ODE TO A GRECIAN URGE- MUESLI AND PRICE FLAKES

I didn’t expect Athens to be as romantic as Rome- that would be almost a contradiction in terms- but I did expect it to be more romantic than say, Phoenix or St. Louis. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, but still if Rome’s logical descendent is Paris, then Athens’ might be New York, or even Mexico City, cities for whom substance overrules style and whose similarities are greater than its differences in the long view of history. Athens’ place in history is assured by its great thought, after all, more than its great works of art and architecture. Rome had the great works, though originally those were mostly copies of the work in Athens.

Where classical Rome truly excelled was its highways, the world’s standard of excellence until the 1800’s. Most of ‘romantic’ Rome occurred during the Renaissance following the lead of Florence, much of it still standing.

Athens missed out on all that, the Grecian center long shifted to Constantinople, whose intellectual and artistic elite helped stimulate the Italian Renaissance when the Ottoman Turks ended their little world in 1453. Modern Greece is defined as much by what happened since the decline of its Classical Age as by what happened before, and that includes a lot of influence by others, including Slavs and Muslims, especially Turks. This is a great reduction from the imperial days of Alexander and Constantine, when Greek was spoken far beyond its current home turf, even the language of many Jews, for whom Hebrew was long extinct as a spoken language. But all was not lost, though Constantinople certainly was. But that’s all history. Modern Athens is a study in contrasts, if I may be permitted the cliché. Side by side are found the old and new, the local and the international, the museum and the machine shop, the sacred and the profane (okay, so two clichés?). Somehow it all seems to work, though there are undercurrents and overtones. The Acropolis was closed for several days because workers were striking over lack of pay for three months. They even closed the airport the day before I landed.

As with most cities my favorite thing is to just take long walks. It ain’t Rome, but it ain’t bad, plenty of cheap street food, mostly variations on the Euro-pastry theme with the addition of such Greek faves as gyros and souvlaki. Restaurants don’t seem much different except for the price, so I haven’t really ventured there. If you go to the market, be careful around the meat department. These butchers are aggressive, venturing into the aisles to snag customers, WITH CLEAVER IN HAND! There’s plenty of souvenir stuff around the Acropolis, which is a sizeable area. Other than there, neighborhoods are pretty unremarkable culturally and architecturally, not much of note. What IS of note is the number of so-called ‘sex shops’, probably second only to Amsterdam in the Western world. You don’t find such detritus in Paris, just tired old hookers wearing fur coats in Pigalle. Once again comparisons to New York come to mind. TV’s even worse, or better, depending on your point of view. Where the Italian nudies come out on a couple channels after midnight, Athens has four or five channels dedicated to it all day. If they’re not selling sex, they’re off the air. Is this what the rest of the world thinks of the West? Probably.

The Greek language is interesting, though I haven’t studied much, mostly just learning the alphabet by comparing dual-language subway signs and so forth, similar to learning the Khmer alphabet if you already know Thai, if that analogy helps. A lot of words are then recognizable through Latin’s absorption of them, and on down to the modern languages. You don’t need a Ph.D. to know that the Greek on that ‘Exit’ sign spells ‘Exodos’. It’s like a little linguistic genome project, something to keep my brain from atrophy. If the multiple spellings of some subway and road signs are disturbing, feel some comfort in the fact that the Greek spellings are similarly mutated, almost letter for letter. Whether that’s due to grammatical inflection or not, I’m not sure. I hope so. Erratic romanizations of spelling in Asia are one thing; erratic romanizations of spelling in the cradle of the Western world are another. Greek doesn’t seem far removed from other Western languages, especially Romance ones, no tones or clicks or anything weird like that. They say it’s hard, but I’m not sure why, maybe intimidated by the alphabet. Alas and alack, even if you master it, you’ve only got ten million potential speaking partners, so hard to get excited, except for the genome aspect. Sanskrit is related, even more ancient, and a billion modern speakers through derivative languages. See you in Delhi.

Do I like Athens? I’m not sure, but I’m pretty sure I don’t love it. The countryside might be totally different, the islands and all. Unfortunately this isn’t really the season for that, being winter, though there was no shortage of activity at the port in Piraeus. That’s the only passenger wharf that’s ever felt like an airport to me, with constant comings and goings. This is more like the Metro tour for me, cities and subways. There are some savings to be had in the off-season, too. I’m okay as long as the temperature gets up to 10C-50F during the day. Colder than that and I’ll re-schedule. In short, drivers suck, but I’ve seen worse. TV sucks, but that’s universal. People are… well, the New York analogy comes back. Food’s okay, but nothing spectacular. The level of English is not bad, at least for the simple dealings between most tourists and locals. Best of all, the Acropolis itself is stupendous, its hilltop location incredible and a clear link (for me at least) to architectonic structures which preceded it and the classic Western architecture which followed. Height implies authority and divinity.

A word should be said about Athens taxi drivers. Taxi drivers in Athens are the lowest breed of mankind, a vulture-like half-breed predator for whom international travelers are only so much carrion baggage, covered by no higher law and ripe for picking. Such taxi scum should be decapitated and heads hung from the city gates as a warning to the unrighteous. I’m not saying they ruined my stay here, but I’m not saying they didn’t, either. Even Lonely Planet informs you that you’ll probably be ripped off if you take one from the airport. Score one for Lonely Planet. But when your plane lands after midnight your options are limited, and that’s when the rip-offs double. Part of the reason I’m heading on to Albania from here is that the buses leave within walking distance of my hotel, no taxi transactions required. I don’t need a murder conviction on my record. In all fairness, Athens is flakey about pricing in general, and I’ve gotten the benefit of that at least once. That’s the best I can say.

From here it’s on to Tirana, hoping the weather gets a little spring in its step. It’s still snowing in Bulgaria, and that’s tentatively next, after Albania, Sofia looking pretty good from a cost and convenience perspective. But I might follow the coast a while if I have to, continuing my research into how borders define cultures. But wait, just as I thought I was ready to stuff this note into a bottle and set it adrift, another interesting thing happened- Monday. Or rather, nothing happened. Stores are closed Mondays, all of them. You can barely find a cup of coffee. I know museums close Monday, but stores? Maybe it’s a holiday, Greek Orthodox Carnival. I still see festivities on TV. Always stay in a new place until you’re bored. That way you have no regrets, knowing you haven’t missed anything, at least nothing you wouldn’t have missed no matter how long you stayed. In general I’ve had good prices, good weather, and good conditions in Athens, so I’m good. This is my life after all, not my vacation. The muesli’s gone and it’s time to move on. Stay tuned.