, the lines at the passport and luggage wait was really long and it was more than 1 hour before I got my bag and found travbuddy Anna waiting for me! She was beginning to worry since I took so long! We got on a bus for the city and talked the whole way, she was very friendly and told me all sorts of stories about Greek history, and about herself too. We arrived at the center of Athens, and walked to my hotel. The hotel was very nice and modern looking, the room wasn't big but was very delightful. They had wireless internet, however, it cost extra. But free internet access was available in the business center. They claimed that one can not use their own laptop at the business center, but had to use their (3) PC's. I just ignored them who obviously didn't know what they were talking about and unplugged one of theirs and plugged into my laptop. Not having to deal with a foreign keyboard, and also keeping my information on my own PC was definitely a plus.

Anna took me to a restaurant nearby and we had a delightful lunch. We agreed to meet again tomorrow to see the Acropolis and she had to go home to study today!

Late afternoon, I walked back to visit the National Library, Academy and University, 3 buildings at sunset, and stopped by a bookstore to see what Athens had to offer, since I did not buy a guidebook of Athens this time.