Athens: A lot of history, but a lot of dirt!

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Saturday, March 31
A sleepless night followed by a long, boring day = not much to write about. There was a storm, with pouring rain and howling wind, during the night. I got up at one point to see the palm trees thrashing back and forth, just like you see on TV for hurricanes. Scary!

We chowed down on the last of our cereal and milk and ended up sitting in the lobby for the rest of the afternoon with our luggage, since our flight didn't leave until late that evening. Played cards... read books... ate lunch from the grocery store... and I got addicted to the puzzle game Sodoku; reminds me of Andrea!

Before it was time to leave, I went out for one last moment with the sea. I've always loved the sound of the ocean, but have never slept close enough to hear it all the time like I did here. I lvoe the sound, and it makes me want to live on a coast and not in the land-locked Midwest! What drew me to this sea in particular was the clear lines of color signaling depth changes and the mysterious hills of Turkey looming in the distance -- close enough to wonder what waits on the opposite shore, far enough away to seem almost an apparition.

This last time down there was so beautiful, so solitary, it took my breath away. The waves were much bigger and more decisive then they've been all week, because of last night's storm. I didn't have my camera with me, but remember thinking that no photographer could fully capture the waves in the light of the afternoon sun, with their constant motion and tumbling over each other in every direction, overtaking and swallowing each other incessantly; or the sound of a thousand rocks and pebbles clinking and rolling over each other as the water receded each time, taking the abundance of white froth with it as quickly as it appeared; or the patterns of swirling surface foam, never the same for a whole second. I'm so happy I spent those last 20 minutes with the Aegean and felt better about leaving it for our next adventure!

We waited in the lobby until almost 7 p.m. and then took a taxi to the airport. We should have been prepared for the hordes of obnoxious Greek students waiting for their flights home after holiday. I can't even describe how out-of-control they were! There was only one hallway with waiting rooms for six gates. Students were on the floor, chairs, running around, playing volleyball, having a dance party with a boombox, shouting, clapping, singing or blowing whistles. To make things worse, the board to show which gate we needed wasn't working, so we had to listen to the announcements -- most of which weren't in English -- so I made myself a nuisance to the "information" desk (made up of young women more interested in gossiping and talking with male passengers then helping people) especially as it became closer to our boarding time. They told me it was delayed, and later that it wouldn't leave until 10 p.m. (scheduled for 8:30!) I ate a cheese pie and had a cup of coffee before it was finally time to board.

After the noisy, student-filled, one-hour flight, we waited and waited for our luggage and then had to get transportation to our hostel. A bus took us to Syntagma Square, but since the Metro stopped running a little while before, we were forced to take a taxi to our actual hotel. I'm so glad we did, because walking in that neighborhood at that time of night would have been suicide! We spotted hookers and other questionable characters on the same street as Hotel Lozanni. The desk worker informed us that we had missed our reservation time, but they'd still put us in a room (upgraded to just 3 beds instead of 6) and we'd have to relocate to their other hotel in the morning. Whatever -- we just needed a safe place to sleep, since it was 1 in the morning! The room was smoky, cold and itchy, which made for an uncomfortable night's sleep.

Sunday, April 1
What a day! I have to admit I'm not a big fan of this city, and one day here would have been plenty. But I'm glad we saw the sights and can now pictures this overwhelmingly huge (40%!o(MISSING)f all Greeks live here!) city as more than what we learn about in world history classes and Greek mythology.

After showering down the hall, we packed up and wearily relocated to Hotel Cosmopolitan. Here, we get a key that needs to be turned in every time we leave the building, and has to be plugged into the wall before we can get electricity in our room. The accomodating front desk worker gave us maps and showed us what we needed to see in Athens. Turns out we were within walking distance of everything important... though I still would've preferred a nicer neighborhood. The new hotel is next door to a strip club!

Our first priority after getting our bearings was getting food in our stomachs. We took the metro one stop past where were were supposed to (Monastiraki), which turned out better. The other girls needed cash, and since ATMs ("cash machines" in Europe) aren't very prevalent, this meant a lot of wandering. We finally picked a cafe, and though it had slow service, the food was great. The other girls just had crepes, but I ordered a Greek salad -- what better place to try one? It had no lettuce, but cucumbers, tomatos, feta cheese chunks, Greek olives, spices and a viniagrette dressing. Delish! It was a combination of tastes I've never had, especially the olives and cheese.

Now to explore the ruins and Acropolis. Everything we wanted to see was in this one place, which was convenient. We saw the best-preserved Greek temple, the Temple of Apollo Patroos, and also The Propylaia, Ancient Agora, walked on Areopagus Street, saw a more-modern Greek Orthodox church with ancient wall decorations that had been recovered. Then we made the exhausting climb up the Acropolis to see the Temple of Athena Nike, The Pantheon, etc., and a cool museum full of battered statues and relics. My favorite site was the Theater of Dionysos, which had a cool location and showed the contrast between ancient and modern city very well. And the views!! I think I took a million pictures of the widespread, hilly city from the top of the Acropolis. We also had a sunny, warm day for our sight-seeing.

We walked back through all sorts of tourist and market-type stands with men trying to tell us we were beautiful and look at their sunglasses/designer purses/fruit/whatever to sell to us (we learned quickly not to even glance at them because it only encourages them). People walked around trying to sell the most random things! Even in the cafe, people came in soliciting roses, screwdrivers, lottery tickets... anything and everything. I almost haggled for some jewelry, but chickened out. I bought postcards and a beautiful print (just 2.50) from a shop that had posted prices, instead.

While walking, we came upon some kind of demonstration, with Muslim-looking men carrying signs in Arabic and marching/shouting in the street and gathered in a central area holding signs and shouting. The fact that there were tons of police made me even more nervous! I made us walk on the other side of the street...

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the hotel, going on the Internet, and then chilling in our room. We didn't want to walk far for supper, since the neighborhood was so dodgy, and tried several local cafes that weren't serving food because it was Sunday night. Finally, we settled for KFC and enjoyed a taste from home and an early night in.

Monday, April 2
Like I said before, we were done with Athens in one day. I really wanted to go in the National Archeological Museum, but discovered it opened late on Mondays. We slept in and checked out at 11:30, stored our luggage in a dodgy closet/storeroom, and headed to the museum. But this sign said it didn't open until 1 p.m., and we had to leave for the airport by 2, so it wouldn't have been worth the entry fee. Bummer! To kill time, we went to a Subway we'd seen the day before (I'm SO done with Greek food) and I had an extremely satisfying sandwich. Bus to the airport... check-in... wait around... I'm getting really used to flying, but hate how it wastes your whole day!

Surprise of all surprises, I ran into a friend of mine, Eric, from UW-Eau Claire on the shuttle to the plane. He's studying in Spain right now, but is traveling on spring break with one of his friends and just happened to be on the same Athens-Rome flight I was. What a coincidence!

It was an uneventful flight (I'm so thankful for my iPod and its ability to block out sounds like unintelligable safey instructions and screaming babies) and then we were in the Eternal City -- ROMA!!

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Comments

[Darlene Conner]

Emily, I am so enjoying reading your journal entries, what a fabulous opportunity you have being there and seeing so many things that most of us will never experience. I look forward to seeing more pictures and seeing you this summer. God bless Love Darlene