*This was actually finished on Saturday, October 17*
When I stepped out of the Athens airport at around 9 AM, after the long and discombobulating prior night, I felt refreshed. The air felt so pure and clean, with the perfect coolness to stymie my stress. The first couple people I spoke to asking for directions were helpful and reasonably friendly, and I easily made it to the bus which would take me to Claudia's house in the outskirts of Athens. Claudia is my mother's sister's friend's sister (yeah), who moved to Greece 3 years ago with her husband and two kids. She welcomed me to her home and I quickly found her to be unbelievably kind and great company. She showed me around downtown Athens, particularly the main bustling area near the Acropolis with many restaurants and shops, called Monasteraki. I was really digging the place, with it's side-by-side modern/ancient layout. Claudia explained Athens to be a place kind of caught in the middle of the upscale-Europe and old-time Middle East-esque lifestyle, where haggling is still an option. There was cool graffiti everywhere and the people seemed sophisticated and trendy. Kind of like a middle-aged, graying man, carrying a briefcase, wearing a sport coat and jeans.
I then went up to the Acropolis, where the Parthenon is located. As I ascended I was able to look out at various views of Athens, in awe of the sheer congestion of the place. The Acropolis was crowded, with various tour groups from all over the world, old couples trying to rekindle that spark, and that weird kid from America. I must have heard at least 15 different languages while I was there. There were many of the Greek-staple pillars, even off of the Acropolis; I'm not going to lie, I wasn't sure which of the buildings was the Parthenon until I asked a few people. Either way, I enjoyed the 360-degree view of the city and the incredibly ancient architecture awaiting my viewing pleasure.
I met again with Claudia, and we ate in the tightly-packed restaurant area of Monasteraki, where every plate at every restaurant looked essentially the same: very good meat on a pita. Souvlaki. Greek food is indeed very tasty, and very meaty. I must say, though, that at this point of my trip my opinion of Greek people started to diminish, having nothing to do with the fact of their goofy changing of the guard ritual (or their attire). Claudia explained that she felt like Greeks have a sort of better-than-you attitude, which I suppose makes sense given that they consider themselves the fathers of modern philosophy and democracy. And I totally got what she was saying. The waiters were impatient. The cab drivers act like they're going out of their way for you, and make sure to express their disdain for any destination that does not meet their unknown desired criteria. People weren't so inclined to give directions, and seemed almost insulted if asked whether they speak English (even if I tried in Greek). And the next morning, before my trip, I had an incredibly stressful, altogether terrible experience trying to make it to the Port of Piraeus to meet up with my tour group.
Claudia and her family live at the very end of one of the 3 central train routes, in a place called Kiffissia. At the opposite end is the Port, and I found that it would take about 50 minutes to travel from end-to-end. My itinerary said that we'd be leaving at 6:30 AM from the port, so I made sure to arrive to the station early enough, by around 5:10, which I did. Three stops in, though, the train stops for about 5 minutes and the doors remain open. Since it was so early, there was practically no one on the train, so I wasn't sure what was going on. Soon enough, the doors closed and the train heads back toward where I'd started. It's about 5:25 by now. I get off at the next station, with the time weighing heavily on my mind, looking for someone to help me. I thought of calling Claudia, but I didn't have a phone, and there wasn't a pay-phone around. The station was all but empty, with 2 security guards who didn't speak English and apparently had no concept of someone being flustered, and another clerk who was likewise not eager to help. Eventually I discerned that to get to my destination I needed to go catch a bus, get on at another station, then take another bus or taxi. The estimated time was about 1.5 hours. Definitely going to be late by this point. Scramble out of the station hoping to find a taxi, which will be expensive, but will at least get me there. But the place is dead. Eventually I find the right bus, no thanks to the unhelpful workers, and decide that I should try to call the company and see if the tour group will wait for me. Otherwise I fear I'll miss the entire tour and have to stay around Athens until my flight to Istanbul 9 days later. So I frantically, desperately, walk up and down the bus looking for A) someone who speaks English (of which there were few, and even fewer who would help) and B) someone who's phone I could borrow. I was probably looking quite defeated, when eventually a saintly man, who I later found out to be a Romanian emigrant, reached out to me and said in his broken English, "I know what's like to be alone in country you don't know." Jackpot. So he lets me borrow his phone, I call Claudia, and she calls the company and says she'll call back. The Romanian guy offers to help me get a cab when we get to the station. He's dropping all kinds of broken-English knowledge on me, like "You can never know what tomorrow come." Claudia calls back and the company is not open for another 4 hours. Then the dude's phone dies. Damn. By this point I've accepted that I'll be late, and not really sure what I'll do. The guy helps me get a cab, and he departs. It's about 6:50 by this point. The cab driver kindly offers me a cigarette, which I decline, before lighting up his own. He gets me to the port. It's the wrong gate. I frantically search for the ticket office, and they tell me there's a ferry leaving for Mykonos, the first island, at 7:30, and that I need to run to the boat. The people at the boat tell me I need a ticket, as they don't understand my situation with my travel group who'd pre-paid for my tickets. I quickly decide to get a ticket and hopefully meet up with the group where we're staying on the island. I run to the ticket office and sprint back to the ferry and get on just before it leaves. Totally out of it, but accepting my defeat, I search for someone, anyone, who speaks English (or even Spanish) and may be familiar with my travel tour. Eventually I find 3 girls from Australia and sit down at their table, exhausted. I explain a bit of my situation, and it turns out that they're on my tour. The itinerary had lied about the departure time, and I'd made it. It took me a while to accept the fact, but I was on my way. The first island, Mykonos, was awaiting.
I soon learned that there were 35 people on my tour. Of them, there were about 24 from Australia, 6 from New Zealand, 3 from Brazil (they taught me some Portuguese), 1 from Canada, and me, the lone American. The place we were staying in Mykonos was called Paradise Beach. This was a bit overstated, as my particular accommodation was little more than a large doghouse. The beach was quite nice, though. The group went to town and we quickly noticed that practically every building, every room, every tile-pattern, is a uniform blue and white. Mykonos is particularly renown for it's night-life, but I found the scenery to be quite beautiful. Unfortunately it was late in the season, so not many people were there, and I thus did not really get the whole experience of this or the final island, Ios. I did have some delicious authentic Greek food and enjoyed walking through the maze of the narrow alleyways in the downtown area, as well as appreciating the unique views while relaxing at a coffee shop. And I quickly learned that Aussies are somewhat wild, which was to be reinforced night in and night out. I couldn't, nor did I really have the urgent desire to, keep up with many of them. But they were fun, nice people.
The group took the next ferry and eventually made it to Paros. Our guide, Laura (also American), explained that Paros is the least touristy island of all we would go to. It, too, had narrow alleyways and the familiar blue-and-white color scheme. After a laborious dinner in which there were only 2 waiters working for at least 50 people, I signed up for a day-cruise with the group for the following day around Paros and neighboring Antiparos, complete with a Greek BBQ. Almost the entire group signed up, and we were cruising along the sea by mid-morning. The land about us was home to the odd building, often a church, and occasional widely-spaced groups of housing. We stopped at various places to take a swim-break from the heat, and even had the opportunity to go cliff-diving. And plus, there was unlimited wine (don't worry mommy, I was careful). Soon enough it was lunch-time, and the group feasted on an authentic Greek BBQ, including various types of Souvlaki (of course), Greek Salad (try it with potatoes), freshly-caught octopus, and sea urchin (you scrape the orange-colored inside with a piece of bread). The captain and his first-ish mate then expertly packed the material up, leaving it on the island, awaiting their next group. Laura, our guide, told a few of us that on the other side of the water from where we ate, both Tom Hanks and Jennifer Anniston own homes, apparently for their peacefulness. One more night out in Paros, and we were off to island #3, Santorini.
I'd recalled hearing bits about Santorini from my Aunt and Uncle as well as from the Will Ferrell SNL 'Lovers' skit ("Again, our bodies sluggish with goat meat"). It was hyped for it's beauty, and I soon found it to live up to it's reputation, if not out-live it. After pulling in to the port, we were taken on a transfer to the hostel where we were staying in Fira, the capital of the island. The bus went up and up around windy roads into the tops of the cliffs, upon which the towns are built. Downtown Fira was similar to the other areas we'd stayed in that there were many narrow alleyways and shops, but it was altogether a better and more lively place. Laura took us to a cliffside restaurant with a magnificently beautiful view for dinner. Out to a bar afterward, and back to the accommodation, which had gradually improved from the first place at Mykonos. The next day, I decided to rent a 4-wheeler with an Aussie friend of mine, Dana, and cruise around the island. We were issued a map, and shown that the island is in a crescent shape, with basically one congested area each in the north, center (where we were staying), and south. I'd never been on a 4-wheeler, and I immediately loved it. We were right on the street with the cars, it was easy to get around , and it went quite fast (around 50 km/hr). And I liked the little trunk that was attached to the top of the vehicle. I felt just like Sal Paradise from On The Road. And the views were just unbelievable. In the middle of the crescent sits a volcano (which unfortunately didn't erupt), and as we cruised to the south of the island we could quite easily distinguish the settlements of the north and center. We went to the beautiful Red Beach for which Santorini is particularly known, along with the equally impressive, and more beach-like, Black Beaches (2). The water at both Red and Black was very refreshing and, of course, very pretty. I parted from Dana at the southern black beach and made my way back north toward Fira, where I stopped at our accommodation for a bit. Laura, our guide, had planned a trip to Oia (pronounced EE-uh), which is known as the spot to watch the sunset. Her trip included a meal and cost money, so I decided it'd be a better idea to take my 4-wheeler, which I had rented until 10 AM the next morning, up to Oia on my own. Laura warned that it may be difficult to get back since the street isn't lit well, but I checked with the place where I'd rented and they assured me the headlight was strong. I was nevertheless a little nervous, but headed north. It took about 35 minutes to get there, and I was instantly rewarded with an amazing site from which to watch the sunset. (And the ride there wasn't too shabby either). And the sunset itself did not disappoint. Vivid colors of oranges, reds, and pinks dazzled the sky as onlookers both from land and sea fawned over the sunset in comfortable silence. Still slightly concerned about my ride back, I decided to ride back as the sun was setting, and was treated to a pink-tinted sky, illuminating my majestic journey back to Fira just enough to get back to the more well-lit road before darkness. Everyone on the tour wanted another night in Santorini, but it was time to go to the final island, Ios.
Like Mykonos, Ios is notorious for it's night-life. Unlike Mykonos, there wasn't much else to offer besides the beach, which was admittedly splendid. It was the last two nights of the tour, and the group had grown closer throughout, so the partying was quite fun. The highlight was certainly the Slammer Bar, where for the mere price of 5 Euros the customer dons a heavy-duty helmet, takes a shot, and gets hit over the head with an object ranging from hammer to stool to skateboard. I now finally understood why Greeks think they're better than everyone else (the drawback to online communication is the lack of tone, which in this case would have better indicated my sarcasm on this last sentence). With no shame, many people participated, and we all had a fun night together. The next day was spent almost exclusively on the beach, with a nice group-dinner to follow at our resort before again going out. I'd had enough getting hit over the head, though, so didn't stay out as late as many. The last day we had a late ferry back to Athens, so I decided to make the picturesque uphill trek to the downtown area where we'd been spending our nights. It, too, was a maze, but practically a ghost town, with many resorts shut down for the season. Interestingly, though, I saw many locals all going to one building, which I found out to be a school, and voting in the Greek elections.
I arrived back to Claudia's house late at night after struggling to hail a cab from the Kiffissia station back to her place, and caught up with some news and called my parents before going to sleep. The next day I went with her to the traveling street market, which was fun but not as impressive as the Shuk in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv (where I went this past weekend). I had wanted to go back downtown for a bit and walk around, but I eventually figured that I'd had enough travel woes as it were and decided to head to the airport somewhat early. Everything went swimmingly, and I was stoked to be going to Istanbul (and ready to be away from Greeks). On the plane, I read about the city from the guidebook which I'd borrowed from a friend, and my excitement grew. I could not wait. And I was not to be disappointed.
Look out for the next post about my trip to Istanbul, now easily one of my favorite cities.
Your writing is fantastic and makes me feel like I'm traveling there with you. The photos are great and you're right, it is very beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI hope your first day in class goes well and I look forward to reading more, especially about Istanbul.
Love, Jessica