It Was All Greek to Me

Well, the Greeks sure caused a lot of consternation on a cruise ship or two because of their uncertain economic and political conditions.

In the end, after standing in a line for over an hour yesterday morning, Bill and I got on a short afternoon bus tour that allowed us to see some of the major sights in Athens. It was the only thing available, and that was only because many people just got too nervous or ticked off to go into the city and turned in their tickets.

The port where the ship docks is way too far from Athens to walk, and if, when, and who was striking was never made clear (through no fault of Royal Caribbean; I don't think anyone knew). We had been told that the metro stations and city buses would be running before 11 and after 5, but I was just too nervous to believe that. It had all been too fluid throughout the past few days. And if they weren't striking, they were demonstrating. At one point during our tour, they told us we would not be able to drive through the modern Athens City Center because it was closed (I assume due to demonstrations). About 10 minutes later, our tour guide received a phone call telling her that we were able to drive through the center of Athens. Drive fast before it changes again.

Having said all of that, it was a most interesting afternoon. Athens is where the large majority of Greeks live. It is pretty in a big-city sort of way. The buildings crawl up the side of the hill and the Parthenon sits like a cherry on top of an ice cream sundae – you can see it from very far away.

We drove to an area called the Plaka, which is the historical city center. It includes several streets that house shops and tavernas offering typical Greek food (well, typical for tourists at any rate). They freed us from the bus, and we had an hour-and-a-half to wander around a bit. While others shopped, Bill and I found a taverna and ordered gyros (what else?) and some white Greek house wine. It was good, and we enjoyed watching the people shop around us.

I'm pretty sure that the street on which the taverna was located was supposed to be a pedestrian street, but at one point, a UPS truck that literally took up the entire street (people were diving to the sidewalks) slowly drove down the street, with its sides touching the sidewalks because the street was so narrow. But, it was no wonder. The traffic around the city was absolutely crazy. I'm not sure if it is always that bad or if it was nuttier because of the political situation that day. I suspect the former. The UPS truck driver was likely looking for a quicker way to his destination. But, as can be expected in big cities, several others (including the inevitable scooters) followed suit. So the wacky parade went on for some time. We just sipped our wine and watched in wonder.

The entertainment last night was a comedian who was, unfortunately, not very funny. His material was very old. He was making jokes about Prince Charles leaving Princess Di for a homlier woman. Seriously? Didn't that happen a couple of decades ago? But the funny thing was that there was a couple sitting behind us who was apparently from Spain or Mexico. He spoke and understood English, but she didn't. So he was interpreting the bits for her. So Mr. Comedian would make his joke and then there would be the translation behind us. Furthermore, the man sitting to my left apparently couldn't hear well, so after each joke he would ask his wife, “What?” and she would repeat the joke loudly in his ear. It was a very surreal experience.

Our next stop is Rhodes, which is a lovely Greek Island. I anticipate less drama.