Athens, Greece - July 5-8, 2005

Athens, Greece - July 5-8, 2005

(Victoria)
For those of you taking bets, our budget excursion may be going more up scale. Don’t throw in the cards yet, but I think our three nights in Athens was enough for Bill…and (if they were all like Athens) me, too.

I knew we were in for marginal accommodation at Hotel Discorous when the jolly, but easily annoyed owner nudged that for a “special rate” of only 10 additional Euro each night we could have air conditioning in our room – our room was only 30 Euro. I nixed this, preferring to tough it out than feel scammed. Bill was less sure.

As we trundled up the ripe stairs (a mix of mildew and cat urine), I could sense Bill’s anxiety level rising. I was desperate to know what he was thinking – this being his first hostel experience. We struggled with the door and the horror on Bill’s face was priceless – all of his fears about hostelling coming true. He was a good sport and we both laughed at our circumstances and agreed to freshen up and explore the area. Thankful for our shower shoes and that the communal shower was across from our room, we headed out.

We explored Plaka, our area of endless winding streets lined with shops and courtyards filled with restaurants. After a deliciously fresh Greek salad with Feta, lamb for Bill (he likes it now), some fried Feta, a spinach pie with, yes, more Feta, and two Alfa beers, we agreed that at least we were in a great location and our room was clean. And so, as we bid each other goodnight from our separate twin bunk beds, we thought we could handle it. Hey, it was like camping.

By the third day we stopped at an Internet café to explore accommodation in Crete – even though a British girl that worked at the Athens hostel arranged a 20 Euro a night place for us. We never even checked the hostelling sites we used before. We were both ready for something more certain and without the Lucy and Desi beds, and, as Bill said, “You get what you pay for.” Hopefully we will find that diamond in the rough of youth hostels and Bill won’t be scarred for life.

(Bill)
Technology, Laundry, the Acropolis, and the National Archeological Museum:

I think this “technology” thing has staying power. I had doubts that my Blackberry would work all over Europe but so far so good. Got off the plane in London, fired it up, and the emails started piling in. Athens, no problem. And as I write this we are in the middle of the ocean on a boat on our way to Mykonos and still no problem. We are actually updating our blog on the Internet using my Blackberry. UPDATE - I spoke too soon. Just as we went to post this blog our Blackberry connectivity went down - somewhere in the middle of the ocean between Athens and Mykonos. Damn technology. Never works.

On our first full day in Athens, besides recovering from the ten hours of flights and two hours of bus trips, we decided that we already needed to do some laundry after our four day jaunt in New York City visiting my (Bill) college friend Matt. We found what we thought was a coin-op laundry near our hotel, but quickly found that it was a full service laundry joint. I was pumped and we gladly paid the 18 Euro for two loads.

Fully acclimated, we spent our second day in Athens at the Acropolis and the National Archeological Museum. The Acropolis was amazing, but we could have done without the heat and the other million people (seemed like it) who had the same idea as us. Note to self…new business idea – price gauging tourists for bottled water on top of the Acropolis. We made our way down the Acropolis, re-hydrated, and jumped on the Metro to the National Archeological Museum. No shortage of ancient artifacts here. Amazing to see just how much has survived and to think of what didn’t.

Well, off to the Greek Islands.

Oddities or Things We Noticed:
(Bill and Victoria)

There was no shortage of scooters in Athens and it seemed most had large helmet storage bins attached to the back, but we have yet to see someone wearing a helmet.

Coffee (or frappe) is served cold, is extremely good and super strong.

Dogs and cats run the town.

Greek’s are big on the up sell and wooing customers (or tourists) into the restaurants, relentlessly.

No Starbucks, but Domino’s Pizza is here.

Even if there is a fire in the restaurant, the Greeks keep eating – no joke.

People are helpful. We were completely lost struggling to find our hostel and would never have found it if it weren’t for the help of a few extremely nice and helpful people – including a Domino’s delivery guy.

The summer is hot, muggy, and crowded in Greece. We now know what they mean by “high season”.

Victoria in Greek is Biktopia. So far Bill is Bill in Greek :)