Monday, October 22nd: Athens, That Lovely Debris

(Written by Steve) I awoke early this morning as we were slowly pulling next to Cruise Terminal B in the port city of Piraeus, Greece. (There’s a song from the terrible musical “Ilya Darling” titled, “Piraeus, My Love”, but there’s not much to love here.). The skies were threatening, and seemed to be a reminder of the gray clouds hanging over Greece during this time of fiscal crisis.

Being one of the major ports on the Mediterranean (not to mention one of the oldest), it’s huge. As the Equinox was being secured, two other ships came floating past us to make their way into the crowded harbor. We were at the furthest end of the port, and it would be shuttle buses again to get to the main gate.

I have to admit that Athens was the port we were least enthusiastic about. Not only had I visited here for a week in 1972, but Allan and I had been here on the last Mediterranean cruise. We had already seen the Acropolis and staggered through the Plaka. Today was going to be a much more lah-dee-dah sort of visit.

Since we weren’t in a rush, we had another delicious breakfast in Blu. We didn’t leave the ship until after 9:30, then took the shuttle bus to the already crowded Cruise Terminal A (the Oceania Marina had just docked, as well as the NCL Norwegian Dream and the old Celebrity Zenith, now under the Pullmantur cruise line). We trod the same path we took in 2006, following the sidewalk along the port to get to the Metro station (it’s a good 20-30 minute walk from that Terminal).

Maybe it was the gray skies, the lack of enthusiasm, or a combination of both because we got a little lost trying to find the station. After asking a couple of times and being redirected, we finally came across it. The amount of pedestrian and auto traffic just made the task that much less enjoyable. (For the record, Michael and Shaun took a cab into town and said it was quite reasonable).

After acquiring some single-journey tickets from the machine, we boarded a Green Line line train toward the center of Athens, going past gritty neighborhoods and bland industrial areas. The male scenery on board was interesting, but suffered in comparison to that of Turkey. Our destination was Syntagma Square, so we changed trains at the Monastiraki station. I had my second brain fart of the morning and put us on a Blue Line train in the wrong direction. We corrected this after one stop and finally arrived at Syntagma Square.

Syntagma (Constitution) Square is a pleasant tree-lined plaza situated in the heart of the city. The Parliament is on one side, two deluxe hotels (The Grande Bretagne and the Athens Plaza) on one flank, and offices around the other two sides. We started following Rick Steves’ Athens City Walk touring of the square and then headed down Ermou, a pedestrian mall. There was a lot more graffiti in the city than I remembered, and the people looked rather careworn.

We spent some time at an H&M store trying on some clothes (Allan walked away with some nice articles of clothing). The prices (in Euros) seemed cheap, but the goods did little to excite me; typical of our shopping experience. We did stop in at a few old Greek Orthodox churches, but none offered too much in the way of spectacular interior scenery (or exteriors, for that matter). Eventually, we made our way into the Plaka, an area of many shops, restaurants, and hordes of tourists.

And so we wandered and shopped, wandered and shopped (as Hal is fond of saying, “It’s all crap!”) until it started raining steadily. At this point we were both cranky, and picked the nearest restaurant, which turned out to be called Estiatorio Plaka – the same name as our favorite Greek restaurant in Seattle! We started with some tasty saganaki (melted cheese), and then had soutsakakia (Greek meatballs) over rice. As the rain picked up in intensity, more tourists started joining us under the awnings. The serving staff of two was overwhelmed, and our meal turned out to be far more leisurely than originally desired. Eventually the rains let up a bit, and we got out of there.

We picked up the walking tour again, and enjoyed the best part of the day: the walk through the Anafiotika neighborhood, which clings to the northern slope of the Acropolis. The buildings along these narrow lanes were built by people who had moved here from the Cycladic island of Anafi, which is why they reminded us so much of the whitewashed houses in Santorini. We encountered very few pedestrians, and cars were almost non-existent. Friendly cats lazily strolled along patios and perched in doorways, always eager for a scratch behind the ears. And the views toward Lykavittos Hill across town were terrific.

Eventually, we started making our way down narrow and steep streets toward a flatter area where we encountered (for the umpteenth time on this trip), another Roman Forum. The most interesting thing left in this forum was the Tower of the Winds, an octagonal, domed building that looked like a closed-in version of the Temple of the Vestals in Rome. It was built in the first century B.C. and features carved reliefs that depict the winds as winged humans. According to Mr. Steves, Greeks had symbols for the eight winds, and these were represented in those relief.

We were back in the Plaka, and after very little shopping, found ourselves at the Monastiraki Metro station. Nothing left to do but head back to Piraeus. The twenty-minute ride passed quickly, and we started walking back toward the Cruise Terminal. Along the way, Allan purchased a smart little “man bag” which he used throughout the rest of the trip (it was the perfect size).

The Cruise Terminal had quite a crush of people, and just as in other ports, we had to go through security. They had two scanners for the five ships worth of people, so tempers occasionally flared in those snaking lines. We got on our bus, got back to the tranquil Equinox, and took a long nap. I did get up to watch our departure from port, as is usually my custom.

Dinner that night was in the regular dining room, and we shared stories with the Michael and Shaun over another good dinner. Afterward we retired to the Card Room to play another game of Monopoly on the iPad.