Stupendous Man

Its been a while I’ve blogged anything substantial except for my automated tweet collection; What better way to put some zing into this blog by writing about our recent travels eh? As Anu’s exams got over in May, and she has a long three month vacation ahead of her, we had begun planning about her going to India for summer holidays well in advance. However the idea of doing a European country on the way to India excited us, as 1) It would save us money of buying dedicated tickets to the country and 2) We could fit in a few days of visit in the country.

As it turned out a few days really became quite a few days; in-fact close to two weeks to be precise. And the first European country we did as a couple? Greece.

Why Greece as the first destination one might ask, when other countries in Europe like France and Italy traditionally are much bigger centers of tourism; We chose Greece because well, we had heard a lot of good things about Greece, its people and the place. We wanted to visit a bit of history, and at the same time allow ourselves to relax and chill. Greece was perfect on both counts. While mainland Greece is seeped in history every corner of the country, the Greek islands provide the perfect complement to chill and relax and enjoy some sun. Not to mention, Mediterranean weather. Of course we have Mediterranean weather all year round in San Jose too, but we were not going to risk our precious Euros on our first trip, did we . To be honest, we had not expected a lot from Greece, considering the comparisons to Italy and France. Our biggest expectation out of Greece was from Santorini, perhaps the most popular island of Greece, and one of most popular islands in Europe. As it turned out, it was not Santorini, but a major part of Greece that wowed us.

Needless to say we had a lot of fun. This was an amazing trip, and something that we both will cherish for a long time . This post is divided into a lot of parts . Part 1 will be about preparation and landing in Greece. Part two is about Cape Sounion. Future parts will be on Athens day trip, Delphi-Meteora & 1 day Argolis trip, Mikonos and Santorini Islands.

Preparation
As an Indian citizen, you will require a Schengen Visa to enter Greece as it is a part of European Union. Taking the visa was a super easy process. The people at Greece embassy were very easy to talk to, and answered all our questions without any hassles. The process itself was simple; we went in morning to embassy in SFO to drop our documents, and collected our visa the following day. By mistake I had given 20$ less fees to the embassy person. The consulate called me and informed me as I was driving back about the missing 20$, and told me there was no need for me to drive back and give the money. I could collect the passport and pay up later on. I thought it was pretty nice of them to go ahead and start the process without the hassle.

Ever since I used British Airways since last year, I’ve been impressed by the overall airline, service, food and in flight entertainment. (Though same can’t be said about the disaster that is the Heathrow airport, though Terminal 5 is still much better!). We had a choice of booking either through Air France or BA; Air France was costing 100$ more, but had great connections and would put us in Athens much earlier than BA. We still did BA, because of our previous experience.

Landing in Heathrow, which I categorically state as world’s worst airport is not fun. Though I must say, Terminal 5 does manage to improve a lot of headache by not making us change terminals. However this whole terminal has been purely designed to employ the maximum number of people. So you have scores of people to help you which line to go to, scores of people checking your boarding pass once you are in line, scores of people in booths checking your passport and boarding at other end of line. And just when you think its over, you take elevators up to departures and go through security check all over again, even though you are transiting. Welcome to scores of people telling you where to go, which line to chose, and ultimately go through the security check. I would have thought that the new terminal might have streamline some of that process, but no.

Terminal 5 at Heathrow is a mela. A ridiculous kumbh mela if you wish. I’ve never seen so many people all gathered to fly somewhere in one place. Not to mention the urban design of the airport which is anything but that; its claustrophobic at a lot of places, and doesn’t have the airiness of say SFO airport or O’Hare. That said, we did enjoy a fabulous Japanese meal at Wagamama restaurant in Terminal 5.

Our flight was late night to Athens, and was pretty uneventful. By the time we got to Athens, it was 2.45 AM in the morning and we were dead tired. However we were not ready for the drama that was about to ensue.

Landing in Athens
We had done enough research on Athens city so we pretty much knew what to expect. Crazy traffic, horns and all. Pretty much like Mumbai. Given that our flight was reaching so early in morning, and Athens Taxi-wallahs not having a great reputation for price-jacking at night, we had pre-booked our taxi through George’s Taxi. We heard about George, from what must be one of the most detailed and informative sites on Greece. That is Matt Barrett’s Travel Guide to Greece. We can’t tell you how detailed Matt’s site is. His site is pretty much an encyclopedia on all things Greece.

Anyhow, we landed at around 2.30, and by 3.00 am we were out; sure enough George’s Taxi was ready for us, to take us to Hotel Attalos, a 2 star hotel in central Athens close to all attractions. Hotel Attalos receives great ratings on tripadvisor and other places, but it turned out to be the worst 2 star hotel we’ve ever stayed in. When we reached the hotel, we discovered that our check-in time was not till 10.00 am, and they didn’t have a room. The check-in staff was rude and practically refused to let us even sit in the lounge; upon asking for a room that I could pay for the extra night, I was flatly denied.

This put us in a tricky situation. We had just come tired to Athens, middle of the night, new country and now roomless for next 8 hours. This is where George (well it was George’s friend who was driving the Taxi that night, but I am going to call him George!), jumped in. He quickly went to other hotel nearby, got us the details on the room availability for the one night and moved us there. Luckily there was availability in hotel not too far from Attalos where could spend one night and then get back to Attalos. George helped us with moving all the luggage again (not to mention, we were traveling desis; Anu was supposed to go to India from Athens, hence we had like 2 big suitcases, 2 laptop bags, and 2 carry on bags!). We couldnt thank George enough for his gracious help in the middle of the night.

The first room that we spent only 1 night was just about OK, but the hotel staff were wonderful. The breakfast next day was decent and we were to soon discover that the breakfast that we ate in that hotel was pretty much the standard fare in every single hotel across Greece. Its amazing how amazingly consistent the breakfast remains in the whole country. It consisted of Croissants, cakes, boiled eggs, ham, cheese, milk, cereals, coffee, cake and orange juice. Whichever hotel you go to in Greece, rest assured, this is what you will see.

Anyways after the tiring night sleep, we woke up pretty early unfortunately due to jet lag. Hoping that our room might be ready at Attalos we asked again, and were again asked to not check in anytime before 10.00am. At that point I wished I had canceled the hotel booking completely. Their staff got on my nerves, consistently through the 4 nights we stayed there.

…continued in Part 2