Day 11 - Walking about Athens

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It is another hot day in Athens. Since this morning is Daniel’s only time to explore Athens, he decided to go to the Acropolis. We walked 10 minutes through the heat and got there about 10am, right when all the tourist buses were unloading their hundreds of passengers. We walked up to the entrance and saw what looked like thousands of people entering and walking around the site. It looked absolutely miserable. We decided to pass on the Acropolis today. Instead, we walked to the Atheneaum Intercontinental, which was about 30 minutes away, in order to register Daniel for his conference. We could have taken the Metro, but decided to walk since ½ of it is on a nice pedestrian lane and the other half would give us an idea of how average neighborhoods looked and felt. The streets were narrow and there was quite a mixture of nice apartments and crumbling ruins. We got to see a result of the crazy traffic when we saw a man on a bike who had just been hit by a taxi. Fortunately he was OK. We registered Daniel and then decided to take the tram part way back to Syntagma Square so that Rachel could shop her way back to our apartment. Ermou Steet leaves behind the trinket shops and is a more typical clothes and shoe shopping district. We can’t forget the shoes. Greeks love their shoes. It was not uncommon to see 15 women staring at a window of one shoe store while all the other stores around it got cursory glances. Rachel couldn't buy much because along with the upgrade in shops comes an upgrade in price. Rachel now says it is personal with President Bush. Before, she didn’t like his politics. With the dollar worth only $.60 to every Euro, she can’t afford most shops. She reminds us she just became a voter and will make President Bush pay for her lack of financial resources overseas. Rachel does find a shoe shop with reasonable prices and comes out with white flip flop sandles with an ankle wrap that looks very much like what ancient Greeks wore. She is happy and Daniel has hit the end of his shopping tolerance.

We get back in time for naps while Rachel types on the internet.

Finally, we get ready for Daniel’s conference dinner. It takes Daniel 5 minutes while Rachel and I take our time getting prettied up. It is fun getting ready with another woman. We share products and ask for help with one thing or another. Daniel twiddles his thumbs and rolls his eyes. We take the Metro this time, which isn’t much cooler than walking the streets. I wrongly expected it to be air-conditioned. We arrived at 9pm for a 9:15pm take off. I find out that we are going out of Athens to a suburb to eat. Why would they leave such an interesting downtown to drive an hour each way just to eat?! We finally arrive at a hilltop restaurant that is obviously pretty fancy. We sit down with Daniel’s friend and colleague, Kevin. They serve unending wine and appetizers. In fact, so many appetizers are served over such a long period that we were confident that we had finished a very large drawn-out dinner. Then, they take away the “small” plates and put down large plates. We can’t believe it! The main course wasn’t even served yet. Then came the dessert round with four different desserts. We were too full to eat the main course but somehow found room for the desserts. They finally load us up on the buses again and head back to town. By the time we get back to the hotel, the Metro has shut down so we have to take a taxi home. Considering that many people don’t get done with dinner until midnight. I am very surprised that their Metro shuts down just after midnight. Walking the streets around our apartment, you’d think that time of night would be some of their busiest times. Anyway, we finally get home at 2 in the morning! Daniel pays the worst price since his bird guide is picking him up at 6:15 am in the morning for 14 hours of birding. Ohhhh…the sacrifices one must make to follow their passion.

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