Arrival in Athens

Traveling Classroom™

Arrival in Athens

Morning

Our airplane lands in Athens at 4:00 AM after a night crossing of Europe. We ride to the terminal on a small bus, retrieve our luggage, exchange some traveler’s checks for Greek drachma and pass quickly through customs. Then we find a taxi outside the terminal. We tell the driver to take us to Mikrolimano, which is a small harbor area in the city of Pireás. He knows the way, but gets confused when we try to explain that we are looking for the Yacht Club of Greece marina. He doesn’t speak English and we don’t speak Greek. We get the driver to understand that we want to go to the boat harbor. He takes us there and Duane recognizes the buildings from photographs he has seen, so we stop.

Now we have to find the boat in the dark. The night watchman who speaks some English comes by and asks if he can help. We tell him that we are looking for the Zoe Zoe, but he doesn’t know where the boat is. After searching the waterfront for a while, we unload our gear on the dock and pay the taxi driver. Even if we knew where to find the boat, we don’t have the keys. The only thing to do is call Nikos Perrakis. He is a friend who looks after Dr. Dunn’s boat when she is not in the country.

The telephone is a problem. None of the public phones in Greece take coins; they operate with a special telephone card that has a small microchip programmed for a certain number of minutes or telephone units. Since we don’t have a card, we can’t call. However, a small carpentry shop just off the waterfront is opening as we discuss this problem with the night watchman. The watchman asks the carpenters if we can use their telephone. They graciously ask us into their workshop, a sizeable shed constructed of stone with a roof supported by heavy timbers. It looks to be hundreds of years old. Upon entering we see furniture in various stages of completion, as well as wooden masts and spars for boats.

Duane calls Nikos, who says he will come to the harbor soon. Through the watchman, we ask the carpenters if we can wait in their shop. They are happy to be our hosts. They start a fire in a small steel barrel and set two chairs and a small table near the fire. They motion for us to sit and warm ourselves while they make Elliniko kafe (Greek coffee) for us. The coffee is a strong mixture served in tiny cups. It certainly helps us to wake up.

Within fifteen minutes Nikos Perrakis arrives and greets us warmly. He had expected us to call him from the airport and is concerned that we spent too much money on the taxi (we did). A short, solidly built man with gray hair and a ready smile, Nikos is embarrassed that his English is not perfect (though we have little trouble understanding him). He helps us collect our gear from the dock and shows us where the boat is moored.

Zoe Zoe is a 41-foot ketch with wooden masts, decks and trim, and a 7-foot bowsprit. Below deck everything is finely finished wood with brass and stainless steel fittings. It is a beautiful boat. Nikos shows us through the cabins and explains how all the systems operate, then he leaves to get ready for work (he is a teacher at the Naval Academy). He promises to return in the evening.

We stand on the deck to get our first look at the neighborhood as the sun comes up. Mikrolimano has a small, round harbor protected by a thick stone seawall. The land rises sharply from the waterfront. On the southwest end of the harbor, on a rocky hill that overlooks all approaches to the entrance, is the Yacht Club of Greece. Established in 1934, it is the oldest sailing club in the country. The club's boat houses and dock are situated at the foot of the hill, next to the water, and there is a small sailing club on the quay nearer our boat. Mikrolimano rises upwards from the waterfront, as you can see in the photo. As we look at the town it becomes clear that it is built upon older layers of previous towns and, originally, upon the crumbling walls of an ancient fortress. There was a great military fort guarding this harbor because Athenian warships were moored here. From our reading we know that Mikrolimano, formerly called Mounichia, was an important military port of ancient Athens.

When we look to the northeast, across the seawall, we understand why this was such an important military port. Beyond the harbor and across the bay is Athens, and directly in front of us is the rocky hill that is the Acropolis. The Parthenon and other great monuments are shining in the sunlight just off the starboard bow. It is quite fantastic to see. This harbor was the last line of defense against any enemy warships heading through the Soronic Gulf towards Athens.

Afternoon
After stowing our gear on the boat, we decided we must buy a Greek telephone company (OTE) card so that we can make calls from public phones. We also have to buy food and other items for the boat. Duane has located a market in the town, so we hike up the hill to do our shopping. The houses all seem to be built on top of each other on the steep incline. There are no yards, only small entrance courtyards and rooftop patios that look out onto the harbor. Many of the houses have solar collectors and water tanks on the roof to heat the water with sunlight, which they get in abundance here.

The streets are lined with orange trees, and the oranges appear to be ripe. I haven’t seen anyone picking them, so I decide to buy mine in the market. When we arrive, I see that the "supermarket" is actually a small neighborhood store with a variety staple products. For fresh foods we would have to walk up the street to visit the baker, the green grocer and the butcher. We buy some basics and hike back to the boat. After a light lunch, we decide to try make contacts in Athens. There are people we must talk with in order to establish an Internet account and get a mobile telephone service.

Nikos told us that it is easy to get downtown. Just take the electric train and get off at Omonia Square. It is a three-mile walk to the train station in Faliro, but it takes us along the waterfront and through some interesting village streets. The station is near Stadium Karaiskaki, the home of the famous Olympiakos soccer team. Across the road, in the middle of a waterfront park, there is a smaller stadium. The ticket to Athens or anywhere on the line is 75 drachma (very inexpensive). The train arrives in a few minutes and we climb on, but there are no seats available. Most people stand during the peak traffic hours.

As we travel rapidly between neighborhood stops, we see several archeological sites being excavated near the train tracks. It seems that there are artifacts of ancient civilizations practically everywhere in this city. When we arrive at the Omonia Square station, we are literally at the crossroads of Athens. Stadiou, Patision, Panepistimiou, Tritis Septemvriou, Piraeos, Athenas and Ayiou Konstantinou Streets end in or start from the great traffic circle at Omonia. So, as you can imagine, the traffic is horrific and noisy.

Omonia is the oldest central square of the modern Athens. It is said that this part of the city never sleeps. It has been awake for so long that by now it has become a tradition. However, the messy streets and crowds and noise and American fast food shops are all a little too much for us after a nearly sleepless night on the airplane. Everyone seems to be hurrying from one place to another. The only people who are not hurrying are beggars on the sidewalk. We have been told that these are Albanians who have fled their war-torn country for the safety of Greece. They were not poor until the war took everything from them.

Tired and depressed, we are totally confused by the Greek signs. However, we do find a tiny kiosk that sells OTE phone cards. We purchase a card and then try to make a telephone call. To do this you place the card into a slot in the telephone and then dial the number. A readout on the face of the telephone lets you know how many telephone units are left on the card. Unfortunately, we have a hard time making contact with the people who can help us set up our telephone and Internet connections. No one is in, or no one understands us, or the street noise is so loud that we can’t hear. One fact is confirmed: Omonia Square is nowhere near the offices of the Internet service provider or the mobile phone company.

We decide to head back to Mikrolimano and try again later. Following the signs to the Omonia station (which is underground at this point in the city) we walk through a maze of tunnels and buy tickets for Faliro. We reverse our route and find our way back to the boat, with a detour to buy more food. After all that activity we sleep for about an hour until Nikos shows up at the boat with supplies and information. He explains how to reach our appointments in the morning, and he carefully tells us how to move about the city of Athens on a series of trains, buses and trolleys, none of which costs more than 75 drachma.

After Nikos leaves we settle down for the evening, cook a nice meal in the galley and relax on the deck, watching the Parthenon and trying to remember which train station provides the best access to the Acropolis.

To find out more about downtown Athens and look at photos of famous places, see Map.