I’m sitting on the train in Thessaloniki waiting for it to leave the station, I think there’s about five minutes before I start the six hour trip to Athens. It’s been a long time coming that my vacation is coming to an end and to be honest I’m mixed on whether I’m glad or not. There is one side of me that wants to get back to normal life, you know, sleeping in my own bed kind of stuff, but there is also a side of me that doesn’t want this to end. The last week, or maybe two weeks have been a lot of fun and if it could keep going I think that I would be very happy.

The trip to Athens started this morning about 5 hours ago. I got up at 7, took a shower then took the scooter back. I should have returned it yesterday, but I had had a few beers and I don’t think the owner of the shop would have appreciated me showing up with beer-breath. ☺ So this morning I’m driving around the town looking for the shop but can’t find it. Remember the scooter is loud and it’s relatively early. I felt like a complete jerk. I did return it, and walked back to the hotel, grabbed my backpacks and headed out the door. I didn’t know when the bus would show up and I didn’t know where to catch the bus, but for some reason it didn’t bother me. I must be getting a little bit more relaxed or maybe more confident about traveling. I asked a guy in a café where the bus stop was he pointed out a small wooden building  about 20 meters away, just across the street. Taped to one of the walls was a bus scheduled, it On said that the bus would be there at 8, it was now 8:15. Damn. The next bus would stop at 12:45. So I’m sitting there trying to figure out what I am going to do, when guess what? The bus pulls up. Sweet.

The bus dropped me off at Thessaloniki at about 10, I grabbed a city bus to the other bus station across town. As we went through the city I saw the train station off the main road so I decided to check to see if there were any trains to Athens that fit my schedule. The next train was at 12, about 45 minutes from the time that I got there. Another sweet.:)

So now I’m on the train to Athens. It left the station not more than five minutes ago and it’s supposed to arrive at 1715.

I got to Athens at about 5:30 and it took me a total of about 15 minutes to get to my hotel… actually it probably took me closer to 30, but it seemed like 15. Other than getting something to eat I didn’t do anything. At one point I started to take a shower with the expectation of going souvenir shopping, but decided that I could do it tomorrow. I have to be at the airport at 3, so I’ll have most of the day to look for some souvenirs.