It's all Greek to me:)

On Wednesday, July 14 we arrived in Piraeus, Greece. Piraeus is the port city for Athens. First impressions of Piraeus- big, urban, and not at all the image that comes to my mind when I thought of Greece. My expectations of Greece center around island hopping and coastal villages. I was quite surprised to find the urban metropolis of Piraeus & Athens. Traffic moved fast and the people moved about even faster. I liked it. Other than the signs written in a language I could not decipher, Piraeus and Athens felt like any other major city in the USA. So on to my Grecian adventures…..

Shortly after the ship was cleared for disembarkation we left to explore Athens.  We walked about 30 minutes from the port area to the train, which we rode into Athens. On this particular day, I was traveling with Chela and 3 other colleagues/friends. It was H-O-T! At certain points during this day, I literally felt like I had to catch my breath. I stopped and picked up a bottle of water. The big bottle of water was a mere 1-euro. It was clear from that moment that Greece was going to be less expensive than our previous ports. In Spain, Italy & Croatia, the small bottle of water costs 2 to 3 euro. I was excited that my money would go a little bit further. This is a good thing for me and the rest of us working in US currency but sad evidence of the poor state of the Greek economy. During our time in Greece we witnessed a worker demonstration and a strike of the ferry workers. Their economy is in turmoil—more so than the US in my opinion. It was fascinating to be so close to a historical moment. Ok, back to my travels….

We rode the metro into Athens. First stop, an errand close to the Syntagma Square. Syntagma is the famous site for a plethora of events in Greek history. Today it is home to the Parliament Building, formerly the King’s Palace. When we arrived, we had just missed the changing of the guard. The guards, Evzones, are compared to the guards in Buckingham Palace, which stand completely still, and tourists love to see if they can make them blink at least. We missed the changing of the guard but seeing their interesting outfits gave us insights to the show we missed. Oh well, perhaps when I return to Athens I will see it thenJ

We spent the rest of the day wandering thought the Monastariki & Plaka districts. These are a shopper’s paradise. Blocks and blocks of shops line the streets. No major purchases on Day 1 but it was so cool to see the Acropolis and the ancient ruins sitting high atop the city. Like in Rome, it was so fascinating how integrated these ancient sites were in the daily live of these very thoroughly modern metropolises.

An interesting thing that did happen to us this day is that we walked by a shop owner. By this point the group had split up into several pairs, triplets. I was walking in the rear with one my friends and the shop owner said, “such beautiful ladies.” No in later ports I will write about how much attention we get from shop owners but this was the first time this happened in Greece and particularly from an older woman. So we stopped to talk with her a little bit. She asked us where we were from. I responded Philadelphia and my colleague California. She asked if we were from the ship and if we knew Kostas. Now Kostas was the Staff Captain on our ship. He is also Greek. We of course replied in the affirmative. She quickly embraced us with an even warmer greeting. She got her husband to walk us to a good Greek restaurant where we could get a good meal at a low price. He did not speak English but she gave him clear instructions on where to take us. We had a lovely, inexpensive lunch things to our SAS connection. Isn’t that fun!?!?! We think she stopped us because my colleague and I probably looked like an off pair. My colleague is Korean and I am obviously Black. I did not notice a great quantity of Black or Asian people in Greece. She probably figured this odd pairing must be off the shipJ

After lunch we wandered through the shops some more. And also saw more ancient ruins along the way. For dinner we ate ko-shi. Do you know what ko-shi is? Neither did I but I have apparently eaten it quite a bit in the past. Ko-shi is a Korean restaurant, which serves sushi. Another colleague on the ship did some research and found a Korean restaurant in Athens. Weird, I know but I had Korean food. And it was good. Everyone knows my love of Asian flavors. It was so nice to have a bit of a taste in the midst of my grand adventure!

Day 2 found me on a SAS trip to the Saronic Islands. The Saronic Islands are a trio of islands located relatively close to our port city. So although I did not get a chance to make it out to Mykonos or any of the famous Greek islands, this trip provided a taste of idyllic island living of my Greek dreams. We visited the islands of Hydra, Poros & Aegina. Hydra was cool because there are NO cars on the island. Everyone moves around by animal or walking. So the very pace of the island was considerably slower. The major tourist attraction here is donkey riding. It ends up that most of the donkeys were actually small horses. The pleasure of donkey riding also cost 10 Euros for a 10-minute ride. I decided to save my Euros and ride a donkey next time I’m in Haiti. For the 10 euro, I was able to buy a pair of linen pants and I found that to be a much more fulfilling expenditure. We spent approximately 65 minutes on the island. Our next island stop, Poros, did have cars but we had considerably less time to explore. We were on the island for 30 minutes. In that time, I managed to buy another dress. Greece was good for my wardrobeJ the final island of Aegina we had about 2 hours to explore. I had a lovely gyro sandwich and was able to buy some sandals and a couple shirts. Aegina is famous for its pistachios. I tried them but they tasted just like the pistachios we have in the USA so I chose not to buy. It was cool to see all these islands but we definitely did not get enough time on any of them. That’s one of the major drawbacks of SAS trips. You get to see a lot on them—they try to get as much stuff as possible on them but to say that you fully experience a place is not likely. This was less true on a later trip in Egypt but my experience thus far was one of rushed convenience.

As day 2 was so hectic, I decided to take it easy on day 3. I slept and hung out on the ship for most of the day. Later in the evening, I went back out to Athens with some friends and did some more shopping around the Monastiraki district. Day 4 found me visiting the ancient sites at Delphi. To be honest, I had very little knowledge of what was to be found in Delphi. I really went on the trip because I heard they serve you a feast. You all know how much I love foodJ however it was cool to see remnants of classic Greek history. The drive out to Delphi was simply stunning as the area is surrounded by deep gorges and towering mountains. It was very scary at certain points on the bus ride because we were so high up. Once we got there we saw the Temple of Apollo and hiked up the ancient stadium where the Pythian games were held. The Pythian games rivaled the ancient Olympic games in prestige and importance. The hike up to the theater and stadium was quite an adventure and several times our group wanted to stop. But we persevered and made it to the top!!

Sadly, the highlight of the trip for me, the food, I did not really get a chance to enjoy. I started feeling unwell after the hike and completely lost my appetite. I am sitting before this bounty of a meal and unable to partake. This made me sad indeed. Oh well. We also visited the walled monastery of Hosios Loukas, dedicated to a local hermit and healer Holy Luke. The views from the monastery were amazing.

On the last and final day, I made my way to the New Acropolis Museum. What has been uncovered from the ancient ruins really gives me pause. You will notice there is no mention of climbing to the top of the Acropolis. I skipped this part of the Greek experience. After the hike the previous day, I felt I had hiked enough. Also the hike up to the top of the Acropolis has ZERO shade. Direct sunlight is never good for a sick lady such as myself. So I kindly took a picture inside the air conditioned museum in direct view of the Acropolis:) We also wandered about the Monastariki to do some last minute souvenir shopping. We had a great lunch but I was still feeling unwell and did not eat much. Sad faceL I slept through much of the evening activities leaving out of Greece because I did not feel well.

Overall, I enjoyed Greece. Athens and Piraeus seem to have a stray animal issue. There were stray dogs everywhere. They mostly ignored us but it was very disconcerting to have stray animals cross my path on such a regular basis. Plus they were well fed. One of the tour guides told us that the shop owners feed and take care of the dogs, so in weird way, they aren’t really stray. Other than that small issue, I really liked my experiences in Greece. It was the last port where I felt comfortable walking about by myself and doing some solo exploration. I noticed the same issues of graffiti as in other ports. Some parts of Piraeus were really disinvested and seemed to share similar characteristics to any urban area in the US. One thing that I found truly fascinating is that there is a subway line that runs under the Acropolis. I took a picture of a train, decorated with graffiti passing right by the Acropolis. The juxtaposition of old and new continues to fascinate me. Anyway, to Turkey we go!!! I must admit that as we start leaving the “European” countries I am becoming more excited. So much of what I saw of Spain, Italy, Greece and Croatia to a lesser extent was so similar to life back in Philadelphia that the sense of adventure had to be found in different place. I look forward to being launched a bit from my comfort zone. Writing in retrospect, I can say that as we have moved further into our trip, I have enjoyed each port a little bit more than the previous one. Details of my Turkish, Egyptian and Moroccan adventures to come……………