9/16/11
The adventure begins! Andrea and I rode a SuperShuttle in to PIT at 7am to make handling her bags full of equipment easier. Once there, we did a few last minute errands – electrical converters for the equipment, post office for her, gum and coffee and free Godiva club chocolate for both of us – and still had 3 hours left until our flight (as per airline recommendations for int’l flights, of course). I could’ve done with a bit more sleep, having slept little and fitfully the night before, but it was nice to be early and think we had that much control, at least. I also brought leftover vegan pineapple-coconut-banana bread plus a sandwich, so I didn’t need to buy much. It was probably best that I avoided greasy food as long as I could, because the JFK-ATH flight had really shiny pasta that made the plane into one big fart machine. I wouldn’t think it would be so hard to optimize long-haul airline food for certain desired characteristics – like, you know, not making everyone smell bad in close quarters – but that’s just me. We both did queue up Midnight in Paris to watch at the same time, which was cute but SUCH a Woody Allen movie. I read a bit, I tried to sleep a bit, but the airline got very cold by the end and everyone was just ready to get off. Another day in the life of an economy class traveler, I suppose.
9/17/11
We had one minor scare when Andrea’s bags didn’t appear after customs, but it turns out they had been checked on to Crete without anyone telling us. How nice that a screw-up actually made things MORE convenient! Also none of our debit cards appeared to work for a while, but it ended up being probably user error. A pretty uneventful beginning to our adventure, to be honest – nothing went drastically wrong!
After sticking around to make sure Andrea didn’t have any trouble with her flight to Heraklion, I struck out to get to the city center for the night. As often happens with international travel, I found another group doing the same thing – a family of five from Australia on a 2-week vacation! That was fun and we got to Syntagma square just fine. It was a bit of a haul to the hotel, but not too bad – I didn’t even get lost, thanks to the map I uploaded to my fancy new phone! It was a very small room, but it’s just me, so it worked out. The most hilarious part is the bathroom, which seems like basically an oversized shower stall with the toilet right in the corner. I took a shower and a short nap before setting out for what would ultimately be four hours of exploring, which surprised me, but once I got walking I felt good enough to keep on. Regardless, I had to hit the free parts of the Acropolis and definitely the aereopagos, where I sat for about an hour, just taking it all in. Otherwise I was mostly just wandering around with no particular aim in mind except not to get irreversibly lost, though. This included some chocolate baklava and a gyro with fries in (of course!). I thought I might try and go back up to watch the sunset, but I ended up too bushed (to no one’s surprise but my own, probably). Plus I needed to be up early to catch the metro back to the airport and meet Spyros and start Patras Part I of the trip. Woohoo!
PS - Aside from the AmEx “I don’t care just where you go, as long as you’re with me” song (which we heard approximately 50 times in JFK but I still like), I’ve been listening to Typhoon’s “A New Kind of House” and it is excellent. In case you were wondering, I suppose. =)
9/18/11
Slept soundly despite being on the first floor by both the road and reception (although sweaty because of whatever plasticy bed liner existed, even though the AC was on) – earplugs and wearing myself out worked well. Breakfast was about average for low-budget hotels (hardboiled egg, roll, pretoasted toast, butter, jam) but they did have a few weird fruits that I tried. One might have been a fig, but perhaps not ripe? Anyway it was enough to get me on the metro and to meet Spyros! We talked a lot about his childhood on a Peloponnese island, how to approach grad school, and a lot of other things on the way to Patra, which was nice! We then got the key to my apartment – which appears to be on the intersection of Kolokotroni and Somerset? Maybe? – and he showed me around a little.
The apartment has a good sized kitchen/dining room (fridge, clothes washer and oven most important) plus a double bed and a bathroom much larger than the one I just left (although that isn’t saying much). It doesn’t seem much smaller than my Pittsburgh apartment, which is surprising. It also has quite a few lime trees and one (what I think is a) fig tree. Plus, there’s leftover vodka in the fridge, so once the supermarket opens (any day that’s not a Sunday) I think I might try my hand at making some simple syrup and, thus, superlocal lime drinks. =)
After Spyros left, I took a nap and then set out to find my way around. There’s an internet café around the corner, and in the other direction is a road that runs all the way to the beach. There are only intermittent sidewalks, so it’s kind of precarious, but I made it down without incident (except sweating) and wandered the beach, the very beautiful bridge, and the mysterious Rion Fortress. I had initially walked all the way around it, finding some sea glass on my way (!) before figuring out what it was. It looked like some sort of party was happening as I showed up, but no one kicked me out and it was free so woo! For those interested, it was built in 1499 to control the west of the Corinthian Gulf, and was alternately owned by the Ottomans and the Venetians. This basically means it looked like a Myst game. =)
The wind really liked to push all my hair in front of my face, so I guess my recent haircut was a little too short. But I got mistaken for a German and someone who speaks Greek today, so pretty good for a bumbling American! I really tried to hold out on dinner so as to be more culturally appropriate, but by 7pm I just couldn’t wait any longer. Not many places were open, but I stopped by one that looked like a few people were in it (a good sign) and got “chicken in tomato sauce” (a whole leg&thigh stewed in what must have been very greasy tomatoes) and “potatoes” (fries). Oh, and red wine, which came out chilled (?). Whatever, it was good, gave me some time to rest, and was only 7.50E! I also stopped by a bakery to stock up on breakfast. The internet café might be next, or I might just sleep… work (or, at least, going to the University) starts tomorrow!
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