First impressions never last (Athens)

Ok, I was aiming for Bernard Fanning and Wish You Well, but First Impressions Never Last is also a song title in its own right.

We finally made it to Athens after almost 24 hours of non-stop travel. The flight from Dubai was better because it was a shorter flight time and we had bulk head seats with plenty of leg room and no-one needing to crawl over the top of us to get out to stretch their legs. And the happiness ended there.

Sitting behind us were two twenty-something Australian girls intent on drinking the plane dry. They were aided and abetted by two South African women (who should have known better) in the middle aisle. The conversation between the two groups got louder as the plane edged closer to Athens and as the quantity of wine on board diminished. It's amazing how alcohol builds self-belief, albeit a false feeling. I endured, at one point, one of the alcohol-fazed girls espousing the uselessness of a university degree. She'd been "working since school and I didn't waste any time making money and travelling what do you get after three years at university a piece of paper worth nothing." Tempted as I was to offer her my Bachelor's degree, well I don't use it anymore now I have the others, I said nothing.

The monotony of the squealing-pitched-conversation from the row behind was momentarily eclipsed by the pilot telling everyone to look out of the left side of the plane and to see the pyramids. The result? Every morbidly obese person (and there were many) from the right side of the plane made a bee line for the area around our seats to try to peer out the tiny window near the emergency door. Now gentle reader, I have always been told of weight restrictions and careful seat allocations on planes to ensure stability. So as the number of people increased in the area in front of me, all I could see was our plane slowly and gently rolling onto its left side before plunging violently into a death spiral as all the fat people fall to the front of the plane crushing cabin crew against the pilot's door. Happily that didn't happen. Particularly since all that effort was expended for nil result - not a pyramid in sight. Unhappily as pyramid excitement dissipated, the intelligence-impaired conversation behind continued at higher volume.

On the ground through customs (what customs?) and out to our car. It is such a relief to walk out from customs to see a driver holding a sign with your name on it. No stress, no drama, straight to his car and straight to the hotel.

Athens
First impressions were not so favourable. It's summer and everything is burnt dry by the sun and the heat. Athens itself sits glaringly in the heat below bare mountains reflecting the light of the sun. It is almost blinding. Distributed throughout the glare are sparks of light, like diamonds, reflecting the purity of the sun's rays. Later I realise that this is reflection from the barrels of the thousands of solar water heaters that top the building across the city.

The Athens skyline

The car wends its ways through a series of narrow streets. Nothing seems to run straight, everything is at angles. One way streets meet in five-way intersections, none of them creating a straight line. The footpaths are narrow. Cars park on the footpath and where possible motor bikes use them as an alternative to the road. There are relatively few lanes marked on the road so while not chaos, it is anarchy. Where lanes are marked, it is merely a suggestion to drive within the lines; much like the use of indicators. Unless of course you are wanting to park somewhere illegally and then apparently all that is required is that you activate the hazard lights before locking up the car and walking away. Doesn't appear to matter that you have totally blocked off a driveway, a footpath, a pedestrian crossing or even a street.

We had been awake for a long time and were most grateful to reach the hotel. It would appear that our lodgings are not in the most salubrious part of town. Graffiti is everywhere. The streets are filthy and the buildings are in varying states of disrepair, so our hotel is a beacon. At this point neither of us cared, all we wanted was a hot shower, a change of clothes and to go for a walk.

More skyline

Into our room, bags sorted, devices connected we refreshed and planned to head out to meet Glenn and Donna. Nice plan. Fail. We didn't really spend the required time becoming familiar with the area. We left the hotel and turned right instead of left. Given the street signage is in Greek (who'd have thought it?) and the map from the hotel doesn't name every street, we weren't convinced we had gone the wrong way until we had been walking 15 minutes.

The Parthenon from the roof top bar

Parthenon in close up.

Wide angle view

New plan: catch up with Glenn and Donna tomorrow. We turned around, re-traced our steps, had a drink at the roof top bar (nice view of the Acropolis) and then dinner in the restaurant down stairs. By 8pm we were asleep.

A friend from the roof top bar

As we drifted off to sleep I wondered if first impressions never last.