I heart Athens

Long haul flights are hell. Any one who has ever suffered through a long haul in economy knows this. Through this hell, two things happened of note. The temperature when we landed in Dubai was 44 degrees. Even in the terminal, we felt the searing desert heat.  The second thing of note, happened on our flight from Dubai to Athens. We were just thirty minutes from Athens when the head flight attendant approached our seat and asked “Ms Slattery”? I nodded in reply as a thousand thoughts ran through my head on why he had searched me out. Rapidly he introduced himself, shaking my hand and asking “How is your flight today, is everything OK”? I nodded and he was gone. 

Robert and I looked at each other. 

“What was that about?”, he asked.

“I have no idea”, I replied.

With that we began our descent into Athens.

Given the long haul hell and the level of tired we both were. We quickly ditched our plans to work out the subway to get into the city and find our hostel. Instead we opted to get a taxi. We breezed through immigration and, surprisingly, customs was not existent. This allowed us to be on the taxi queue within 30 minutes of landing. The queue seemed long but moved quickly. Even better, there was a slight breeze which cooled down the heat we had been inhabiting our bodies since Dubai. 

To us, the taxi rank seemed chaotic but it worked beautifully. We jumped in our cab after a short wait. Our cab was very clean and our driver, Vasilis, welcomed us to Greece. He showed us two routes on his iPad and asked if we wanted to go the longer, less expensive route at 40 Euro or the faster one for 45Euro. We chose the faster one. 

He flipped on some traditional Greek music as we raced down highways and through tunnels towards the city. It had gotten dark since we landed, so that it was impossible to see too much of the outskirts of Athens. Once we got closer to the centre, Vasilis started to give us a tour, pointing out important buildings, sculptures and places. He gave advice on the area we were staying, including some restaurants we should try. Vasilis asked if we were going to the islands and mentioned Folegandros, among others. Before much longer, he dropped us outside our hostel, bid us a happy vacation and left. He was a great introduction to Athens.

We checked in, showered, and when straight to bed. Not giving much thought to the complimentary earplugs left next to the bed.

Our bed was comfortable, our sleep deep. Waking up early the next morning, we headed straight out to have a look around. Our plan was to stay in Athens for two nights, just long enough to recover from any jet lag and to get a feel for the city before our return to Athens at the end of the trip. We walked through the market, strolled around ruins, found the metro for when we needed to head to the port the next morning. We were still talking about the different islands we could go to next and working out what times ferries left. We had no plans. Nothing booked. We were enjoying Athens.

Later that evening, at sunset, we sat at the rooftop bar of our hostel, drinking a margarita each and looking up at the Acropolis. We agreed we both like what we knew of Athens so far. Good food, dive bars, ruins and cold beers. Athens has a run down feel, like it is tired, but its energy just won’t give up. It’s ancient heart beats strong and its people carry each other along as it always has. 

We talked about our plans for the following day. it was decided. A slow boat – nine hours – to Folegandros. What we would find there, we did not know.