Words From Adelaide: Athens
...Athens is still a traffic-congested cement city with high-rise apartments in every available space, each with a balcony, many being enhanced with pleasing green shrubs breaking the monotony of the everlasting cement. Unfortunately, the habit of shaking blankets, curtains and tablecloths from the balcony can lead to minor dust storms on those below...
John Powell tells of expansive experiences in the Greek capital.
In my first visit to Athens I saw the tourist ‘musts’ such as the Acropolis and museums, in which the skill of the sculptors depicting the human form is so impressive, although the dimensions and details of certain areas of the male anatomy left me, let the truth be told, with certain feelings of envy and despair; those ancient Greeks must have been big boys.
My last visit also coincided with construction for the Olympics: this time I was able to see the pleasingly finished result while the Government contemplates the massive Olympic cost – 9 billion instead of the budget for 3 billion. The overspending was not helped by 1 million spent by officials on sending flowers to each other.
Ambitious schemes to utilize the Olympic sites are, mostly, still ‘schemes’ and many are deserted. The village units that housed 17,000 athletes were handed to 10,000 workers on a lottery basis. It was then realized that there were no supermarkets or other shopping facilities; some units were without kitchens and there was only one medical facility but equipped for sports injuries only.
The Mayor of the area then announced that, anyway, he would be unable to collect their rubbish (collected daily in Athens from huge bins outside the apartments) as he had barely sufficient funds to collect garbage from his existing area without an additional 10,000 residents who are supposed to take up residence in 2005.
Athens is still a traffic-congested cement city with high-rise apartments in every available space, each with a balcony, many being enhanced with pleasing green shrubs breaking the monotony of the everlasting cement. Unfortunately, the habit of shaking blankets, curtains and tablecloths from the balcony can lead to minor dust storms on those below.
A tramline was built for the Olympics and is extraordinarily cheap; the cost of a ticket is only 60 Euro cents to any destination. Some of the seats run down each side and face each other. I noticed that the Greek male, when seated, does so with his knees as wide apart as possible. I asked a Greek why they sit like this and his answer was ‘to stabilise’. Make of that what you will. Happily, when they alight they do not walk with their knees wide apart; just as well, otherwise a tourist might be forgiven for assuming that the whole of the Greek male population had been hit with an epidemic of painful haemorrhoids. I noticed that every fat man sat with knees apart and, rather puzzlingly, some fat women too. The mind boggles wondering what they are stabilising. I tried my hand at this Greek custom of ‘stabilising’ but I could not get the hang of it. (Make of that what you will, too.)
Athens is especially interesting, of course, for its historical locations but for sheer majestic beauty the Greek mountains are breathtaking. I was taken on a trip to Diakopto where we took the narrow-gauge railway up through the mountains to Kalavrita. There were two railcars separated by a diesel-motor carriage and at the steepest parts it would link on to a cogged central rail as well, for safety. The huge mountains, small tunnels, overhanging rock, greenery and dashing mountain streams are of unsurpassed beauty. Returning, good timing enabled me to see the cars held up at the Corinth Canal, as the bridge was sunk to enable a tug to tow a ship through the waterway, then to see the bridge brought to the surface again.
An enjoyable feature of Athenian life are the evening cafés, which are crowded with family and friends sampling the delicious Greek dishes of Moussaka, or, say, Sauvlaki, or Taramo Salata, helped along with Tzatziki dip, plus a glass of ouzo, then following up with their delicious sweets like Baklava, and/or Kadaifi and/or Karidopita, and/or…
A daily nibble at a Kourouli, circular sesame-covered bread, is also a pleasing Greek habit to adopt. And what are they all? Well, go to a Greek restaurant, you won’t regret it. The proof? I arrived home with my entire luggage, (would you believe it) plus 6 kilos (13 Lbs) of excess blubber necessitating the transfer of a strategic trouser-button 3 inches outwards. Only now do I understand this ‘stabilising’ business as I sit with knees far apart. After all, 6 kilos of gently wobbling folds of undulating blubber do not permit you to do otherwise.
“Yassoo!”
