Glyfada is a resort town.

We named the car Big Red. Original, eh?

 

 
 

Athens / Glyfada

Αθνα / Γλυφαδα


The guidebook was right. As soon as people get off the plane (at an actual gate this time, mind you) they light up a cigarette. It was an anxious time for us, wondering if our luggage would come out of the luggage hole, and I could have used one. I hate that luggage hole. You just stare into it, know that the fate of the next two weeks depends on that luggage hole. And through the haze of cigarette smoke, I saw materialize, among all the real, adult luggage, two overstuffed backpacks. Sweet. We carried the third one on the plane with us. It held delicious snacks.

Next stop was the car rental agency. Citibank Mastercard gave us free collision insurance, but the guy behind the desk and I talked it over, and we decided that maybe I should get the liability insurance. We got some keys, a map, and directions out to the car.

Now, on our last vacation we had a small blue car we called "Go Blue". I didn't like the association with Michigan, but whatever. But wouldn't it be nice if we could get a little Wisconsin flavor on this trip? Well, butter your bacon boy, because the car in Spot 49 was a Hyundai Atos - Red! Go badgers!

 
Give me your smallest car, please.
It was, of course, a manual with no cruise control. I swore that the next car we rented in Europe would have cruise control, but it was a lot more expensive, and our drive on this trip would be shorter, so I said ta hell with it.

We piled our stuff in to Big Red, pulled out the map, and headed off into the Greek afternoon. Our hotel (the Hotel London) was located in Glyfada, a suburb of Athens. Getting to Glyfada wasn't much of a problem, but we got totally lost trying to find the hotel. We went left. We went right. We turned around, with no hotel in sight. After 15 minutes on the wrong road, we found the right road, by taking a left. But no hotel. Turn around, and after 15min it really looks like we're heading into Athens, and we definitely don't want to drive though Athens, so turn around again. The Navigator said we were on the correct road, and even the Driver/Real Navigator agrees, so where is the damn hotel? Well, right in front of you, there, on the right. See it?

The dudes at the desk were super cool. They spoke very good English, and told us where we could get some food in the downtown area. And also how to take the bus to Piraeus, the Port city of Athens, the next day. Port city, that sounds nice, doesn't it?

So after dropping our bags off in our room, we walked to the town center, and scoped out a place to eat. We were too chicken to go into the first couple of places we saw, but finally settled on a little order-at-the-counter place...where we ended up ordering off the menu. I think we ordered enough for 3 meals that night. It's hard to judge how much you are ordering when you don't really recognize anything on the menu, and you are starving. And we actually ordered a side of french fries. Of course my meal came with a side of fries, so we had two plates of fries now. But how where we to know that every god-forsaken meal in Greece comes with fries?? How, I ask!? How were we to know?

Getting back to the hotel, I figured I'd take care of a little business, and then pop into bed. But when I went to conduct my business, a little sign on the wall gave me pause. It said "Please do not flush paper down the Toilet." And below it was a little trash can.

 
You know
I had, of course, heard of this policy, but you never think it's going to happen to you, always to someone else. But not you. But now it is happening to you! And you have a choice to make:
  • Wait. But maybe the choice will be made for you later that night, and that might be worse.
  • Flush it down anyway. Who would know? Except for the maintenance man if things go dreadfully wrong.
  • Use the dreaded trash can. shiver
So I went with the trash can. But when you're in there brushing your teeth, it's hard to ignore that thing in the mirror. You know what's in there. You know.