Day 24: back to athens

Cassandra and I woke up around 8:30, packed, and dragged all of our bags down to the port. Cassandra sat with out bags while I ran to an internet cafe to check on our flight. Unfortunately, it was already delayed 2 hours. I guess that was better than being canceled though. We got on the ferry and luckily found some comfy seats. Cassandra slept while I read for 4 hours. When we got to the port, we were the first ones off the ship. We walked towards the metro station and were bombarded by taxi drivers. "Metro not open. I take you I take you." We were bummed that we couldn't take the metro(closed because of the 48 hour strike) and annoyed that the taxi drivers wouldn't leave us alone. We were informed that the taxi drivers around the port are very dishonest and try to charge tourists a ton. So we walked down the street a ways and found a taxi. A bunch of the streets by our hostel were shut down due to the protests that were going on in the square across from our hostel so the taxi driver had to drop us far away. We didn't know where it was exactly so we walked a half mile, lost, with all of our luggage, for at least half a mile. We were relieved when we finally found it. We got to our tiny little room and put our stuff down then got on our computers. We hadn't eaten all day and it was about 5:30 so we walked(away from the protests) to a little pizza place. We were so hungry we downed a cheese pizza that was actually not very good now that I think about it. We shopped a little bit and then headed back to the hostel. We hung out with some girls from our program that were staying there for a bit. They had been up to see the protests and told us we really needed to see it. We also met some photo journalists from Italy that were shooting the protests. We decided to meet up with out teachers at the protest. It was so interesting to see. Glass was broken in, there was trash and rocks every where, stuff had been set on fire, and buildings had been chipped away at. I also got to experience tear gas, not fun. It does make you cry and it makes you sneeze and your nose run. If you are in it long enough, your face turns white. Our teachers walked us to an area with restaurants that locals hang out at. It was cool. We hung out and they ordered us some Greek dishes. (Em, I tried beets and I really liked them!) It was really good food. After, we went home and got semilost. We had to walk through the protest again. Apparently, while we were at dinner, it flared up again and then calmed down again. The streets were a mess and there were police every where. They helped us find our way home. Such a long crazy day! It was so awesome to experience, but I couldn't wait to be home.