Saturday in Athens

The ferry ride back to Athens was a little different from our ride over. First, it was a different boat company and therefore was set up a little differently. We knew it would be dark outside with no view, so we were looking forward to sleeping until we got there. We raced onto the boat to try and find the best seat for sleeping, but were told by some of the staff that we could sit, but not lay down anywhere. Weird. We found a area with a long bench and chairs in front of it and the local guy sitting near us told us that we were forbidden to go to sleep - and if we did, the crew members would walk around and wake us up!!! We could not believe that and thought it quite ridiculous. I thought to my self - If I take an Ambien, they won't be able to wake me up!? Anyway, after about 30 minutes, we see many other people starting to fall asleep in their chairs. So, Amy and I split an Ambien - she put on her eye mask and I put in my ear plugs and we laid across the benches. Three hours later we were woken up by the crew members telling us we would be arriving to the port in 1 hour... seriously? Could they not have let us sleep a little while longer? Despite the little sleep, we still managed to make it an adventuresome ferry ride.
Our boat docked in Athens around 6am and we took the metro back to the hostel where we stayed the first night to retrieve our other backpack. It was right where we left it, securely locked up. We made the trek back to the metro with all of our gear and headed to our next hotel for tonight - Central Hotel Athens. We managed to find a super nice Starbucks on our way and took a little break from the heavy bags. We got to our hotel around 9 am and thankfully they let us go ahead and check in!!
After showering, we headed to see the famous Parthenon at the Acropolis. We managed to find a great little sandwich shop on the way where we bought gyro's for only 1.80 euro. The waiter was impressed with our southern accents and blue eyes. Everyone here has been so friendly and not the least bit intimidating.
All of the ruins were really neat and we'll have plenty of pictures to share soon.
This afternoon we found the great roof-top terrace that had lounge chairs and a hot-tub. You can even see the acropolis from the hot-tub!!
While we were walking around town today, we found a great authentic greek restaraunt close to the acropolis that will have music and greek dancing tonight - we made a reservation to go back - should be fun!
Tomorrow morning we plan to go to the Flea Market and the National Gardens before catching our bus to the conference.
Hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday!