Omonia!

Before we could get to exploring another section of downtown Athens, Omonia, we had to venture into the metro station once again. So you know how there is rush hour in the United States when a bunch of cars seem to be going to the same place at the same time. Well, that was the equivalent to what it was like traveling in the metro this morning. As we crept closer to Omonia, more and more people came aboard while barely any pasengers got off. So with more additions than subtractions to the small metro train, it wasn't long before a unf student sandwich evolved. Needless to say I was extremely happy when we reached our destination and I could get some fresh air!

After we emerged from below, I was in awe of everything. There was lots of commotion. At first I felt in the way, then after getting used to all the combustion around me, I was a little bit more comfortable with getting bumped every once in a while (I may have even bumped some people back just for funsies). Since our visit I've been trying to think up the best way to explain Omonia. And I've imagined it kind of like an older version of New York. It's similar to New York with all the buildings and it's very busy, but it's different in that it's not as, hmmm, high tech (does that even make any sense?). Or another way to explain it is as another version of New York but with a small budget for infrastructure.

After walking around for a bit, we finally found what we were looking for, the meat market/bazaar! First we played it safe and walked through the fruits and veggie section so we could get a feel for how these things work in Greece. It was pretty crazy, there were lots of people trying to get you to come to their stand and buy their food (sounds about right), but it was a bit overwhelming at times. On a good note, everything looked delicious! I was very tempted to get one of everything, but, I wasn't too fond of the idea of having to lug it all the way home.

Then we moved on to the meat section... Brace yourself, as this is not for the squeamish. There was meat hanging everywhere, and not just portions of meat that you see in the super market like a rack of ribs, but the whole sha-bang was there, head and all. Not only was the sight of dead meat a lot to take in, but the smell, ugh, at times I regretted that I had ate any breakfast at all. As we were walking through people were yelling all sorts of things in Greek and seeing as we were really the only young females in the area, we got some interesting looks (some guy even winked at me!). Thank goodness we had Dr. Kaplan to lead us through the maze. I don't know how Greeks can handle all the loudness and smelly smells, but I guess it's worth it when you want some fresh meat on the table for dinner.

We ended the day with a scrumptious home cooked meal of pasta with spicy red sauce and sauteed sausage! And you can't forget about dessert! We hit up the local gelato place during happy hour so we could get half price. And let me juat say, they have the best dark chocolate gelato I've ever tasted! To make it even better, I got it with a cone this time, yummm :)

Tomorrow we don't have much planned so maybe we'll have some time to relax a little bit, but who wants to relax when you've got all of Athens to explore?!