Today was a much better day than yesterday, though that wouldn't have taken much. I went to sleep earlier, slept later, and was still up in time for the hotel's breakfast. Undoubtedly the best breakfast part of a B & B I've every had. Huge buffet with the usual: scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, and stubby, missile-shaped sausages that had the texture of Vienna sausages (ugh); the healthy: muesli, yogurt, fruit, juice); the sweet (croissants, chocolate croissants, pudding in little shot glasses, cream cheese-filled pastry, rice pudding, and various jams; the indigenous: dried apricots and dates; and probably other stuff I've forgotten. The milk they use for coffee/tea is interesting - thicker and not white and they heat it. I'm embarrassed to tell you that Jenny Craig would not approve of what, or rather, how much, I ate. Oh, well - what are vacations for if not to indulge? One observation I found interesting is the connection between my mood/feeling of isolation and how much I'm eating. I hardly ate at all in Jerusalem, and here I'm in a perpetual state of "full."
Another realization is that I haven't had a conversation since I left Jerusalem. Sign language doesn't count.
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What I mean by the title of this post is I gave myself the day off from lugging around my travel bag with camera, zoom lens, and other miscellaneous necessities - the Boy Scouts would be proud of the extent of my preparedness.
After breakfast, I waddled on a LONG walk trying to find the laundry (I'm sure the exercise worked off at least half the calories from breakfast). Mostly I got lost due to mistaking one square for another (actually they're both round -traffic circles). The part of the city I walked to by mistake is called Omonia (pronounced just like ammonia except with an "o" at the beginning) and it's a very unsavory neighborhood. Many of the streets were worse than sketchy - I saw two or three men shooting up, some prostitutes, and men and women passed out in doorways, on dirt under a tree, and against walls. One man looked barely human.
Walking the streets of Athens (no, not as in street walking) is an adventure even without the what I just described. Water drips onto the sidewalk from AC units above, all sorts of vehicles are parked over curbs and on sidewalks, traffic is unpredictable (especially the scooters, which are ubiquitous), and other pedestrians are doing behaving as pedestrians do in other cities - stopping in the middle of the sidewalk, having conversations that one must walk through or go into the street to go around.
Anyway, I had a map, but still had to ask directions until I finally found a street that was on the map I had. Man, did I feel dumb when I saw how close it was to the hotel and realized how far out of the way I had walked. Sheesh. But if I'd found my way initially, I would have missed out on all that local color.
I left the clothes and went searching for a little shop I'd passed the first time around, and went around and around looking for it. Time for a new blister. When I figured out what I was doing wrong, I found the shop. Confession - I was going back because of a dress I saw on a rack on the sidewalk. I didn't get that dress because there was another one that's very in style over here. It's white and sort of...well, I'll post a photo of it when I get to Istanbul. Very cute!
The clothes weren't due to be ready for another hour, so I stopped at a sidewalk cafe (there are more of those than you can imagine and they take up the entire depth of the walk) for a Coke Light (they don't have Diet Coke here) and a sandwich to take back to the hotel for dinner MUCH later. All my wandering had taken over an hour, but I ended up very close to the laundry and the clothes were ready - folded and packed very nicely into a plastic bag.
Back in my room, I thought about taking a nap, but decided to venture out instead. One of the billboards I'd seen earlier in the week had an ad for a museum showing of Degas' bronzes - the first time they've all been together. The collection is going on a world tour and Athens is the first stop. Finding the museum took some doing (it's on an obscure street at the bottom of the Acropolis), but once I got there I enjoyed strolling through the exhibit. It was nice having the place (the smart people hadn't ventured out into the 98-degree afternoon) to myself and the bronzes were impressive. Most of them are only about 18"-24" high, but the most famous - Little Dancer of 14 Years - is life size. Her ballet skirt is real cloth and her braid has a satin ribbon. (It sold for ~ $17M last year):
The air conditioning in the museum was great, too.
After this relatively modern cultural experience, I went to see more ancient culture: Hadrian's Library (not anywhere near his Arch), the Agora, and the Stoa of Attalos (the ticket I bought for the Acropolis was also good at these other Famous Places, so I figured I might as well use it). Fortunately, I'd had my fill of photographing crumbled concrete, so it was okay that I was camera-less. The museum at the Agora had some amazing pieces from as long ago as 1400 BC. The detailing on the pottery was very precise - gorgeous.
The exit I took from the ancient "compound" opened onto a whole street of cafes, so I settled on one and had a Greek salad (hey, it'd been 8 hours since breakfast!) and a Coke Light. There was a fan blowing cool mist over the tables. Nice!
What most people have when they take a break is a coffee drink of some kind, wine, or beer, and cigarettes. Many cigarettes. A 10-year old boy playing "Never on a Sunday" on his miniature accordion was making the rounds of the cafes, asking for donations, and his little sister (maybe 5 years old) was selling packages of tissue.
This street led to Monastiraki Square - this one really is square - where's there a Metro. It's a major gathering place, and at this time of day - 6:30 - was full of people buying fruit, or sitting on walls watching other people, or heading down to the Metro. I was hot and my back was dripping wet, so I decided to call it a day. As I was buying my ticket, I wondered how the Metro knows if people are buying tickets. There aren't turnstiles or other means of stopping people from just walking through to the trains. Everyone is supposed to insert their ticket into the validating machine. It comes back out, but you don't have to insert it again when you exit at your stop. When I was transferring to another train, a line of Metro cops blocked one of the entrances to check for valid tickets. Guess that answered my question.
So now it's 10 PM and I'm going back to my room. Did I mention that to get free wi-fi I have to go online in the lobby seating/cafe area? It's nice - Greek radio station with American music, remember? And there are many comings and goings. Lively.
Oh - forgot to mention a couple of things:
Athens has more "beat" policemen/women than I've ever seen. They're everywhere!
The cafe this afternoon had clogged eggplant on the menu.
γειά σας! (bye!)
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