Arriving in Athens

Imagine a winter holiday with no snow!

Greece. Never been there but certainly know a lot about the ancient sites. What an opportunity to see them first-hand. The flight is smooth. They even served breakfast and it is only a ninety minute flight. It is cloudy most of the way and so we are not able to see the geography at all until we are nearly there. Suddenly the clouds thin and the Mediterranean is as blue as I imagined it to be and the Greek islands come into view. We made it through customs with no issues and whoosh – we are out into the Greek sunshine.

A trip on the airport express train to the city centre and then we are off to find our hotel. We managed to find the absolutely busiest street in Athens to walk up. The taxi is outrageous. In Athens you don't share a taxi nd divvy up the fare. The driver is allowed to pick up as many people as he can fit in the car. Then he charges each one full fare and that is considered fair. Check the meter when you get in as you only need to pay from that point. Of course, if you don't, you will pay from the beginning of the ride. We have a map and the address. The shortest route is not always the fastest. Monastriki is one of the newest subway stops and it seems that it is already one of the most crowded ones also. We have arrived in town at 11 in the morning with our suitcases in tow. We find that everything is written in Greek. OK, that is not a surprise, but I did expect to be able to read the street signs. Unfortunately, they are not even close to what my English map says. It seems that the street names have been translated into English on the map. Trouble is, I am looking at the street names in Greek, not in translation. There is a huge YOU ARE HERE map across the road and so we trudge over to see if we can figure it out. Not a chance. Luckily, there is an American couple from North Carolina who head us off in the general direction of the Plaka where our hotel is.

I had purposely chosen a hotel in the heart of it all so that we will be able to walk anywhere we want. I have chosen the oldest, quaintest part of town because it is more interesting to wander through. I have also chosen the busiest street, the narrowest street, the street with vendors' wares laid out in the street, the street that is uphill all the way. There couldn't be a worse street to choose to introduce us to Athens. We pushed out way uphill, through hoards of people, over cobblestones that you couldn't see for the crush of the crowds. After asking for directions several times, we finally arrived, a bit bedraggled, at our hotel. The doorman offered to carry our bags, but it seemed silly at this point. We checked in and found our way to the eighth floor.

It was worth the struggle. We are supposed to have a view of the Acropolis, but we all know how those views can be. Well, this time we were rewarded beyond our wildest dreams. There it is, exactly as I hoped it would be.