Greece, or what I now like to call 'Grease'

So we left Istanbul on March 19 and headed to Athens. Unfortunately, our experience in Greece was not as positive as it was in Turkey.

Wednesday, March 19

We enjoyed a quick one hour flight from Istanbul to Athens. We arrived at the Athens airport at around 11:15 am and caught a taxi to our hotel. When we got in the taxi the driver told us that the city was on strike and as a result some of the streets were not open and he would have to take us the long way to our hotel. What?? Since when does a strike close streets? But since we were not familiar with the city or where our hotel was located it was not like we were in any position to challenge him. So what should have been a €15-20 cab ride ended up costing €45! Then he had the nerve to say that the fare was €48, not €45.

So we made it to our hotel and we get settled in and while Victor was napping I decided to venture out to get us some lunch. Let me tell you, I guess these men thought I was free game since I was alone and almost every man I walked past whistled or made gestures or said something (I'm sure obscene) to me in Greek. And since everyone was on strike there were large groups of men on the corners and just sitting around. I definitely did not feel as safe as I did in Turkey.

Later in the evening, Victor and I decided to go walking around. It was at this point that we realized how dirty Athens was. There was graffiti all over everything, and since they had been on strike for two weeks, the garbage collectors had not been around to pick up the trash so all the dumpsters were overflowing with garbage and there was trash all in the streets. It was really quite disgusting.

Thursday, March 20

Today we planned to visit the National Museum and the Acropolis, but since Athens was still on strike a lot of the public transportation was not running. We ended up walking to the National Museum, which wasn't so bad since it wasn't too far from our hotel. When we arrived at the museum, we were surprised and disappointed to find graffiti all over the sign and the front sidewalk in front of the building. Don't the locals have enough respect for themselves and for their city not to deface property that is bringing in revenue for their town? I guess not.

The inside of the museum was disappointing as well. Victor was especially looking forward to visiting the National Museum because of all of the world-renowned treasures they hold. He likes to watch the History Channel a lot and they are always talking about how this and that can be found at the National Museum in Athens, so it was going to be quite a treat to see these gems up close and personal. We went in the museum and everything just seemed so dusty and thrown together and the captions under the statues and exhibits did not convey the significance of the artifacts. And the layout of the museum was poorly designed.

After we left the museum, we headed to the Acropolis. If the city had not been on strike, we could have easily taken the subway straight to the location, but nooooo...

We were going to try to take a bus to the Acropolis, so we found a bus stop and waited...and waited...and waited...and waited...and waited...and waited for the bus. While we were waiting for the bus, this nasty little old woman walked behind Victor and pushed him in the back for no reason!! I thought maybe she needed something but when Victor turned around she just looked at him and kept on walking. Rude! So finally a bus came and we hopped on. Three minutes later we hopped off because the bus driver decided to stop permanently and everyone had to get off. We walked a couple of blocks to find another bus. We found a bus and Victor was trying to ask the bus driver a question and the bus driver closed the door in his face and drove off!! Rude! We decided to just walk to the Acropolis. The people on the street were so rude, bumping into us and not saying excuse me and just looking trifling in general. When we were getting closer to the Acropolis, we decided to hail a taxi since there was a big hill we would have to walk up. Of course, every taxi that passed either already had passengers or just wouldn't stop. I finally flagged down a cab and asked, "Do you go to the Acropolis?" to which he nodded "Yes", so I turned to Victor and called, "Come on, honey!" and when I turned back around to open the door the taxi driver had locked the door!! So I asked him through the window to unlock the door and he said something to me in Greek, rolled up the window, and drove off!! Rude! So we started walking up the hill towards the Acropolis and on the way we found a shuttle thingy that would take us up the hill for €5, so we hopped on and off we went. Finally!

Visiting the Acropolis and Parthenon was probably the only thing that was not disappointing during our visit to Athens. It was so neat to be able to see these historical monuments up close. Check out the pictures! We stayed at the Acropolis for about 90 minutes and then headed back down to town.

Later on we decided that we would visit the mall. Whenever we go somewhere new, Victor likes to visit the mall to see what kind of stores they have. The mall was actually really nice and they had a lot of nice stores.

Friday, March 21

Today we left the city of Athens to stay at Voulos Beach for a few days. Voulos Beach was located about an hour from our hotel in Athens. Yay! Away from the dirty city! It will be much better by the beach. We didn't want to take a taxi, so to get to the new hotel we had to take the subway to the tram station and then take the tram to Voulos.

A brief word regarding etiquette on the subway: The citizens of Athens do not have any!! It was like a zoo on the subway. Proper upbringing, manners, etiquette, and plain ol' common sense would tell you that if you are standing on a subway and someone needs to get off, you could do one of two things:

1. Politely move out of the way so that the person can get around you and get off; or
2. Politely step off of the subway so that the person can get off and then step back on.
   
   Well, they used a third option:
   
   

3. Rudely stand right in front of the door without doing options 1 or 2 so that the person trying to get off has to push and shove to get around you to get off the subway.

I've never seen anything like it! It was a pure animal house trying to get off the subway! There were little old people pushing and getting pushed and no one would budge for anybody. It was terrible, especially since we had our luggage with us. It was like a stampede and we almost didn't make it off the subway before the doors closed on us.

We made it to the tram station and were on our way to Voulos. After we made it to Voulos, we decided that we were going to take a taxi to the hotel since we didn't know exactly where it was located. We go to the taxi station to catch a taxi and of course no one stopped. I was mad at first, but then I looked around and there was a little old lady and a man with a child and the taxis wouldn't stop for them either, so I didn't feel so bad. Oh, I forgot to mention that it was cold and raining pretty steadily, so we were outside with our luggage in the rain trying in vain to get a taxi. Finally, we just decided to start walking. In the rain. In the freezing rain. With all our luggage. Luckily, Victor had had the foresight to call the hotel the night before to see where it was located, so we started walking in that general direction. Thank goodness the hotel was not that far away and we made it there in about 15 minutes.

So we got to the hotel and Disappointment #459 stood before us. The hotel looked absolutely nothing like it did on the website!! It looked like something straight out of 1977. At least the hotel staff were nice. We got to our room and by then we were tired and wet and hungry, so I went back downstairs to ask the hotel clerk for the restaurant menu. Her exact words were, "I'm sorry, our restaurant will be closed for a few weeks, but I can make you a ham sandwich if you want."

Umm... no, thanks.

There ended up being some nice restaurants not too far from our hotel, so we ate there. One thing that I will say about Greece is that the food was very good.

Saturday, March 22

It was nice and sunny today, so we decided to go across the street to the beach. Disappointment #842. The water was very clear and pretty, but the beach itself was full of glass and trash. Not what it looked like on the website!!

There was a nice shopping area up the street from us, so we went there for a couple of hours. I like to refer to this area as "Little America" because it was full of American restaurants like Starbucks, TGIFriday's, Applebee's, Dunkin Donuts, and Ruby Tuesday, and stores like Nautica, Tommy Hilfiger, Nine West, etc. We decided to go to TGIFriday's for lunch. Disappointment #931. We had three different waitresses and the food was not good at all. I think my burger had freezer burn. I guess that's what we get for trying to eat American food in Greece.

The rest of the day was nice though and we spent it walking around and such.

Sunday, March 23

Today we are headed back to the UK! Relief! We took a taxi to the airport and this time the fare was only €12.45, but the crafty little cab driver told us it was €15. I wish people would realize that when you add your own gratuity to the tab you are really just short-changing yourself because most people usually tip more when it is left up to them to decide what they want to give. Victor and I are very good tippers and the driver would have gotten much more than the €2.55 he added himself if he had let us decide how much we wanted to give him, but it was his loss.

True to form, the check-in lady was rude and impatient with us but we didn't care because we were going home!!

Needless to say, we will NOT be visiting Athens again. I would like to visit the Greek Isles, like Crete or Santorini because I hear the islands are pretty, but the people in Athens were so rude and abrasive that I can't ever see myself willingly going there again. It was so bad that the day after we got back to the UK I went to the grocery store and I was really edgy and defensive because I was expecting someone to cut in front of me or steal the last box of cereal from between my fingers, but to my surprise everyone was courteous and saying excuse me when bumping my cart and making way for me if I needed to squeeze my cart through a tight area. In other words, they were CIVILIZED. The British tend to be impersonal and keep to themselves, but they are not outright RUDE, which I now appreciate.

Even though our Athens trip was not what we expected, Victor and I still managed to have a good time because we were with each other. It's always fun when you travel with your best friend. We had so much fun talking about what we didn't like and complaining to each other. It actually became funny whenever something disappointing happened. It was also nice getting to spend time together and we talked a lot about our future and our hopes and wants and dreams.

I think that was my favorite part of the whole trip.