Sunday, September 27, 2015

Old Habits Die Hard and the Princess Stays at Her First Hostel

Friday night after our graduation was pretty mellow. Everyone was in bed early, and up early the next day to get ready to leave. J and L flew back to England in the wee hours of the morning and the rest of us decided to head into Athens at 10 am for some shopping and celebrating!

J, L, and I got a ride into Athens with Michelle then took the metro to the stop nearest the Air BNB apartment we'd rented for the night. It was in a fabulous location (a block and a half from Syntagma Square) and totally decent. J and I shopped while L got her hair done, and I bought a great pair of flowy purple "Michelle" pants from this great little store that J had found last weekend. We met A and her boyfriend M for lunch at our favourite vegetarian restaurant, then L and I headed out for some serious shopping to find her a new outfit to wear out that night. Our shopping mission was more than successful and we had a great afternoon. The highlight? Getting our brows done at Sephora's Benefit Brow Bar. Irene was a total brow artist and I now have the best brows of my life. I'm obsessed with them. She even coloured them darker which will last a month, then redid my makeup after. What a difference! I wish I could go to Irene every month!
Brows on fleek!
L and I decided it was wine time (it was after 5 o'clock after all) so we stopped at the little bar near our apartment. Our server was a sweetheart, A and M stopped in, and one glass of wine led to two. Two led to three when we discovered that the entrance way into our apartment building was locked with a big gate and J (who was already in the apartment) had the key. It was a test of our resourcefulness to get a hold of her as she wasn't checking her Facebook messages, but we finally made it back into the apartment! At this point, we had already exceeded L's silly rule that we were only having two glasses of wine on Saturday, making me think that old habits really do die hard. I think it takes six weeks to really change an ingrained behaviour, so I should get sent back to yoga teacher training if there's any chance of me following a two glass of wine rule on a Saturday.
What's better than one glass of wine? Two! And the size of the glass varied every time we ordered. First glass: medium Second glass: as big as our heads Third glass: tiny
Missing this Australian beauty already :(

So I would normally not post pictures like this on my blog. But the terrible quality and ridiculous poses (see above) indicate what a great night it was!

Really behind schedule after being locked out, we quickly got ready and took the subway to the Dafni stop where we were meeting Marita, Becca, and her boyfriend for drinks at a lounge called Spoiled. The red wine continued to taste great and the vegetarian diet went out the window with a late night stop at McDonald's! Back on it today though....

And now I'm all by myself in Athens. Yoga teacher training has come to an end for me, but L and A are staying until mid-October to complete their 500 hour certification and studying prenatal, children's, yin yoga, and a bit of ashtanga and vinyasa. Part of me wishes I was still back there and I miss my yoga friends already. L helped me get settled at my first-ever hostel, then after a vegetarian lunch at Avocado, I said goodbye to L, A, and A's boyfriend M. I'm so glad that it wasn't a final goodbye--I'll see them again after the Balkans and Croatia.
And here I am... checking into my first hostel ever. It's an okay experience so far, but I much prefer the Delta. Or Banff Springs.
 
So I hit the jackpot with my 4 person female dorm. I finally got a roommate and her name is Claudia from Germany. She's a Ph.D. student who is passing through Athens. I just returned from a nice meal out with her and a nightcap at the rooftop bar at the hostel. We're keeping our fingers crossed that no one joins us tomorrow night in our room!
 
And what's up for tomorrow? I'm meeting one of my yoga teachers, Marita, tomorrow morning for coffee which I am really looking forward to. She's had a huge impact on all of us, both on and off the mat. Maybe a hop on hop off bus tour of Athens, or if it's hot I might take the metro to the beach. It's totally up to me because I am all by myself for the first time in my life. It's a bit scary, and I felt lonely today between the Aussie posse and my roommate Claudia. I filled my time with yoga, Starbucks, and browsing through lots of interesting little stores as I wandered around Athens.
Wine in a mug. Screwing up my courage to visit the rooftop bar by myself before Claudia arrived.
 
But I think it's going to be okay, and my bus tour of the Balkan countries leaves early Tuesday morning. Sad that I'm not in Lagonissi with my yoga girls, but excited for the next adventure... I'll keep you posted. 

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