I swore never to show up in Athens again without a reservation.

I swore not to pack so much.

I swore not to eat a cheese pie every day.

I’ve heard that a lot of people will skip Athens entirely and head straight to the islands, especially if they’ve visited Athens before.  Maybe it’s due in part to my bad memory, but I always find it difficult not to spend at least three days in Athens.  The Acropolis still takes my breath away and the sense of living history makes me want to linger.

When I walk through the agora, it’s with Socrates; in Keramikos, Pericles is still giving his famous eulogy for fallen soldiers; and Aeropagus Hill holds the echo of Paul’s “Sermon to an Unknown God”.

This time around, I visited the good works of a Roman emperor named Hadrian, who loved Athens at least as much as he loved Rome.  Hadrian’s legacy includes a beautiful library, a Tower of the Winds, a Roman market, and the completion of the largest temple in Greece — the Temple of the Olympian Zeus — that took 700 years to finish.

Athens just wouldn’t be the same without Hadrian.

© 2010 – 2011, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved.

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My first night in Athens, I walk the pedestrian promenade to stave off jet-lag and keep myself from falling asleep too early.

Children play ball on the marble walkway, as they have for millennia, their voices ringing out in laughter from the shrubbery of the southern slope of the Acropolis.

A tightrope walker manages the distance between two trees, ten feet apart.

Elegant couples make their way down the Grand Promenade to a concert at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.

Flashes of light and a flurry of photographers follow the prime minister of Greece as he calmly makes his way through the ancient entrance gate. He has a kind face. It must be difficult to be a politician with such a kind face.

Designer blondes in tight white skirts and four inch heels stop for ice cream before the concert. Click, click, click… their heels on the marble steps.

An orthodox priest sings his haunting sermon down from the hills.

A man playing the lute greets me with compliments in Macedonian.

A young Roma woman sits near the entrance to the plaka, shaking a tambourine and singing an old slavic folk song. “Jovano, Jovanke…” My heart tightens, and suddenly I want to go to Yugoslavia, but then I remember that there is no Yugoslavia. I tell myself that I’ll visit it’s ghost soon, but not alone, to go alone would mean certain heartbreak.

That night it rains — big sheets of rain that turn the marble walkway into a slip n’ slide.

The next morning, I make my way to breakfast.  Still half asleep and bleary eyed, I sit down to a rainbow over the Acropolis.

This is how Athens keeps me hooked.

© 2010 – 2011, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved.

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I sort of like the idea of an entire committee convening to discuss whether or not a fine should be paid, but if it’s all the same to them, I’d rather not pay.

I had the best of intentions, after all, and a kazillion other people made the same mistake.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if someone invented an intentions detector?

© 2009 – 2011, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved.

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I keep trying to become a vegetarian but it never sticks.  It’s just so difficult to over-ride those basic instincts.  One whiff of sizzling sirloin and I’m done.  I keep watching those horrible slaughter house videos to steel up my conviction, but a few weeks later I’m back to craving farm animals.  The stroll through Athens meat market didn’t do anything but make me hungry.

There’s something about this market that just lays it out, you know? Nothing clinical about it, no trying to gloss things over with fancy packaging.  Just a bunch of guys with huge cleavers hacking away at meat.

*** WARNING *** If you’re a vegetarian or a member of PETA please spare yourself this video ***

© 2009 – 2011, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved.

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I walked around the ticket area for a while looking for an information booth, but none were to be found.  Eventually I purchased a €1 ticket and thought it was just another great deal the Greeks were offering to help their own citizens afford public transportation.

All was fine until the train pulled out of the stop just before the airport.  About 30 seconds before the train reached the airport, two fare-control officers entered the car and began checking for tickets.  One of the officers issued a ticket to a tourist a few seats ahead of me.  The other officer walked up to me and asked to see my ticket.  I handed it to him; he quickly scanned it and informed me that the fare for the airport was €6  – which I hadn’t paid — and that the fine for not paying was €60.

Admittedly,  I’m the type of person who will bend a rule to it’s breaking point, but I never steal or cheat, and I lie only to protect feelings or to make people feel better about their disastrous decisions (i.e. “Love your new haircut.”).  I consider it an act of kindness.

I explained to the officer that I’d seen only two options as far as metro tickets went.  He explained that the €1  ticket was valid only as far as the station immediately preceeding the airport.  The other €5 were for the 60 second ride from that station to the airport.

The other fare officer began issuing  tickets to three English girls in the rear of the car.  The girls looked really honest, with their healthy milk-fed complexions and no-nonsense khakis.  I thought the officer would surely believe them, even if he didn’t believe me.

The officer and I went back and forth for a while.  He’d obviously heard it before.  He told me that I didn’t have to pay the fare right then and that I should send an e-mail to the Athens metro when I returned home, explaining that I was a tourist and that I wasn’t aware of the fare.

Every tourist in the car got a ticket.

When I got back to the States, I sent the required e-mail, explaining the situation.  This is what I got back from “Passanger Communication and Service Department”:

Dear Madam,

in response to your e-mail we would like to inform you that the €1  ticket you demonstrated during you trip to the Athens airport, was valid for a single trip for Lines 1, 2 & 3 up to Koropi station. The section Koropi – Airport is not covered by the subject ticket as it is clearly indicated on the top (there is an information table about the tickets) or on the screen (a special button with an airplane is displayed) of the Automatic Ticket Issuing Machines. A single ticket to the airport cost 6 euros and is valid for a single trip to or from the airport from any station of Metro Network.

Despite of this, we would like to inform you that your e-mail itself was considered as the No 909889 Applications of XX.09.2009, for cancellation of the fine  issued to you  on September XX, 2009. The application will be examined by the relevant committee and we will inform you about the final results.

The procedure lasts about 2 months. Until then, you have no obligation concerning your  fines. Be sure that you will be informed (via e-mail) about the final results of the applications.

Thank you for communicating with us.

Metro Fine Collection Office

One guess on what the final result of my application will be.

© 2009 – 2011, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved.

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