Greece Part I: Athens

3/5/15

Day 49

I had no choice but to pay for the cab and then everything went really quickly in the airport and we were in the air before we knew it and THEN WE WERE IN GREECE!

But the excitement was short lived because of course we had to take yet anotherrrr taxi to our hotel. Getting off the plane, we realized we didn't know the tiniest bit of Greek and were worried about how we would communicate with the taxi driver. We were pleasantly surprised when his english was flawless and he was really nice, the polar opposite of our Spanish cab driver. He proceeded to pull out a book of attractions in Athens and read it to us while driving. We drove in between two lanes of traffic for awhile and assumed Greek drivers just don't observe the "lanes" concept, before realizing he was the only one ignoring it. While he flipped through the pages, he also showed us pictures of his sons and then tried to convince us to call him to take us back to the airport when we leaving. He also told us that we couldn't leave Athens without seeing a temple near the coast and that he could take us there next time we were near the airport for "a little bit extra". My knuckles turned white and I kept looking at the road hoping he'd take the hint... He didnt. The only good part of the ride was that I noticed a Toys 'R' Us sign and a 50 Shades of Grey poster in the same fonts and colors as in English, but with Greek characters.

The part of my brain that loves languages was delighted. We'd been driving for awhile and were in thick traffic when our driver exclaimed in Greek. He explained that there were two areas with the same name and he went to the wrong one. He pulled out his phone and asked someone for directions which I thought was strange. I looked around for his GPS- he didn't have one. Apparently the directions he'd gotten weren't good because in front of the next street vendor, he stopped and rolled down his window and asked again. We finally got close and he had no idea where the hotel was. He sped down narrow, disorganized streets and then abruptly shifted into reverse for a few blocks on a one way road and before announcing "Here!" He gave us a business card and told us to call when we were ready to go back to the airport. We decided to investigate our bus options. 

In what has become pretty common, the hotel wasn't ready for us yet so we dropped ours bags and had to find something to do for an hour. First on our list was food. And turns out that Greek food is absurdly cheap so I was in a good mood. I got my first gyro ("hero") for under 2€! We made our way back to the hotel and decided we'd won the lottery with getting our room. From our top floor, wraparound balcony, we had a good view of the Acropolis as well as the complicated street pattern of Athens.

Of course, we had an impromptu photoshoot and I hated myself. 

I almost didn't even want to leave, but I did really want to explore. We were really close to a lot of tourist shops so we couldn't help but look inside. The prices were surprisingly low, which ironically turned out to be really bad for the budget, although I found the perfect present for almost everyone on my list. 

Everyone in Greece was extremely friendly and curious. The shop owners would smile and ask us where we were from and talk to us without pressuring us to buy anything (except the restaurant owners who were kind of aggressive). We made our way towards the Acropolis and got lost but in a really picturesque part of town so it was all part of the adventure.

We asked a man who didn't speak any English where the Acropolis was and he and his dog walked us to the entrance. Well, his dog did. She knew the whole way! Right outside, there was a place to take pictures of whatever this is (I wish we'd gotten a chance to explore it).

Next to that, there was an area full of cats. I mean, FULL of cats. They were on the ground, on the fence, even in the trees. Later we saw a guy feeding them and playing a flute or something.  It was really weird. 

At the ticket window, we discovered our tickets were free since we're students!!! The ISIC card didn't work though (it seems like nowhere accepts them), so luckily our museum passes counted as student IDs and saved us 12€! The whole Acropolis area was full of Ancient Greek ruins which was kind of surprising to me because up until very recently, I'd thought the Acropolis was just one building, not the remains of a whole city.

(The Theatre of Dionysus) 

The Parthenon was massive and under construction like every other tourist attraction in Europe. Out of all the buildings in the Acropolis I think I actually spent the least time admiring the one thing I'd actually known the name of before seeing it in person. 

The Erechtheion was seriously underrated. The caryatids are beautiful and I wish that my camera could zoom in further just to capture their details. 

Fun fact: the Brandenburg Gate is modeled off of the Propylaia, or the first building/gate into the Acropolis. 

It was a strange feeling to be there, standing on centuries of history and looking out over the city. It was surreal and I stood still as I struggled to comprehend it all. 

On our way home, we wandered through the market again. (And bought more souvenirs) One guy found out we were from Pittsburgh and told us that his brother and his family live there and he'd been to visit. We talked for a little bit about the Duquesne incline and Cathy (the Cathedral of Learning), which was weird since we were having casual conversation about something so close to home on the opposite side of the world. In the shop across the street, we had a long conversation with the owner and designer of the jewelry. I saw the most perfect snake ring and had the sinking feeling that I wasn't going to be able to just walk away. I've wanted a ring just like it for years. He told us everything in the store was 50% off and picked up that exact ring, asking my friend if she liked it. It was a 45€ ring but he'd sell it for 22.50€. She didn't want it. I picked it up to inspect it closely. He asked what I'd pay for it and I pretended I didn't want it either. As we were leaving, he said "Ok, 10€" and I caved. I love it. 

Despite the economy, Greece was shaping up to be my favorite country so far. The pace of life seemed very relaxing. I could tell that this place would be beautiful come summer. Unlike Rome, Athens had the perfect balance of ancient and modern. The Acropolis was still the central focus of the city, but Athens has also grown up into a relatively modern city with ancient roots. The Acropolis is visible from parts of the market. 

This old church from a much older Athens remains as the rest of the city has sprung up around it. 

The only thing not so modern was the wifi connection which was almost nonexistent. Athens also has done a better job of mixing English and Greek than Madrid did. Everyone spoke enough English to converse yet there was also enough Greek that it didn't feel like America 2.0.

Unfortunately though, it did have a McDonalds and a Starbucks. If you squint, you can see the Starbucks sign in this picture, with the Acropolis in the background:

In a lot of ways, Athens was in similar to Madrid though. The biggest thing we noticed was that both Spanish and Greek men are gorgeous- surprisingly, The Italians have not been living up to their reputation! 

Dinner was a "pocket falafel" and seemed pretty similar to the gyro, the only difference being that it was chickpeas and not the sliced meat of the gyro.

Packed inside the "pocket" was zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce, paprika, possibly eggplant, and Tzatziki sauce, wrapped up in pita. We followed this up with baklava which I'd only ever had once before. I wouldn't say it was the greatest thing I've ever tasted, but I can always appreciate dessert!

We stopped in Tiger on the way home to see if they had any phone chargers. They did! So hopefully I can return my roommate's extra charger. I also found a 1€ tiny tea strainer so that was a win. Now I can try out the loose leaf spearmint tea I bought and tried (and miserably failed) to make in the moka. We also found a "fish spa" where you put your feet in a tank of fish that eat your dead skin and make your feet really soft... So my friend did it! It was really amusing to watch but I didn't join in. 

I know Greece's economy has been in the news a lot, but we really didn't see too many obvious signs of this other that the presence of homeless people and homeless dogs (and also maybe the shop owners were a little extra eager to get our business). The dogs were everywhere and just roamed the streets but it was incredible how smart they are. They even know when to cross the street! Unfortunately, we made the mistake of petting one though and he followed us most of the way home, giving us his best puppy eyes and making us feel really bad for not having any food to share with him. It was really sad because he was so cute and we wanted to adopt him. 

THE DOWNSIDE OF TRAVELING THAT FOR SOME REASON NO ONE EVER TALKS ABOUT:

I have no right to complain but that being said, traveling is really wearing on me. I love love love love love seeing new places and- if you told me I'd be saying this a year ago, I wouldn't have believed you, but- it takes a lot of energy. Taking midterms and then going to two countries and then to a different Italian city and only being home for a day and a half before leaving for another country again plus dealing with all the different setbacks that traveling brings is stressful! It's also really expensive, and not for the reasons you might think. Obviously, transportation and a place to sleep will cost you, even souvenirs. But so will eating and having to do laundry. You probably won't have a kitchen so you have to eat out. And the plane/train tickets are what you think of when you estimate transportation costs, but today I learned the hard way that getting from the airport to the hotel and back are also significant costs that are easy to overlook. 

Even though we're doing fun stuff, it's easy to accidentally let yourself start complaining. And once that happens, you won't have fun. Once your realize that your phone might die, you might get hungry, you might not be able to sit down, you might not have wifi/phone service everywhere, there might not be a bathroom available when you need one, people might try to rip you off, people might start hating each other, your feet might hurt, it really wears on you unless you have a chance to catch your breath. It's really not a relaxing thing like I thought. You just have to accept that a lot of things are gonna go wrong because it's real life. There is the possibility of getting lost, especially without a map and no data but it's better to start walking and have to ask for directions than to never leave the hotel. And that's fun, but it does deplete your energy. 

Maybe Greece came at a bad time for me when I was burnt out from back to back trips. I did really enjoy it though, even if it had to be a conscious decision on my part to not let myself dwell on the negatives. I don't want to remember Greece as a terrible country just because I was too tired to appreciate it.