Athens Greece

We have explored the fifty states and now are jumping across "the pond" to explore more of this beautiful world. We left Detroit Friday evening, catching a red eye to Paris and then changing planes for a shorter flight to Athens.

Everything went smoothly, although it felt weird to have the primary language spoken on the flights be French. We booked through Delta, but Air France was actually used. We hoped to sleep on the first flight, but that wasn't to be. Coach isn't the most comfortable seating for a 7.5 hour flight.

When we arrived in Athens, we decided to be brave and take a city bus to town, as the airport is over an hour from downtown. It was 5 euros each to take the bus, and we can only imagine the price to take a taxi. We put our luggage on the bus, I walked up to the front of the bus to see if the driver could tell me what stop we should use. Neither Dennis or I can speak Greek and the driver spoke little English. I showed her the address of the hotel and she was able to communicate the stop. Dennis and I settled in for the ride. Shortly after the bus left the airport terminal, a man with a name tag approached us and asked if we spoke English. I replied "yes" and he then took a look at our tickets. We had failed to "validate" them on a little box on the bus. He pointed to a small sign on the window, written in Greek and English. It said that if you failed to validate your ticket, the penalty was 60 times the price of the ticket. Well, that would be 300 euros each. I looked at him and asked him if he was kidding. He was not. I thought, "Welcome to Athens". I told him that I had gone up to the front to speak with the driver and she hadn't told me we needed to validate the tickets. He was not happy but walked up to the front of the bus to check. He came back, looking a bit sad that he wasn't going to be able to "sock it to us". He said that the driver said to "warn us". lol The remainder of the ride was uneventful and a fellow rider gave us some hints for safety. She was wearing an Air France steward uniform. Thanks, Air France.
We exited the bus at Syntagma Square, a bustling area, full of vendors, restaurants and police. Yes, police. If you have followed the news, Greece has been a hot bed of protests against the government. Apparently Greece is suffering from spending overload just like the US. They have been telling the citizens that they must cut back on spending and that includes the generous checks that many, many Grecians receive monthly for not doing a thing. They are protesting the cut off of the gravy train and are blaming the government for "sleeping" with the capitalists.
Many have warned us to be careful as they are not happy with Americans right now, either. We decided that since it was getting late that we would take a taxi from Syntagma Square, rather than take other public transportation. For 15 euros we were delivered to our little boutique hotel, called the Centrotel. Very nice hotel, albeit small. The desk clerk spoke excellent English and answered all of our questions. He explained how to use the room key. The key also had a magnet of sorts on the chain (looked like a bottle cap). When entering the room, you put the magnet on the magnet in the room. When they connect, it allows you to use the electricity. When you leave the room, you take the key off of the magnet and all the lights are turned off. Good way to save energy. Our room had a small balcony with a bistro set. We walked to small restaurant, picked up a Greek dinner carry out and took it back to our room. We enjoyed it on the balcony. Ah, what a life!
We spoke with family via Skype and then decided to sleep. Since we had not slept in over 36 hours, it wasn't a tough decision. We didn't set an alarm, thinking we would get up like we always do, around 7:30 AM. Well, we must have needed sleep as we both slept until quarter to noon! That was 14 hours of sleep!
We got ready quickly, as we wanted to take a "hop on - hop off" double decker bus around town and it only ran until 6 PM. We got directions from the hotel desk and took off on foot. We found a little corner cafe/bakery and picked out two pieces of "tieka" or pizza and a bottle of water. Delicious.
We walked a couple blocks and then caught the tourist trolley. When we boarded and handed the driver our pre-paid tickets, he gave us maps and earphones, telling us to use "channel 1". We took seats on the second level and began listening to an English voice describing the heart bed of original democracy.
The city is a cacophony of sounds, voices and the streets are filled with pedestrians and many waiting for public transportation. Athens has both buses and rail. There are also yellow taxis EVERYWHERE. We decided to ride the tour a complete round and then decide where to stop. We enjoyed the Acropolis, the Parthenon, the Greek Parliament, and so much more. It was a busy day, but one we will not forget. We were surprised how little English was spoken by tourists and particularly vendors and store owners. We are not suggesting that they should bow to us and use our language because we are Americans. We are just surprised that as business owners, it would be smart to be able to communicate a little with English speaking visitors. Apparently, they didn't get the memo and are very happy with their businesses, thank you very much.
Tomorrow, we board our cruise ship for a ten day Western Mediterranean cruise.