The Goddess Athena

Athens was our last stop in Greece. We had been relaxed by the laid-back attitude of the islands for about a week and were planning to continue resting for one more night. However, as soon as we landed in the Greek capital, Ms. Athens was not having it! The vibrant city quickly shifted our mood, stirred us a stiff vodka soda and fueled us for a night of unexpected debauchery.

From our research, we noticed that most of the city’s hot stops were located in a centralized area called Gazi. This little hub of pure fun was packed with revelers and boasted either a bar, café, resto, club or fashion boutique on every corner. Loud music came from everywhere and to add to all the commotion – bam! – it also happened to be Athens Fashion Week! Tents were set up in the middle of the area’s main square and we could see lonely catwalks ready to be fiercely pounced by the nearby (and almost ready) Grecian models. We enjoyed the experience from afar since our tickets to the actual shows were non-existent. But after 2.5 seconds we discovered our first stop, S-Cape… S-Cape Army Academy to be precise. And what a perfect match this place was for a dazzling pseudo-militant duo as GI.JOE.

S-Cape, as you might have already guessed, is an army-chic nightclub decorated as such. Instantly, I was trying to stage photo shoots using the club’s setting and décor, but A. our girl and favorite Miami shutterbug/glitter dumpling Jipsy was not anywhere near this continent and B. we didn’t have our own camera since we were following JoJo’s cardinal rule of not bringing a camera to nightclubs (He hates carrying bulky things. I don’t carry things because 99% of the time I lose them. And most often than not, the pictures end up looking like we had rough night out with Ke$ha anyway). After we pretended dancing – awfully I might add – to Greek music in between songs by Rihanna and Katy Perry (YES! & YES!), we made our way to a smaller lounge around the block called Sodade. This place was fun and pretty much a sardine can of Greek men. Even though these men drank like fishes, they didn’t move very much or perhaps dancing wasn’t in their agenda? Maybe their plan was to sleep with the other fishes instead? Who cares?! Leave it to two Miamians and a classic Beyonce anthem and you definitely have ammo to tear up a dance floor and put on a show!

The night ended with this quote, “We should go to the hotel now as it’s almost 4 a.m. We have to wake up for our tour at 7.” Yeah, it was actually well past 5.

The next day (well, later that morning) we didn’t wake up at 7 a.m., but close to noon. We hadn’t paid for the tour – THANK GOD – so we decided to embark on our exploration. Athens is a gorgeous city made up of old and new - one block you have the breathtaking site of 8,000 year-old Grecian temple ruins and the next street begins with Starbucks. We made our way up the Akropolis (For free too, heeeey! Thanks strikers!) and visited the Parthenon, Old Temple of Athena, Hadrian’s Arch and the Temple of Zeus along our hike. The clear, panoramic views from atop are nearly as incredible as the history the Akropolis holds. In all, we find Greek mythology quite fascinating to say the least. I mean Xanadu is one of JoJo’s favorite movies after all.

After our Akropolian adventure, we got on a small train that took us all around the city… similar to a hop-on/off tour bus. The first stop was at the Akropolis Museum. This multi-level museum was awesome and it carried many interesting Grecian ruins, statues and artifacts. It also has glass floors enabling those walking by to look down and see additional ruins, still in their original location. I didn’t enjoy the latter part very much because I’m afraid of heights and falling. Actually, I found this walking experience quite terrifying and I felt like I was going to die the entire time. Another stop was at the ancient temple of Agora. This site is much smaller compared to the others, but just as nice. Taken by its beauty, we decide to stage photo shoots. Cut to us being kicked out midway during a lying down, Aphrodite-esque pose. Apparently, its illegal to lie on the marble rocks. Who knew?! ; )

We ended our evening by having dinner at a café near the Akropolis. It had just finished drizzling, the sun was setting and a rainbow had formed across the ancient grounds. We toasted to our time together, looked around and witnessed how the view complemented our mood rather cheerfully.

We spent our last night back in Gazi. The Blue Train Café and Bar was our first stop. Blue Train was noted as the meeting point for all hip locals to begin the night and it certainly was. JoJo and I happily sipped our cocktails while being glued to Fashion TV. Then suddenly JoJo started feeling sick. It seems that the mixture of room-temperature vodka and soda sans ice can do evil things to your stomach and gag reflexes. I mean, what is it about frozen water cubes that Europeans don’t like? Let’s just say our night didn’t go as planned, but it was OK. We had had enough of our girl Athina for one weekend and she wasn’t going to make us miss anything else the next morning… not even our flight.

As planned, we had our last serving of fried cheese saganaki (God, I dream about it!) and Greek salad before we took off to the airport. We made our flight to Barcelona and spent the night at our friend Alex’s one-bedroom apartment in Eixample. The day after we took off to Munich!