Day 5 - Athens

During the flight, grogginess started to set in-- an element familiar to me from the days of pulling all-nighters to finish a project or paper. Then the sensation of time quickly passing set in, another element common to all-nighters where after working all night I unsuccessfully command the sun to halt as it starts to rise issuing in the new day. Before I knew it Katie told me to look out the window, that the sun was actually starting to rise. It was 12:30am body time. No wonder the time seemed to pass quickly, the sun should have been delayed another 6 hours. As we watched the sun rise unusually quickly as the plane continued to chase it, we both knew that our first day in Athens was going to be a day of recovery. The experience of the mind knowing that the sun was coming early but the body not wanting to cooperate with sleeping was frustrating to say the least.

We finally arrived and were flying around Athens. The landscape here is unlike any I’ve ever seen. All of the houses and buildings are of the same general color, light colors like white and tan. The vegetation is mostly shorter, harsher trees and bushes that seemed to be strategically planted in rows. The hills in the background are not round and green, but are grey and somewhat jagged, which look a lot like a small scale version of the Rocky Mountains. As we flew over, there were boats in the harbors which may have been fishing boats or ferries. The flight attendants came around with breakfast including fruit, a croissant, turkey, and some cheese. About an hour later, the pilots made one of the smoothest landings I’ve ever been on and everyone clapped; some from happiness to be back in their native land and others happy that the flight was finally over.

The airport had signs in both English and Greek, which are, of course, written with the Greek alphabet. So for a word such as µπισκοτα, I translate it to be 10^-6 * 3.1415 of, uhhh, something involving alpha particles. When the only experience with Greek letters is fraternities and physics, it’s hard to begin to read Greek words, let alone pronounce them. After listening to the announcements and TV, the language actually has a sound similar to Italian or Spanish, both of which are based on Latin. I’d be interested to know how Greek and Latin are related. Remember that everything in Greek is written only using the letters below, just so you have an idea of how weird it may be reading street signs, menus, etc.

ΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡΣΤΥΦΧΨΩ

αβγδεζηθικλμνξοπρςστυφχψω

I know everyone is thinking it, so I’ll go ahead and say it. The signs might as well be in Greek. Moving past bad puns, we left the airport with our luggage which made it over just fine. Our locks weren’t cut off, so I guess TSA didn’t need to inspect our bags. Walking past the baggage claim, there were customs lines about whether you were claiming anything or not. There was also a line for non-EU arrivals, which I assumed to be us. An official of the airport could see that we were confused so he greeted us (in English thankfully) and asked where we were from. After telling him we were from the United States and that we were on vacation he smiled and wished us on our way. Ahh…our first experience as tourists who have no clue of what is going on.
We found an ATM to get out some cash, which I’ve been advised is the easiest and best way to exchange money. It spit out the cash in €50 increments. The bills are interesting in that they have a holographic stripe on the right side and the numbers indicating the denomination are large which made me think its monopoly money. That’s the catch with foreign money; one is typically not emotionally attached to it so it’s really easy to spend. After getting the money, we went out to hail a taxi. Instead of making it a stressful situation having to chase taxis down, the airport provides a line for people to wait in for the taxis. So like an assembly line, people wait for their taxi, they pull up and people claim them, three taxis at a time. Within a couple minutes we were on our way to the hotel.

The day is a beautiful 19 °C (66°F) and sunny. The taxi was some small model of a Mercedes-Benz which was pretty new, leather seats, a good sound system, and a smooth ride. Our taxi driver was a popular man because he had two cell phones in his lap that he was using to answer and make phone calls. At one point, he put one down to answer the other, and then went back to the other. The traffic was very light until we got near our hotel in the center of Athens, which is next to the Acropolis. The light traffic soon turned into craziness. Many people drive motorcycles which resemble dirt bikes more than they do big Harleys or crotch rockets. Not only does driving a motorcycle have the benefit of good gas mileage, it also grants them the ability to drive between lanes of traffic. Whether cars are moving at full speeds or stopped, motorcycles are passing between the cars, coming within inches of the cars on either side of them. Surely this isn’t legal, I thought. Then a police motorcycle passed by! Lucky for the motorcycles, there aren’t huge SUVs here taking up the whole lane. After paying the taxi driver, he gave me change in bills and coins. The two coins I got were €2 and €1 each, which are silver in color inlayed with a copper center. COOL!

The people at the hotel were very friendly, took our luggage to the room. One of our concerns, though, was being able to check-in before the designated time of 2:00pm. Fortunately, even though it was 11:00am (4:00am body time) they gave us a key to our room. The hotel is very nice, but the rooms are small and simple. There is a bathroom, bed, TV, and mini fridge. We couldn’t figure out how to work any of the lights until the bellhop showed up with our baggage and explained to us that there was a place to put our keycard near the door that activates the electricity for the room. Again, it’s very nice that everyone we’ve encounter speaks English. Something else that is unique is the toilet having two flush buttons. One of them uses more water than the other. We think the smaller button is for #1 and the bigger button is for #2. Cool energy/water conservation techniques! After getting settled in, we laid down for a nap.

Four hours later, we woke up and went out to do some shopping. We have power converters for our electronics for Italy and while Italy and Greece do have the same two round prongs, Greece’s outlets aren’t flush with the wall but are recessed, which is too deep for our converter to reach. So we went walking around to find an extension cord which might help. Instead for €3, we bought a cord that plugs into the wall and plugs into the brick of the computer to charge up the laptop. The price tag said €3 and the cashier asked for €3, so either they don’t have sales tax or they make the price of the product where the additional sales tax makes it an even amount.

On the website of our hotel, I read that they have internet and so I assumed it was free. We asked the front desk for the user name and password for it, but at €6 for 30 minutes it’s far from free! Apparently there is an internet cafι close by but we haven’t seen it yet. I wonder if we have to use their computers or if we can bring our own. Luckily, where we bought the computer cable there was an area where computers were provided for free internet use. We waited about 15 minutes for our turn. First stop, Google maps to find internet cafιs, a library where internet may be free, and a store where shampoo may be sold. We left our large bottles of shampoo with Greg and Lynn since we were trying to cut back on weight. The entire browser, including Google Maps, was in Greek, so we had to depend upon our memory of the location of buttons to navigate the page. Google Maps showed us a library that is nearby, but the missing ceiling and walls of the library tell us that it probably hasn’t been open since 100AD.

We went walking around the area which is a very busy area but people don’t seem to be in as much of a rush as in New York. There isn’t a lot of honking either, which is nice. We did spot a McDonalds which was tempting because we wouldn’t have to read the menus to know what was offered. One patron of MickeyDs sitting outside was eating her French fries with a fork. We found a small cafι which is next to the McDonalds which had the food in display cases so we could at least see what we were ordering. For €6 we bought a foccacia and a calzone which both had some meat, cheese, and tomato sauce in it.

After getting back from dinner, Katie read a book and I started watching a documentary about the Early Church Fathers, which takes place in Athens, Ephesus, and Rome-- all places we plan to visit in the next couple weeks. Seeing the Parthenon on the video and knowing that we are actually within a 1 km of it is definitely surreal. We plan to see it tomorrow when we emerge from our room hoping to be fully acclimated to the time change. At 6:00pm, we both were tired, though, and went to sleep.