Words fail me

I had the best day. You know when you imagine your trip overseas and you can see it all in your head and when you get there it's still great, but it rains or you struggle with the system? Well today was the day I pictured. Perfect.

I got up early and had breakfast at the hostel and was out by 8.30 on my way to the Acropolis (yay). Metro was a piece of cake and I arrived at the Acropolis before 9am. It was more than amazing, it was awesome in it's original meaning. And arriving early was a blessing as it turned out because by 9.30 the place was packed, I got photos with no other people in them but I doubt anyone later was that lucky. I spent about 40 minutes in raptures looking at the Parthanon and the Erechtheion (always my favourite) and because I was early and there were no crowds at one point I was in a corner and there was no one there so... I touched it. Then took a picture of where I touched so I'll never forget!

I left there and had a wander through the winding alleys and backstreets, all very pretty. I was quite happily lost when I rounded a corner and found Hadrian's Arch! It was very sudden. When you buy a ticket to the Acropolis you get tickets to the other ancient sites so went in and saw the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which must have been huge, there are only big pillars left now! Then one of those great travel moments. There was a girl who came in behind me to look as well so I suggested we swap cameras and get some pictures. We got chatting and decided to head around the corner to see the Stadium. Kirsi (I'm guessing the spelling) wasvisiting from Finland and staying with a friend, leaving tonight, and wanted to see the Acropolis and the National Archaelogical Museum. We headed to the Acropolis, through the beautiful suburb Plaka, and decided that since I wanted to see the museum and had already seen the Acropolis we'd meet in half an hour. I explored the Ancient Agora which was beautiful, I could really imagine all the people wandering the area and shopping! And I walked part of the Panathenian Way! Thrilling.

Kirsi and I met up, deciphered the map, and headed towards the museum. It was fun to have someone to share the experience with. We stopped for lunch at a little turkish restaurant and ordered about six dishes to share! We got this weird baked cheese thing which is apparently a local dish. It was quite nice but too much cheese in one thing, I think cheese should generally be an accompanied thing, not the thing thing. Except that organic cheddar. That was the Thing. Mmm. I got a pizza dish, so big that I took most of it with me... that's dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow sorted!

The Museum was amazing, I saw the statue of Zeus or Poseidon and the boy riding the horse and lots of Egyptian sculptures, frescos from Santorini... I honestly cannot describe seeing all the stuff. It was great. And somehow Kirsi and I had a similar approach - read the big signs, look at the big stuff and the things that seem interesting but don't feel bad when you think "Great another vase room, I think I'll skip it" so we had a lot of fun.

Then we went to the metro, she gave me her map and got the train to her stop while I walked back to my hostel. Never to be in touch again.

A lovely day all told. My hostel has free internet so I'm likely to be on here all the time. Oh and I've booked Istanbul and Thessaloniki! Thungerbirds are go!