Last Stop on the Line

Traveling Classroom^™

When we wake up and climb the companionway to the deck, we discover that our neighborhood fisherman is already casting his line into the water near the sea wall. We wave at him, drink our coffee and plan our day. The main goal today is to hook up to the Internet. We have the address of the Internet service provider on the other side of Athens, and Nikos has given us directions on how to get from here to there.

We have it all written down. Our adventure today is to go by electric train to the other end of the line at Kifissia. We are to cross the city park, turn left and walk up the main boulevard, turn left on Harilaou Trikoupi, walk a short distance and we will be at Hellas On Line, one of the main service providers in Greece. It seems easy enough.

The train isn't as crowded as usual so we get to sit for part of the journey. As we pass central Athens and begin moving to the other side of the city, the buildings aren't as tall, they are further apart and some have small yards.

The train stops at a station before Kifissia, and there is an announcement in Greek that we don't understand. Everyone gets off the train and we do the same, very confused. The passengers have all crossed the station platform and are standing at another track. One lady notices our confusion and tells us we are just changing trains. After a five-minute wait another train arrives and takes us to the end of the line. This is a nice, green, shady area with a park opposite the station. We start walking around the park because it is closed for spring-cleaning. Turning left, we hope we are going the right way. After walking several blocks, we notice signs for the Tourist Police. We decide to go there and ask for directions; maybe they will have a map.

When we arrive it is obvious that this is a regular police station, so we walk inside and ask for the Tourist Police office. A police sergeant who is just entering the building doesn't understand us, so we show him the directions Nikos has written. After reads this he gives us the correct pronunciation of "Harilaou Trikoupi." (No wonder he couldn't understand us!) Then he indicates that we should follow him to another office, where he consults with others. After a brief discussion in Greek, one of the people in the office announces in English that our destination is very far from here, and that we should probably catch a taxi. The police sergeant shakes his head and gestures for us to follow him. He leads us back out to the front of the building to where his car is parked and indicates that we should get in.

Driving on back roads through several neighborhoods, the policeman provides us a nice tour of the town ... and what a town it is. Kifissia is clearly a suburban refuge for the wealthy. Unlike the crowded districts of central Athens, this town has large and beautiful villas surrounded by walled gardens and interspersed with public gardens and carefully-pruned trees. We would like to see more of it, but we soon arrive at our destination on Harilaou Trikoupi.

Getting in to see someone at Hellas On Line is like checking into a big corporation. We sign a guest book and get identification tags to wear. Neither of the people we have talked to is available so we are handed over to a technician who speaks English. We explain that we need to subscribe for their service in Greece and connect with our web site today. He escorts us next door to their "Internet Cafe." As we enter there is an upscale bar/cafe area to the left and a large room with many tables and computers on the right. Beyond that there is a sort of mini-theater with a seven-foot screen for video game players.

We plunk our bags and laptop computer down next to one of the computer stations. The technician logs on to the Internet from one of their machines. We cannot connect the laptop because they have no free phone ports. Those will be available next week. I call up the Traveling Classroom site at GoGreece.com and start answering the questions my students have been leaving me. There are a lot of messages, and answering them takes much longer than I thought it would.

The assistant manager comes over to introduce herself. She is a Greek-American woman who grew up in California and moved to Greece for job opportunities. When she discovers where we live, she mentions that one of the owners of the company is also from Seattle, and that he is in town today. She leaves us for a few minutes to call him on the telephone. In a short time the owner shows up at the cafe and introduces himself. It turns out that he is from the Northgate area of Seattle, not far from where we live, and he has business interests and a home here in Greece. We talk for a while and then he takes Duane to another office to sign up for the Internet service account. How great it is to have someone walk us through the process. When they return, he buys lunch for us at the cafe.

Duane and I continue to work through our lunch break. I use the cafe computer and Duane uses the laptop, handing me files on disks. Every once in a while we need to get technical support from the other office in order to send our messages and journal pages. The technicians seem to see us as a learning experience because we are discovering problems in their system that they had not noticed. Of course the Internet Cafe has only been open a few days, and no one with a project like ours has visited. The only other customers are a few Web surfers and a group of boys playing video games on the big screen.

After several hours of work, we are finally finished. We pack up the laptop, pay our bill and start back to the electric train station. We decide to hail a cab to take us to the station. It will cost 500 drachma. This is a bit more expensive than usual because of the Orthodox Easter season. At this time of the year it is traditional to give taxi drivers a 200 drachma tip. This is automatically added to the meter.

Our driver pulls over to pick up another passenger along the way. A conversation in Greek continues until the new passenger motions for the driver to pull over. He gets out and waves to the driver, but he doesn't help pay the fare (I guess he's a friend of the driver).

Back on the train for Faliro Station, we can relax for the first time today. Now we have the Internet service we need to use the laptop. All we need is to find a phone so we can plug in and send messages whenever we want.