Athens trains, tea time, and H&M's

Today we left our "exlusive spa resort" hotel in Crete and arrived in Athens. We are staying in the Hotel Grande Bretagne, a 130 year old hotel. It's kinda like staying in the Biltmore, except that we have a view of the Acropolis outside our window.

After arriving in the Athens airport, we decided to save a few bucks (and perhaps some harrowing stories of corrupt taxi drivers) and we took the metro train to the hotel. We are probably the only people who arrived in the luxury hotel by metro. Anyway, the lady at the airport told us to get off at a certain spot, and despite our misgivings (as our guidebook told us otherwise), we got off at that spot. After travelling quite a while and not finding our hotel, we were able to orientate ourselves and discovered we were quite far from our hotel. This was not a pleasant experience in the Greek midday sun.

But, we finally made it, and I got to have tea time in one of the hotel restaurants. My 26 euro tea consisted of a pot of Earl Grey, 4 mini sandwiches, 3 fresh baked scones (which were excellent!) and 4 or 5 little tarts. These were all served on a tower of 3 plates, and it was the perfect light meal, despite the exorbitant price.

After a shower and a nap, Brian and I decided to try our luck at shopping. Brian has started to get blisters from his Roos, and I needed to find a shirt for sightseeing tomorrow that would hide my hideous skin disease. It turns out that when you take antibiotics, they say to stay out of direct sunlight for a reason. In the past few days, any part of my skin that gets hit by direct sunlight turns into a bright red, bumpy, rash. I'm not sure if you can tell by any of the previous pictures. It's not itchy, but it feels tingley, like I'm getting pricked by a bunch of little pins.

Unfortunately, all the shirts I brought were tank tops or v-necks, leaving my upper chest, shoulders, and arms exposed to the evil sun which turns me into a diseased red lobster. So I went in search of a regular crew neck t-shirt, while Brian needed new shoes.

In our pursuit of relief from blisters and the sun, we found the Greek version of Nordstrom's, which was far overpriced, just like the American version. We later found another department store where Brian found shoes.

When we got off at the wrong train stop earlier, I remembered seeing an H&M store, and we found our way back there, and I was able to get a shirt. Hopefully this will prevent any more hideous skin disease from appearing on me.

Now, Brian and I are headed back to the hotel, and then to find somewhere to eat dinner. Goodnight!

P.S. I have no idea why it won't post spaces after my punctuation marks. I'm spacing my sentences properly, I swear!