The Roman Agora. Athens, Greece

The Roman Agora. The Temple of the Winds is the octagon shaped building in the upper right. Athens, Greece. A Dianne Lima photo.

 

February 5

 

We arrived in London at about 10 a.m. The air in the runway tunnels was a lot colder than the air we left behind in San Francisco. Still, it felt great to be back in London. That familiar rush of adrenaline swept through me as we walked through the hallways of Heathrow. Even though this was going to be a short stay in London, I was very glad to have the opportunity to be back in England. It only whetted my appetite for the end of the trip, when we would get to spend a day seeing London’s sights.

 

After a short two-hour layover, we were on a plane bound for Athens. My panicky feelings resurfaced, but Dianne applied the same “shock treatment” to me that she had applied on the San Francisco to London flight. It actually turned out to be very effective. She even got me to build up the courage to look out the window at the snow-covered Alps below us. I have to say that the view was spectacular.

 

This might sound strange, but I love looking out the windows as we approach for landing. I know that the landing is statistically the most dangerous part of the flight. But, my thinking is that the flight is almost at an end, and I want to see the final destination. As a result, I’ve seen some fantastic vistas. However, none of them compared to the approach into Athens. The sun was setting over the Aegean Sea. The light of the setting sun painted all of the Saronic Gulf with a bright red hue. Below us were several islands. From our altitude, they looked like ships that were waiting in some great harbor for a dock to open up in Pireaus. It was a magnificent sight.

 

We landed at the Ellinikon Airport at about 6 p.m. I was surprised to find that there were no runway tunnels connecting the planes to the terminal. Instead, one took a bus from the plane to the terminal. A tourist travelling to Athens now would not have to take these bus rides. The new Athens Airport opened about a month after we left Greece. However, I’m glad that I was able to experience the conditions that inspired the building of a new airport.

 

We walked over to the luggage carousel and retrieved our bags. While we were standing at the carousel, we noticed some payphones with signs that said they were for international calls. Other signs on the phones said that they took credit cards. We decided to call back to the States to tell our families that we made it safely. But, we could never get the phones to work. They wouldn’t accept our cards. Finally, after about 10 minutes of trying various phone numbers and card combinations, a janitor walked up to us and told us that the phones didn’t take credit cards. This would be precursor to a condition we found throughout Greece.

 

Since I had read such horror stories about Athens taxi drivers, I thought I’d play it safe and contract for a driver to meet us at the airport. Thanks to some searching on the Internet, I had contracted with George, The Famous Taxi Driver to take us from the Airport to the hotel. George was with another customer, so he sent his friend, Spyros, to take care of us. As promised, Spyros was waiting for us in the terminal. We were afraid that we’d have to try our broken Greek, but Spyros spoke perfect English thanks to his years of living in New York. He asked us about our wedding and the blackouts occurring in California. As he drove us through the darkened streets of Athens, I was amazed at how much urban ugliness there was in the landscape. It’s pretty clear that the term “urban planning” just wasn’t in the Athens Planning Department vocabulary. There’s very little greenery and lots of concrete. Just when it appeared that there was no respite to this urban blight, Spyros took us past the ruins of the Temple of the Olympian Zeus. After pointing out those ruins, he then had us look out the other side of the car at the Parthenon, which was shining like a star in the night sky. The illuminated ruins were just what we needed to remind ourselves that we actually were in one of the most ancient cities in the world, and not some European version of Los Angeles

 

Spyros got us to our hotel shortly after pointing out the Parthenon. As he got out to get our bags out of the trunk, he ended up getting into a shouting match with some other drivers who didn’t think he should’ve been hogging as much of the road as they thought believed he was doing. For some reason, the whole scene was stereotypical Mediterranean behavior to me. Both parties yelled loudly at each other for a few minutes, and then departed with the satisfaction that they had either properly insulted the offender or properly defended their honor. After disposing of other drivers, Spyros finished unloading our bags and asked for 11,000 drachma. This price didn’t surprise me because that was the price that was quoted when I arranged the trip. The stories that I had read about taxi drivers in Athens had convinced me that I would be cheated out of much more than that if I had just picked up a taxi at the airport. It turns out that I was wrong. George and Spyros were the most expensive taxi ride that we took. All of the other rides to the airport or Pireaus cost about 4,000 drachma. Spyros was a very friendly driver, and George’s services are probably very good for other trips. But, for a shuttle from the airport to the taxi, I would not use him again. Instead, I’d find a taxi driver at the airport and agree on a price before I left for the hotel.

 

We went into the Hotel Adrian. The Adrian is in the Plaka, or old part of Athens. I had arranged for our room through their web page. We were given a great room on the third floor overlooking the one of the Plaka’s main streets (Adrianou). The room also had a patio, with a table and two chairs. Since it seemed like a great place to relax with something to eat, we decided to go out and get some food and bring it back to the hotel.

 

We walked about a block west of the hotel to the next cross street (Eirmou). As we turned north, we could see the Acropolis illuminated above us. We could also see the Roman Agora about a block ahead of us. Dianne and I decided to stroll up to it while trying to find a restaurant. It actually didn’t look like much. Other than the magnificent Temple of the Winds, there were only a few pillars marking the site. We decided that we would make a more thorough inspection of it only after we had seen the rest of Athens’ sites.

 

We continued through the streets just east of the Roman Agora. I was amazed at how quiet the streets were at that hour. It was hard to imagine that we were in a large city. The only sounds we heard were the strains of Greek folk music. We followed the sounds and ended up at a restaurant. An employee was outside and asked us if we wanted to come in for a look. Dianne was getting very nervous, because the employee was rather insistent that we go inside. However, my sense of adventure was still high, so we went in. There was the band that was making the music we had heard from a few blocks away. However, their demeanor didn’t match their music. They looked bored out of their mind. The patrons in the restaurant looked about the same way. At that point, Dianne was pulling on my jacket to get us out of the place. I had also come to the conclusion that this wasn’t the place for us to be. The employee was pushing “the view of the Acropolis” just a bit too much. As we turned to go, the employee got even pushier. “Why don’t you just stay for one drink? What’s wrong with our restaurant? Why don’t you want to eat here?” I responded in a somewhat forceful tone that we had just arrived and were just looking for a light snack, not a full meal and drinks. We then walked out of the building. The employee glared at us as we headed down the street.

 

So far, this trip wasn’t going as well as we’d hoped. However, we decided to continue on in order to satisfy our growling stomachs. After another couple of blocks, we found the Roof Garden Taverna. It’s located on the corner of Tripodon and Lysiou near the church of Ayiou Iounnis Theologos. Their specialty is crepes, which can be bought from either inside the taverna or from a take-out window. The crepes range in price from 600 to 1,100 drachma. I ordered a sausage (more like a hot dog) and cheese crepe, while Dianne ordered a chocolate crepe. There was no problem ordering them. While we tried out our Greek on them, we didn’t get much further than “Hello” and “Do you speak English?” Fortunately, the waiter spoke English. It wasn’t long after we ordered that we had our crepes. They turned out to be exactly the perfect size for our appetites. Best of all, they were delicious. I highly recommend the crepes at the Roof Garden Taverna if you are looking for something light to fill the appetite.

 

We took the crepes back to the hotel and enjoyed them on our balcony. We spent about an hour eating and listening to the sounds of the Plaka. While exhaustion was starting to set in, I was mostly feeling amazement that we had actually made it to Athens. What had seemed like an abstract thought had become a reality. It was true that we had already had a couple of rough spots, but we had managed to find some good things as well. That seemed to bode well for the rest of the trip. It was with that sense of hope that we headed off to bed and some much-needed sleep.

 

                                                                                                   

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