Italy - Greece Vacation 1999 - Athens

Table of Contents

19 May 1999

We flew late into Athens (all of our flights were late -- Italy is definitely my kind of country).

The cab driver at the Athens airport spoke very little English. I tried my limited Greek, but I quickly discovered that I couldn't communicate very well. I think the Berlitz tape prepared me for hotels, restaurants, and even buses, but in all those situations English has been fine. It's the cab drivers who don't speak much English. So I find it difficult to explain where we want to go, and impossible to make small talk. So if I come home without a single cab driver friend, you know why.

Anyway, I asked him to take us to the Acropolis House Hotel, he nodded and off we went.

The Athenian traffic is frightening by American standards, but we all agreed it was a step below Rome and Florence.

What made the ride interesting was that the cab driver obviously didn't know where to go. He pulled out a big book, and divided his attention between swerving through the midnight traffic and flipping through the index. I started looking through my book, and he smiled reassuringly, said "Is okay, is okay," and went back to driving and reading.

Finally he pulled over. I showed him my map and pointed to the Acropolis House. He lit up and said "Ah, *hotel*!" Then he roared off into traffic again. He pulled up in front of the Acropolis Hotel.

"Is this it?"

"No, Acropolis House."

He looked at the map again, said "Koudrou" (the name of the street our hotel was on), and took off. This time he found the correct hotel.

There were three reasons why we didn't mind the confusion:

First, as erratic as he was driving, he was no worse than anyone else on the road.

Second, the hotel fare was around ten dollars, far less than the Italian fares we were used to.

Third, it was cool just to look around. It was the first time any of us had seen the Acropolis, and this was a good time to see it. The Acropolis is well-lit at night, and it sits upon a very steep rock outcropping, so the ruins themselves seem to float above the city, bathed in blue, red, and yellow lights.

The staff at the Acropolis House was exceptionally helpful and friendly, especially considering the lateness of the hour. We grabbed our keys and walked up to our rooms.

We had intended to get up early to get in line at the Acropolis. Instead, we rose fairly late, had a leisurely breakfast and wandered out in search of a laundromat. We eventually found a place that the hotelkeeper had recommended, and best of all we could just drop off our dirty clothes and collect them later.

After dropping off our laundry we made our way over to the Acropolis. It was a beautiful walk, through the narrow streets between the white Greek storefronts and rooftop restaurants, with the Acropolis towering above us the entire time.

We had low expectations of Athens, because the guidebooks had warned us that it was a polluted, congested, and dirty modern city. Parts of the city lived up to that reputation, but most of Plaka (the section of Athens with our hotel and the Acropolis) was beautiful.

Chris, Tamara and Forrest at the base of the Acropolis (this is the rock with the good night time views).

The guidebook also mentioned that "the crowds that swarm the Acropolis have to be seen to be believed." But when we got to the Acropolis, there was no line. Instead, the ticket booths were closed with a small sign that said "Admission Free -- International Museums Day." So off we went.

As we climbed up the hill, we passed a tired-looking Greek man who was resting in the shade. He offered his services as a guide, but we declined, mostly because we didn't know who this random person was or if he knew anything about the Acropolis. Looking back on it, we probably should have tried it.

The entrance to the Acropolis is awe-inspiring. The road winds up to the main gates, flanked by massive pillars and towers. Behind you is a fantastic view of Athens.

The gates were almost anti-climatic, however. Once through them, we faced the grassy, rocky plain at the top, broken by only two ruined buildings: the Parthenon and the Erechtheion. There used to be many more buildings, but those are the only two with any significant structure remaining.

Myself, Tamara, Forrest and Chris in front of the Parthenon.

The Parthenon was an amazing building. I knew it was big, but even so when I finally stood in front of it I was unprepared for its size. I can only imagine the effect it must have had on Athenians (or their tourists) in 400 BC.

We walked around the buildings for a while. We also went into the museum, where they had a number of artifacts found on the Acropolis grounds. There was a wide array of statues and friezes, some genuine and others reconstructions. At this point we had seen so many museums that it was difficult to focus on anything in particular, we were mostly grateful for the shade. After that, we walked down to the Theater of Dionysos.

Then it was back to the hotel. On the way, we decided to stop for lunch at one of the many restaurants in the terraces of Plaka. We were accosted by friendly restauranteurs the entire way, finally we succumbed when dragged into the kitchen of a particular establishment. We were also promised at 15% discount, which curiously never materialized. But the meal was so good we didn't argue about the bill.

A local cat started talking to my brother during lunch.

Like Rome, there are a lot of cats in Greece as a whole. In Rome they are protected by law, in Greece it turns out that most people don't have their cats spayed. So there are a lot of them around, sunning themselves on old walls and pestering tourists for scraps of food and affection.

After lunch we booked the hotel in Nafplio, and bought some clothes in a quaint store on the otherwise tacky main street of Plaka.

We crashed at the hotel after that, finally getting up for dinner around 7. We tried out the lone vegetarian restaurant in Plaka. It was good food, but we weren't terribly hungry at that point.

We walked Tamara back to the hotel, then Forrest, Chris and I walked up to the Acropolis in the dark. We walked around the base of the hill for a while, then climbed up a large slippery outcropping we'd seen earlier that day. The top was crowded, and we could see why -- you had an excellent night view of Athens and the Acropolis.

After resting there for a while and admiring the view, we walked back to the hotel. The restaurants were in full swing now, with boisterous folk bands and more polite but insistant restauranteurs.

The Acropolis at night. You'll have to use your imagination to fill in a lot of the dark areas, digital cameras aren't so hot under low light conditions.

Mental note: eat after 9pm in Greece. That's when the party starts.