Wednesday, September 6, 2006 – Athens, Greece.
Thankfully, leaving Toronto was uneventful with no question as to the weight of luggage we carried! We flew Olympic Air from Toronto to Athens and will finish the jouorney tomorrow with the same airline. Our flight was smooth and comfortable with a stop over in Montreal enroute. I am not certain how one is to classify airline food. It looks much like things with which I am familiar; I am told what it is, but there is still that lingering hesitation after one bites into it - how long ago was this actually living - I am beginning to think that someone needs to rethink what is served or allow us to bring along what we like.
Incidentally, since we arrived at the Toronto airport just around lunch time, we did pack our own tuna on fresh buns along with fresh raw vegetables and fresh fruit mixture purchased at Zehrs before leaving. How enjoyable and tasty in view of the forgoing comments!
I am thankful for the ability to sleep almost anywhere and so I was able to get a good five hours of sleep during the night - comfortable? Well, that’s another question! But at least I was able to arrive in Greece knowing who I was and why I was there!
We checked into the Sofitel Airport Hotel believing that an overnight in Athens enroute to Cyprus would allow us to accommodate some of the seven hour time difference. When we checked in around 11 am, Marian’s first desire, after a nice warm bath, of course, was to “sleep just a couple of hours, please!” As the more seasoned traveler, I had to tell her that if she did that, she would find she could not sleep at night and that would make things worse in Cyprus!
So, we bought Metro (subway) tickets to the centre of Athens and we were on our way. Forty minutes later we emerged from about 100 feet below grade - up three long escalators! - to the bright 31ºC sunshine.
One is immediately struck with the coexistence of the ancient and modern - remnants of marble columns lying scattered on the ground the way ravaging pillagers left them centuries ago within steps of the McDonald’s franchise! (The only thing I consider them good for in traveling is their washrooms!) All this is overshadowed by the dramatic presence of the Parthenon perched high over the city on the Acropolis. Since we had been here before, I had a slight sense of where things were but it was not quite accurate enough. I remembered a small shop which sold gyros in a pita of which we had fond memories both for the taste and the cost. Well, we started our journey on the west side of the Plaka (a warrens nest of narrow streets, touristy shops and outdoor restaurants catering to the ever present tourists) and since we were hungry, our hunger got the better of us after we had walked for about an hour and a half. Three o’clock may seem late for lunch, but in these regions (Greece, Turkey, Cyprus) lunch coincides with the hottest time of the day (so we were eating according to local customs - don’t we acclimatize quickly! We shared a salad and a serving of moussaka with something to drink and enjoyed the shaded environs protecting us from the sun. We paid the bill and moved on, only to find that after less than 100 metres, there was the small shop for which I had been looking! I still bought one for old times sake and it was delicious, however you can appreciate with our appetites already sated, we were not as interested as had been.
From there we wound our way towards the foot of the Acropolis and visited the theatre of Dionysius which gives a distinct insight into the marvels of Roman architecture.How many of our current architectural wonders will be standing centuries from now. Perhaps the idea of planned obsolescence is not so bad after all! I was amazed at the obvious attention to detail that the Romans used in designing their amphitheaters - single stones were carved to be slightly raised where the person sat at the front edge and then behind them the same stone was carved slightly lower where the people would walk. Underground walkways, obscured from the audience allowed actors to exit on one side of the stage and then to reappear on the other! Of course, the best seats in the house were specially carved chairs for those whose position in society warranted such privilege!
Although we did not ascend the Acropolis itself, we did venture far enough up to see the place from where Paul preached his sermon recorded in Acts 17:16ff before the members of the Areopagus in 54 AD. As I stood there I could not help but feel awe at what Paul had done - he had engaged the very elite of Greek society, the intellectuals and decision makers of their day - in presenting Christ as the God whom they honoured as the unknown god. I also find it interesting that one who accepted the testimony of Paul was Dionysius who is believed to have become the first bishop of Athens.
Things went downhill from here, literally as the heat was taking its toll along with the tiredness of bodies deprived of sleep, so we took the short route back to the Metro station stopping to purchase a 1.5 L bottle of cold water on the way. We paid only 0.90 euros for that bottle which was so refreshing!
Back at the hotel we showered and got ready to have some supper at 7:30 - early by the standards of this culture since they usually only consider going out for dinner after 9 pm! We had dinner and ordered a 1 L bottle of water which cost us 5 euros!!!!
While at dinner, a couple sitting at a nearby table heard our English conversation and turned to ask us where we were from and we said Canada - so are we, from Calgary! – and a single man sitting nearby said so am I – from Toronto! The world seems so very small in some ways and yet in others the distance between people is becoming more distant in some critical ways. More on that in a future blog as this has gotten far too long already.
We are enjoying the lights of the area as the sun has set and as it rises tomorrow we will be welcoming the new adventure of Cyprus!
David
posted by David & Marian Sloss @ 3:53 AM
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