I’ve never feared for my life so much as I did the night I rolled into Athens. Before I began my cycling trip, I of course did wonder which roads in which country would be the most treacherous, difficult and dangerous. The irony was however, that I was not cycling into Athens, but stuck helplessly aboard a speeding bus. The driver decided that he was Michael Schumacher and treated the two-lane motorway as if it were a grand-prix circuit, and the bus was his own F1 racer. We hurtled along at around 130km/h, only slowing when a car blocked our way in which the bus would tailgate at this speed until an opportunity to overtake presented itself. I quickly learned that in Greece, traffic rules don’t necessarily count for anything.
Scooters, motorbikes, bicycles and pedestrians routinely flouted red lights, trucks and buses seemed to think that there was no problem leaving no less than two metres of space as they hurtled down the motorways at break-neck speeds, and of course, just like Rome, the city of Athens couldn’t be more pedestrian unfriendly if it was designed that way. In the back of my mind are the two accidents I’d seen on the road out of Corfu, one I literally stumbled across possibly only moments after it happened. A car had somehow rolled over on the side of the road. Luckily nobody looked seriously hurt, but how the driver had managed to flip the car was beyond me. And now I was experiencing Greek driving first hand. I clung on for dear life, especially when at one point three vehicles – including my bus – ignored the double-line (no overtaking) and pulled out into the oncoming traffic lane, to overtake four semi-trailers. I held onto my seat waiting for the inevitable head-on collision but somehow, always at the last second, each vehicle managed to finish overtaking before escaping into a gap that somehow materialised exactly when needed. And I had to put up with this maniac for six hours as I made my way from Preveza towards the Greek capital. Thankfully, even Greek bus drivers need to take a break from driving, and so we stopped off at some roadside grill near the big bridge that crosses over to Patras, and whilst the driver ate his yeeros and supped on his freddo frappa thingy, I found time to recompose myself.
The nightmare eventually ended, obviously I did get to Athens and the original plan was to stay for just two or three nights, whatever worked out with the ferry schedule. But then things happened to bugger everything up, naturally. Hannah wanting to come out and visit was one thing, so I had to make sure I was in Athens on a specific date, but that was no worries. Three days would be more than enough time for the two of us to enjoy Athens and have a bit of fun at the beach. But I didn’t count on getting into town three days early due to equipment failure. This was the reason I was on the bus in the first place. Most friends that had visited Athens had said that you don’t need any more than a couple of nights here. They are totally right. It’s a little bit too hot, a little bit too dirty and it turns out the best part about the city is jumping onto a ferry for one of the Greek islands. Nonetheless, I now found myself with no less than six nights in this former Olympic city. Not that you’d really be able to tell that they’d had an Olympics recently, because nearly all the modern facilities and infrastructure built for the games has (already) fallen largely into disrepair and much of the town has that all too familiar borderline-slum feeling about it. The nice parts however, are quite nice indeed.
I will say just one more thing about Bessie, my ailing bike, and then put the story to bed because I’m sure you’re all sick of hearing about it. But arriving early did have its advantages, in that I could spend a couple of days (if necessary) finding a good bike mechanic to do the job. I was delighted to be recommended and directed to a well stocked bicycle shop and service center, Frederiks. They even had genuine Shimano parts which saved me the hassle of having Hannah bring a bottom bracket out from London. And it was fantastic working with Luke and his mechanics, who quoted me a lovely price to replace the critical items, but then basically without me asking, went over the entire bike and took the liberty of replacing a few other things that needed fixing that I hadn’t even thought of. For the measly extra sum of about 10€ they had virtually given Bessie the next best thing to a full service, regreased and oiled everything, replaced some cables and wheel bearings, new handlebar tape (nice!) and even threw in a free water bottle, knowing that I would probably need it on the way to Egypt. Bessie was fixed, riding nearly as good as the day I bought her, and I was happy. End of story. Hopefully!
So with all the bike dramas now behind me, I was free to explore Athens, though I didn’t really do much until Hannah arrived since she’d never been to Athens before so I was saving up all the touristy things until we could do them together. I spent a large amount of time just bumming around at the campsite, occasionally venturing out to do some cycling around the city and grab a yeeros or two. These yeeros (gyros) pita kebabs really are awesome, and I found a lovely shop in the suburbs of Athens that had some delicious chicken and pork yeeros going for 1.90€. Breakfast, lunch and dinner – sorted. But as good as the yeeros were, they weren’t enough to keep me from nearly going insane at the campsite. It was the only one in Athens and though it was nice, I couldn’t wait to get into the hotel room we’d booked. For starters, I was paying 8.50€ per night to sleep on the bloody ground, since the manager had some stupid rule that banned hammocks anywhere. So I might as well have been bumming it on a park bench for all the comfort I had there for three nights. And the cleanliness… normally you wouldn’t complain about a place being so clean, but they had some fetish for keeping the place as clean as possible, to the extent where there was always some form of cleaning going on. No matter what time of day I went to the shower block or to sit in the dining area, there would be some cleaning lady in the way, or a bloke hosing down the path. It was actually driving me crazy and I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Especially considering that the hotel we booked in the centre of Athens was only costing me an extra 2€ more per night than the campsite wanted for me to sleep on the dirt. Go figure?
Anyway, yes there were many good and interesting things about Athens once I finally got out to see things. We checked into the Hotel Aristoteles on a Saturday morning and put our sightseeing plan into action. The most obvious sight of course was the Acropolis, and we headed there to see the old Greek Parthenon and the ruins of the Agora, the old Greek forum that has been excavated. One of the buildings was actually reconstructed not too long ago, so despite everything being pretty much a pile of rubble, this helped to give some perspective as to what the place actually looked like. You could use your imagination to fill in the blanks. There were a couple of other buildings in relatively good condition considering they are thousands of years old, and the view from the top of the hill at the Parthenon is fantastic. Typically, the restoration of the Parthenon is ongoing (since 1992 or something?) and so I got my good fill of scaffolding, keeping in tune with the rest of my European adventure.
Wandering around Athens at night is an eye-opening experience. During the day, the streets are bustling with hawkers, market stalls and shops spilling their wares onto the footpaths, there are people everywhere and the traffic is chaotic. The same streets at night are dark and empty, and the only people you see are the black hookers, young girls who are also not exactly oil paintings, but what they lack in good looks they make up for in their eagerness in chasing down ‘business’. Funnily enough, they left the two of us alone, but any man driving a car down the road was apparently fair game, and on a couple of occasions, we saw groups of hookers literally chasing cars down the road! The prostitution trade was not something that I expected in Athens, at least I didn’t expect it to be literally everywhere, right in the heart of the city, and so ‘in-your-face’. It was kind of amusing to watch the whole spectacle.
The following day, I took Hannah to the markets which I’d found a few days earlier. They are truly a spectacle, especially the meat markets. I’ve never seen so many butchers all together, and there are rows and rows of fresh meat products literally hanging in your face as you wander through the halls. Every part of an animal is available; alongside the delicious slabs of steak and fresh mince, there were literally buckets of lamb heads, tubs full of hoofs and barrels full of offal and other organs. The stench was something else too. For the most part it wasn’t too bad but in a couple of different places, I got a whiff of something rotten that nearly made me vomit. Remembering that it was 35 degrees outside and the markets weren’t exactly air conditioned. Apparently, before Greece could join the European Union a few years back, one of the requirements was that the butchers selling fresh meat products had to install refrigeration units. And so now they all have them, so I can’t imagine what the smell used to be once upon a time!
Moving on from the markets, we found the central main square and witnessed the changing of the guards outside one of the government palaces or buildings. It was quite an interesting display, lots of high kicking and marching, and the guards were very fancy in their ceremonial dress. I couldn’t help but pity them for having to stand in the heat wearing full length trousers and coats. After the ceremony, they actually had one of the sergeants or such go around with a damp cloth and wipe the guards’ faces, getting rid of the sweat, and then brush down the long dark lengths of hair that was fixed to their caps. Being such a hot day, we also decided this was a perfect time to sample one of the local ‘customs’ which is some kind of iced coffee. The Athenians seem to revel in them, but although you will see nearly everyone carrying one around, you will very rarely actually see them drinking it. It’s almost like a fashion accessory, like a handbag, perhaps carried in order to keep their hands cool in the summer heat. I saw one man waiting at a bus stop, holding his nescafe freddo frappa latta espresso whatevero, and we waited for the bus for at least 15 minutes. We boarded the bus together, and when the same man stepped off about 5km down the road, the whole time he had not taken one sip of his icy drink! Well, I was not going to buy one and treat it like a handbag; mine was downed within minutes. Not too bad either, I could have had another.
Frappas in hand, we headed out to the beach on the new tramline. They weren’t exactly the world’s best beaches in Athens, but nor did we expect them to be. You can catch a ferry to an island if you really want to see paradise, but Hannah hadn’t seen a beach since her trip to New Zealand in January, so she was happy just being on any beach, the sand between the toes, soaking in the salt water and then working on shedding her English casper-the-ghost look. In contrast my own tan is coming along nicely, and I’ve managed to get rid of the shorts tan-line now. Still, I think it’s possible to be a bit darker, so I’m going to keep at it when I hit up the Greek islands.
Back in town, we also explored the Plaka district, very touristy but also very nice. We popped our heads into the shop of the famous sandal-maker, where I fought the urge not to go and buy a pair. Another day perhaps! With the current rate at which I’m going through thongs, they wouldn’t last me until Turkey anyway. Hannah found a bakery in her guidebook that was supposedly selling some of the best cheese pies in Athens. We didn’t have much luck, as the shop was closed on the first two times we visited, but then we struck lucky on the third! They weren’t bad, but I have to admit, I much prefer burek or yeeros. Something different though. Another thing I found was an entire shop dedicated to Lego. I dragged Hannah inside for a look. Glad I wasn’t in the market for any Lego, I couldn’t believe the prices – I think they were setting a new world record for the most expensive Lego sets on the planet. How does 799€ sound for a Lego police station? Bloody hell. Last but not least, on our last day, we headed for the Archaological Museum, a fine collection of statues and artefacts from the excavations and different time periods of the cities’ past. Some of the items were even near 5000 years old which was amazing! I did have to finally mention to somebody, since Hannah was there, something that had been bugging me for a while. And that was that there are a LOT of nude statues from centuries past, but nearly all of the blokes have had their willies broken off. Well Hannah seems to think that this is actually because members of the church (in particular the Catholic Church) went around and desicrated the statues, reckoning the nudity to be the work of the devil or something. And so that explains why, from London to Florence to Rome to the Vatican, and now even in Athens, nine out of ten statues of naked men that I’ve come across have been castrated! Poor bastards…
And so our time in Athens went fast in the end as we enjoyed the sights, and a few excellent meals. One Greek tavern (restaurant) in the student area particularly served up some fantastic grub, along with a litre of red wine for just 5€. The lamb was fab, the moussaka just as good, and the side veggies also delicious. I was happy to splurge out on a couple of restaurant meals whilst Hannah was in town, but now that I’m on the road again, it’s back to mini-marts and yeeros. Hey, there’s much worse things to eat, though I have to admit I’m still craving a good Brother’s Kebab at Rockdale when I get home. I’m very interested to see what kebabs are like in Turkey when I get there. Turkey is, after all, pretty much the home of the kebab, right? At least I’m steering clear of McDonald’s, which is conspicuous in its absence in most places I’ve visited in the past month (Corfu and Athens excepted).
Righto, I’m on the ferry to Santorini now, so more updates after I’ve finished swanning around the Cyclades!
