First day in Athens

On the international Delta flights there is a screen where you can see a map that shows where you are relative to your points of origin and destination. On the map I see Corfu, Delphi, Cairo, Istanbul, Budapest, Naples, and ask myself why I waited so long to finally do this. I suddenly wish I'd taken a year to travel and work my way across Europe, doing odd jobs for a month and moving on to the next place.

The passengers cheered when we landed. We disembarked, loaded everyone into an airport shuttle, and rode maybe 150 yards to customs. We all looked at each other and wondered why we didn't just walk there. From the airport, Greece is brown and hilly. After having my passport stamped by a bored gate attendant, I went to baggage claim. The gate through customs was not heavily staffed, and to my surprise I was completely ignored. I expected some kind of greeting or questions--nothing. The area outside customes was a combination of auto rental booths, ATMs--all of which were empty--exchange booths and travel agents from Brendan and Cosmos tours holding up signs. Some people were smoking and there were three large dogs sleeping in one corner of the airport.

Three of us loaded into a bus to go over to our hotel and I got my first look at Athens. The drive from the airport isn't picturesque. I saw lots of auto-shops and an open-air market. Finally we arrived at my hotel, the Divani Caravel. Outside the hotel was a fast-food place called Pita Pan (ha ha). Sitting down to have a meal turned out to be more challenging than you might think. I didn't know whether to seat myself or wait to be seated. The cashier barely spoke English, and with some gesturing with a picture menu we worked it out and I had my first authentic Greek gyro.

I headed out to find the Athens nightlife and met up with a couple from Tennessee. They were headed to the Plaka so I tagged along. The Plaka is a restaurant and shopping district that resembles the French Quarter in New Orleans in many ways. The ubiquitious dogs were here too, roaming about seeking scraps from the tables of outdoor cafes. We went to a bouzouki bar on the roof of a building and listened to the music for a bit. We waited about 20 minutes for service and no one ever came to the table, so we left. Sort of an inauspicious beginning.