To Athens

Survived the day! Victory is mine.

And now without further ado:

6/30/11

We schlepped down to the receptionist @ 7:40 in the morning and requested for a taxi to the airport, eating a hurried breakfast while we waited. Turned out we needn't have hurried since our receptionist was the only one who could check us out and we had to wait for her to come down (luckily she spoke to the taxi driver so we didn't get charged for the extra waiting time). (Also, though I've heard of the European greeting style, being on the receiving end of it was still highly unnerving.)

When we got to the airport, we discovered that the customer service's aborted attempts to call Annie were meant to convey flight cancellation as a result of the strike. Our new flight was @ 1:30pm, check-in counter unknown, gate unknown, and so our 50min flight suddenly acquired a four-hours wait. The lack of information with regards to check-in and gate was unnerving, but not something, as we've discovered,that could be solved from our end, so we mostly sat around and wrote / read/ drew (though I did locate an ATM to withdraw more cash). There was a bit more delay before take off and, of course, a complete lack of buses on the other end due to the strike. Our hostel is downtown but, unfortunately, that area was also closed due to the strike. What resulted was a wait in the mile-long line for taxi (over-demand)

I kid you not -- the line stretched past the end of the airport building and then doubled-back

at the airport, to which we'd arrived ~ 3pm, a very long detour to try to get to our place of residence, and us staggering into our (incredibly nice) studio at around 5pm. We met one of Annie's field-schoolmates just prior to check-in and wandered off together in search of food later.

Everything is served with bread and olive oil. Which may or may not incur extra charge, but generally they'll be there.

There were dozens of little birds around, as well, during our meal, which we fed, mostly to the disapproval (I think) of our servers. Annie and Cheyenne (the schoolmate) compared notes on traveling and archaeological studies and we coached Annie to ask for the bill in Greek, much to the amusement of the waiter who, to our bemusement, appeared to be a fan of American Idol (I mean, what?). A dispute of unknown origin broke out while we were wandering around afterwards and I was jokingly chastised by the book-seller

We took refuge in a bookstore. The people were very...loud.

who, when I told her "Good evening" in Greek, replied that it wasn't a good evening, that this place is near Syntagma Square and there is always trouble. "Well then," we thought, as we wandered past and up to the roof bar at one of the hostel buildings. It had a v. nice view of the Acropolis, which was VERY close. Then we went to a sports bar, which is the first time I've ever been in one (meaning bar, sports or not), where Annie and I bought bottled water, Cheyenne Greek beer, and we toasted to our collective insanity.

No, really. We did.

It was a rather dorky & wonderful experience, compounded by a tennis match on screen and a Scottish gentleman who insisted that in a match like this we should always cheer for the Scottish. So we did. Or at least, we cheered randomly in a game of two people (men single tennis) until we figured out which one was Scottish. Eventually Annie and I turned in early and Annie played around with our experimental wi-fi connection

...and here the entry abruptly ended. Athens was like that. Definitely not of the leisure pace we experienced on Crete and my entries got choppier and shorter for the next few days. However, in this day's entry there's not much more to add. We turned in early. Airport delays can be surprisingly exhausting. We saw people running around at intersections with white stuff smeared over their faces during our bus ride, which we found out later was treatment for tear gas. The food was very good and their photos have all been uploaded. I prodded around Annie's Kindle for a bit and then we went to bed.