Woken early again by alarm, then kept up by Charlie’s snoring. I got up at 9, rolled out of bed, and got a cup of tea. Then I met Oryan and three Swiss girls – Anna, Lean and Lea (I think). They were going on a walking tour at 10. I got up and joined them. My shirt was still messy from the night before.
We walked to the rotunda and met the guide – an attractive Greek girl in her late 20s/early 30s. They’re all attractive. She told us about the Roman ruins, and a lot about the Jewish past of the city. We sat on a bench made partly of Jewish graves. We passed through markets and past nice and not so nice buildings. It was a fun tour – though sad in parts. At the end I tipped her five euros.
Me, Oryan and the girls wondered over to the Agia Sophia and looked inside – black and beautiful – a silver coffin containing Saint Basil, huge painted dome. Oryan sat down in a church for the first time in his life. Afterwards, we went and got cookies. I got a chocolate one and a red velvet one. This was great but I didn’t get to taste much because I dropped my cheesecake cookie ice cream on the floor, was given another for free, and lost my red velvet cookie in the process! Sad. We sat and ate for a while, sharing cookies.
Later Lean and I chatted for a while while the others found a much needed bathroom. We wondered over to the white tower and were convinced to take a ride on the “free” pirate boat. It was very wavy and I tried hard, and successfully, not to feel ill. I got an expensive cold chocolate to pay for the ride.
Afterwards, the others picked a strange fruit – millorange?- from a tree as the result of an odds on. Then they got some chips which I had plenty of! Oryan left and us four went to the market. They bought fruit and veg. I bought dried fruit and nuts. Then we walked back to the hostel. They invited me to the beach the next day.
Back at the hostel, some confusion about the rooms resulted in me having to remake my bed! I also booked one more night. No cycling tomorrow! I showered, did some washing and wrote this. I try to call C in an hour. Let’s hope the wifi holds up.
***
We called. It was okay… I didn’t say half of what I wanted to say. There were a lot of long, awkward silences, and I left to get food after about half an hour. Still, I’m glad I did it. [...] We’ll see what happens next I guess. Moving on…
I went down and met back up with Oryan and two of the girls (Lea was feeling ill). They’d acquired Mark, an American – he was nice enough- reminded me of someone but I can’t think who. We all went to a pita place the others had been to before. I got a pita filled with tomato, cheese and Italian sausage. Good stuff…
Mark then left and the rest of us caught a Taxi to a Greek punk festival at a former military base. It was sick. There were tonnes of Greek people dancing and singing along. The band consisted of three guys – one played bagpipes, one a drum, which hung from his neck, and the other a guitar – occasionally with a violin bow! I had a lovely time (mostly) – switching between vibing with the music and the crowds and worrying about C – classic.
At around 2 it finished, we got a taxi back, I stayed up for a while drinking with a Romanian and the American male volunteer – from NY – who actually turned out to be a friendly, interesting guy. (I’m pretty sure I later saw him with longer hair in the TV show the race across the world – giving hitch-hikers a lift.).
After that I went back to the hostel and found Sarah, Nicoleta, Tun and Gust et al watching Johnny English. I explained where I’d been. It sounded like they had a great day at the beach, but I enjoyed my day too. After the film wrapped up we all went off to bed.
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