My Life in Ruins: Part 3

A couple of days late, but oh well...

First day in Greece. And yes, it was very eventful. Started out sleeping in a bit. Not all that long though, all things considered. That's one good thing about having a random sleep schedule...it isn't as hard to get on a new schedule. It's weird, because I still deal with jet lag, and the exhaustion from that, but not so much the problem of being away at 4 am. How can it be a problem when that it's pretty normal for me?

I had a meeting with the people of the Melissa network at 4, so decided to explore a bit before that. The Acropolis is in the complete opposite direction, but didn't seem too far. However, I was not counting on the fact that many streets don't have signs visible, and often, the signs that are there are only in Greek. I would say that, even with a map (yes, I have learned to read a map. Kind of. For those of you who know my previous map reading skills, kind of is a huge deal for me.) I would say that I only spent about 70% of my time having no idea where the heck I was. Though, I was pretty sure the whole time that I was still in Athens. And I managed to make it to my meeting only 10 minutes late, despite the fact that I had hardly any idea where I was going.

 We were discussing all of the knitting plans, and I happened to mention my background with jewelry design, and teaching jewelry making in India. That got some attention. It turns out that the Melissa Network has a small grant to start a program like that, but didn't have anyone to get it started. So here we are. I can source the materials, and I know how to teach jewelry making.

So I was dropped of in Omonia Square, and told to just look down side streets to see if I could find wholesale shops where I could get an idea on prices. And I found quite a few that looked promising. The prices are pretty high compared to shops in India, but going by Greek prices, they seem reasonable.

That was an interesting turn of events. I was not planning to do anything of the sort, but that's how it happened...Kind of the story of my life. I had no plans to do anything with jewelry when I was in India either...

I spent the rest of the evening wandering around over by the Acropolis. There are so many cats here. They even have postcards and t-shirts and whatnot talking about all of the cats of Greece. So there I was, literally in the shadow of the Acropolis, taking pictures of cats. Yeah...

On my way back, I got totally turned around.  Got very annoyed with myself that I couldn't find my way, then realized it is only my first day, and I need to just chill and give myself a little time to figure out the town. Still managed to get back without asking for help or hiring a taxi. I'm gradually learning to read a map :~)

Since it's now my 3rd day, I suppose I should post this. I'll try to get something more detailed posted soon.