Athens, Greece
Trip Start
Feb 27, 2008
1
11
31
Trip End
May 28, 2008
Athens,
Greece
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Day 33 - The hotel floated into port about an hour late so the train that we would have raced to get was long gone. Trains run very infrequently and are often late in Greece because most of the lines are single tracks, forcing trains to often wait in a station for another train to pass.
Acropolis buildings
The train to Athens was a very scenic one. We passed through several small towns along the water that looked very quiet and personal, but were most likely tragically transformed into pseudo extensions of Italian or American vacation living during the high season. The tracks were very rough and the train was slow compared to other experiences elsewhere in Europe. I'm not sure if this is due to Greece's late entry to the European Union or if the rails are used so frequently and updated so infrequently that all the attention is now paid to the tracks in severe need of repair. Due to the missed train in Patras, we arrived very late into Athens. Trying to navigate in Athens is probably like navigating in China, Japan, Israel, or anywhere else where they use Symbols instead of letters. The Greek signs for streets, bus stops and metro stations all have English written beneath them. Stores and restaurant menus on the other hand, usually do not. The hardest part about a country that uses characters is the fact that you can't even look at a word and hack through it phonetically. I had no Idea what the name of our bus stop was. I had to show the paper with directions to the every person I asked and I felt very out of place. It's bad enough not speaking the language, but not being able to pronounce the words makes me feel like a super dummy. The name of our bus stop looked like DAOAYAIA but was somehow pronounced "Ferrovia". This brings new meaning to the phrase "It's all Greek to me". Finally we arrived at our hostel and got settled in.
Acropolis view from Agora
I've stayed at nicer places but I was just glad to have English speakers working there so I could get straight directions in a language I understood. Day 34 - Despite the dark clouds in the distance we set off on our sight seeing adventure early that morning. Like Rome, all the Ancient archeological sites are near the center of the city and relatively close together. The 12 Euro ticket for the Acropolis gets you admission to 6 of Athens' biggest sights. We had our student ID's so it only cost us 6 Euros. Let me pause for a minute to thank the University of Oregon for providing me with a student ID without an expiration date. It didn't mean so much in the States, but here in Europe, a Student ID is everything. You can get discounts on everything from museums and bus fares to Pints of beer at the bar near the hostel (no joke). Education be damned! This student ID is the best thing the University ever gave me. So where was I? oh yes, the Acropolis. The Parthenon sits on top of the largest hill in the center of Athens surrounded by the Theatre of Dionysus, Ancient Agora, Roman Agora, and the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The Parthenon and the Theatre of Dionysus were currently undergoing restoration and had scaffolding all over them. I felt a bit cheated to be honest. The scaffolding didn't hinder my ability to SEE the monuments, but it really did screw up the pictures I tried to take, thus forcing me to buy postcards of the sites. The postcard industry is probably a racket paying the restoration contractors to leave their scaffolding up for extended periods of time....OK, maybe not, but it makes for a good conspiracy theory.
Ancona Pizza
We walked around the Parthenon and down the hill through the Ancient Agora. After seeing the Roman Forum and Pompeii in such good shape, the Agora seemed like a pile of rocks with a statue placed here and there. I didn't get the same kind of magical feeling of "wow, ancient Greeks walked here". Even though it was equally as old. We met some people at the hostel later who had a different opinion. They felt some sort of inner connection with the Greeks but the Roman ruins didn't light that same spark for them. I guess it just depends who you like reading and studying about. When the rain finally started pouring down we sought refuge in the Hard Rock Café. The Greeks have a Siesta time just like the Spanish. It's a little later in the day, 2-5 instead of 12-3. Then businesses usually stay open until 8 or 9 at night. And it took us a couple of days to realize exactly what was going on so we could plan our day around it. At first I just thought all the stores were closing at 2pm, which I knew couldn't be right. After a long day of walking around, dodging rain and walking in ruins, we ate some dinner and met our Polish hostel room mates at the pub for some drinks and conversation. The conversation was good but I could tell that we were fighting an uphill battle against the American Stereotype of being false, fat, unlearned and self-centered. I think Karla was a little offended by some of the comments made toward our culture but I did my best to try and counteract the stereotype. I'm not talking bad about them, but there was some obvious tension in the otherwise enjoyable conversation.
Arch of Hadrian
I began to miss the generally agreeable Australians we encountered in Ireland. Day 35 - With only two of the six sights left to see on our Acropolis ticket we set off again on a quest after going grocery shopping. On our way to the first site, we passed the Olympic stadium used in the 1896 Olympic games. It was closed to tourists but because it was in the shape of a horseshoe, you could walk farely close to the track to take pictures. The Temple of Olympian Zeus is now only a dozen columns standing in a field. Without knowing the history, it would seem like an anticlimactic experience but with some explanation it made a bigger impact. Just outside the fence,was Hadrian's arch, the gateway to the ancient city now centrally located due to expansion. After this we headed to Keramikos, and we didn't even use our ticket to get in because you could see the whole site from the street. Without an indepth understanding of Greek culture, this might be the least interesting site. Its most remarkable feature are the gravestones dating back to the Bronze Age. Since we were near the train station, we decided to take a quick trip to Piraeus. We were sadly disappointed. I'm not saying the trip was a waste of time but I most certainly wouldn't go back there if I was catching a ferry (and I might not even do that if it was dark). Refusing to be put out we bought Gelotti we made up for the bad decision of day tripping to a port town. That made everything seem better: chocolate good, watermelon not so good. I cooked tortillas for dinner.
At the Acropolis
Karla said they were scrumptious. I cleverly disguised the fact that I could only cook four things by spacing them far enough apart and taking her out to nice dinners in between. After all, she's the one who has 38 cookbooks. After dinner we walked back to the Acropolis to see it all lit up at night. Karla swore that it would be decorated with colored lights. We had to admire its ancient beauty under regular boring white lights. Because I stopped at several corner stores to purchase cans of beer (there's so cheap in Athens), I felt I had to make up for lost time. I had to relieve myself and chose a dark bushy corner with overhanging trees. I was certain no one could see me but I also couldn't see where I was going. I'm about 85% sure I didn't pee on my shoes. I stumbled out of the bush and continued on. About 15 minutes down the road, Karla look at me and lets out a yelp. Not sure whether to recoil or duck, I just stand still and keep saying "what, what?" She points to my sleeve and I look down to see a slug trail going from my elbow and disappearing somewhere near my neck. Karla let it hang there for a minute while she looked for an implement to remove it from my collar. Thank God it hadn't gone down my shirt because it was past 10 and the subways don't have bathrooms, I had to ride all the way back with slug juice on my arm. Let me tell you this, whatever slug trails are made of could be used to patch boat houlls because even after vigorous scrubbing, there is still traces on my jacket.I remember I hadn't felt like my insides were on fire recently so we popped down to the pub for a shot of ouzo.
Backpacking
We meet up with some backpackers from our hostel and joined them for drinks and conversation. One of them was from Seattle, the other from San Diego. We talked to them about fate, destiny, tarot cards and the unknown. I can't believe I traveled 3,500 miles just to find west coast hippies in a bar. I didn't get close enough to them but they probably smelt like patchouli. Day 36 - We woke up at the crack of 10 and leisurely raced to check out of the hostel in time. We had a conversation last night with the Poles in which they semi-made up for insulting us over the American stereotype with Greek home made wine that they had some how acquired during their journey. The wine was red but tasted like a white and assisted in giving me a terrible headache this morning. They wanted to take us out to breakfast and I said coffee would be fine. The Polish guy said he knew a place and he'd take us there. I don't know how he found this coffee shop the first time because it took him about a half-hour to find it with us. We had some tzi-tzchi and some break with coffee which turned out to be for lunch. After exchanging information and separating, we caught the metro to the train station and started our long train journey back. Tonight, instead of going all the way back at Patras we would stop at Eigo. This could also be written AGIO or AEGION. It also could be written in a freakish assortment of Greek characters. Regardless of how you spell it, the town is pretty neat. I had noticed it on the way to Athens because the train follows the shoreline for a long distance.
Cruise Cabin
There are several modern looking, high class restaurants that overlook the clear waters of the Ionian. And I thought this place looked like it might have something to offer. We were entering town without any hotel arrangements-this could be scary or exciting depending on how you look at it. Straight out of the train station, and I attempted my Greek and tried my English. Neither of these went over very well. The market lady called a local guy off the street, who she apparently knew. He spoke enough broken English to call us a taxi that took us to a hotel. We walked in to the hotel and asked us if they had a room available. But before I could ask how much, the guy at the desk asks us "how much?" I was taken aback, normally I ask these kind of questions. We tried to low-ball him in true American style but he laughed at us. We finally agreed on 40 Euro but this too got lost in translation and he ended up charging us 45. I still to this day don't know what exactly what went on at that counter but I do know I got a room key. After spending weeks on end at hostels, almost any hotel with an attached bathroom seems inviting. We dropped our packs, regrouped and walked to the town center. There was a single street behind the train tracks that had about a dozen very high class restaurants. We checked the menus through the window and they all seemed to be very reasonable. I did notice that most of the menus had the prices handwritten. This meant that they probably changed with the seasons. And I could see that my 2 Euro beer could cost a German on holiday 10 Euro if served in August.
Cruise Cafeteria
We weren't hungry enough for dinner yet so we decided on drinks in a nifty little café that offered board games. Karla and I played Monopoly in Greek. We couldn't read the chance or community chest cards so we just decided that whatever euro amount was on the card, should be paid to the free parking. Two hours and ten minutes later I had all the properties (most were mortgaged.... Note: Karla is taking dictation for me right now so therefore her opinion is naturally included). Karla had all the money and she wanted to go eat and proclaimed that she was the winner because she had more money then I. I claimed that I was the overall winner because I had more assets and given enough time, would choke her vast wealth with my high rent. I said that if I had known there was a time limit I would have taken a different strategy. She said it didn't matter, more money is more money. This game is in Greek, mind you. I think at one point I offered a draw but she was too invested in the argument by then to admit a tie. There could be only one. After some upsetting things were said, we proclaimed each other the winner. Neither of us would allow the other to say we had one. The argument had come full circle and we are truly ridiculous. Because we were there off-season, dinner at Rosa Nega, the gourmet restaurant, was only 25 Euros. Regardless of who won the Monopoly game, we still had a good time. For the record, Monopoly has now joined the list of banned games that we can't play together unless we are on a team.Day 37 - we slept in today on account of the hotel not requiring us to check out until noon.
Cruise lobby
There was a supermarket down the street so we left our bags in the luggage check and shopped for things to eat on the ferry trip. The ferries are nice but they charge an arm and a leg for food. When you're on a 36-hour cruise, they kind of have you by the backed in the corner for food and can charge whatever they want for bottled water or salad or whatever. It's like an airport or movie theatre, but more expensive. After breakfast and shopping we Taxied to the Train station and waited for the train. The train ride to Patras took only an hour and we found ourselves in town about 10 hours before we had to be. We ate lunch at the train station and slowly walked to the Ferry station. Luckily there were large luggage lockers in the waiting area. Backpack-free and with only 7 hours to burn before our ferry departs we walked around Patras. It's a much larger city than one can see from the port, and the shopping district is nice and in some areas bordering trendy. One thing we have notices in Europe is the plethora of "United Colors of Benetton", a semi-trendy clothing store that sells clothing more or less like the Gap. I've never heard of this store before but they must have at least 1,000 stores in western Europe alone. Karla found a bookstore with an English section and bought some reading material for later. I attempted to mail postcards but the post offices close at 2 in the afternoon most days and that makes it really hard to get anything done when you don't wake up until noon. The ferry check in was at 10pm and the ferry left at midnight. It sailed all night, all day the next day and through the next night, arriving in Venice on the second morning. 
