OCTOBER 12 - DAY 2 IN GREECE

October 12 – Tuesday

Waking up on an airplane. Sigh. The usual toing and fro-ing. Breakfast according to Continental Airlines – two pieces of honeydew, three pieces of cantaloupe and a croissant thrown carelessly on a plastic tray, with a pat of butter and a packet of strawberry jam and beverages. They call it coffee – Brazil should sue.

But we arrived safely and a few minutes ahead of schedule. An easy getting off, no documents to fill out in advance, passport control was quick – bathroom stops for some – collected luggage, and the guy from the tour company was there with a sign. Now of course, there were last minute bathroom breaks and one piece of luggage that was one of the last off the plane – but ultimately we got it all together and off into the airport. With 4 blind members of the group, our rate of proceeding varies so we did have to stop and let people catch up. Blind people do very well with their canes and/or with the help of others. But when everyone is also schlepping luggage, it can get a little more complicated.

It was raining, so the bus was a little late in coming, and several people took advantage of the pause to change money. Euro’s – Greece is a member of the European Union. The exchange Bureau has a tendency to shortchange you, and there were a couple of conversations about rates posted as opposed to what was delivered. One of our group decided to use her ATM card – and the machine promptly ate the card and refused to return it. (Yes, she had alerted her bank that she was traveling.) Of course no one had responsibility for the machine, so she spent part of the bus ride into the city calling home to cancel the card.) And we later discovered that another member had lost her wallet during the exchange process. She had collected money from three others (so there would only be one exchange and therefore only one fee) and somewhere in there her wallet disappeared. Four credit cards, 2 ATM, her Social Security card, over $600 in cash, auto registration. She too spent some time at the hotel making phone calls and tomorrow she will have some lost property forms to fill out. She does have trip insurance, which will reimburse part of it, but what a way to start the trip.

The ride into the hotel is about 45 minutes and the guide did a nice job of narrating the trip. Both of our guides are called Yanni – easy to remember. Check in at the hotel was easy – some went out for a snack – we had several free hours and we were going to meet at 7 PM for Mass in the hotel, and then off for an evening at a Greek Taverna – entertainment and meal – nice way to start the trip.

Yours truly unpacked a little, took a mini nap, and started to organize. There is Internet – expensive but available – and a detailed instruction on how to log in. I tried – and I tried- and I tried – and that’s when I decided to take a nap. Up again – tried again my computer told me “No operating system.” This is NOT what you want to hear. Fortunately the back up system worked and I was backing operation – at which point I called the front desk. I asked if there were a problem with the internet and the operator asked me if I had my tv on. Say what? Yes, one logs onto the internet through the tv. This detail was NOT included in the detailed instructions. Sigh. So I emailed the work I had done on the plane, dealt with several emails and other items and then I got a phone call from one of the members – Father John I need to speak to you as soon as possible. What now? thought I, who has died? Turned out this was the woman telling me she had lost her wallet. Whew.

Mass was in one of the  hotel meeting rooms – they had set up with a dais table, elevated, three microphones – I got a small serving table and set up for a much more intimate setting. Catholics – literally the first people in sat in the last rows and everyone else tried to fill in behind them. No one sat in the front row. But the Mass was nice. And off to the taverna. Almost everyone went. One of our number (who knew he would have to do some work on the trip) skipped the traverna so he could get things out of the way and be free for the morning excursion.

The bus took us to the outskirts of the plaka, the traditional market district. Small streets, cars parked on what one would think of as a pedestrian walkway, stone streets – reminiscent of some sections of back alley Rome. A cat sitting on top of a car watching us go by – I wonder how one says miauow in Greek? We were adopted by a black lab as we got off the bus, and he stayed with us almost to the restaurant. A stray but wearing a collar. Seems the government feeds stray dogs, and puts a special collar on them. Gentle soul, this one – he was not around when we came out at the end of the meal.

The restaurant was large – long tables stretching across a large room, more tables in a balcony area surround half of the area. There was a stage on which there were three musicians playing. There was only one other group when we arrived, but in a fairly short period of time, every seat was filled, including a large group of students from Serbia who were in Greece on a study tour of ancient Greek civilization. There were small plates on the table (I am not even going to try and remember names of food dishes – bear with simple descriptions) – yogurt and some kind of herbs, a pasta dish, Greek salad, a bean salad, fish eggs (not caviar, pink, a sort of a paste) bread, a plate with sausage, a spinach filled pastry, and something that looked like a meatball but wasn’t. Interesting – wine and water were included, but you were charged if you wanted a soft drink. Nice to know the keep their priorities straight.

After a bit (the musicians were playing throughout) dancers appeared – young men and women in traditional Greek dress. The men were animated and the women were mostly bored. Pretty, but uninvolved. The dancing was nice -  occasionally the men got into athletic exhibitions of how good they were. Entrée choices were chicken, pork or lamb. When in doubt, take lamb. Tasty. A honey ice cream for dessert. Just before dessert was served a belly dancer showed up. Classical Greek face, lovely outfit, gorgeous figure (so I was told, because of course, I never noticed. Ahem.) She, too, was less than involved in what she was doing, and – because of my Lebanese friends, I am able to report that she wasn’t really a very good belly dancer.

This did not seem to bother some of the young men – although the next day one of the women remarked that she had looked around the room and many of the men were not gazing in rapt attention. That might have been because some of the young Serbian college women were heart-stoppingly gorgeous – yes, that I did notice.

The belly dancer got some of the men on stage and they danced” with her. The other dancers re-appeared in new costumes and danced for a while, and then they too got a group on stage and they “danced.” At which point – simply because it was time, not as a critical comment on what was going on on stage – we betook ourselves back to the hotel.

A gentle walk back to the bus – different people with different ailments and ages, blind members who move at different rates – some at the front, leading the way, others bringing up the rear. We almost lost part of the group on the way to the restaurant – one of the women started to lose her skirt (I was not there to see it, so I can only repeat what I was told) and by the time a repair had been made, the first group was out of sight, and the second half was concerned about getting lost. It was a fairly straight street and we had paused for them to catch up – and nobody took any pictures of the skirt episode – but we do try and keep track of our group segments.)

And bed. This business of late dinner and early rising could not keep up for 12 days, but once we hit the boat, hopefully the timings will shift.