Athens, the Arrival
May. 28th, 2007 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deirdreSo here I am, sitting on the balcony of my hotel room, staring out at the lit Acropolis, wondering why the heck I ever thought I wasn't interested in visiting Greece.
We got our flight from Heathrow (which was delayed by an hour and a half), and arrived in Greece. Because we'd already cleared customs into the Schengen zone, we didn't have to re-clear customs, only immigration. The immigration officer asked us no questions whatsoever, which is almost as blasé as when I visited the Netherlands and was told to hold my passport open and up while walking past the immigration officer. I never did get my passport stamped, and I sensed that asking for a stamp might have put him in a bad mood.
I was worried that our driver wouldn't be there -- I'd had trouble re-confirming the transfer for a rather silly reason. The T-mobile instructions said to press +, the country code, then the number. While I saw the + was on the 0 key, it didn't register that I specifically had to hold it down so the 0 would turn into a +.
It all turned out okay, though, he was there, and got us to our hotel, the Electra Palace Plaka. The Plaka district is right by the Acropolis.
The room is not overly large, but it's large enough, and the amenities are lovely. After we started to unpack, a bellman brought a wine and fruit tray for us, which was really lovely. I haven't had any fruit yet, but the wine was most welcome before our dinner.
We walked a couple of blocks down the street, then saw a touristy area, where we went and had a hearty bowl dinner in a great outdoor courtyard. Rick opted for lamb and rice, and I opted for beef and potato. The walk heated me up a bit, in part because I was still dehydrated, but the 1/2 liter of water with dinner helped a lot with that.
Rick and I had some silly conversation, which is still deteriorating, in which we came up with a rather ludicrous idea for yet another story. I have no idea where it's going, but I'll pluck at the idea until it forms.
I peeked into a couple of shops, hoping so see a statue of Hecate, but we got there just as most of the shops were closing (at 11 p.m.). In an odd way, the street reminded me of some of the streets in Martha's Vineyard, just the lobster roll stand transmogrified into a souvlaki stand.
We booked a tour to go to Delphi tomorrow, so we've got to be up pretty freakin' early, so I'm off for now.
We got our flight from Heathrow (which was delayed by an hour and a half), and arrived in Greece. Because we'd already cleared customs into the Schengen zone, we didn't have to re-clear customs, only immigration. The immigration officer asked us no questions whatsoever, which is almost as blasé as when I visited the Netherlands and was told to hold my passport open and up while walking past the immigration officer. I never did get my passport stamped, and I sensed that asking for a stamp might have put him in a bad mood.
I was worried that our driver wouldn't be there -- I'd had trouble re-confirming the transfer for a rather silly reason. The T-mobile instructions said to press +, the country code, then the number. While I saw the + was on the 0 key, it didn't register that I specifically had to hold it down so the 0 would turn into a +.
It all turned out okay, though, he was there, and got us to our hotel, the Electra Palace Plaka. The Plaka district is right by the Acropolis.
The room is not overly large, but it's large enough, and the amenities are lovely. After we started to unpack, a bellman brought a wine and fruit tray for us, which was really lovely. I haven't had any fruit yet, but the wine was most welcome before our dinner.
We walked a couple of blocks down the street, then saw a touristy area, where we went and had a hearty bowl dinner in a great outdoor courtyard. Rick opted for lamb and rice, and I opted for beef and potato. The walk heated me up a bit, in part because I was still dehydrated, but the 1/2 liter of water with dinner helped a lot with that.
Rick and I had some silly conversation, which is still deteriorating, in which we came up with a rather ludicrous idea for yet another story. I have no idea where it's going, but I'll pluck at the idea until it forms.
I peeked into a couple of shops, hoping so see a statue of Hecate, but we got there just as most of the shops were closing (at 11 p.m.). In an odd way, the street reminded me of some of the streets in Martha's Vineyard, just the lobster roll stand transmogrified into a souvlaki stand.
We booked a tour to go to Delphi tomorrow, so we've got to be up pretty freakin' early, so I'm off for now.