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Published: October 22nd 2022
The learning and knowledge that we have, is but little compared with that of which we are ignorant… ~ Plato, Greek Philosopher
HE SAID... Today we were travelling from Dubai (United Arab Emirates) to
Athens (Greece).
As we lifted off from Dubai International Airport in the late afternoon, I stared down at the surreal Dubai landscape below as our plane climbed steeply into the sky on its northwest route to Athens. The plane was virtually empty, so we had plenty of room. Dinner was served within the hour, and it was nice to enjoy a cold beer after Dubai’s relentless 40+ degree afternoon heat. When the pilot informed us that our flight would take just over four hours, it dawned on me that I finally had time to start my travel writing! I typed feverishly between mouthfuls of chicken, potatoes, cold beer and wine, and I managed to get a lot done. When time is of the essence, you have to work anywhere you can.
I tried to capture the reasons why this trip held such a heightened level of interest for me, and the following is a summary of my mid-air ramblings.
Turkish Similarities We spent a month in Turkey in 2012, and it was a memorable trip. We loved the food, the landscape, the music, the
tea and more than anything else the people. I know I shouldn’t compare the two countries (especially considering their historic differences and tensions), but they do share a border and a few cultural similarities. It was during our travels in Turkey that I realised how much I love this part of the world. With this background, I’m more than a little excited to be exploring Greece for the next 30 days.
Greek Philosophy I was 17 years old when I left home to study philosophy, and the years I spent at university shaped the trajectory of my life. One Greek philosopher in particular (Plato) had a profound influence on my emerging existential views, so there was something very alluring about visiting the country where he had introduced such critically important concepts and ideas more than 2,000 years earlier. I was very excited to be visiting the birthplace of philosophical thought.
Plato and the Allegory of the Cave This extract from ‘The Republic’ had a significant impact upon me as a young student. In the allegory, Plato describes a group of men who have been chained together in a cave since they were children. The men cannot see anything
other than the wall in front of them, because their legs and necks have been fastened in such a way that prevents them from turning around. Behind them, people are walking with puppets in front of a fire, and the puppets are casting random shadows on the wall in front of the men. The men are unaware of everything occurring behind them, and they can only see the shadows on the wall in front of them. Plato poses the question: ‘Would the men believe the shadows to be real things that represent the truth? In this scenario, they most probably would.
Plato’s intention with the allegory of the cave is to show the important difference between ‘belief’ and ‘knowledge’. Just because you see and hear the same things every day, it doesn’t mean they are necessarily true. For example, if you live in a small village where everyone tells you that the people in the next village are horrible, you may start to believe this to be true, because you have not seen or heard anything else to the contrary. However, by venturing into the next village and interacting with the people, you will (most probably) find that they
are not horrible at all. Plato’s allegory teaches us the importance of continually questioning and challenging what we ‘believe’ to be true.
Plato and Civic Duty Plato’s approach to ethics also had a significant impact on me as a young student. Plato (through Socrates) taught us that if we encounter a person expressing an illogical belief, it is our civic duty to engage with them in a friendly manner to discover if there is any logical basis for their belief. After a few hours of friendly conversation, the person will realise their belief is illogical, and they will be grateful that someone helped them to recognise this. Socrates clearly never visited Queensland. 😉
I took this a little too seriously in my younger years, and I always seemed to forget the ‘engage in a friendly manner’ side of things. I’ll never forget a 30th birthday dinner where I was sitting opposite a somewhat out-of-touch engineer who suggested the unemployed simply needed to ‘try a bit harder’ to get a job. Socrates immediately appeared on my shoulder, urging me to engage with this bloke and calmly explore his illogical statement. Unfortunately, I wasn’t calm at all, and I ended
up calling him a ‘privileged w@#*er’. The night didn’t end well. If I’d followed the principles of Socratic dialogue, we would have chatted into the night over many glasses of wine until he realised that it is actually very difficult for people to get a job when they are poor, powerless and socially irrelevant, regardless of how hard they may try. If I’d possessed a fraction of Socrates’ patience, the dinner would have ended on a much, much friendly note.
Greek Mythology I’ve never been enamoured by mythology. I’ve been grounded in pragmatic reality since my teenage years, and I’ve struggled to understand why people need metaphysical fables (such as gods) to make sense of the world. Yet here we were, about to travel through a country where mythology has been an integral part of the cultural fabric for thousands of years. I quietly reminded myself that Plato wasn’t a fan of mythology either. He knew the seductive charm of myths and legends, and how easy it is for people to believe them to be true.
Nevertheless, I have a personal interest in Sisyphus – the mythological founder of Corinth. Sisyphus, of course, was a myth. In other
words, he didn’t exist. If he had actually existed, he would still be rolling a rock up a hill somewhere in Greece, as this was his eternal punishment. What a fascinating tourist spectacle that would be.
Albert Camus and The Myth of Sisyphus This essay, more than any other philosophical text, changed the course of my life. Camus was an Algerian writer who spent much of his adult life in France, and he used the mythological story of Sisyphus to depict his existential view of the world. I’ll try to be as concise as possible.
Sisyphus had a passion for life and a hatred of death. He was also a bit of a rogue, and his antics angered quite a few of the Greek gods, including Zeus, Hades and Hermes. It all came to a head when Sisyphus kept trying to cheat death, so the gods came together and issued him with an ultimatum – he had to make a choice between the following two options:
a) Death (that he returns to – and remains in – the land of the dead)
b) A meaningless life (that he rolls a rock to the top of a hill, only
to watch it roll back down again, and that he repeats this task for the rest of eternity).
Sisyphus didn’t want to die, so he chose a meaningless life.
Camus used this myth to describe absurd freedom – where we are free from death, yet trapped in a meaningless life. In his essay ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’, Camus addresses one of the most pressing philosophical questions of our time:
Why should we continue to live when we know that our life is meaningless? Camus simply asks us to imagine Sisyphus happy as he walks back down the hill.
I’ve lived the greater part of my life trying to be happy in those precious moments when I’m walking back down the hill. The moments when I travel with Ren; when I play and create music; when I walk in the cool morning air; when I read in our garden on hot summer days; when I play cards in front of the fire on dreary Sunday afternoons.
Our Greek adventure will be an extended hill descent, and we’re seriously looking forward to it. Ren selected this trip as the destination of choice for her milestone birthday. We travelled
to Mexico for my milestone birthday, and it was an extraordinary way to celebrate 50 years on this planet. With a similar level of exhilaration, we were really looking forward to our journey through Greece.
As we started our descent into Athens International Airport, I closed down the laptop, organised my Crumpler bag and gathered my thoughts. We touched down at 7:40pm, and we were seriously excited. Our Greek adventure had begun!
The terminal was a little tired compared to Dubai, but it was nice enough. When we walked through immigration, I couldn’t help but notice how friendly the airport staff were. We picked up our packs from the luggage carousel, walked across the road to the train station, bought a couple of tickets (our first currency transaction in Greece) and made our way down to the platform.
Now that sounds all very straight forward, and it was – thanks to Ren. I just need to point out how much planning Ren had put into this trip, especially given the short lead-up to our departure. She knew where the train station was (relative to the airport terminal exit); she knew where to buy tickets and how much
they would cost (in euro); she knew the metro station we were heading to (critically important to the ticket price), and she knew how long the journey would be. If Ren hadn’t been there, I’d probably still be trying to get into Athens from the airport.
We waited about 20 minutes on the platform in the fading dusk light before our train pulled in. We jumped on, found a place to stand and settled in for the 50-minute trip. The carriage was packed. Three young Italian kids (two males and a female in their early twenties) jumped on the train at the same time, and I couldn’t help but smile when I saw the way they were interacting. We recognised aspects of ourselves in their brash excitement, and we wondered what it would have been like to have arrived in Athens 30 years ago when we were so young and stupid. 😊
It was impossible not to like them. They were friendly, confident and arrogant. Two of them were vaping, despite the ‘No Smoking’ signs throughout the carriage, and this was annoying a few of the passengers. The three of them were standing, but they’d put their packs
on one of the seats, which was preventing others from using it. At one stage a woman got on the train, so I stood and offered her my seat. This amused them no end. After a few minutes, one of the guys walked up to me, and when his nose was almost touching mine, he gently patted me on the chest with the back of his hand and said (in broken English and with a friendly smile): ‘Old man, you can have the seat with my pack on it. You’ll just have to move the pack.’ I laughed, put my hand on his shoulder and said: ‘I’m okay mate, but thanks very much for the offer.’
He genuinely thought he was being helpful. They continued to talk, laugh and smile among themselves, and I wondered why they had come to Athens. Who were they meeting? Where would they stay? I stood for the rest of the trip, and when we eventually pulled into their destination platform (one stop from Monastiraki Station), I watched the three of them disappear into the dark underground metro.
When we emerged from the Athens Metro with our packs on our backs, we were
less than 200 metres from our hotel. Once again, Ren’s pre-planning shone brightly. There’s nothing worse than wandering dark streets with heavy packs looking for hotels when you’re exhausted. Thanks to Ren, we were standing in the reception area of Hotel Attalos within minutes of getting off the train.
We checked-in, dropped our packs in our small but comfortable room and headed straight to the hotel’s extraordinary rooftop bar. It is difficult to describe the exhilaration of walking onto a rooftop in the heart of Athens and being visually confronted by the floodlit Acropolis in all its ancient glory. It was so structurally magnificent. So dominant and imposing. So unmatched and unchallenged by the sprawling urban landscape at its feet. I remember thinking I could stay on this rooftop for the rest of our time in Greece, and never once be bored.
We settled at a table around 11pm and marvelled at the extraordinary vista in front of us. The night air was warm, so I refreshed with a cold beer. The bar staff were incredibly friendly, and we began to realise why this hotel is so well regarded and reviewed. It promotes itself as ‘Your home away
from home in the heart of Athens’, and this was very apparent. We’d been in Greece for less than four hours, and we were already in love with Athens.
After purchasing some bottled water, we headed back down to our room and crashed at 12:30am. It had been the most exhilarating travel day!
SHE SAID... The Dubai International Airport gate for our Emirates Airlines flight to
Athens was in Terminal 2. The large and plush terminal was lovely, sparse, quiet and cool downstairs at check-in, but it was a different story upstairs at our gate. We were at the very far end of the terminal, and surrounded on two sides by the large glass walls of the terminal – it was stuffy, crowded, loud and uncomfortable. Luckily the plane we boarded was exactly the opposite.
Our flight to Athens was on a smaller plane than the one we’d caught from Melbourne, but it had that perfect vision that weary travellers dream of every time they board a flight – empty seats! I left Andrew at his window seat and curled up on a row of four seats across the aisle in total bliss. I slept
for most of the four-hour flight! I must have been tired, because I even skipped dinner… but in hindsight this was probably more because we had been fed very well by Ruthanne and Ralph in Dubai (and I wasn’t really hungry until breakfast the next day!).
However, even in my tired haze, I kept getting tiny butterflies of excitement that we really were on our way to Greece. I feel an affinity to Greece for many reasons, most obviously I suppose because the ancient Greek empire contributed so much to civilisation and the structure of the modern world as we know it. However, I also feel I have a kinship of sorts to Greek culture as a result of growing up in Melbourne (which is home to the largest Greek community outside of Greece). The many old Greek neighbours we had over the years, along with my Greek friends (of second and third generation Greek heritage) as well as frequenting the Greek cafes and restaurants in Melbourne, has given me a particular window into Greek families and culture – albeit, a migrant one.
Once it looked certain this trip to Greece was really going ahead, I started inhaling
all things Greek that were within my grasp – learning basic language skills, researching the food culture, identifying the different geographical regions and what they offer, and even brushing up on my Greek architecture and column identification to get the most out of our visits to archaeological ruins! Didn’t you know I was a closet architecture geek? 😉
I always find it easier to pick up a language when I’m immersed in it rather than learning from a phrasebook or an app. However, from being around casual and slang Greek spoken by my friends, I know that getting my ear trained to understanding Greek is one thing, but actually pronouncing it is a whole different game! And then there were the tricky things like the words for ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ being almost opposite sounding to their English counterparts – so that’s going to definitely trip us up at some point too.
I’m arriving armed with these very few basic Greek words, and hoping to pick up a lot more by the end of the trip:
Nai (Neh): Yes
Oxi (OH-kee): No
Yassou (Yah-SU): Hello
Kalimera (Ka-lee-ME-ra): Good morning
Kalispera (Ka-lee-SPER-a): Good evening
Parakalo (Para-ka-LOH): Please (and also You're
welcome)
Eucharisto (Ef-caree-STO): Thank you
Endaxi (Enn-DAK-si): It’s ok
Yia mas (Yah-MAS): Cheers / To our health
Kali orexi (Kali-OH-reck-si): Good appetite / Enjoy your meal
To understand any country, we have to look in equal parts to its past and its present; but I feel this is even more important in a country like Greece. In terms of the past, Greece has more of it than most – a vast array of ancient ruins and an equal or greater number of museums that showcase and attempt to explain the history of millennia of empires that have traipsed through the land.
We can only go to so many ruins and museums when we are in the country for a matter of weeks, so it’s been difficult to pick which ones paint the brightest picture while also most meeting our interest levels. The discussion on ‘which/how many ruins and museums’ has been ongoing, as neither of are devoted ‘ruins’ people, and nor are we very tolerant of less than expertly curated museums.
We also didn’t want to fall into the trap of allocating so much time visiting the ancients, that we missed out on the modern and contemporary
culture. One of our favourite activities in any new place is to walk around aimlessly, taking the time to just sit in cafes, parks or in village squares, and witness and absorb the life and vibe of the place.
However, the most interesting way for us to get to know a country is through its food and food culture. Understanding a country’s food is a history lesson in itself, and then appreciating the modernisations to that cuisine says so much about where the country is at and where it’s heading. We love experiencing home cooking, street food, old school family restaurants and everyday cafes; and the variations of all of these in the different cities, towns and villages across the country.
We hope to do all that and much more on this trip, starting with Athens!
We landed in Athens Eleftherios Venizelos Airport at about 8pm. We’d read that international travellers arriving in Greece were required to fill out a government form, and that there was random temperature testing at the airport; but none of those things were a reality anymore.
Moving through the airport was a breeze, despite having to wait ages for my pack
compared to Andrew’s pack (which was one of the first to come out). We walked out into a warm night, crossed the road and followed the signs to get to the train station. Even though we were travelling with the Lonely Planet guide, I had also read a few blogs about the best transport from the airport, and we had decided on the metro. We bought two metro tickets to Monastiraki Station (on the #3, the blue line) and caught the train for about an hour to the city centre. It cost 18 euro for the two of us, compared to a taxi of 56 euro at that time of the night.
We got off at Monastiraki Station and exited at Athinas Street, the main street of the city and where our hotel was located. As we came up the metro escalator to street level, we were hit with the awesome view of the Parthenon beautifully lit up high on the Acropolis hill. It was absolutely mesmerising! 😄
We walked 200m along Athinas Street to Hotel Attalos, checked in and almost immediately went upstairs to the rooftop bar to check out the view of the Acropolis. Our rooftop
bar was absolutely awesome with a direct line of sight to the side of the floodlit Parthenon. Andrew tried a couple of the local beers, while I had a lovely cup of tea (like the old person that I am) with which to absorb that gorgeous view. 😊
It was well past midnight by the time we sorted our packs, showered and got to bed. And as I closed my eyes on that first night in Athens, I had two very definite thoughts – that it was definitely the right decision to pick Greece for this trip; and that I had a very good gut feeling about this ancient city called Athens.
I’m so excited about exploring it over the next few days.
See you around Athens!
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Chris L.
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The title
I too, have a head full of dreams about Athens and travel. Your excitement is palpable and understandable. Best wishes.