The first thing you need to know about being in Greece is that you do not put toilet paper in the toilet and flush it. Not bath tissue, whatever that is, either. You put it in a trash bin next to the toilet. Apparently, the sewer pipes in Greece are much smaller than anywhere else I've been, and too much TP will clog them. Don't worry- if you make a mistake they probably can't trace it back to you. The trash bin has a tight-fitting lid and at least in a hotel is emptied regularly.
The second is that no matter where you are, be it narrow sidewalk or quiet thoroughfare or small town, someone is coming up behind you on a motorcycle
There are many other things that you should know about Greece, of course, though I came here knowing almost none of them, though I know that they use Euros, pretty much everyone speaks English reasonably well, and they are crazy drivers.
The trip was the usual jumble of things- final packing and getting out the door- and it went smoothly all the way to the airport. We flew out of Kennedy Airport, which was vaguely terrifying prospect but we found the off-site parking lot easily and they dropped us at the terminal within a few minutes. My main activity on the way to the airport is inventorying things I might have forgotten and trying to remember whether or not I did. The things I forgot were of little consequence, so that went better than it normally does.
The flight was pretty normal and an hour shorter than scheduled. I do want to note that in Delta business class, they seem to feel the need to go over the top on the food preparation, to the potential puzzlement and dissatisfaction of the people who are eating the food. They should remember that interesting food prep is not the point- happy, satisfied eaters are. So a choice of either onion quiche or bread pudding for breakfast is not appropriate unless you also offer some yogurt and fruit and a baked good of some sort. It was just odd.
We arrived an hour early and our bags came out quickly, so we met out driver and headed to the hotel......until I realized that I'd left my backpack, which had all kinds of important stuff in it, at the airport. So back to the airport we went, and fortunately our driver was happy to help out, because he quickly led me to the lost and found and explained the situation. The lost and found guy took me to baggage services and they had it sitting on the counter. In the US they probably would have sent in the bomb-sniffing dogs and exploded it out in an empty lot (though it was at baggage claim and that would mean I had kept a bomb with me all flight and then left it at baggage claim for some reason- a grudge against baggage handlers, I suppose).
Anyway, back to the hotel we went and went into our regular post-overnight flight routine. It's a recovery day where we get to the hotel, sleep for a few hours, then spend the day getting our bearings. This involves walking around whatever neighborhood we're in which is called Plaka. It's a nice area, and the adjacent neighborhood, Syntagma, is also nice and both are full of shops and restaurants. We had a quick bite and continued to walk. Eventually, we got back to hotel, which is small and has very nice people working there. We went out for a really nice dinner with good cocktails and a tasting menu at a place called Hydra. Finally went back to the hotel and to bed, though maybe not so much to sleep because it felt like 4PM to us, but we tried.
Yes, I know that this is the first thing I've written in a very long time but I do like to do this when I travel because it makes me remember things about the trip I might have otherwise forgotten.
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