Days 1 & 2 - To Athens!

So I got caught up in the delayed flight epidemic in the US. Stuck in Philadelphia for 3 hours beyond the departure time. I spent the time reading Paul Cartledge's Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta, which is by far the most useful book I've found so far for my research. Tons of background detail on the exact time period my novel covers; he pulls together all the ancient sources on this narrowly focused topic. Anyway, we finally got on the plane to go to Zurich, taxied for takeoff, and then the pilot came on: there was a hydraulic problem. So we taxied back to the gate, and it turned out it was actually two hydraulic problems. After another hour, we taxied back out to the runway and this time we actually took off. I missed the connection to Athens and so they scheduled me on a Swiss Air flight that was only 45 minutes late. After 17 hours of flights and airports and whatnot and 4 hours of sleep, I arrived in Athens.

Rule #1: Never drive in Athens. Alas, I learned this lesson the hard way. It took me 3 hours to make the 1/2 hour drive from the airport to the hostel. I managed to drive out of the city twice before finding the street I was looking for. Here's why:

Athens is pure chaos molded in concrete. There are mopeds, scooters, and motorcycles whizzing by, weaving through, spinning out, roaring past everywhere. Half the time there are no lanes. No one signals. Everyone is in a state of extreme haste. Wait! There's more... There's no city planning and almost no street signs. Those that exist are high up on the sides of buildings hidden under awnings or trees. And, well, they're in Greek--which I can sound out but not in the time it takes to drive past them.

After 2 hours of this adventure, I was ready to start bawling. That was when I figured out it was faster to stop and walk around a bit, ask for directions and then drive a bit and then repeat the whole process. I end up, purely by accident, parking on the street that the hostel is on, but I walk the other direction and pester some men chatting in front of a taverna. They point to a gaggle of tourist walking up the road, and that's when I finally discover the street sign, 12ft up on a building facade, and learn that I've been on the right street for the last 20 minutes.

More later.

I've started a web photo gallery. Here's the general link where you can see all the individual albums from each day of the trip: Greece Trip Gallery.

Here's Day 2.