It’s time for Sam’s European adventure take 2, only this time I’m on my own… not coz I’ve dumped Chris (or vice versa) but because he couldn’t meet me in Athens until Sat so I’ve had a night and a day all to myself. While admittedly travelling on my own freaked me out somewhat*, it’s actually been kind of cool and not having someone else around seemed to circumvent the meltdown I usually have first night in a strange city – and vodka wasn’t even involved! Truth be told, I laid down for a quick nana nap at 5pm and woke up the next morning.

In a fortunate happenstance, I seem to have found a hotel right near the main shopping drag so that took care of the first part of the day. In an effort to prove that I’m not a complete philistine, I went to the Benaki Museum to see a jewellery exhibition designed by famous artists such as Picasso. Now museums are normally Chris’ thing (there’s a limit to how many pieces of pottery I want to look at), but I can’t spend the whole day shopping. I then compounded the problem by visiting the Museum of Cycladic Art and realised that Chris would have actually wanted to see this one but too late now. It had a fantastic exhibition of nude sculptures by Ugo Rondinone. Lots of willies.

To complete the day I indulged myself with a fish spa, pedicure and massage. Rather odd to have little fishes nibbling away all the detritus from your feet but I guess a part of me will now stay in Athens (collective eww! there). I usually expect a girl to do the massage, but no, I got Andreas. A little weird, but apart from the odd breathing and waving his hands over my body to align my chakras or some such nonsense it was pretty good. Think it was supposed to be a no clothes massage but he obviously picked up on my ‘don’t touch my breasts’ vibe and told me I could keep my knickers on.

There’s a lot to be said for travelling on your own, but I’m not game enough to venture out by myself at night in this district so it’s just as well Chris arrives soon and I can start the drinking 🙂

*travelling generally does this to me anyway. As a result, Emma now thinks I need therapy – I’m just surprised it took her this long to figure that out.