Shopping in Athens

If u want to buy anything as far as supplies goes for something your making. The best place to go is into Athens. There's areas that have blocks of just certain supplies. Like all jewelry supplies, leather stuff, sewing, hardware. I think u get the picture. So this last week end i needed to pick up a few bead supplies, and my husband need a o-ring for his flashlight. Now I'm always complaining about driving and parking. Well this is no different in fact it's worse than where i live. Some streets are still cobble stone, and only room for donkeys to go though. Even with our small cars over here, when parking on these side streets it will take up half of the street. That is why we don't ever drive down there. We either take the metro, or the bus. But this past week the metro has been worked on so we had taken the bus. It's a good thing i had my husband with. It's been a while since I've been down there, so i forgot how to get to the store. The bus this week had to drop us off at a different location, cause of a union and labor demonstration going on. So where we were dropped off is by the center square, where u will find drug addicts, hookers, and illegal immigrants trying to sell or beg from u. Along with homeless that sleep in the parks.

Before i tell u about the stores let me tell u about the bus ride over. It was early so it wasn't to crowded at first. Only problem i had was sitting backwards on the bus i was feeling a little bus sick. Normally i don't sit, i like to stand away from people. I've come to not like sitting in crowded buses with no air. It's hot, sticky and everybody is sweating, so much that the seats are wet. I was no different, as my legs are sweating over the seat, I'm thinking this is gross. Anyways it takes about 30-45 mins to get to Athens cause of all the stops we made. At the one stop i notice these teen age boys standing there. Why is it boys/men are for ever touching them selves? (better yet when we are driving outside of the city it's not unusual to see some guy peeing on the side of the road, Like u can't hold it....couple weeks ago when i went out feeding the cats in the morning there was some guy peeing on a tree...WHAT???? u marking your spot!!!) I know that is everywhere, but over here it seems a little extreme sometimes. So your asking why did i even notice right? Well how can u not when there grabbing at them selves. So i with my wisdom i ask a stupid question to my husband about why boys/men are always doing this. (Your going to love this answer.) "there checking there weapons" ...say what???? ...there c h e c k i n g there WEAPONS!!!! I just look at him with this stupid look, he's laughing of course. I just shook my head. Yeah there checking all right. I think there making sure they still have them. For the most part it's a mans world over here but in the background the women got the men by the balls. Yeah, there checking alright.

Anyways we get to our stop and head for the block where all the hardware stores are. We turn the corner and u can just smell the testosterone in the air. Now like i said it's a man's world specially in this area. Well I'm not like most women, i like working with my hands and i LOVE, LOVE LOVE, hardware stores. I like fixing things or figuring out how to fix them. So where going into all these stores and of course I'm the only woman. After going in several and not finding this o-ring he needs i ask him what it's for. He has this flashlight from the army ( just hearing the army part makes me roll my eyes) that has different color lens, and he needs the o-ring so it's water proof, to go under the water. Say what??? I roll my eyes again and ask him how often he goes under the water to signal somebody, since it's been yrs that it's been laying in the closet. Men are such boys, and than i start laughing, cause I'm picturing him swimming in the sea signaling, what??? a fish??? Than i start laughing harder when this picture in my mind flash's of baby Huey, in my husbands swim trunks playing with his flashlight signaling the underwater creatures. Don't ask me why when ever i think of my husband doing something that a little boy would do that picture of baby Huey flash's in my mind. After ten mins of laughing so hard I'm ready to wet my pants, (of course i can't just go mark a tree.) In the end we do find something that might work.

But before we can leave this area i remember i needed some more chains for the fan pulls. After a few more stores we find one that has it by the meter. So i let him go in to get it. Now this store is like a long hallway, maybe eight ft wide and twenty ft deep. After u put in all the shelves and everything there is only room for one person in the lane. So i stay out and wait for him. There's already six men in there and he calls for me to come in. Great!!! I slide by the first two with being polite and saying sa no me(excuse me) the third guy has this big belly and there's not much room for me to go by. I squeeze by but with my big boobs I'm sliding and knocking things off the shelves. After i untangle my right boob from a key hook i get to the back of the store where my husband is laughing. Oh this is so stupid i can't even believe this is a store! I was so glad we were the only ones left when we were finished. I didn't have to worry about getting hung up again.

OK the next stop is the bead store. This time it was actually nice, it wasn't to busy and i didn't have store personal breathing down my neck to hurry up. Sometimes i can't believe how rude the people are that work in the stores. There always in a hurry to get u out. It's like what??? ..u don't want to make any money? Seriously, i worked retail for yrs. the customers always right. Not over here, your usually a pain they want to get rid of u. But anyways this time it was a pleasant experience. So we got what we needed and decided to stop and get something to eat. We found a subway, so i wanted to try it. Of course all the fast food places that we have here, never really taste like over there. But we wanted to try it. They even had Welch's grape juice. I was going to get it but thought better of it. I could just picture myself with a grape mustache. So i got the tea instead, and of course my husband got his beer. Yes, over here at a fast food place u can always get beer. We go to sit outside to eat. I wanted to stay away from the street, i didn't need a little carbon monoxide in my food. You ever get that feeling somebody is watching u eat? Every time i was taking a bite or chewing i notice i was being watched by the people walking by. So of course i kept wiping off my face thinking it must be dirty or something. I had no idea what was wrong. This was going on for the whole time we sat there. Finally when this woman walked by with her dog and the DOG was staring i was like, WHAT???? What is it, i know i didn't shave my legs in a couple weeks and one foot, had one toe painted (didn't have time to finish the rest) but can u see that????? So i ask my husband he has no clue, he's like in another world when he's eating. So i really don't know what it was about, or maybe like myself they liked to people watch. Who knows!! We stayed there another half hr or so and relaxed before we head back home.

Now we are waiting at the same bus stop as we were dropped off. When we got there, u only seen a few homeless people sleeping in the park. Now the hookers were out, illegals, and the police were after them to move along. That is always interesting to watch. After we get on the bus we are headed home. It's really hot now in the mid 90's and no air again. I was getting ill by the smell of sweat. You know i always heard about how Europeans always smell so bad. I have a theory on this. It's not that they don't shower. It's they don't wash there cloths very often. I'm always washing, and i look like the weirdo on the block. But how can u take a shower and put on smelly cloths, doesn't make sense to me. Anyways we make it home OK, I went into the bathroom and that is where i see in the mirror my top has dirt marks across my chest. Could this be what everybody was staring at me.?? That must have happened when i was in the hardware store dusting off there shelves with my boobs. Do u think my husband would of said anything???? Of course not!! He was probably daydreaming about signaling the fish, while checking to make sure he still had his weapons!!!