Greece

I've had pretty good luck health-wise the first 35 days outside the U.S. It finally caught up to me towards the end of Paris, though, and I've been fighting a cold the past 5 days in Greece. Still, I wasn't worried about a little cold stopping me from visiting endless ruins, eating feta and olives till I dropped, or island hopping the Mediterranean.


The elements and random strikes going on in Athens, however, did make me improvise some. I had 4 days in greece. The 'plan' was to spend the first day seeing most of Athens, hop on a ferry to Mykonos and Santorini for days 2-3, and come back to finish Athens on day 4. After a 35€ cab ride to my hostel instead of a 1.70€ metro ride (because metro workers were on strike that day), I ran straight up to the acropolis. Unfortunately Athens had the worst weather they've had all summer the first two days I was there.


Rain, wind and more rain is not the ideal setting to see the acropolis and all its beauty. Luckily the sky cleared a bit while studying the Parthenon and I was able to enjoy most of it (even though it was draped with cranes due to refurbishing). I still managed to see most of the area around the acropolis that first day but that was about it. Rain ruled the day. There was still more of Athens I wanted to see and I wasn't ready to get on an eight hour ferry to Santorini just yet. So I stuck around Athens on day two which was mostly dry but windy. I had a chicken gyro for dinner.


Day 2 I went to the acropolis museum which I thought was fascinating and walked around the other ruins around the city. I was impressed with how many there were and I really got a feel of what ancient Athens must have been like centuries ago. Besides the acroplolis, most of the ruins were poorly kept. I think Athens' terrible traffic and graffiti-filled streets also took away from the allure. I ended the day with a chicken gyro and took another to go.


Day 3 was booked for island hopping. I bought a one day cruise to go to three islands (Hydra, Aegina, and Poros) with 100+ of your stereotypical tourists. Think Clark W. Griswald on steroids!


The boat was great, the weather finally cleared and it was absolutely perfect outside. All the islands were magnificent and they felt a million miles away from the chaos of Athens. The islands boasted food, boats, donkeys, and a very relaxed lifestyle.


On Hydra I went straight to the highest point I could see and was rewarded with nothing but solitude and a pristine view of the port. Thirty minutes later I was hopping on the boat again. This was by far my favorite day in Greece.


WHEN I come back I will not miss Santorini. When I got back to Athens I had a pork and a chicken gyro. Day 4 I met 2 American girls (Daryl from NY and Austin from Austin...really) at the hostel who were traveling by themselves (props) and wanted a strapping young man to show them around.

I bit. My plan that day was to finally ride Athens' squeaky-clean metro (their pride-and-joy after the acropolis) to a few sites and see the the archaeological museum. Instead, due to another strike, we ended up walking 1.5 hours to one of the only sites in Athens that was cool and wasn't closed.


This time the metro, buses, trains and national monuments all shut down! Athens pretty much refused to work this day. It ended up working out for us though and we had a really good day seeing the nicer neighborhoods of Athens and stumbling onto some great Greek food. That evening we met Dave from New Zealand and we went to a nice Greek restaurant (no gyro this time) I had to cut my night short because I had to be up at 4am to catch a taxi that was taking me and a group to the airport.


Taxis were to begin their strike at 5am so in order for me to be able to get to the airport for my 11:30am flight I had to take a cab before the strike started...there was no other way to get to the airport! So here I sit, on the plane, 6.5 hours later waiting to take off, ha!


Greece impressed me in some ways but let me down in others. The islands, most ruins, and the food were all fantastic. Athens in general did not wow me as much as I had hoped. I came here fully knowing the state of their economy and their recent political issues. No surprise there. I was talking to a protester who told me the Greek government is taxing their wages to provide money to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).


To what extent does the city of Athens see the fruit of this tax is beyond me. He was visibly upset and it was obviously something he was determined to fight for. I felt selfish for being annoyed about not being able to ride the metro while I was on holiday in Greece, especially since I was in HIS country and there was no benefit talking to a tourist who was leaving the next day.


He said to me, referring to the IMF: "in this country we don't let outsiders make decisions for us..." and continued talking to others. I'd come back just for the food...