Christmas Day in Athens! You would expect joyful caroling along the main streets, with people mingling around drinking beer, dressed-up ponies surrounded by shrieking children…
… well, that was supposed to be an Athenian Christmas, but it didn’t happen today because it was raining the whole damn day.
The sky just poured and poured… not heavily, mind you. Just heavy enough for you to think you can venture outside only to discover yourself drenched within minutes.
So all in all, it was a bummer of a Christmas, but within the house of Athens Backpackers there was still joy to be shared by all. In exchange for a Christmas lunch, Liping and I volunteered for some “communal cooking”.
So off we went! I was on chopping duty, so my job was exactly that – chop, chop and chop! It was a hilarious experience chopping mounts of vegs with the ladies who (surprise, surprise) had no idea what we are chopping. LOL.
And so after all ingredients were prepared, we sat at the lunch table and waited… and waited… and waited.
Did you know turkeys took five hours to cook?
Nope, we didn’t know either. So we waited from late morning till 3 p.m. before any food was served!
While we waited, I chatted with Zun, who hailed from China, but was born in Philippines, but right now studying in the USA. His background was so complicated that Liping, Kevin and I had trouble understanding. LOL. But we had fun making fun of each other and passed time by complaining in unison how long it took.
Ah, the food was finally ready!!! This was what we waited five hours for. It tasted… well, I guess it tasted alright. But the wine they served (on the house, yay!) more than made up for the amount of food to be shared by the 40 odd backpackers that afternoon.
It was certainly an interesting way to spend my Christmas morning, and one that I would love to do again.
After sitting for so long in the dining hall, we went back to rest in our room. Contemplated going out, but it was still pouring, so we slept instead until dinner time. By then we were starving again, so we headed to a nearby restaurant for some food.
The food, I have to say, was much more satisfying compared to lunch. The dim light, the soothing music (they had live piano and guitar going on on Christmas songs) and the great company made a wonderful Christmas dinner.
And then it was back to Athens Backpackers for more drinking and merriment. I think by the time I hit my third glass of housepour, plus a couple of Raki shots on the house, I lost track of time and what I was doing. Crashed out not long after that.
More photos on my Christmas Day in Athens.
All in all, it had been a very fun Christmas, and I really wonder if I could do this again in the future!