Hey - where is my bag??

Athens - after 5 hours of ferry riding, we made it back to our same hostel from our first night in Athens and decided to head off to see the National Garden and the changing of the guard at the Parliament. The changing of the guard was funny for a few reasons, first, we were there on the day when they were training the new guys, so they had an army commander there watching and then even correcting the new guards. Also, standing next to us was two boys dressed in full on yeshiva dress (white button up with black pants, black yarmilke and tzitzit) they were speaking in english too. And the guard themselves and this whole crazy traditional movement was so funny. They had one funny outfits, with tights and skirts and also they had shoes with huge puff balls on them. Then they would move by lifting one leg, kicking it out in front of them and then shuffling behind them and then stomping their foot, they looked like tap dancers. Then, after watching this most ridiculous dance, we headed to go out to dinner with Deanna and Brett in Plaka, the cosmopolitan area of Athens. After our dinner we got great gelato. The next day we woke up and headed straight for the Acropolis, we bought a student pass which gives you entrance tickets to 8 different sites around Athens.**GROSS STORY alert - so that morning I had woken up and my nose stud was missing and I could not find it, now nose piercings are much different than ear piercings and at any time will close up within 24 if there is no stud in. So I was in big trouble here if I did not find a new nose stud, luckily the Athens flea market sold a ton of them, which I had seen the day before, however, unfortunately, we had a busy day at the Acropolis and could not make it to the market in the late afternoon, when I went to put in a new stud, I would not go all the way in, so the guy in the store gave me a regular earing and I bent it and essentially had to partially re-pierce my nose. My nose hurt all the rest of the day and for a few day afterwards as well but thankfully, as is well now. GROSS Story over** So, we walked up the Acropolis, which is the name of the area not the buildings, and saw the Parthenon and other temple ruins. On our way up to the Acropolis, we were followed by a stray dog (they have tons of these in Greece) and this dog literally followed and lead us around the entire Acropolis, so we figured he was our guide dog and we named him Hercules, obliviously.Then we went down and saw the Theater of Dionysis, which I learned about in a theater class of mine. Then we walked by this huge rock which had stairs to climb up it, and of course I wanted to go climb up to see the view and for the fun of climbing, but no one else did and tired of not doing fun and adventuresome things I climbed up all by my self and took some pictures. We continued on to see the Ancient Agora, the Roman Agora, Temple of Zeus, and the Olympic Stadium. I took tons of gorgeous photos. After our long day of sightseeing, we went back to our hostel to pack up all of our stuff, then we hung around all afternoon in Victoria Square, a nice area full of cafes, waiting until it was a good time to have dinner. Aaron and Alyssa met up with us again and we ended up having dinner at the same restaurant where we had dinner our first night in Athens and we thankfully grabbed our bags and went to the airport to head home. Our flight was at 2 am so we had a while to wait. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, once we made it back to Israel safely, my bags never came out of the baggage claim, so I had to put in a missing bag report and go home empty handed. My parents had let me know that day that we were taking a trip to the Dead Sea before Pesach (passover) so once I got home from the airport, I had 4 hours to sleep.

To hear about my relaxing Dead Sea vacation, please keep reading!!