Athens - first impressions

I arrived in Athens on the afternoon of January fourth. I was surprised to learn that, even more so than Hamburg, English is a second language in Athens. Most street signs have the Greek and then the English translation directly below it. I asked Markella if this had been an innovation for the Olympics in 2004, however apparently this has been pretty standard for a long time. Getting off the airport shuttle bus at Syntagma Square I was greeted by Athens, in all it's haphazard glory. Amazing classical style buildings stand next to hostels, or ugly apartment/office blocks, or amazingly beautiful little churches, or some ancient ruins, or a local flea market.

Walking to my hostel that first afternoon I became aquainted with the local stray dogs. These dogs are not the malnourished mongrel dogs that cover the streets and gutters of India like rats, but healthy looking well groomed stray dogs that are very protective of their turf. One stray dog I saw was sitting on the main road outside of the Parliament building. Oncoming cars would have to move out of the way in order to avoid this dog and, if the cars came too close, the dog would bark disapprovingly at the cars as they passed by.

I stayed in the Student's Inn the first night because Markella was busy. The rooms and bathrooms can generously be described as spartan, however this was made up for by the healthy supply of free internet. The restaurant next door turned out to be quite exceptionally good. You never expect much from a place that has a continuous stream of suckers from the hostel next door, but Athens is not your ordinary city. The owners of the restaurant were the main waiters and there were two musicians singing and playing traditional Greek songs on the guitar. The owners and the musicians were so relaxed and happy to be there that it almost seemed that they were in on some great secret to which the patrons were blissfully unaware. The musicians played in a relaxed and easy manner, and the owners served the customers in such a way that I felt as though I was in their home, and they were treating me to some rare and wonderful Greek hospitality.

My first day in Greece was pretty eventful. Woke up at around 10am, which was a nice change from the nazi 7am starts that I was made to endure with my dear insomniac friend Nick, and his super keen girlfriend. Went to the Benaki museum which was an amazing walk through the Greek artifacts from different periods of the long and illustrious Greek history. Better yet, because I am a student (or at least still have my student card), the 6 euro fee was waved. I also went to the museum of Cycladic Art. This museum cost 2.50 euro, half the museum was closed for renovations, and after having just been in the Benaki museum I was, how shall we say, a little underwhelmed. I also managed to visit the Roman Agora, which I believe is where the Romans had their market place in ancient times. After all of this I met Markella and we went back to her place. The frozen pizza we had for dinner was pretty good. Well, the first one ended up on the floor but the second one was good.

Today, January 6th, a powerful earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter Scale hit the Peloponnese region of southern Greece. According to the US Geological Survey, the quake went off at 7.14am, 124km wouth-west of Athens. I am pleased to say that I slept soundly through the whole thing. It was a Greek Orthodox holiday today commemorating the John the Baptist baptising Jesus in the river. The church/chapel we went to was tiny, and there were way too many people to fit inside the church at any one time. There was no mass as such, but there was a blessing of holy water by means of a ritual where the priest throws a silver/gold cross into the Mediterranean and some people dive in to retrieve the cross. The water is thereby blessed, and the person to retrieve the cross obtains a blessing that lasts the entire year.