A few more Hellenic musings

A few more thoughts on our trip to Greece:

• I must look Greeker than I think.  More than half the time when a Greek spoke to me – at the Acropolis Museum, at restaurants, on the ferry boat – they spoke to me in Greek first, assuming I was a native.  Kind of cool.
• One thing that makes me very un-Greek – I don’t smoke. Unbelievable to see how many folks STILL smoke there.  However, that may change.  The week we were there the Greek government started to enforce a new ban on indoor smoking in public places.
• Two of the best things about visiting Greece: unlimited access to frappes, and the little periptero stores on every corner. The periptero stores sell sodas, water, stamps, key chains, newspapers and magazines, batteries, etc. and are everywhere.
• Athens seemed very clean, at least in terms of litter and air pollution. But graffiti has gotten worse, one by-product of the riots in December 2008. And you still see cars parked on sidewalks and all over the place, on curbs, in front of fire hydrants, street signs, etc.
• Driving in Greece was kooky by also fun.  I drove from Chania to Heraklion, and survived getting lost in the latter.  The drive from Athens to Spilia is easy, at least until you get to Tripoli.  That drive is on a modern, 4 to 6 lane highway. But the last 50 miles to Spilia is on old fashioned mountain roads complete with hairpin turns, steep climbs, and crazy Greek drivers.
• We used a travel agent for part of our trip, and it really worked out great.  Our agent - Dina Kastranaki at Fantasy Travel if you're interested - made getting from the hotel in Athens to our ferry boat, our ferry boat to our hotel, and picking up our rental car in Chania and later Athens, incredibly easy (mainly by providing a car service).  She also hooked us up with a fantastic suite - with a nice balcony overlooking the harbor - at the Porto Venezzo Hotel in Chania.
• We didn't have as much luck with our flights to and from Greece.  We flew from Dulles via Paris on Air France, and outside of the excellent food our flights stunk. We had trouble with our seats, our luggage weighed too much for Air France, we missed our connecting flight out of Paris, and AF lost one of our bags.  Last time we traveled to Greece we flew from JFK direct to Athens, and a direct flight is the way to go.  Next time we plan to fly direct to Athens from JFK or Philadelphia.
• Probably the most ironic thing you see in Greece is tourists on package tours.  What could be less Greek than traveling around in a group, doing what someone tells you, going along with everyone else?  I wonder if any tour leader ever tells his or her group “The essence of Hellenism - from Socrates to Kazantzakis to Charisteas - is the exact opposite of what you are doing right now.”

If you are not on Facebook and want to check out my vacation photos you can go to: http://www.me.com/gallery/#100039.  This MobileMe gallery includes video, which will be coming soon to Facebook.