Tora eimai kourazmenos
Thu 25th May 2006, 9.54 pm
I'm back from Athens. What a long long weekend that was... phew!
Of course, the reason we went was for the Eurovision Song Contest, which wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, even from the back (where I sat with Cindy's dad, trading places with her Eurovision-crazy mum). Most of the songs (not the French one) were bearable and some (Lithuania and Finland) were even very enjoyable. During the voting round I was hoping excitedly that the UK would give 10 to Lithuania and 12 to Finland (which it did) but I never expected at all that Finland would win - maybe the viewers of Eurovision have taste after all... a scary thought!
We saw most of the great ancient sites in Athens, climbing to the top of Acropolis to see the Parthenon, in the ancient agora the Thission and Stoa of Atallos and (my personal favourite) the Olympian Zeus temple, which was almost completely devoid of tourists when we visited. I got some great photos of these and other sights and some really great ones of the OAKA Olympic complex at sunset (I saw this sunset when we went to the Eurovision but I couldn't take my camera that night) that we had to get off the train and see on the way to visit Cindy's friend in Kifisia. I'll try to get the photos online first thing tomorrow.
Of course, I also had a chance to practice my Greek, although the Athenians mostly try every opportunity to prove their English is better than my Greek. The most memorable experience was ordering beer at the Eurovision - I asked the girl for "mia mpyra, parakalo" - she replies "three euros, please". The second time I ask for "dyo mpyres, parakalo" - she replies "six euros, please". So, the third time I thought I'd give up with the greek and said "a beer, please"... "mia mpyra? Tria evro, parakalo," she replies.
Athens is not really a city that agrees with me. The traffic is chaotic (it's not uncommon to see three lanes of packed traffic on central streets travelling at over 60mph swerving between lanes, ignoring lights and so on) and the nightlife is a little too nightlife for morning people like me - most restaurants are empty before 10pm and full at midnight, and the socialising begins after that. It's also exorbitantly expensive to go out in Athens - we went to one of the so-called "doghouses" one night with Cindy's parents - it was 200 euros for the table and six trays of carnations (which replace the now-illegal traditional plates) for throwing at the singers would set people back 75 euros. This is not including the drinks - you can guess how much they cost. All this to hear some B-list singer bleat the same Greek noise for three hours non-stop.
But all that aside, with the sights and the language and the food and the sunburn it made for a very memorable 5 days.
Update: the photos have been added.
Tagged as:
holiday
eurovision
athens
greece
greek
I'm feeling knackered
I'm singing the irritating Romanian song from Eurovision because Cindy is listening to it
