Good morning from Teamaroundtheworld 1999, this is Doug with the journal report for Nov. 29, Thessalonica, Greece to Athens, Greece.

We woke up before sunrise because we wanted to get any early start on the road to Athens. We were also camped in a farmers field, and wanted to get out before anybody saw us. As luck would have it, three farmworkers drove onto the field driving the Greek version of our Chinese nemesis, the bok choy truck. They looked very surprised to see us but responded warmly following our chorus of hello's. They didn't speak much English but we tried to convey to them that we were leaving and just in case they didn't understand we actually left.

We decided to bypass the on-ramp to the highway and stay on the little side road and find somewhere to get something for breakfast. Just up the road we found a small cafe type place and got some coffee. The owner said that the only thing he could make for us was cheese sandwiches, but nobody was complaining and we ordered five. It was absolutely freezing outside, and it wasn't much warmer inside so we all huddled around the small wood stove in the middle of the place eating our toasted cheese sandwiches and sipping our coffee. After loading up with road junk food we hit the road for Athens in earnest.

We headed South following the beautiful Greek coast towards Thermopylae pass, scene of a great battle during the second Persian wars. King Leonidas and his three-hundred Spartans fought to the death, buying critical time for the adequate defense of Athens. We took some pictures at the monument, but there was really no way of getting a good shot because of the high power lines that were visible from all angles. All the same it was really cool to see it for myself.

We entered Athens at the height of rush hour traffic, but fast or slow it didn't really matter because we didn't have a map of Athens and no clue as to where we were going. At some point we left the freeway, it had taken us forty-five minutes to go only a few miles so we figured what the hey. We drove around for at least another forty-five minutes before we lucked into a small hotel down by the beach. The rooms were only thirty bucks apiece, a great deal except Jeff had to sleep on the floor that first night and the hotel was in the direct flight path of the nearby Athens airport. We unpacked and then tried to get a cab to the Acropolis.

The guy behind the front desk told us that it was located in the Plaka district, which was also the major tourist area but that the Acropolis was closed for the day. We went there anyway. There was the usual assortment of t-shirt/postcard shops as well as a few art galleries, but it was loaded with restaurants. We picked one and we all had an awesome dinner of Gyros washed down with copious amounts of the local beer. We met two American women at the restaurant and after dinner they came over to our table for a chat. Their names were both Lynn and they were from Texas. We got to talking and it turned out that one of them knew Nick's older sister. They had worked together years ago. Small world.

After hearing the story about our trip, they put forth the idea of representing us when we got back to the states. They would try land Team Aroundtheworld1999 some type of moneymaking deal in return for twenty percent of the take. They told us not to sign any other deals and that they would be sending us contracts to sign. Then we sealed the deal with a prayer (led by one of the Lynns). We had no idea what would come of it but we figured what the heck. Then we had some bitchen' dessert and took cabs back to the hotel. See you tomorrow.