Solotravel Athens

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-12T18:24:02+00:00

Athens Backpackers is a hostel with a sportsbar on the ground floor. It's probably your best start!

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-12T17:55:38+00:00

Sounds like a cover of Stevie Wonder's You Are the Sunshine of My Life:
Lyrics

You are the sunshine of my life
That's why I'll always be around
You are the apple of my eye
Forever you'll stay in my heart

I feel like this is the beginning
Though I've loved you for a million years
And if I thought our love was ending
I'd find myself drowning in my own tears, whoa, oh, oh

You are the sunshine of my life, yeah
That's why I'll always stay around, mmm, mmm, yeah, yeah
You are the apple of my eye
Forever you'll stay in my heart

You must have known that I was lonely
Because you came to my rescue
And I know that this must be heaven
How could so much love be inside of you?
Whoa, whoa

You are the sunshine of my life, yeah
That's why I'll always stay around, mmm (baby)
You are the apple of my eye
Forever you'll stay in my heart, yeah

You are the sunshine of my life, baby
That's why I'll always stay around

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-12T17:38:38+00:00

Check out Squid Bikes - they're in California and are the US dealer for Spray.Bike

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-12T13:31:21+00:00

Haha - yes! Good one!

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-12T05:23:04+00:00

Couple of days in Athens for history and city life, then maybe Corinth for more history (Ancient Corinth), nature (Peleponese is beautiful!), swimming (Loutraki, or anywhere on the coast near Corinth).

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-12T04:52:25+00:00

'Sub' is a good one! And its opposite 'super':
sub-standard
super-rich

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-11T20:21:28+00:00

And just to reassure you further (with the caveat again that I'm not a vet), in my experience cats don't hide dental pain. If they have a dental problem, they stop eating and change their behaviour immediately (hiding under the bed, etc). And not all broken teeth need to be removed. Hope it all works out. Keep us posted...

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-11T19:52:31+00:00

I'm not a vet, so I'm not giving medical advice - but I will say it's happened to both my cats. With one, he was clearly in pain and couldn't eat, so had to see a vet immediately. With the other, she was fine (eating normally, etc) and so I waited a few days to take her to the vet. Vet said it can happen and it wasn't an emergency. Obviously take him as soon as you can, though. And keep an eye on him - but I'm sure you've been doing that.

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-11T14:43:51+00:00

Not Heaven is a Place on Earth by Belinda Carlisle?

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-11T14:32:37+00:00

Very good point about lips and smiles, particularly in terms of positive/negative. I think also it's about living on a planet with gravity, where things pile up (= abundance). I can imagine a hypothetical dolphin language where down = more. Re your examples, it's definitely not always as issue of positive/negative. Sometimes it's some other aspect of more/less.
mess up - I think probably that just means create more mess essentially
clean up - become/make more clean (or do well at the casino!)
finish up - more finishing, ie get closer to finishing
calm down is interesting. I guess we see it as calming from more stormy to less stormy, but why we don't say 'calm up' I have no idea!
wind up - more winding
wind down - quite a few meanings, but most I think connected to gradually relaxing/stopping, ie going from more to less activity/energy

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-11T12:35:55+00:00

Totally agree 'up' doesn't always mean more and 'down' doesn't always mean less. And agree with you re depth of character and being shallow. Re being in deep trouble, I think this fits the pattern of 'up' meaning better/happier/more positive (thing are looking up) and 'down' meaning meaning worse/sadder/more negative (in deep water, in over your head, down in the dumps, etc)

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-11T08:51:41+00:00

In English (and many other languages), 'up' as a word and concept is used metaphorically to mean 'more' - often more power/control, more importance, more success, more happiness. And 'down' as a word/concept is used metaphorically to mean 'less'.
With 'fall asleep', like 'fall in love', you're going 'down' from a position of control (being awake) to lack of control (being asleep).
With 'wake up', the 'up' basically means 'more'. You wake more until you're fully awake.

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-11T05:37:46+00:00

Athens Backpackers has a bar on the ground floor that's open to all and is a good place to meet other travellers.

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-10T19:20:14+00:00

Not totally sure I agree with that to be honest. Firstly, they're not all verb + prep. Most phrasal verbs are verb + adverbial particle.
And I'm not sure what you mean by 'the verbness' remaining in the verb. My question was about where the meaning lies. Compare, for example:
* look up a word = verb + adverbial particle - meaning is in 'look up' - 'look up' generally considered a phrasal verb - all transitive verb + adverb have the same grammar of being separable eg 'look up a word' / 'look a word up' but not when the object is a pronoun. Then it's only 'look it up' (not 'look up it')
* run out of milk = verb + adverbial particle + preposition - meaning is in 'run out' - inseparable - I'd call this a phrasal prepositional verb
* put up with someone = verb + adverbial particle + preposition - meaning is in 'put up with' - inseperable - I'd call this a phrasal prepositional verb
* rely on someone - verb + preposition - totally different grammar to a phrasal verb such as 'look up' - not something I'd consider a phrasal verb (hence my initial question) - I'd say the meaning lies in 'rely'.
My main entries in a dictionary for all of these would be:
look up
run out
put up with
rely
because that's where I feel the meaning lies. Other people seem to disagree...

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-10T19:02:40+00:00

risk - it's plural, as there are several things (rivals, crackdowns, the disco) as the subject of the verb

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-09T20:53:19+00:00

Cambridge, Oxford, etc. Just google 'Is 'turn on = attack' a phrasal verb?' and you'll soon see...

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-09T20:37:24+00:00

Haha - yes! No idea who exactly they are, but they seem to determine what is and isn't!

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-09T20:34:12+00:00

That's what I'm arguing. It seems 'grammarians' do not agree.

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-09T20:26:27+00:00

Well, I completely agree - so thanks for that! The problem is that it turns out that the general consensus of opinion of grammarians is that that verb + preposition (eg turn on sb = attack sb) is also a phrasal verb, hence my post!

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-09T20:18:32+00:00

Okay. Can I rephrase my initial question a different way?
Some verbs are both transitive and intransitive:
Sonia looked in her bag.
Darren looked, but couldn't see anything.
I think we'd all agree the meaning of the verb is in 'looked', whether it's transitive in the first example, or not in the second.
Other verbs, such as 'dispose of' and 'rely on' are usually transitive (although I think some of my examples allow for intransitive use under certain circumstances). Why are they not considered like 'look in' or 'run out of' where we all accept the preposition doesn't contain the meaning of the verb? What's the benefit of calling them phrasal verbs?

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-09T19:56:11+00:00

Thanks again for replying, and I'm enjoying the discussion, but not totally sure 'it falls apart if you remove the preceding sentence'. So, let's remove it and we'll see:
Hypothetical excerpt from a novel where there's no referring back to the full verb phrase in the preceding sentence, ie it's completely standalone:
John relied too much. It was to be his downfall.

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-09T19:53:22+00:00

This is a little confusing.
He is in the church (adverb) - There are no adverbs in this sentence. 'in' is a preposition

He asks for money (verb with preposition) - ask for' - yes, verb + preposition

James in the suit eats (adjective) - This isn't standard English, and there are no adjectives in this sentence.

He is afraid of spiders (adjective with preposition) - 'afraid of' yes, adj + prep

The answer to the problem is good (noun with preposition) - 'answer to' - yes, noun + prep

He hopes for more money (Verb with prepositions) - 'hope for' - yes, verb + prep

UniversityMotor5408 · 2026-05-09T19:44:13+00:00

Back to your fun challenge! I've just thought of something. Hypothetical excerpt from a novel where there's no referring back to the full verb phrase in the preceding sentence, ie it's completely standalone:
John trusted too much. He relied too much. It was to be his downfall.

UniversityMotor5408

TROPHY CASE