Greece

R&R day today as we shift across town to rendezvous with my brother for a few days. We decided to treat ourselves to a taxi between the two hotels, especially as there was a taxi rank literally meters from the front door of the hotel. However, the doorman stopped us as we tried to leave and insisted on calling the taxi from his cell phone.

We waited for five minutes which was kind of strange given the proximity of literally dozens of cabs. When we arrived at our new destination – the St George Lycabettus (a little step up from the Hotel Stanley), the meter read 5 Euros, but we were mysteriously charged 7. Apparently, there is a 2 Euro charge for the privilege of hailing the cab via phone rather than on the street….. though this may be a legitimate system, we feel like we were ripped off which didn’t add to our love of the Greeks.

As we awoke on Day 3, we were blissfully unaware that Greeks (WARNING! This is our blog and we will be making some broad generalizations based on our interactions with a limited number of nationals!) are probably the rudest people on the planet. We had found Germans generally rude, but they have nothing on the Greeks. Flight attendants aside, we have yet to find a Greek who smiles. Most of our interactions have involved making a polite request and being grunted at in return. And this really was the theme of our “day cruise” to Poros, Hydra and Aegina. To be fair, we liked Hydra. It has a really cute harbor to walk around, with comfy looking bars and restaurants and little stores.

As we were drying off following our quick swim in Hydra, we realized that our boat was actually heading OUT of port which caused us some concern for at least a few seconds until we realized that it wouldn’t be so bad to be trapped on Hydra for a little longer. But the boat returned to pick us and complete the visit to the island of Aegina where we had a nice ice-cream (yup, that’s about all I have good to say about Aegina). Our advice would be to take a day-trip to Hydra and forget the other two islands (though there are some ruins on Aegina that are apparently worth seeing).

Anyway, we’re still in Greece for another four days or so, but we’re not very impressed so far. We’ve spent a good amount of time (ie about three hours in total!) driving around Athens in our first 24 hours in the city and concluded that it really is an armpit. Run-down buildings everywhere – many of them beautiful, old houses that would look glorious if renovated. Graffiti everywhere. It reminded Lloyd of post-war Sarajevo. While the transport infrastructure is strong, some of the Olypmic venues look as if they have been abandoned. But what struck us most is the apparent lack of pride in the city. Tomorrow, we’re meeting my brother, D’ell, and his fiancée Emma to spend the weekend visiting some of the ‘must-see’ sights, so it’ll be interesting to see if our perception changes.

We've been in Greece - Jacquie will write a new post today or tomorrow, as we are here for 4 days. Til then, enjoy our arrival video!