Night Out

Whenever we go out on the balcony, which sits directly above Eyenet, we are spotted by people we know- not because we are popular, but because the only people we know either go there a lot or work there. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. If they see us, they invite us down to hang out, which is great, but then I run into the predicament of wanting to paint my nails and watch tv shows, but knowing I should be socializing so I can make new friends haha.

The other day while Rusty was at practice Mike saw me out on the balcony and told me to come down. I went down and sat with Eleni (pronounced Alena), a girl I randomly met at Eyenet of course, and her friend Catherine for a bit before heading back up. Mike invited Rusty and I to go out with them for drinks later, so we decided to meet up at 10pm.

Our "getting ready" selfie

Mike picked up Eleni, Rusty, and me from Eyenet is his little, bright yellow car. We stopped to pick up Catherine and then headed up to the center.

There was a huge soccer game going on- Greece was playing for some type of championship, so restaurants were full and every single person in them was watching the game. Eleni wanted to go somewhere we could all chat, so we found a small restaurant, which had no tv's and mostly outdoor seating. It was raining off and on, but they had a huge awning we sat under. Eleni ordered appetizers for us to share. The appetizer had three different types of meat, potatoes, and a large helping of cheese sauce, which you dip everything in. I didn't care for the sauce. The texture of it was grainy and it was a little spicy. They all ordered wine- they know we don't drink alcohol, so Mike always asks, "Coka-Cola?" I think he thinks we love Coke, I mean we do like Coke, but I think he thinks we drink it all day, like they do coffee. So we got our Cokes and started drinking the night away ;)

We all chatted, or tried to chat- Eleni got her master's degree in the UK, so she knows English pretty well. Mike and Catherine can both understand English, but have a hard time speaking it. After we finished up there we went to meet up with a couple of Mike's friends at another place which had "tra-deesh-a-null" Greek music. This place was exactly how I pictured a restaurant in Greece. There were cobblestone arches, typical Greek music, and an old Greek guy with white hair doing a traditional Greek dance. This place was great- if only it weren't for the excessive amount of smoke, which was making me feel like my lungs were getting blacker by the second. They ordered another appetizer, which of course was meat and bread, more wine, and more Cokes for us!

It was about 2am on a Wednesday night and the place was still crowded. Eleni said the people there would most likely stay up all night and then go straight to work! No wonder they have a mid-day break and shops close from 2-5pm and then re-open. Weird huh? The big stores stay open, but all of the smaller ones close. So anyways, Rusty and I were super tired, we had been ready to go home for about an hour haha, so we told them we were going to walk back to our apartment. They said no and that they were almost finished...about 20 min later they decided they were ready to go. The good news is, while we were waiting to go, the owner of the restaurant brought us a dessert, on the house! There were four creme puffs with strawberry sauce drizzled over them. It was not the best dessert ever, but I was just happy that we got a free dessert. Mike dropped us off, we said our goodbyes, and were ready for bed after a long night of fun. Overall, I'd say our first night out on the town was a success!