Adventure #13: The Journey from Aegina to Brooklyn

Adventure #13: The Journey from Aegina to Brooklyn

The last ferry from Aegina to Athens leaves at 9pm. It's called a “flying dolphin.” It looks nothing like a dolphin, but does sort of fly on these little pontoons. It's not a very luxurious ride. The interior looks more like an airplane than a ferry, but it's fast. So that's good. Or at least it would be if you had anywhere to be at a specific time. Our flight didn't leave for 10 hours. This is Pen Pen gazing out the porthole at Aegina one last time.

We got back to Athens with 2 hours left before the trains stopped running, and 9 hours before our flight. We didn't see any point in getting a hotel to sleep for 3 hours, and our experience with the Athens cab drivers 3 nights before had left us soured on the idea of taking a cab. So we found a small cafe at Monostraki looking out over the square. They were out of Tsipouro, so we decided maybe indigenous ouzo isn't as bad as it is in the States, and got a bottle. It's not as bad as it is in the States. It's not good. But it's not as bad as I remember it. This is Pen Pen surprised at how palatable ouzo can be.

We left right in time to catch the last train to the airport. Which was a total wasteland. The few people that were there were sleeping in clumps with their bags as pillows as if it were Eugene, Oregon. This is Pen Pen being a hobo.

Despite arriving 7 hours early and camping out at the check-in counter, we still managed to make it to the plane just in time to board. Turkish Airways: We Are Massively Understaffed. The guy who took our ticket drove the shuttle from the gate to the plane. The flight to Istanbul was short and painless. Unlike our layover. This is Pen Pen at an empty information booth.

On the way over, Rosy and I were talking about how much fun it would be to stop in Istanbul and just wander around even if only for a few minutes. We had a little more than a 2 hour layover. It's the EU so customs wouldn't be a big deal. The Istanbul Airport had a better idea, however. We started off in the customs line, which moved one person every 5 minutes or so. We got to the customs line and were told we couldn't enter without a visa. There goes that idea. Still time to wander around the airport though. He said we needed to go to the transfers line up and to the right. We got there and were told our passports needed to be checked, so we needed to go to that line. The guy said it would take 5 minutes. We've been in Istanbul for barely an hour now and have moved about 100 feet from the gate. The passport checking line for transfering flights was short. And slow moving. We made it to the first check point, where they looked at our passports, asked a few questions and put a sticker on the back. Then we were told to wait in another line to have our travel info entered into the computer. At this point our plane had started boarding. After another 45 minutes, our plane was at its final boarding call. There were still 6 people ahead of us. We finally made it through, ran through the terminal to our gate, and waited in another security line. Then another to x-ray our bags, then one final line to verify our boarding passes. I'm not making any of this up. We got on the plane, and promptly sat next to a couple with a screaming baby. This is Pen Pen listening to Minor Threat to drown out the noise.

Eventually the baby stopped crying. They brought out the first meal, which was actually half decent. And we were sitting in the front row of a section so we had tons of leg room. They had a good selection of movies, and the little screen console thing pulled out like the nav console in Next Gen. Bonus points for that. As far as flights go, it wasn't so bad. That's a lot like saying the root canal wasn't nearly as painful as I was expecting, but it could have been worse. Certainly Turkish Airline's handling of security set us up to expect the worst. This is Pen Pen enjoying some serious leg room.

11 hours later and we were back in New York. Despite having to perform 2 more emergency operations on Aegina, my bag had survived. It was one of the first to come out. Rosys was not. We waited. And waited. Luckily our experience in Istanbul had prepared us for waiting. We were now Olympic class waiters. We could even hold our own against Eastern European Communists waiting for bread. We were that good. The thing stopped moving. No more bags came out. Waiting turned into annoyance turned into filling out some missing luggage paperwork. They said we'd have it tomorrow. It was around 3pm New York time. 10pm Greek time. We'd been travelling for 25 hours. And barely slept. We begrudgingly accepted the situation with a handful of mumbles and blank stares, and made our way to the subway. This is Pen Pen waiting for an A train to go home to Brooklyn.

Epilogue.

The first thing that happened when I got off the train was this:

A man who looked and sounded like today was the first day of his life not spent on Staten Island came up to me. He said “hey.” I looked at him blankly, having gotten 3 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours, and said something to the effect of “uh. Yeah. Hi?” And kept walking.

He said “don't worry. I'm not asking for money. I've got some.” With all the wit of Oscar Wilde and the insight of Gore Vidal I replied “uh. ok.” And kept walking.

He said “Do you know what's going on tonight? Any parties? I got a pocket full of cash, and I'm down for whatever.” I pretended not to understand English and kept going. Oh Brooklyn. You never cease to amaze me. Just when I was wondering how I could possibly keep this blog going in the States...

Next week I journey to the wild wasteland of Connecticut. Stay tuned.

This is Pen Pen with his new friend the statue.

This is a song I wrote this one time. You should download it and share it with your friends.

Liberty Lulu by The Androgynous Androids

Adventure #11: Causing Trouble In Athens

Adventure #11: Causing Trouble In Athens

We woke up early and headed up to the roof for breakfast. The elements were the same as a tasty Dias breakfast, but with a special “cheap city hotel” twist. Sliced white bread instead of bread baked locally that morning. “Happy Cow” cheese instead of Laughing Cow. The Metropolous does get points for the view though. Dias' is lovely. You can see the rock streets of the village, some of the gorge, and the mountains in the background. At The Metropolous, you can see the frickin' Acropolis. This is Pen Pen in front of the frickin' Acropolis.

After breakfast we packed up our things and headed to the frickin' Acropolis. We got a little lost on the way, but made it just as the crowds were beginning to get heavy. Once you realize that the congestion isn't because of the crowds, but is in fact because of the tours, it's easy to push on through. All the buildings were roped off since the whole complex is being restored. But still it was pretty awesome, in both the “dude, how cool?” and the biblical sense. This is Pen Pen in front of the seat of western democracy.

Having successfully taken part in the Parthenon, we decided to find the Theatre of Dionysus. We could see it from the mount, but there weren't a lot of people there, and no obvious path. We walked down the mountain, and saw a little road on the right. We walked through and headed around the mountain. The road was nearly empty, but the few people wandering made us think it was probably allowed. We saw a series of caves, which according to the sign, had been the original temple of Zeus 3000 years ago. There were no statues, no monuments, and no ropes. This is Pen Pen surveying the local wildlife.

As we continued along the road, we passed by several other sacred caves that were again not roped off. It wasn't until the 3^rd or 4^th off-road adventure that someone finally told us we weren't allowed to stray from the road. Oops. There were also various doors in the wall that had been sealed or blocked. All the cool doors are always locked. We finally found the theatre, which was in ruins. In school, when they show you pictures of The Greek Theatre it's always of some of the few surviving theatres, or reconstructions. The Original Greek Theatre itself, The OG we'll call it, was only found about 100 years ago. This is Pen Pen watching Sophoclese's classic tragedy of teenage love and loss, Grease.

We walked up again to the exit, and passed by some more locked doors and roped off areas. All of which looked really cool. We tried to get a picture on a column. But got yelled at. In the docent's defense, there was a scorpion on the column, so maybe that's what she was objecting to. But she did yell at other people who were doing the same on other columns. Perhaps there are scorpions on all of them. This is Pen Pen on an ancient (not roped off) column anyway.

The docents in Athens come in two shapes and sizes:

1. Bored attractive blond girls texting under umbrellas, who only look up every once in a while to tell you you shouldn't be there, but generally are content to leave you alone
2. Grumpy old men who take their jobs way too seriously, and watch like a hawk.

We got yelled by both types. I'm thinking perhaps they should post some rules somewhere. This is Pen Pen in the Ancient Agora probably breaking some rules.

Once we'd acropolized the Acropolis, we headed up to the Archaeological museum. Our goal was to get all the touristy Athens stuff out of the way on the first day. We got a little turned around on the subway because one of the lines wasn't running, but made it there in about as much time as it would have taken to walk. The walls of the buildings were covered in graffiti, both ancient and modern. This is Pen Pen in front of the writings of the ancient punk rocker Ioanni Rottenous.

The Archaeological Museum is pretty amazing. Basically everything you've ever seen in a text book about ancient Greece is right there in front of you. We found the Antikethera Device and tried to get a picture. Oldest computer in the world, Penguins are the symbol of Linux. The joke writes itself. This is where the Grumpy Old Man Docent came in. We tried to take a photo of the device. He came over and told us no photos were allowed. I couldn't figure out what he meant. Other people were photographing the device. His accent was thick and his English was poor. He spent the rest of the time we were in the room following us. Let me clear something up. I have a deep respect for Greek history. And ancient history in general. This is how I show my appreciation. We're not hooligans. Well maybe we are hooligans, but this is all in good fun. Dejected, we left the room. We came back later after finishing the rest of the Museum. He followed us again. We got yelled at. With arm waiving. The picture came out terrible, but in defiance of Grumpy Old Man Docent, I'm posting it anyway. This is Pen Pen compiling a Linux kernel on the Device.

Partially victorious, we headed off to lunch. We found a vegetarian restaurant nearby, and had tasty tofu kebabs. We stopped back at the hotel, picked up our stuff, and headed to the ferries. The ferry to Aegina was short, cheap, and comfortable. This is Pen Pen, king of the world.

We were supposed to stay in the Hotel Elektra, but when we got there, no-one was at the desk. We waited for 20 minutes then decided to try another hotel. We ended up at the Marmarinos down the street. It was cheaper anyway, and they were very friendly. We checked in, and then headed off to dinner on the beach. When I say “on the beach” I mean literally on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The water washed against the legs of the table. I can't tell if the food was any good, because holy crap we were ON THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA. Day 1 of Vacation: total win. This is Pen Pen having the best vacation ever.

This is a song I wrote this one time. You should download it and share it with your friends.

We'll Take A Holiday by nathanleigh