Athens, Greece

Athens really sucked for us. Greek is practically non understandable ... I mean you can look at Italian or Spanish and maybe recognize some words to get a sense of what you’re reading – but the Greek language is like nothing else. We started the day with the Metro / Subway system, which was a 30 minute walk – then there was the paying for the ticket business and scanning the ticket to enter the train area … very very confusing, but we managed. We wound up downtown Athens and dropped into a coffee bar – they were making Turkish coffee in the long handle pot (see photo) so we had to indulge in some bitter brew. Woah, wake up time. We looked for this red double decked tour bus that we have been on in previous cities – but to no avail, it was nowhere – the brochure lied! So we got on a dumb little choo choo that took us around the city, we glimpsed some ruins and got off the damn choo choo. That’s when it started to get a little better – there is an area which winds around with small shops and bars called the Plaka (I say bars, but most are café stops for people) I saw a man playing the bazuki on the curb for money. I tipped him, then sat next to him and watched him play – explaining that I was a guitar player – he was friendly – but he didn’t let me play the bazuki – I wanted to just noodle around with it for a little while.
When I go to new places I try to blend in. I wear a silk scarf tied around my neck (I bought a few from a street vendor in Italy, they are old and vintage) with a white blouse – it really is humorous because the local people ask me if I am Italiano? Espania? Where you from lady? Its fun to keep them guessing. We had a bad lunch, Dave got ripped off at the cambio (money exchanger) they charged 20% … live and learn right? I took a lot of photos in gift shops – in Greece they have a thing called “the evil eye” it is typically dark blue with a white pupil and a dot in the center – it is to wort off evil spirits or bad luck – I now have a beaded bracelet of the “evil eye” for kicks. You will see them in my photos, so I wanted to explain what it was – at first I thought they were a little ugly, but they grow on you.
I know Athens would be a place I could have fallen in love with – but the red tour bus fell through and we had no alternate plan – next time we will be better prepared.
Ciao for now` Nora