Athens and Thessaloniki

Greece (01.01.2009 - 06.01.2009)

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There’s not much to say only that this was a trip to visit my ex girlfriend and to spend some days together with her. The problem was that her parents did not accept me and therefore I could not stay at her house. So we had to make a big secret out of it which means I had to fly to Athens where we took a hotel; the next day we took the train to Thessaloniki, the home town of my ex, where we took a hotel again. She had to lie at her parents pretty much every day and I felt so uncomfortable knowing they did not like me at all. Her dad once even told her to stop having contact with me or to leave the house. Looking back to the time I had with her, I can say that there were some nice moments but the majority was overwhelmed by moments of stress or argues.

Athens (01.01.2009)

One day after New Year’s Eve I took the train to get to the airport. I was all tired from the previous day where I celebrated together with my sister, her boyfriend and another couple that came from France. It was a great evening and I was really looking forward to finally visiting Greece!

Efklia picked me up at the airport and together we took the train to our hotel. It was close to the Syntagma Square, the capital’s central square, where the Greek Parliamnet is located nowadays. After taking a shower in the hotel we set out to see the city. We spent pretty much all day seeing the city: the old Olympic stadium, the Academy of Athens, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Omonoia Square, the Akropolis and much more! In the evening we had dinner at Pizza Hut where people looked weird at us - actually they stared since a gay couple isn’t common in Greece at all… but who cares ;)

Another very interesting thing to see was the extent of the riots in the time before Christmas where students demonstrated, partly with violence, against the corruption of the Greek government: stones were broken out of the pavement (which were later used to throw on the policemen) and everywhere you could see the parole “cops, pigs, murderers” sprayed on the walls with graffiti; and here and there you could see marks of fires on the street due to burning trash cans!

Athens (02.

The next day Efklia and I took the metro to see the Akropolis. When we arrived we saw a HUGE crowd waiting to get in but instead of probably standing in line for over two hours, Efklia passed by all the people and went to a lady that controlled the tickets. My ex showed her two passports and the lady let us in - for free. I later asked Efklia why she let us in for free but the only answer I got back was “I tell you later”.

We climbed up the hill and reached the temple on the top. It was nice, warm but very cloudy. We looked around, I took some pictures and then it started raining. Aw, I really hate it when it rains. I wanted to go back to the hotel to finally straighten my hair (cuz I cant have it when I get curls!), but Efklia didn’t want to go back yet cuz she wanted to spend more time with me up there… the result was that I got pissed off and she backed down.

In the late afternoon we went to the station and took the train to go to Thessaloniki, the home town of Efklia, where we would stay in another hotel. During the travel we talked a lot and well… did things people wouldn’t do^^ … until a priest came and sat down behind us. After that we backed off and I made fun of my ex cuz she first was all naughty but stopped immediately when the priest came x)

I also learned why we got in for free at the Akropolis - Efklia faked the pass of her younger sister by putting a picture of me on it and using a stamp of her mother who is a doctor.

After six hours in the train, we (finally) arrived Thessaloniki. We went to the house of Efklia’s neighbour since I’d stay there over night. Fei war really nice and so was Roxanne, both best friends of my ex. We chatted a lot, had a nice Gyros and played Texas Hold ‘Em til in the morning. I won - yay! I think around 3 am, Efklia went to her house and Fei and I went to bed where we talked til 6am.