Athens Part 1

 

On my last full day in Madeira, I was walking around contemplating that fact that I was actually sad about leaving for Greece in a couple of days.  That is insane!  I’ve wanted to go to Greece since I was a child.  I only heard about Madeira last year.  My life has gotten weird(er).

But before Greece; a seriously long travel day.  The only flight out of Madeira that could get me to Greece at a decent hour left at 4:15. In the morning.  I messaged my host letting him know this and he told me that he’d have a relative take me for 35 euros.  Better than having to go down that hill with all my stuff and hope for a taxi.  This place just keeps giving.

Arriving at 10 as promised, one relative helped me out of the apartment and handed me over to another relative who pulled the car out of the attached garage.  Is this entire building owned and inhabited by one family? Silent driver sped around Madeira like he’d stolen the car (yet another reason I’m glad I didn’t rent one) and dropped me off for the agreed-on amount.  Then it was time to wait.

It was easier than I thought it would be to stay awake.  I did a lot of pacing until boarding.  Then it was on to Lisbon.  Another hour of waiting and then it was on to Barcelona.  A quick bathroom trip later and we were already lining up at the gate for the flight to Greece.  I was glad the flights were relatively short.  Didn’t allow me much sleep, but I was so uncomfortable with the lack of leg room that I didn’t want to be on any flight any longer than I had to be.

After fumbling around a bit at the airport to figure out the taxi situation, I caught one and we were on our way.  As we left the kind of empty countryside and entered the city, I started to get uneasy.  First impressions of Athens:  it is ugly.

Too many cars, it’s cold, the people look miserable, and the place is covered in cruddy looking brown buildings.

It’s like the entire city is covered in soot.

The driver turned off on yet another narrow, one-way street with cars parked on either side and stopped short.  A guy on a motorcycle had just side-swiped a guy on a scooter.  No one was hurt, but the scooter guy was pissed.  Technically, he was going the wrong way, but the motorcycle had cut around us unexpectedly.  The taxi wasn’t involved so we paused briefly and kept going.  Okay.

The taxi finally pulled up to another cruddy-looking brown building and dropped me off.  The guy there to meet me grabbed a suitcase and we headed up to the fifth floor. The coffin like elevator from my first Funchal place was a palace compared to the elevator for this place and we barely fit in with my bags.   

As for the apartment – it was a dump I didn’t want to take a dump in.  I’ll explain that statement later.

I went through the apartment first, heading straight to the bedroom to deposit the bags.  I caught a glimpse of my view from the balcony and … yeah.

Quite a shock coming from the best place I stayed in while in Portugal to … this.  And sorry, Greece, you are being graded on a curve and so far you’re not doing so well.

The guy showed me around and my opinion of the place plummeted.  This apartment smells.  The kitchen is unusable (no microwave, stove, or stove top – just some weird toaster oven with three burners on top.  The water heater has to be activated by hand at least 20 minutes before use.  And the corker -- you can’t put toilet paper in the toilet because the system is old and can’t process it (?!?).  Instead, the soiled paper should be put in the nearby trashcan.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME!??

I was seriously too stunned to say much of anything.  The guy said to call if I needed anything and left.  I didn’t bother to unpack, instead choosing to leave the apartment as soon as I could to do my usual neighborhood walkabout.  Yeah, my opinion of the city didn’t change.  It is very noisy, crossing the alleys/streets can be dangerous, and again, it’s very ugly. Whereas Portugal had trash and recycling receptacles everywhere, in Greece just throw your trash in one of the many overflowing open dumpsters.  Who cares?

The people were lovely, though.  I went into a beauty supply shop assuming the woman didn’t speak English so I didn’t ask her anything.  When I went to pay for my purchase, she suggested something else in English.  She then excitedly showed me different products, apologizing when she couldn’t translate some of the ingredients any better.  Hey, babe, your broken English is better than my non-existent Greek so don’t apologize for anything.

Like in Portugal, coffee culture is big here.  There were plenty of places to stop for a cup and a pastry.  Also, plenty of grocery stores and shops in walking distance (then why the hell were there so many cars?  The city center really isn’t designed for them.).  I managed to reach the subway station (the one thing touted on the website for the apartment – that should have been a warning right there since there’s nothing else to recommend the place.) before turning back before it got dark.

After grabbing something to eat, I reluctantly headed back to the place.  The growing dark didn’t make it any more appealing.  I sat at the computer to figure out my options.  The note left above the desk listed a wifi name that didn’t exist.  Sigh.  I called AirBNB to complain.  They said that if I left immediately, I would only be charged for one day and not the entire month.  But if I stayed a night (that I was being charged for anyway) they couldn’t refund any of my money.  Is it just me or is that a really messed-up policy? 

I messaged the host about the wifi and managed to get connected.  Started doing some research but the text was all just blurring together.  I was extremely tired at this point  after staying up night and barely getting any sleep on the plane(s).  Travel days are always long and exhausting.  But come on.  This was just one more challenge that I did not need.

I was in no condition to make any good decisions, so I decided to turn in and figure things out in the morning.  I will credit the place for two things.  One, the bed was comfortable enough and the linens were clean.  I had a decent night’s sleep after taking forever to doze off.  And two, the water heater wasn’t as tricky as first advertised.  The guy activated it when I arrived and the next morning there was still hot water coming from the sink.  So.  Yay?

Back to the negatives.  By morning, the bathroom had already started to stink.  I wanted to take a shower but really didn’t want to stay in the apartment any longer than I had to.  I got on the computer again and hastily made arrangements for a nearby hotel and a taxi (all done conveniently on Booking.com).  I packed up, told the host I was out of there, and made to leave.  “Is there anything I can do?” he asked.  I don’t know.  Eat @#% and die, was my thought.  Instead, I told him no and kept it classy.  If he couldn’t see the problems with this place or tried to act like it wasn’t the scam that it was, there was nothing I could say to educate him.

I follow a travel blogger on YouTube who is a digital nomad.  She mentioned that any time she booked an apartment for an entire month in advance that it never worked out.  Being 0 for 2 myself, I’m gonna have to agree with her.  If a place is cheap enough and appeals to me for a month-long rental, I will pass on it in the future.  The place is that cheap for a reason.

I spotted this mannequin in a store window.  Somehow her frozen grimace mirrored that of my inner child who'd always wanted to come to this country.

I want to go back to Portugal.