Wednesday, 16th July 2008 [Athens]

[First a note to all the language purists: I realise that Greek is a language in its own right, and that writing in Greek requires more than a font change. The title is meant to be humorous, not insulting to Greek culture or language.]

The bus pulled up to Syntagma square in central Athens at around 2:00 am. I had a map in my bag that showed how to get to the hostel, but since that the wheels on my suitcase had broken earlier that day and I had been awake since 5:30 am I was less than enthusiastic about walking to the hostel. A row of taxis were lined up outside the square, and while I normally take pride in the fact that I use taxis or public transport to get around the taxis did look quite tempting. So when I alighted the bus and was approached by one of the taxi drivers I happily accepted. After all, the hostel was a five minute walk and the taxi ride had been quoted to me by the hostel as costing approximately €5. A little steep, but I was willing to pay for the convenience.

There were a couple of things that I did not know about Athens when I got there. The first was that in the wee hours of the morning all the taxi rates double. So a taxi cab fare of €10 would not a special “deal” for tourists, but in fact the regular fare. The special deal for tourists, at least insofar as my taxi driver was concerned, was €29.50 for the three minute cab ride. I knew this was too much, but outside of my hostel I did not really know what I could do about it. Well, my one thought was to tell him to take me back to the square and I would walk, but the thought of carrying my luggage did not appeal. Tired and already weary of Athens I paid him €30 so that I could just go and get some sleep. I did not even get change!

Greece travel tip #1: According to my guide book on Greece, overcharging taxis in Athens is a fairly common practise. Most travel books have the standard rate per minute and rate per km published, and if the amount is well in excess of then suggest to the driver taking you to the nearest police station to sort it out.

Greece travel tip #2: Read your Greek travel book before travelling to Greece.

I got inside the hostel to check in. The clerk, Daniel, was from Romania and extremely friendly. He laughed when I told him how much I had paid for the cab, and told me that fare was enough to get me from the airport to the hostel. He went on to tell me a little bit about the hostel:
“We are in the middle of the red light district, and like every country Greece had prostitutes. If you leave them alone, they will leave you along. The easiest way to get into town is to head South, past Omonia square a few blocks away. Like every country Greece has drug dealers, and in Athens they all hang out in Omonia square. Just like the prostitutes if you leave them alone, they will leave you alone.”
He went on to explain that there was a walking tour of Athens that I could take the next day if I wanted, and that it left the foyer of the hostel at 9:45 the next morning. He also went on to explain a particular oddity of this hostel; each room had only one key! If we wanted to get in and our roommates had locked the door we had to knock, and the last person to leave the hostel had to leave the key at the front desk. Unfortunately my room was locked by my roommates, and while I felt bad about it I knocked on the door until one of them woke (at nearly 3 am!) to let me in.

I feel compelled here to make a couple of comments about my choice of hostel. In many of my travels I seem to stay in hostel in …… colourful locations. As a student I cannot afford much, and as any real estate agent will tell you housing costs depend on three things: location, location, location. The cheap places are either well out of town or local attractions or in the red light districts, the dilapidated area of town or in the midst of drug dealers. In many cities, these three are in the same general area. My search criteria for hostels, which is search by price and then search for places close to the city heavily biases me to staying in these districts. (Although I should point out this does not seem to be true in the U.S., where I have found some very nice cheap hostels in some good neighbourhoods. In Europe and Australia the above is a good general rule.)

I woke up around 7:30 in the morning and made my way to breakfast, then signed up for the walking tour. I was the only person from this hostel going, but the tour had started at another hostel and had a sizeable group from there. Our walking guide told us that Athens was a very safe city, and provided we stayed on the southern side of Omonia square, and we took care of our belongings on the metro system we should not run into any problems in Athens.

I was really glad that I went; highlights of the trip were seeing the Acropolis, the ancient marketplaces of the Romans and the Athenians, as well as the site of the first modern Olympic games in 1896. For good measure, the stadium was constructed on the field were the track events were originally held for the ancient Olympic games. I learned a lot about the history between the Greeks and the Turks, was surprised to learn how recently Greece had suffered from major political turmoil (as recently as the 1970s!), and how a little bit about how Christianity had spread in ancient Greece.

Greece travel tip #3: Go on a walking tour of Athens; they really get you around the main historical sites much more efficiently than wandering on your own.

The walking tour group was really friendly, and after the tour we all went and had a joint lunch and dinner. Afterward we broke into smaller groups and navigated our way around the flea markets. I went through the market with just one of the other members of the walking tour, Lauren. We had started chatting during the tour and she was told me that she was from Pennsylvania originally and was working in the film industry. Now she was tired of it and was travelling to get a better understanding of herself and what it was she wanted to do. I was not looking for anything in particular in the market (and in fact did not get anything) but instead helped Lauren find a purse for her girlfriend back in the States. After we had explored the flea market we made our way to a square near both our hostels and chatted. We talked about why people travel, about getting to know yourself and the people that you meet. I explained what a cosmologist does and why it might be considered interesting. I also got to ask a lot of questions about gay culture which was interesting. In particular one thing that has always puzzled me is that I have always regarded gay people as just people who happen to be attracted to the same gender, and so the idea of a gay culture has confused me a little. Presumably there is roughly the same amount of variation within the gay community as in the straight one? Two ways of avoiding this conclusion seem to be that gay culture is a sociological response to common feelings of ostracism and discrimination, or that my original premise is incorrect and being gay is strongly correlated with certain personality types. I also got to learn about the types of discrimination that affected the gay community today. All in all it was a very pleasant and enlightening evening.

Lauren was leaving to go back to the States early the next morning, and I was tired as well so we headed off home. She gave me a copy of The Da Vinci Code which I have since read and have some notes on, and invited me to come and stay if I was ever in Philadelphia.

My pictures of Athens here and here.

Someone else’s more impressive photos of Athens