Our plane lands in Athens about 30 minutes early. We take a bus from the plane to the terminal, which was surprising because I thought this was a pretty major airport. From what I could tell this was only the case with international flights, the domestic airlines were parked at the terminals. Going through customs and getting our bags was painless. As we look for an ATM I notice the obnoxious drunk guys meeting up with another tour group. SWEET! Unfortunately Kelly is unable to take out money. She called her bank before we left Philly to let them know she would be overseas, yet somehow they made a mistake and put a fraud alert on her account. Meanwhile, my lazy ass never got around to calling the bank and I had no problem taking out money. Go figure. I take out 300 euro (about $460)and we head to the taxi queue.
Our taxi driver spoke limited English but still tried to speak to us. I tell him we're American and he lights up when he hears this. "New York City?" he asks. "No, Miami." This excites him and I feel reassured we won't be given a hard time as Americans. The cab ride is about 20 minutes and costs 25 euro. We later hear some of our tourmates were charged as much as 50 euro!
We roll up to the Seaview Hotel and it looks strangely like any given hotel on South Beach. It still has not hit us we're in Greece. The area we're staying in is called Glyfada which our tour manager describes as the Beverly Hills of Athens. It's a far cry from 90210, but still a pretty residential area. Our room is nice but small and has two twin beds pushed together. This is how the rest of our rooms on our trip are set up, too.
I warn Kelly that we're not allowed to flush toilet paper in Greece since the plumbing system is so old. She doesn't believe me and asks the woman at the front desk if this is true and the lady looks at her as though she has two heads... of course you can't flush toilet paper, you stupid American! We become well acquainted with the stainless steel trash bins we come to find next to every toilet. We also make a rule that we get negative 1 point for every time we forget to throw the paper in the trash bin. This proves difficult for me and I end up amassing around -30 points purely from toilet paper negligence. The funny thing is every toilet has a brush next to it which I used many a time to fish out my T.P., I'm pretty sure this is the main reason for the brush. Either that or the Greeks love to clean toilets.
We nap until 1 p.m. and then walk across the street to the beach. We pay 10 euro a piece just to enter the beach and at the time we assume you always have to pay for the beaches in Europe. Turns out this is a huge rip off and the last time we have to pay to go to a beach. Once again, we don't feel like we're in Greece as the beach has a very South Beach vibe: very trendy people, house music playing, and a trendy restaurant/lounge. We walk into the restaurant to buy water and everyone is staring at us. It's obvious we're the only non-Greeks on the entire beach. I approach the bar and upon hearing my accent the bartender asks where I'm from. Once he finds out I'm American he calls his friend over and they begin hitting on me and asking me to bring them back to America. They are practically drooling and it's completely uncomfortable. As much as American men are idiots, they aren't nearly this forward or horny. This is my first interaction with Greek men and I try to make it my last for the duration of the trip. It didn't help that this guy bore a strong resemblance to Jafar from Aladdin. I order two bottled waters for 3 euro which seems like a deal but we later find out this is a rip off. We will pay between .50 and 1 euro for water for the rest of the trip. We get the hell away from the perverted Greeks and set down our towels on the sand. This was another thing to make us stand out... we're the only people sitting on the sand. Everyone else had rented chairs and umbrellas. The beach is beautiful and the water is crystal clear. We spend about 2 hours sunning ourselves before heading back to the hotel. Kelly still needed to sort out her bank problems before we had to meet up with our group at 7:30 that evening.
We sit around the room for the next few hours during which time I discover neither my voltage converter nor hair straightener works. At first I'm upset and vow to buy a European straightener but I forget all about it by the time the sun goes down. For the duration of the trip my hair is wild and curly. The upside is it only takes me about 15 minutes total to get ready since I also wear minimal make up over the course of the trip. At 7:00 we head down to the lobby for a beer before we have our tour orientation. We order Mythos which is a Greek beer that tastes like a cross between Heineken and Budweiser. This will not be the last Mythos I have as it becomes my beer of choice for the next 2 weeks (well, maybe neck and neck with Corona... yes, I drank a lot of Corona which I usually don't touch at home).
At 7:30 our group begins to show up in the lobby. We sign up with our tour manager and I notice the majority of those who signed up before me are Australian and everyone's birthday is in the early 1980s. We take a front row seat next to the Ohio girls and our tour manager begins telling us what to expect on our tour. I have a hard time paying attention because all I want to do is turn around and start meeting everyone, but I do pick up on a few things. Our tour manager's name is Dave, he's from Botswana, he has a beautiful accent, and has no problem cursing. We're given a list of the optional excursions and he goes down the list describing each optional. He makes no secrets that one of the optionals, the volcano boat trip in Santorini, is an absolute waste of time and no one ever enjoys it. I appreciate his honesty and apparently so does the rest of the group as no one ends up signing up for it. We're given about 30 minutes before we have to meet for our included dinner. Kelly and I go back upstairs and I change since we're going out to a posh area in Glyfada after dinner. Kelly confesses she has a thing for Dave and I make fun of her. Little did I know!
The included dinner sucks: salad, extremely dry pork, potatoes and flan (Flan in Greece??? Where the fuck is the baklava??). I fill up on the potatoes and leave most of the pork. I didn't have high expectations for the food on this trip but luckily this is by far the worst meal I have the entire time. After dinner the whole group walks over to the nightlife area a few blocks from the hotel. I'm thankful the air is dry and there's a nice breeze, I would be drenched if I was to walk a few blocks at night in Florida. We sit with the Ohio girls and 3 boys from Perth who I had befriended on Facebook before the tour. It's startling how much the drinks cost at this place, but Dave warns us this is one of the priciest bars we will visit. Kelly and I try ordering Mythos but the bartender gives us Foster's (??). Before I know it I'm discussing the shocker with our table (the Perth boys didn't know what it is) and decide to hold off on telling everyone what a blumpkin is. What's up with me always teaching dirty words to foreigners? Last time I taught the Brits about teabagging, but this time I really outdid myself with blumpkins. I didn't waste any time establishing myself as a classy girl. We make a deal that I'll reveal what a blumpkin is on our first night in Mykonos. It ends up being an early night (yet I somehow spent 50 euro... told you it was pricey) but was still a good time getting to know a few people. I'm excited for the Acropolis tour in the morning and hope that after seeing the Parthenon it will finally hit me that I'm in Greece!
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