A day in Athens

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Geo: 37.9792, 23.7166

Relief comes to mind when I call recall arriving in Athens. With Greece being the focus of the journey and missing our connecting flight due to bad weather in Shanghai I think we could be forgiven for thinking we were never actually going to arrive there.

After an unscheduled overnight stop in Frankfurt we walk through the arrival gates at Athens airport to be greeted by a very tall dark greek man holding a sign with my name on it. The greek man greets us and immediately takes my bag out of my hands. My bag has come to feel particularly heavy after two days in transit. He lifts the bag almost to his shoulders and walks purposefully towards his taxi with us following. Within minutes we are speeding toward the city and I let out a sigh of relief, we are finally here.

I have to say that apart from the frustrating lack of signage at Frankfurt airport we were quite impressed with Lufthansa. We managed to jag a seat upstairs on our Airbus A380-800 (the largest passenger plane in the world). It was quiet, well serviced and almost pleasant as much as long haul travel can be. A far cry from dwelling with the masses on our Air China fight from Melbourne.

The only thing more satisfying that day than finally arriving in Greece was taking the lift to the rooftop of our hotel building and sighting the iconic view of the Acropolis perched elegantly on the so called sacred rock which suspends it high above the city. The perfect place to enjoy our first greek beer and compulsory platter of mezes.

There was little time to do much else in Athens having had our stay cut short. Just enough time to walk the tourist dining strip and let ourselves be convinced to dine somewhere amongst the multitude of options. Once ensconced and supplied with twice the amount of food we thought we had ordered we found it very amusing to sit and watch the wait staff spend equal amounts of time serving food and accosting passers by with the hope of luring them in to their establishment. As is commonplace in Greece the wait staff were all male so the process of drumming up business was conveniently combined with flattery and metaphoric eye winking and always directed towards the prettiest girls.

There was also a little spare time available to briefly view the changing of the guard at the parliament buildings. Men in skirts with guns performing a ritualistic sychronised ballet. And just enough time for a quick stroll through the adjacent gardens, complete with the obligatory population of cats and dogs.

So enough of Athens, a bit noisy and a bit dirty but sweetly Greek and unique. We were ready for Milos.

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Comments

[Milton & Carole]

Love Risby's Greek cousin.

[Jenny]

Sham about losing time don't like hanging in airports still can't beat bad weather

[Lizzie]

Love th blog! Look forward to your next instalment!

[Lis]

You write like a travel writer! I'm loving reading your posts.

[andjulbed]

Thanks Lis, glad you are enjoying them, feel free to forward around the office.

[Wendy]

Thanks for sharing the link to your blog Julie :) Enjoyed reading about Milos, how did you find the lovely beach house ... airbnb?? Andy and I love the Greek Islands, we hope to return there soon.