My Athens
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Athens,
Attica,
Greece
Friday, May 2, 2008
The city glitters below as we circle in and land without further incident just a scant 25 hours after I locked the door of my house. The miracle of modern air travel. I stride through the nearly empty to terminal and quickly locate Customs -- two lines; one for EU and one for non-EU -- and both posts completely deserted. While the other passngers claim their bags, I choose the "Nothing-to-Declare" line and just walk through the door to the main terminal. No one is there to ask any questions or stamp my passport. Not the friendliest welcome, but under the circumstances, I'm happy to forgive them. Besides, my bags and passport have already been throughouly checked once in Seattle, twice in Heathrow, a stunningly efficient THREE times in Frankfurt, so I don't feel much of a threat to anyone as I slip across the frontier into Greece.
My cabdriver doesn't speak English any better than I do Greek. Nor does it appear that he's heard of my hotel (never a good sign), but after a quick stop down the way where he leaps out of the car to confer with some sketchy types hanging around outside the terminal and a quick glance at my itinerary, we're ready to go. The driver offers two of them a ride and now the cab is full with me in the front and two young women in the back and we're off at speed into sleeping Athens. We let our lady friends off at another taxi stand downtown and then set off again through some of the narrowest streets and darkest alleys I've seen since Debrecen, Hungary in 1999 on a similarly lively cab ride. A good mugging seems imminent, but I'm disappointed once again as we pull up in front of my hotel.
I check in, get my card key and ride the phonebotth-sized elevator to the 5th floor. I can't read my room number scrawled on my card, but after trying it in a few doors I find room 502 and grab my first 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep in more than a day.
It's sunny this morning at 9.30 when I wake up. Breakfast in the dining room, shower and a welcome change of clothes and this metered Internet connection in the lobby (just 12-euros an hour).
Athens awaits.
