It's All Greek to Me - Chapter One
It's All Greek To Me
Ok...Rod here. Please bear with me, as I don't have all the blogging experience that Heather has. But, she tells me that my recent experiences in the ancient world of Greece deserve a mention. so, here goes...
I am currently on one of my round-the-world business jaunts. You know, the crazy 18 countries and as many hotels in 20 days. Everyone usually calls them 'holidays,' but those who've never done one can be very naive!
Part of this trip has sent me to the wonderful country of Greece...the island of Crete to be exact for an international conference in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. Before you start thinking how rough I have it, I can tell you that putting such a conference in such a place is torture. Imagine the most beautiful setting on the Mediterranean Sea at a posh resort for 3 days, and all you get to do is sit inside window-less, air conditioned rooms listening to Ag & Bio Engr papers. Stupid really...
Anyway, that's not the story. Since I had a day to kill en route to Crete, I decide to stop in Athens to have a look around. I find this hotel per Virginia's advice that, on the website they say is "overlooking the Plaka." The Plaka is the ancient marketplace of Athens. It is NOT the wide open square you might expect from such a description, but that will be clear in a minute. So, I get on the train from Athens airport and embark on the 50km journey into town. Now the first thing that hits you is...surprise, surprise...it's all in Greek! So, as the train whizzes by various stops, you're left to try and draw on your university fraternity days...not only rapidly translating the pi's, omega's and delta's, but at the same time trying to assemble them into some semblance of an English looking word!
One thing I've learned about European trains over the years is, if everyone's still on it, it's still going somewhere. The hotel website says I need to get off at Larrisus Station. Well, as I'm trying to make 'lambda...alpha...rho...rho...whatever the hell 'i' is...sigma...mu...sigma' out of the brief train station stops, I see nothing resembling 'Larrisus Station' for what seems like an eternity (a quite popular Greek symbol by the way, but that's another story). Not to worry...no one is really getting off the train, so I obviously am not at the central Athens yet. Finally, a stop comes and the train clears! Oh no...now where the heck am I. So, I do the prudent thing and get off the train at the next stop...you can always get back on, right?
Well, I come up out of the depths of Athens and walk out of the train station, thinking I'll just check where I am and it'll all be sweet. What a mistake that was! Downtown Athens is an absolute of mash of narrow streets going in every direction! And...you guessed it...more Greek street signs...when you can find them! Oh well...here we go. I start pulling my luggage through the incredible crowds of people through what seems like the longest market I've ever been in. I should also mention that around every corner seems to be a 'ruin' that looks incredibly old and very cool. Distractions aren't what I need at the moment.
After enough turns that I'm starting to risk not getting back to 'Go,' I decide to ask someone where the Airotel Parthenon is. It's gotta be close, right? After all, everyone's got off the train a stop before and the Parthenon's on top of the gigantic mountain that you can see from everywhere. Well, no one knows, not even the street name. Finally, one guy that speaks a bit of English says, "Oh I know it. You're on the wrong side of the hill (referring to the Acropoli)!" It's a BIG hill! Ah man...this just isn't working. And luggage doesn't roll very well on cobblestone streets.
Luckily, I have a phone number of the hotel. Ok, I'll call them. "Hello. I have a room at your hotel tonight, but I'm very lost." "Ok. Where are you?" "Hmmmm....I have NO IDEA!!!!" "Well, sir, then I don't think I can help you." "Right...well, I got off the train..." "Oh...where?" "I don't know. The stop after everyone else did!" "That's not very helpful, sir." :) long silence :) "Sir, why don't you go back to the station (oh, Thank God, I did something right not going so far that I can't get back!) and then call me back." "Ok, good rational thinking."
So, back through the market I and my luggage go to find the station, which turns out is Mrakiyanni (see you can hardly pronounce the English version!) "Hello, me again. I'm at..." "Ok, you went one stop too far (good, more validation of theories). Go back to that station and take the other train to the next station, called Acropoli. We are one block from this station." "Excuse me? I thought I was looking for Larrisus Station?" "Oh no...that's on the other side of the city." "But...your website..." "No sir. Trust me...this is where you go."
Ok...so back on the train, off to Acropoli, following the directions, and I find the hotel! Turns out the website was completely wrong!
The end of this chapter is the next morning, I'm ambling down through the Plaka looking for a nice Greek breakfast...no luggage. All the sudden, "Hmmm...this looks familiar." Turns out I was right back to the original place I asked for directions the night before. Unbelievable!
Ok...Rod here. Please bear with me, as I don't have all the blogging experience that Heather has. But, she tells me that my recent experiences in the ancient world of Greece deserve a mention. so, here goes...
I am currently on one of my round-the-world business jaunts. You know, the crazy 18 countries and as many hotels in 20 days. Everyone usually calls them 'holidays,' but those who've never done one can be very naive!
Part of this trip has sent me to the wonderful country of Greece...the island of Crete to be exact for an international conference in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. Before you start thinking how rough I have it, I can tell you that putting such a conference in such a place is torture. Imagine the most beautiful setting on the Mediterranean Sea at a posh resort for 3 days, and all you get to do is sit inside window-less, air conditioned rooms listening to Ag & Bio Engr papers. Stupid really...
Anyway, that's not the story. Since I had a day to kill en route to Crete, I decide to stop in Athens to have a look around. I find this hotel per Virginia's advice that, on the website they say is "overlooking the Plaka." The Plaka is the ancient marketplace of Athens. It is NOT the wide open square you might expect from such a description, but that will be clear in a minute. So, I get on the train from Athens airport and embark on the 50km journey into town. Now the first thing that hits you is...surprise, surprise...it's all in Greek! So, as the train whizzes by various stops, you're left to try and draw on your university fraternity days...not only rapidly translating the pi's, omega's and delta's, but at the same time trying to assemble them into some semblance of an English looking word!
One thing I've learned about European trains over the years is, if everyone's still on it, it's still going somewhere. The hotel website says I need to get off at Larrisus Station. Well, as I'm trying to make 'lambda...alpha...rho...rho...whatever the hell 'i' is...sigma...mu...sigma' out of the brief train station stops, I see nothing resembling 'Larrisus Station' for what seems like an eternity (a quite popular Greek symbol by the way, but that's another story). Not to worry...no one is really getting off the train, so I obviously am not at the central Athens yet. Finally, a stop comes and the train clears! Oh no...now where the heck am I. So, I do the prudent thing and get off the train at the next stop...you can always get back on, right?
Well, I come up out of the depths of Athens and walk out of the train station, thinking I'll just check where I am and it'll all be sweet. What a mistake that was! Downtown Athens is an absolute of mash of narrow streets going in every direction! And...you guessed it...more Greek street signs...when you can find them! Oh well...here we go. I start pulling my luggage through the incredible crowds of people through what seems like the longest market I've ever been in. I should also mention that around every corner seems to be a 'ruin' that looks incredibly old and very cool. Distractions aren't what I need at the moment.
After enough turns that I'm starting to risk not getting back to 'Go,' I decide to ask someone where the Airotel Parthenon is. It's gotta be close, right? After all, everyone's got off the train a stop before and the Parthenon's on top of the gigantic mountain that you can see from everywhere. Well, no one knows, not even the street name. Finally, one guy that speaks a bit of English says, "Oh I know it. You're on the wrong side of the hill (referring to the Acropoli)!" It's a BIG hill! Ah man...this just isn't working. And luggage doesn't roll very well on cobblestone streets.
Luckily, I have a phone number of the hotel. Ok, I'll call them. "Hello. I have a room at your hotel tonight, but I'm very lost." "Ok. Where are you?" "Hmmmm....I have NO IDEA!!!!" "Well, sir, then I don't think I can help you." "Right...well, I got off the train..." "Oh...where?" "I don't know. The stop after everyone else did!" "That's not very helpful, sir." :) long silence :) "Sir, why don't you go back to the station (oh, Thank God, I did something right not going so far that I can't get back!) and then call me back." "Ok, good rational thinking."
So, back through the market I and my luggage go to find the station, which turns out is Mrakiyanni (see you can hardly pronounce the English version!) "Hello, me again. I'm at..." "Ok, you went one stop too far (good, more validation of theories). Go back to that station and take the other train to the next station, called Acropoli. We are one block from this station." "Excuse me? I thought I was looking for Larrisus Station?" "Oh no...that's on the other side of the city." "But...your website..." "No sir. Trust me...this is where you go."
Ok...so back on the train, off to Acropoli, following the directions, and I find the hotel! Turns out the website was completely wrong!
The end of this chapter is the next morning, I'm ambling down through the Plaka looking for a nice Greek breakfast...no luggage. All the sudden, "Hmmm...this looks familiar." Turns out I was right back to the original place I asked for directions the night before. Unbelievable!
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