Our flight to Greece left at 10:30 this morning and to our surprise we were in business class instead of economy! We have no idea how it happened, maybe our travel agent accidentally booked it. Who cares, it was fantastic! As soon as we sat down we were offered drinks, had a great smoked rainbow trout for lunch, and enjoyed being waited on hand and foot! It was a nice treat after the long night before.
Brooke had read about how taxi drivers in Greece are notorious for ripping tourist, and even locals off. The nicest ones were supposed to be some of the worst too. Well..... I guess we had a genuine Greek taxi ride then, because our driver was insane! We got in the taxi, told him where we needed to go, and he told us "7 minutes". Hmmm ok.
When we tore out of the airport and whizzed around corners, even faster than I would, I began to think we might really make it in 7 minutes! The cabbie flew through athens, passing on the shoulders, disregarding speed limits and laws. At one point he was going 140kph and the limit was 70kph! This guy tried to speak some English but it didn't make ANY sense. He didn't understand anything I was asking, either. I think he was trying to play that nice guy act by telling us where things were in the city too....we still had no idea what he was saying.
Well 7 minutes turned into about 30, and every now and then he would lean over and push a button on the meter, bumping the price up a little. We were aware there was an airport toll that everyone has to pay, so I thought he was just figuring that in by adjusting the meter.....Well he bumped it like 5 times and I was going to say something if he did it again. Once we got to the Athens Gate Hotel the meter said 25.77 euro. The smallest I had was 50, so I forked it over and was at his mercy. He blabbed something in Greek and handed me 15 euro back and got back in the cab! ...TIME OUT
...The airport toll was 2 euro....so that makes a total of 27.77. He owed me a little more than 22 euro back, shorting me 7 euro (about 12 dollars).
I rushed to the passenger side window and asked him why I only got 15 back. The only word I caught was "toll" (the airport toll that was only 2, not 7). Because he seemed to be having a hard time with basic addition and subtraction ;) I of course illustrated the math for him, "The meter says 25.77, the airport toll was 2, I gave you fifty. You owe me 22 but you only gave me 15." I think he understood me JUST fine, but he got mad and just shouted in Greek. The cabbie started to drive away! Luckily a guy from the hotel was coming out to greet us and help with our bags. Thinking quickly, I got the guy to interpret for me. He repeated what I was saying, the driver angrily handed over a 5 euro bill, and peeled away. So that was a nice semi-victory, he still got away with bumping that meter a little along the way though.
The nice guy that translated for me was impressed that we caught the guy and actually confronted him. He said must tourists don't catch on that fast. The hotel was very modern and chic,I'd say this hotel was in the top 3 we stayed in. Our room wasn't quite ready yet, so they showed us to the rooftop bar for a complimentary drink while we waited. We got a nice view of Athens and chilled out for a while.
First order of business was to take care of our moms. My first idea was to write letters and take a picture, and post that on the blog, but remembered that my little point and shoot camera records low-res video that was perfect size for the blog. We both probably had 5 or 6 takes to get it respectable... we kept crackin' up.
That evening we walked around Plaka area of Athens, the oldest area of the city. Athens was a huge culture shock, but we really started to fall in love it. We ate our first Greek meal ever, and it was great! Both of us had traditional Gyros, which isn't actually wrapped in the pita bread but served in separate portions. For dessert of course we had to have Baklava! The Baklava I've had in the states was flakey and dry. Over here it's served with honey, and not nearly as flakey. I also tried out my newly learned Greek phrases on our waiter, he was amused ;)
Here's a view of Athens from Acropolis Hill. To get an idea of how huge the city is, it would take 8 or 9 of these pictures put together to get a full 360 view.
*Posted from Philadelphia airport, on the way back to Dallas.
