The next day in Athens, we thought we would go out shopping. It was a Monday so Tinos won’t be joining us. He suggested some places and warned us not go wander off too far.

Among ourselves we joked about Tinos’s security talisman – in Malay kawasan beguris. Haha.

Also that morning, when I woke up, I actually received a few whatsapps from people who shall remain unamed, that saw Tinos’s photos on my Instagram and “enquired” 😂😂

Anyway, wandering on ourselves actually is a source of anxiety for all 4 of us. Haha! Again we joked that it’s PTSD.

   
    
        
Not many photos cause its all just…shopping. There’s Zara, H&M and all the usual suspects 🙂

We wandered around the central area in a straight line until suddenly the area sort of changes landscape. Suddenly no more English words, and things are no more than €3-€4. 

You can feel the landscape changing as well as the people. No more tourists in sight. More graffiti, and perhaps even dirtier.

I enquired where we were at a nearby shop (I didn’t have internet to see on Google Maps as we didn’t manage to buy a local sim) and also was not very comfortable whipping out my phone. 

I was informed we were very close to Monastiraki! If u recall, that is where we got pickpocketed. 

We are out of the area of the security talisman!!!!

We quickly reversed back and walked towards the central area. 😂😂

Like I said, PTSD.

   
 
Back in safe area.

Found a lovely chocolate shop too. Om nom!

   
 
At night we went for a nice dinner:

   
    
 
And then met up again with Tinos to have coffee. 

   
    
    
 
This was followed by a walk back to the hotel and a goodbye.

   
Twins. Sharing the same birthday.

Overall it was an uneventful day, a welcome break from the drama of the first and second day. 

We were so grateful we met Tinos. He went out of his way to help us get through our terrible ordeal here, made so many calls here and there, helped us get our feet back and showed us another side of Athens. He did all this even though we’re actually strangers to him.

With that goodbye, the next day we had half day left in Athens before our flight back to Istanbul at 7pm and since we spent the whole of the day before shopping, we thought it would be nice to do the hop on hop off bus tour of the city.

The plan was, breakfast, bus tour then airport.

However, we clearly haven’t learnt our lesson. Don’t plan to do anything in Athens. 

On this particular day, the people of Athens decided that they will be going on a strike.

Not just any strike- public transport strike.

What this means is that bus tours probably won’t run and we should go and try catch a taxi, and get the hell out of the city as soon as possible unless of course we’d like to walk the 45km to the airport.

HAHA.

Since we already had breakfast, and our taxi was booked – we had 2 hours to kill.

   
 
So we went for a pedicure!

   
    
   
And then we went to the airport. 

At the airport we had to say goodbye to one of our travelmates.

Though his money was intact, his passport was stolen. This means he had to exit Athens, and leave stright back to Brunei. 😭😭😭 Stupid pickpocketers!!!!

   
 Finally boarded the plane and it was a load off our shoulders!!!!!!

Bye Athens. Bye bye! Will miss your coffee but won’t miss your #orangjahat!