Day 75 - Decompression

Warning: This post is excessively random.

Having arrived in Athens after over 24 hours of train travel, I decided to take it easy today. I walked around a little bit, mostly just to forage. When they say Athens is dirty, they ain't lyin'. There are broken mopeds and mattresses just lying about. Stray animals are common. So are walls with huge chunks of plaster missing. This is not Kansas. But then, neither is Kansas, I expect.

The stray chunks of missing wall remind me of war damaged Berlin, and I think, "Maybe calling it a war on poverty makes a certain sense." Of course, the US only loses figurative wars. I think about all the drug money that goes to foriegn criminals and can't help but wonder if we're making the wrong call. I mean, the US could be the biggest drug producing country in the world if companies like Phillip Morris were only allowed to assign high tech research labs to woefully backwards fields like meth lab construction. Heh.

Anyway, back to Athens. I've been very much enjoying the lazy hotel life, showering at my leisure, watching TV, and washing a few delicates in the sink. I'm afraid I may just have to burn my socks, as yesterdays washing provided only negligible improvement in their olfactory qualities. It must be International Big Word Day. Of course, calling it Big Word Day really isn't in the spirit, is it?

Anyway, back to Athens. TV is actually pretty watchable here. A couple channels show movies in english with greek subtitles. I watched Finding Nemo and The Wedding Singer, classics both.

Anyway, back to food. It's nice having a fridge. It's funny at the same time, because many hostels have kitchens with no fridge, and now I have the reverse. It's mostly full of hotel crap, but there's enough room for yogurt, juice, and maybe some ice cream for later. Breakfast is free here. I didn't get up early enough to enjoy it this morning, but I should make it tomorrow.

I only say should because Athens keeps hours like Buenos Aires. There's a siesta from two to five, and most restaurants are open to midnight or later. Tonight I'm planning an excursion to a nice Italian place. There's a nice Greek one further on, but I don't think I'm feeling it tonight. Today is all about ease. Of course, that's a relative term in Athens.

Athens has to be the least pedestrian friendly city I've ever seen. Rome was crazy, but pedestrians with their wits about them could get around. In Greece, the crosswalk signal may be green, but the people turning won't yield. If I end up jumping on the hood of a car turning right to get across a street before I leave, I won't be the least bit surprised. And if that wasn't bad enough, the scooters here are worse than Rome's as well, cutting in and out of traffic without giving pedestrians a second thought. It'd almost be worth it to buy a scooter just so I don't spend two hours a day waiting to cross streets.

Hmmm. Bringing up Rome reminds me of something I read in the "Athens Guide" available at the hotel. They talked about some of the ruins in Greece as being "from the Roman occupation." I guess Greece is still near enough to the Balkans that people here know how to hold a grudge. There were some other strangely prideful statements in the guide. The orthodox church is very big here, and the guide made sure to mention that greeks were the first christians. I suppose that's true, considering the first apostles after Christ probably did their converting here, but it seems an odd thing to boast about. Were the apostles greek?

Because, ironically, randomness is the unifying theme of this entry, I should take a moment to mention a brass band was playing in a building across the street as I was writing this. I think I recognized the english nathional anthem and 1812 overture. Bizarre.