Athens -- First Impressions

Few experiences on this trip have rivaled walking out of the Athens metro stop, greeting the marketplace at Monastiraki, and looking over my shoulder to see this...

                                  [Yes, that is the Acropolis on top of the hill.] 

I've always been more of an ancient Greek and Roman fan than I am a fan of ancient Egyptian civilization, so Athens was one of the places that I was most excited about visiting.  Seeing the Acropolis in person and imaging how ancient Athens must've looked thousands of years ago was awe inspiring to me.

I stayed in two different hostels while I was in Athens.  The first hostel was located about 40 yards from where I took this pic.  Once I checked in, I spent some time touring the city.

The area immediately around Monastiraki was ridiculously touristy. One particular street, Ermou, ran a mile or two, and was filled with every sort of teen clothing store; ice cream parlor (I'm not gonna lie, I may have had some ice cream on this trip ;p); overpriced cafes; and fast food establishments.  While I navigated the shops, I did pass some pretty amazing looking churches before Ermou met the Parliament building.   

For some reason, Zeus decided that it would be a good idea to freeze me after the Egyptian heat, so he decided to keep the temperatures right around 40 degrees F for the majority of my stay in Athens (one night it dropped below freezing -- in Athens??!!).  Naturally, I only had a light jacket, so in the evenings my body really froze -- again, in Athens??!!  Damn you, Zeus! 

While I walked in these cold temps, I noticed almost immediately that either the Greeks love graffiti, or their graffiti busting budget must've been slashed during their financial meltdown.  I thought there was a lot of graffiti in Berlin; Athens eclipsed Berlin mainly because the graffiti in Athens was as (or even more) prevalent, but offered no sort of artistic sensibility.  It amazed me that the government allowed government buildings to be tagged.  That's right; the equivalent of our Congress building was tagged with graffiti as was pretty much every other structure that wasn't organic.

Also interesting to me was the number of stray dogs and cats that loomed throughout the city.  Most of the dogs were of the "big" breed variety, and for the most part, the dogs just hung out, sleeping on the street as thousands of people passed them.  Weird. 

I continued just north of the main touristy areas, and was impressed at how even crappier this part of the city became.  I guess I just had a more romantic view of Athens in my mind.  At one point, I walked down a shady block where I stepped past a guy who had passed out against a fence.  I stopped to take a picture -- something about the way his body slumped was photo-worthy to me -- then noticed that in his left hand, he clutched a needle.  Holy crap -- he must've shot up right here on the street...Crazy...At that point, I just felt sorry for him and decided that I didn't need to take a picture (well, that, and some scary hookers started yelling at me from down the street -- time to bolt!).

Once I found a place to eat, and wolfed down my fairly nondescript meal, I decided to head back to my hostel.  I made my way to the rooftop bar, and was welcomed by a gang of five. 

Particularly funny was a guy from Latvia who told me that Texas was his favorite part of the States.  I asked if he had ever been to the US before, and he said he hadn't; one of his good friends was from Texas and he decided that Texas was his favorite state -- makes sense to me :)

The group and I participated in an amusing chat.  The highlight was when the conversation turned to the first movie everyone could remember seeing in the theater.  One girl vividly described the events leading up to seeing her movie.  When she mentioned it, I almost fell over laughing -- The Lion King.  Luckily, the question died before it got to me -- I'm sure I would've blown their minds when I mentioned that mine was Return of the Jedi -- I can still picture my dad watching the end of the credits when the rest of us pleaded for him to leave the theater ;p 

The conversation took a weird turn when the lone American girl made everyone uncomfortable by going on a rant about how America is the greatest country in the history of the world; how she's ever so proud to be an American, and how American history is more interesting than any other country's history.  Mind you, she spewed these comments to a group that included a guy from Latvia, a guy from Australia, a girl from Canada, a girl from Finland, and me.  She was too drunk to notice, but the crickets were chirping at a painfully loud decibel level. 

I pretty much ditched the group at this point, and decided it was time to take an amazing night-time pic of the Acropolis. 

Next up -- I hike up to the Acropolis and then head to Delphi, a place that held the most beautiful views that I've seen on this trip.

Getting to Athens...Olympic Airlines -- I Do Not Heart You!!

Before I get to the happenings in Athens, I have a couple of things to mention. 

First, in the TMI category, I woke up to severe ass pain.  My cheeks had chafed from the camel ride, and I had several scrapes and skin scraped off from the camel ride.  Ugh.  It hurt to sit down, so I wasn't thrilled about getting on a plane to Athens (at least the flight was a relatively short one at just under 2 hours).  Now that I have the benefit of hindsight, I can let you know that it took 4 days for my cheeks to completely heal.  Yikes!

Ok...The second point is to tell you about the disaster that is Olympic Airlines -- perhaps the most ghetto "large" airline I have ever used ("Big Sky" was the most ghetto I've ever used -- I took this "airline" to Arkansas years ago -- but that was a very, very small airline).

There were only two airlines that flew directly to Athens from Cairo:  Egypt Air and Olympic Airlines. Olympic was running about half the price of Egypt Air, so naturally, I selected the less expensive option.

On two consecutive days, I tried booking a reservation through Olympic Airlines's website, but each time I tried, my credit cards were denied. I figured that there might have been a problem with me traveling and using my cards, so I asked a few other people stateside to give it a go. Nope -- no luck, there, either. Ok, I tried the website's "Contact Us" section and found an email address for the Cairo office. I shot an email off to the office, and almost instantly got a "failed delivery" message. Ugh. I had a phone number for the Cairo office and asked Ashraf if I could use his phone. He obliged and I dialed...Line not working (of course). Ugh.

After my experience in Saigon, I knew that not all airlines have ticket offices at every airport, so I was concerned about trying to buy a ticket directly at the Cairo airport -- especially since the office seemed to be closed.

Just in case, I formulated a Plan B for which I prepared to travel to either Rome or head to Budapest early.  Since I couldn't get a hold of Olympic, the only choice for Plan A was to go to the airport and give "buying a ticket at the airport" a try. 

Ashraf's driver (the same van and guy who had picked me up from the airport originally) took me to the airport and ushered me towards the security checkpoint. The Cairo airport was structured so that flight passengers had to go through security before even entering the airport to check-in for the flight (I had not previosly experienced this setup). Naturally, that created a giant cluster f$ck right in front of the airport. The van driver told me to go through this area even though I protested by saying, "I don't have a ticket yet -- I need to get a ticket!" He kept insisting that I go through this area. It didn't feel right, but I approached the security guard.

In broken English, the guard asked me for my ticket. I told him that I didn't have one. He then grabbed a list printed on old dot-matrix computer paper, pointed to it, and angrily said, "Name?" Of course, the security guard manned the only entrance to the check-in counters at the airport, so there were at least 50 people behind me trying to push their way through.  The guard multi-tasked:  he dealt with me while turning back to the crowd and physically held them back. In other words, it was a giant mess. I told him again, "Not on list; no ticket! Where buy ticket?" He got pissed, grabbed my 36 pound bag off the conveyer belt, swung it towards me and motioned for me to leave. Aaaagh!!

I pressed through the gauntlet of incoming travelers and met the van driver who gave me a quizzical look. "I don't have a ticket!" I snapped at him (probably unfairly, but I was annoyed). "I need a ticket!" "Oh, ticket!" he said and led me to another area of the airport about 50 yards away. We headed towards the Olympic Air counter, which, surprise, surprise, was...

closed...

UUUUGGGGHHHH!!

However, there was a sign on the door. The sign stated that tickets could be purchased on the opposite side of the airport at the SkyMall where Olympic had their "Management Offices." Ok -- on to something now. Time wasn't really an issue -- I had allowed enough time to execute Plan B if necessary, and all of the flights from Plan B were much earlier than my Olympic Airlines flight, so I wasn't in danger of missing the Athens flight.
 
We hiked over to the SkyMall (and somehow picked up another older Egyptian man that was in the same quandary as me). About 20 minutes later, we arrived at the Olympic Management Office. 

A very nice Greek woman greeted me and I told her that I would like to buy a ticket to Athens. She told me that I needed to go back to the office from which I came because that was the only place to buy tickets. AAAARRRGGGHHHH!!! I told her that I just came from that office and it was locked. She gave me an odd look and picked up the phone. After making a few calls, she told me to go to the Egyptian Air office instead.

The Three Musketeers (the van driver, the new guy, and me) all walked the 20 minutes to get back over to the original area. Next to the Olympic Airlines ticket office was an Egyptian Air office. I walked in and a 24 year old Egyptian guy wearing a suit and shortly cropped hair greeted me. He told me to follow him. The three of us followed him to the Olympic Airlines office, which he opened using a key. I sat down and he created a "ticket" for me. Of course, cash was the only payment, and I wasn't sure I had it in Egyptian Pounds (it was $208). I left to use the ATM machine until I counted my money and realized I already had enough [face palm].

I returned to the office, gave the guy my money, and he printed off the most ridiculous looking ticket. It was a piece of paper with the flight details and my name; that's it. No watermark, no special paper, nothing. OMG would this be easy to forge...Seriously ghetto.

With my "ticket" in hand, I headed back to the secured airport entrance. The original security guard still worked the door and he instantly recognized me. I smiled and showed him the ticket. He actually high-fived me, laughed really hard, pointed at his chest and said, "I win." This time, he grabbed my bag off the conveyor belt and handed it to me with his smile still beaming.

I thanked him and as I turned, a random Egyptian grabbed my bag, threw it on a shopping cart looking contraption and wheeled my bag exactly 9 feet to the Olympic Airlines check-in desk. He then gave me puppy eyes and stated plainly, "Tip?" After all I had dealt with at that point, I was really tempted to punch him in the face -- 9 feet?! and you want a stinkin' tip. I told him no and grabbed my bag from him.

At the counter, I presented my "ticket." Miraculously, the woman behind the desk took it, and started processing my boarding pass. Wait...This can't be that easy...

She tried once...twice...three times...I told her that I just bought the ticket. She nodded and turned to another guy and said something in Greek. He put his hands up in a "I don't know what the f$ck to do either," expression and turned to yet another person, and said something in Greek. The third person was clueless as well, and motioned to a FOURTH person. UUUGGGGHHH!!!

The FOURTH person came over to me and asked me about the "ticket." I told him I had just bought it and described the guy from whom I had purchased the ticket. This FOURTH person made a phone call and told me to wait (luckily, not a single other soul came to check-in while I waited through this ordeal).

About 7 minutes later, the guy who sold me the ticket showed up. He talked to the FOURTH person, looked at me and nodded, and then a boarding pass was issued. FINALLY -- I'm ready to go. I headed to the gate, fired up the wi-fi and did my Athens hostel booking.

To close out the ghetto-ness, the gate agent for the flight was the same woman behind the ticket counter, and the FOURTH person as well as another guy from the ticket office were the "ground crew." They schlepped bags and directed us up the stairs to the plane. Wow!

After this ordeal, I don't want to hear anyone complaining about American, United, US Airways, etc.!!

Are you surprised that the plane was less than half full??  At least there were no chicken coops or goats as I had expected...hehe            

More Michael Jackson! and Yes! More Pyramids!

Muhommad and I galloped along the street for about half an hour. Around this time, the ride started to become rough - just as Ashraf had predicted. Since no saddle was used, my body had morphed into a flopping rag-doll. I fought through the pain and we entered a small village area, where two young goat herders crossed our path with their flock.

In this area, kids smiled and waved to me - completely different vibe from the touristy feel around the pyramids.

We continued our trek and passed some grave sites. I'm not exactly sure why (I assume it's the terrain), but all of the gave sites were above ground.

We then moved across the town and back into the desert.

We rode for several miles into the desert until we came across one random shack. We stopped at the shack and while Mohammad fought with Michael Jackson in an attempt to tie her to a couple of sad looking trees, a portly Egyptian man about 46 years old greeted me. He spoke essentially no English, but motioned for me to have a seat outside on his "porch." He prepared a fire and I stretched out and enjoyed the views and the stillness of it all.

Mohammad joined us and put together a small lunch. There wasn't much food at all, and I didn't want to eat this older man's food, so I rationed small bits (though I was extremely hungry).

Mohammad then prepared a hookah . We smoked the hookah for an hour or so, and I chilled while listening to their conversation.

Mohammad and I then mounted MJ and followed the older guy to another area of tombs.

The older man tried to be my guide, but he spoke no English, and his gesturing didn't always make sense to me.

After his "tour" Mohammad and I rode MJ to a wall where the older guy was waiting to open the gate. He wanted a tip, so I gave him 500 Egyptian Pounds ($7 USD). Unfortunately, I only had 1000 Egyptian Pounds on me, so I needed change, and I demanded my change from him. He got really pissed, and started bitching to Mohammad. Mohammad told me that 500 was fine and he kept telling the guy to give the change.

The guy initially refused, and by this point, I was so sick of dealing with the haggling that I wasn't about to let it go. The money wasn't the issue -- I was just beaten down from the pandering at the pyramids, and this guy really annoyed me. In hindsight, I think the heat, sun, and lack of sleep had put me on edge a bit.

Anyway...The guy claimed that he didn't have any change on him, but he could get it from the nearby village if I really wanted it. I called him out on his bullshit, and told him, "We follow you." In some respects, it was empowering being on the camel because I felt like at any point she could just squash him.

We followed him for another 10 minutes while he pleaded with me for more money (claiming that he didn't eat -- yeah, right, I have pics of his belly girth), and suddenly, I felt like the quaint shack in the desert was nothing more than another way to extract money out of me.

I really despised feeling this way, but I couldn't help it. I felt like Keenan Ivory Wayans in "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" when he got the hot chick home only to have her reveal that almost everything about her is fake. Finally, the guy found someone who could give the change and we were on our way.

On our way out, Mohammad took us through some really treacherous terrain.  At one point, we passed an incredibly narrow path that edge alongside a creek.  Trees over grew the area and their branches dangled dangerously close to us.  We kept moving forward, and entered an area where the branches were everywhere (they were too high to MJ, so she kept pushing forward, oblivious to the branches whacking us -- or was she??).  The branches got so bad that they started tearing at my skin.  One ripped off my headdress and another scratched the crap outta my arms and legs, all the while Mohammad kept repeating, "Sorry!" " Sorry!" "Sorry!"  The branches almost knocked me off MJ (I was flown sideways, and luckily snagged the rear "saddle" grip to stay on her back).  A few seconds later, I told Mohammad that I wanted down and we should walk through this area.

We walked for a bit, and while I was catching my breath, I noticed that my ass was incredibly sore, and I was bleeding a little on my arm from one of the minor cuts. Unfortunately, MJ didn't agree with our "walking" sentiment, and she decided that she wanted to sprint.

So, we had no choice but to run to keep up with her. The three of us ran through a village -- MJ with Mohammad and I in-tow. That had to have been entertaining to the onlookers -- most of 'em giggled with glee as our caravan raced by. We managed to keep up with her, and made it to a drop off point, where unbeknownst to me, Farang had arranged for a driver to meet me and take me the rest of the way to Sakkara. I wasn't there yet??

When we arrived at the drop off point, no driver materialized. After Mohammad made a phone call, we figured out that the driver wanted to meet us at some other point. Ugh. We rode MJ another 500 yards or so (by this point, my ass was killing me) and stopped. Mohammad tied up MJ and flagged down a tuk-tuk (yeah! they exist in Egypt, too) and told the tuk-tuk driver to take us the rest of the way to meet the driver. Once we met the driver, Mohammad went off on the driver and left to take Michael Jackson back home.

After that bit of confusion, the driver took me to Sakkara. It was around 4pm at this point, and I was worn out (we started at 9:30am). Here are the pics from Sakkara:

Sakkara had three different areas, and my phone's battery was running out of juice, so I rationed photos as much as possible.

After Sakkarra, I was to visit Memfis, but I could hardly stay awake, so I told the driver to take me back.

I got back and had an interesting bartering bout with Farang regarding the trip's price. I had made the cardinal sin of not negotiating the price upfront -- I tried twice, but Farang kept insisiting that we were "family" and "family" needn't worry about money, and in some small place in my mellon, that sounded like a good idea.

Now, he was trying to charge me $500 for the trip. I told him that he was ripping me off, and he dropped it to $125 (which I thought was fair). I agreed to pay that and went to get money from an ATM. When I got back, he said that he "added wrong" and that the trip should be $200. I was tired and agreed to pay it, though I felt like I was getting ripped off.

Once I returned to the apartment, did some web searches, and confirmed that yes, I had been ripped off, I got a hold of the apartment's owner and he had Ashraf refund $75 to me. 

That night, I sat on the roof of the apartment and took some pics of the pyramids during the "Light and Sound" show, a cheesy attempt to make the pyramids seem even cooler than they already are...

                        [Yep; that's the Spinx lit up in red in the center of the pic]

The next day, I planned to head to Athens...

Yea! -- Pyramids! and the Spinx! and camels!

Ok -- I know a lot of you were looking forward to this post, so it's time for me to get out of the way and let you enjoy some pics. 

Of course, you know I can't do that without some sort of commentary... 

Ashraf hooked me up with his buddy Farang (I met him the night before during tea), and Farang put together a camel ride around the main pyramids and then to another set of pyramids further away.  Ashraf asked me multiple times if I really wanted to do this trip via camel -- he said that could be really tiring.  Like usual, I was up for the challenge (or just plain dumb -- he suggested I take a horse instead, but I refused -- camel it is or no trip!). 

So, it was agreed -- I would take the camel and a guide would accompany me.  That's it -- no tour bus or anything like that.  Let's get it going....We departed from the tea shop...

There she is -- for the next 4 hours (yeah - I said it -- 4 hours on a camel) she was my steed.  The guide told me her Egyptian name and then laughed and said it was "Micheal Jackson" in English.  W.T.F?? 

What struck me about her initially was her height.  She was taller than the elephant I rode outside Bangkok (and, unfortunately, far less sturdy).  To mount her, I had to jump on while she was kneeling, then she did a crazy standing pose that nearly launched me each time she did it.  She would arch her hind legs first -- throwing me forward, and then she would raise her front, throwing me backwards.  The tour guide would leap onto her after she was standing fully erect. 

I was literally the only white person in the area, and we got a TON of stares as we ambled through the town towards the pyramids.  The guide, Mohammad (I did not make up the name), was concerned about me not wearing a hat (I don't desecrate these locks with hats), so he rigged one for me. 

It was probably 90 degrees (but it was a dry heat ;p -- actually, it felt amazingly pleasant outside). 

As far as Micheal Jackson's disposition, she wasn't the happiest camel.  I think this had something to do with Mohammad whipping the shit out of her with his stick.  She would froth at the mouth and growl at us.  Otherwise, she was a lovely animal ;p

Mohammad had her moving pretty quickly -- he said that when she really ran, she could beat most horses.  The times that he let her loose, we were flying.  The ride was not all that comfortable though.  For the most part, we moved at a nice pace, but not fast enough to prevent me from bouncing up and down like a jack-in-the-box that had already erupted from the box. 

Anyway, we made it through the town and ascended the Sahara towards the pyramids.  The views were incredible.  I never thought a desert would look so majestic. 

And -- what?  What was that -- pyramids??  Oh yeah, they were there, too...

This is sorta embarrassing, but it was so stinking bright out there, that I wasn't always exactly sure what I had just captured because the sunlight was washing out my screen.  Looking at some of the pics, I've chopped off the tops of the pyramids, took off-centered pics, have a finger in the way, etc.  This is the long winded way of saying the next pics may not be the greatest, but you'll get the point.  Bottom-line -- it was unreal being there.

Fun fact -- I didn't know this, but all around the pyramids lied tombs for the workers who died while building the pyramids.

The first two pyramids allowed visitors to enter the pyramids (for a small fee, of course).  I asked Mohammad and he said that both are basically identical and I might as well just do the smaller one because it's less expensive. 

I journeyed inside the second pyramid thinking I might find treasure, a mummy, Bin Laden, or the reason why George Bush was elected twice...Instead, here's what I found when I descended into the abyss:

Amazing, huh?  So..there really wasn't much to see in there...I climbed back out (even at my height, I had to walk severely hunched over) and grabbed Michael Jackson.  Let's go, girl -- down to the Spinx!

I don't by any stretch of the imagination condone animal cruelty (or midget cruelty, for that matter), but I wanted to capture this.  This is a bit cringe worthy.  Here's why MJ (yes, we're on "using initials" terms now) was so constantly pissed.

Ok -- back to the happy stuff (ignorance is bliss, n'est-ce pas?).  Yeah!  Spinx! 

If facing the Spinx, to the left, a tomb-like area rose from the desert.  This was where we entered.  Damn tourists were everywhere.  I tried to cut out as many as possible, but there was probably close to 300 milling around.

And now, to my favorite part.  Ok, here's the scene -- the Spinx was dramatically smaller than I thought it would be.  It wasn't quite Alamo small, but still smaller than I expected.  I figured it would be larger than life; instead, it was more like someone's fat uncle after a bout at a pizza buffet -- just large.

There I was, just trying to snap some nice photos of the Spinx, and these little Egyptian shits kept harassing me for money.  Several kept f$cking with my headdress; trying to adjust it, and then asking for a tip.  I wished I had a machete on me to hack through these annoying vines.  One little girl grabbed my arm and wouldn't let go.  I dragged her about 10 yards before I raised my arm and threw her off.  I felt like all this pandering really detracted from the magical experience of seeing the Spinx in person, and that was somewhat disappointing.

Nonetheless...

 
I have lots and lots of these pics, but I figured that I'd share the highlights. 

Once we were done here, it was time to hop on the busiest street around (naturally) and head towards the other pyramids at Sakkara...