Athens Redux, May 2002

We spent the night on a ferry masquerading as a cruise ship.  A
wonderful way to travel as long as you don’t think about all the
people breathing all the air and using it all up. I tried not to.

We got into Pireas around 6 am but slept in until 7 and then took the
Metro to Athens. Arriving at our hotel, we discovered that Athens was
closed for Easter Monday and, because May Day came during Lent, it
was also closed the next day for May Day. With nothing to do, we
headed for the airport to a) change our tickets to leave earlier and
b) rent a car.

Mission accomplished, we decided to actually drive said car in
Athens.

A word about the Greek language.

Greek uses a different alphabet and all letters come in both big and
little forms. If you were in a sorority, as I was, you may know the
big letters. You probably don’t know the little ones. With a little
experimentation, you might discover that the thing that looks like a
small cursive r is really pi so it is pronounced p.  The thing that
looks like a p is really an r. The thing that looks like an upside
down v is really an l, the v is an n (I think), the triangle is a d,
and then there is the o with a – in the middle which is “th” and a
bunch of other stuff.  Now, Jenny is driving. We have rented a Fiat
Siencento (Italian for pieceofshit) and I am attempting to navigate
this thing through the streets of Athens. The street signs are mostly
non-existent. When you do find one, it is on the corner of a
building, whereever they could find space, it is small, it is blue,
it is in Greek with some smaller Roman letters underneath. And you
can only see the one which says which street you are on. You cannot
see the one on the cross street without going down that street which
you cannot do because they are all one way streets the wrong way.

Meanwhile, people are driving like maniacs, motorcycles are whizzing
by, I’m trying to translate Greek into Roman letters and then figure
out where we are on a map which has Roman letters but is missing most
of the streets. We are not having fun.  Athens is not on a grid.
Athens is not even square. Athens is a rats nest and we were the very
stupid rats. And the Acropolis, big as it is, will not stay in one
place long enough for you to triangulate and find your way home.

An interminable time later, we pulled into a parking place somewhere
near the Plaka and headed for lunch. An hour or so later, we returned
to our car. Which has had the window bashed in. Nothing important has
been stolen but there is glass everywhere. We call the rental people
and they say bring the car to someplace they claim is just a few
blocks away. You see where this is going?  We are now lost in Athens
in a broken car full of glass looking for an address we can’t find on
a street I’m pretty sure doesn’t exist. When we accidentally found
the place, we got a new car. We also got a bill for the window and
another charge for the 50 km we had driven trying to find the car
place.  Athens is becoming even less fun. (Are you counting? That’s
two rental cars which have now exacted their pound of flesh….)

Later: The oracle at Delphi…….

Susie and Jenny
— End forwarded message —