Once upon a time, there was a girl named Brenda who wanted to travel the world. For one reason or another, she never quite got around to it for quite some time. Then, one Labor Day, she went to visit her Aunt Charlene in southern Utah. One night, sitting around the round table in the kitchen she’d visited nearly every summer since she was born, she and her aunt started talking about travel. Charlene (who had been almost everywhere in the world, it seemed) asked Brenda where she wanted to go. Brenda, without quite knowing why, answered “Greece.”
Charlene told Brenda how much she loved Greece—how beautiful it was and how much she would like to go back some day. “So save your sheckles, sweetheart, and you and I will go together.”
A month later, Charlene passed away.
Nineteen months after that, Brenda’s plane landed in Athens.
Preparation and The Trip to Athens
I think the plan originated about a year before we actually made it to Athens. By “we” I mean me, obviously, and my world-traveling friend Britt. The date moved around a few times before we finally settled on May 2011. We planned a bit vaguely at first, then started planning in earnest in January when we bought tickets and booked hotels.
I spent the six months leading up to our trip preparing. I researched travel pillows and travel towels, read blog entries on how to pack lightly for a two-week trip. I bought a swimming suit, t-shirts, and shorts—things that generally don’t exist in my wardrobe.
The week before we left, I started panicking. I mean seriously panicking. I’d never travelled outside the United States before, but it was more than that. I pinned the cause down a few days before we left. World travel was a lifelong dream for me and going on this trip meant admitting something huge—that I was powerful enough to make my own dreams come true.
Absolute throat-strangling panic, let me just tell you.
The day we left passed in a bit of a haze and before I knew it we were at the airport. Then we were on the plane with a whole bunch of French people (the first leg of our journey was to Paris). The whole trip I was kind of detached from the situation because it was all so surreal. I didn’t sleep at all, even though it was a 10 hour overnight flight. In the morning, I saw England from above. Someday, England. Someday I will see you up close.
When we landed in Paris and I saw the advertisements written in French, it finally started to sink in. We were in another country. We found our gate and tried to clean ourselves up a bit before hopping on another flight from Paris to Athens. I had a window seat and watched as we flew over Switzerland, the Alps, and Italy. We flew over water for quite some time before I started seeing islands popping up here and there. Then we passed into the mainland of Greece and landed.
I had arrived.
There was absolutely no passport control in Greece, so I didn’t get a stamp entering the country. I was disappointed, but how disappointed could one really be in Greece? We bought some supplies we couldn’t bring on the plane and then headed out to find a taxi to take us to our first hotel.
Athens
Let me tell you something: I have seen bad drivers. I have seen crazy traffic. But I have never seen anything like the driving in Greece. I don’t know if they have a more advanced concept of spatial relations than Americans do or if they’re all just insane, but our taxi driver passed cars so closely that I easily could have reached out my window and touched them. I wouldn’t even have had to reach my whole arm out.
The landscape surrounding Athens was weirdly familiar. Remember how I mentioned that I love southern Utah? Well it looks eerily similar to it—not the canyonland landscape, but the scrubby landscape just north of that. Once we entered Athens proper, the landscape changed to buildings and buildings and more buildings—mostly old buildings decorated with graffiti. Athens is not a particularly clean city, but I suppose that’s forgivable since it’s about three and a half thousand years old.
We reached our hotel, which was a modest little place in a reasonably good area. We checked in and got the key to our room, which was on the fourth floor. Except it was actually on the sixth floor, up 84 winding marble stairs (I counted). By the time we got to our room, all I could think about was putting down my bags and taking a shower.
It was a lovely view across the street. Athenians seem to have a thing for potted plants.
Like I said, Athens is not a particularly clean city.
We took some time to relax, then went up to the roof of the building. We got some enormous bottles of water (the first of many) and I got my first look at the Acropolis.
We also saw a beautiful sunset and saw the Acropolis all lit up.
The next day, we went down to the front desk to ask about ferry tickets. The girl behind the desk (who thankfully spoke English wonderfully, as most of the people we met did) sent us to a travel agency. Her directions on how to get there were a bit alarmingly vague, but eventually we found it. There, a very friendly travel agent booked the ferries that would take us from island to island. When he asked our names, I told him mine was Brenda. “Brenda Lee!” he said, and then proceeded to play us a Brenda Lee song.
I love Greeks.
After we got our tickets all arranged, we sought out our next goal: the metro that would take us to the Acropolis. That will be the next journal entry. ☺
Charlene told Brenda how much she loved Greece—how beautiful it was and how much she would like to go back some day. “So save your sheckles, sweetheart, and you and I will go together.”
A month later, Charlene passed away.
Nineteen months after that, Brenda’s plane landed in Athens.
Preparation and The Trip to Athens
I think the plan originated about a year before we actually made it to Athens. By “we” I mean me, obviously, and my world-traveling friend Britt. The date moved around a few times before we finally settled on May 2011. We planned a bit vaguely at first, then started planning in earnest in January when we bought tickets and booked hotels.
I spent the six months leading up to our trip preparing. I researched travel pillows and travel towels, read blog entries on how to pack lightly for a two-week trip. I bought a swimming suit, t-shirts, and shorts—things that generally don’t exist in my wardrobe.
The week before we left, I started panicking. I mean seriously panicking. I’d never travelled outside the United States before, but it was more than that. I pinned the cause down a few days before we left. World travel was a lifelong dream for me and going on this trip meant admitting something huge—that I was powerful enough to make my own dreams come true.
Absolute throat-strangling panic, let me just tell you.
The day we left passed in a bit of a haze and before I knew it we were at the airport. Then we were on the plane with a whole bunch of French people (the first leg of our journey was to Paris). The whole trip I was kind of detached from the situation because it was all so surreal. I didn’t sleep at all, even though it was a 10 hour overnight flight. In the morning, I saw England from above. Someday, England. Someday I will see you up close.
When we landed in Paris and I saw the advertisements written in French, it finally started to sink in. We were in another country. We found our gate and tried to clean ourselves up a bit before hopping on another flight from Paris to Athens. I had a window seat and watched as we flew over Switzerland, the Alps, and Italy. We flew over water for quite some time before I started seeing islands popping up here and there. Then we passed into the mainland of Greece and landed.
I had arrived.
There was absolutely no passport control in Greece, so I didn’t get a stamp entering the country. I was disappointed, but how disappointed could one really be in Greece? We bought some supplies we couldn’t bring on the plane and then headed out to find a taxi to take us to our first hotel.
Athens
Let me tell you something: I have seen bad drivers. I have seen crazy traffic. But I have never seen anything like the driving in Greece. I don’t know if they have a more advanced concept of spatial relations than Americans do or if they’re all just insane, but our taxi driver passed cars so closely that I easily could have reached out my window and touched them. I wouldn’t even have had to reach my whole arm out.
The landscape surrounding Athens was weirdly familiar. Remember how I mentioned that I love southern Utah? Well it looks eerily similar to it—not the canyonland landscape, but the scrubby landscape just north of that. Once we entered Athens proper, the landscape changed to buildings and buildings and more buildings—mostly old buildings decorated with graffiti. Athens is not a particularly clean city, but I suppose that’s forgivable since it’s about three and a half thousand years old.
We reached our hotel, which was a modest little place in a reasonably good area. We checked in and got the key to our room, which was on the fourth floor. Except it was actually on the sixth floor, up 84 winding marble stairs (I counted). By the time we got to our room, all I could think about was putting down my bags and taking a shower.
It was a lovely view across the street. Athenians seem to have a thing for potted plants.
Like I said, Athens is not a particularly clean city.
We took some time to relax, then went up to the roof of the building. We got some enormous bottles of water (the first of many) and I got my first look at the Acropolis.
 |
| picture by britt |
We also saw a beautiful sunset and saw the Acropolis all lit up.
 |
| by britt |
The next day, we went down to the front desk to ask about ferry tickets. The girl behind the desk (who thankfully spoke English wonderfully, as most of the people we met did) sent us to a travel agency. Her directions on how to get there were a bit alarmingly vague, but eventually we found it. There, a very friendly travel agent booked the ferries that would take us from island to island. When he asked our names, I told him mine was Brenda. “Brenda Lee!” he said, and then proceeded to play us a Brenda Lee song.
I love Greeks.
After we got our tickets all arranged, we sought out our next goal: the metro that would take us to the Acropolis. That will be the next journal entry. ☺
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