Hotel Hell

This is a story of anything that can go wrong will go wrong.  All names have been kept authentic in order to convict the guilty, but keep in mind this happened back in 2006 so it’s possible this hotel may not be in business or it may not even be owned by the same person today.  It could be the greatest place to stay today, I have no idea, but this was my exact experience.

I arrived in Athens about 7 PM from Paros and my US flight did not leave until the next morning.  I booked a room on the out skirt of Athens on line well before I arrived and arranged transportation to and from the airport.  Upon my arrival in Athens, Theo from Peri’s Hotel was not at the pre-arranged meeting place where I exited baggage claim.  I waited a bit then asked the information desk to call but she pointed me to a pay phone.  In Greece back then you could not just pop a coin into the phone to make a call, you had to buy a phone card and the smallest denomination card was 4 Euro.  I called, Theo answered, told him who I was and he impatiently said, “I am waiting, where are you?”  “I am at the phone by the information desk.”  “Oh, I see you.”  And he walks toward me with no sign in his hand, how was I supposed to find him with no sign?  He had no idea what I looked like.  Well that was an expensive phone call; in hind sight I should have made him credit me for that call.  He tells me to wait here and he walks toward the info desk and comes back with a pretty and petite French lady.  On the 15 minute drive to the hotel he and the lady chit-chat and laugh all in French as if I was not in the car.  At the hotel he carries her bags in and checks her in quickly.  I get my bags up the stairs to the lobby and wait while he takes her to her room.  When he comes to check me in I give him my Visa and he looks at me as if I am an idiot, “I don’t take cards.”  It would have been nice to know that up front, most people leaving the country are trying to leave with as little local cash as possible so I did not have enough to pay.  He said I could go to the cash machine in the morning.  Sure, whatever!  I was starving so I asked about the taverna that is advertised to be only 3 blocks away, it closed for the season yesterday, but there is a nice place near the beach that will pick me up and bring me back, fine.  Without asking if I minded, he calls the French lady and asks if she wants to join me.  UGH!!  I don’t really want to eat dinner with a stranger that I can barely talk to.  A quiet dinner, a book and bed was more my plan.  She comes along, is happy and friendly, and insists we share a plate of fish.  Not really high on my list but I just want to eat and go back.  We have a nice dinner, the fish was good, lots of bones, but the salad and tatzeki was great.  I learned that she is also in real estate, we talked a lot, her English was good but the accent was thick so I really had to listen closely.  She kept ordering wine which was tasty but I was so tired.  Finally the waiter brought the check and told us that the van lady who brought us had gone home and he would take us back when his shift was over in 30 minutes.  It is now 11:30 and we got into his old, dirty, beat up hatchback with black and red vinyl seats.  This was creepy!!  He talked to the French lady in Greek and she seemed to understand.  He clearly did not know where he was going; he turned around again and again.  Finally she convinced him to call someone, he calls, he talks, he drives, he turns around, he drives more, he turns around, and he calls again.  This happens three times!  Then he asks me, in English, for the hotel phone, who was he talking to before???  I give him the hotel card that I thankfully picked up at the front desk.  He calls, he talks, he drives, he turns around, and it is after midnight and I have to pee so badly!!  I just might pee in his car if he does not find this place, too bad I could not say that in Greek.  As we were driving I saw a mini-mart that we had passed on the way there so I knew we were in the right area. After two more calls to unidentified people I saw the hotel about two blocks away across an open field.  I pointed and said there, THERE!  The roads did not go through so it was not clear how to get there without driving over the field.  I should have just gotten out and walked across the field.  At this point he made one more phone call and finally found an unmarked dirt road that took us to the hotel. 

This place is located in what looked to me like a rundown neighborhood with many vacant lots surrounding it.  It is built to look like a large house, not a hotel, and there are no signs on the building at all.  I am guessing it does not meet zoning, if they have such a thing in Greece.   The key was in the door so we walked in and the French lady shut the door while I sprinted to my room that was the first room on the first floor, just next to the reception desk.  It was now 12:30, so much for a short quiet dinner.  It was really hot in the room so I opened the sliding door and partially closed the roll shutters so I would get some air but it was not completely open.  I fell asleep right away and what seemed like seconds later I heard a loud knock.  I could not tell if it was at my door or down the hall, either way I was not going to answer so I ignored it.  The knocking continues and then a man’s voice said, “Madam, I am the proprietor, please open.”  At this point I realized he was on my balcony knocking on my roll shutters.  I answered, “NO! GO AWAY!”  “Please open the front door, someone has locked it.”  After a moment he said it again.  I told him to go around to the front and I would open it, I heard him leave so I went out to the lobby in my pajamas and opened the door.  There was a man and woman with luggage waiting on the steps.  The key that had been on the outside when I returned was now on the inside.  The people on the steps said thank you as I went back to my room, it was 1:30 AM.  I tried to sleep, but tossed and turned all night.  About 4 am people started stirring in their rooms and in the lobby.  I heard every movement, every toilet flush, every shower, and every hair dryer.  People in the lobby were speaking loudly right outside my door.  I was so annoyed!!  Finally the lady with breakfast came to the door, she brought coffee, bread, cake, a slice of cheese and juice that looked and tasted like colored water. 

When I went out front to catch the van to the airport, Theo approached me and began to complain about who ever moved the key and he sounded like he was accusing me of doing it.  That was the straw that sent me over the edge!! 

                “I did not touch your key!”

                “I did not say you did.”

                “Some man banged on my patio door at 1:30 in the morning”

                “They had to, they had to get inside.”

                “I did not know who it was and the man on the patio knew I was a woman in there by myself, it scared me.”

                “He had to and since you did not answer he had to go to another balcony.”

                “I DID ANSWER, I opened the front door in my pajamas, you should be thanking me not yelling at me, what if your wife was alone in New York City and some strange man asked her to open her patio door and let him in.”

                “Madam,” he said very condescendingly, “this is Athens, not New York City, Athens basically has no crime.”

He did not care one iota and proceeded to tell me how worried he was when he received a call at 1:30 AM.  WHAT??? He was worried by a phone call?  And he could care less that his client was scared out of bed in the middle of the night.  I could not leave it alone. 

 

Again I forcefully said, “I am the one who opened the door, you should be thanking me!!!”  Pause…

“You opened the door?” 

“Yes.” 

“Oh I thank you 10 times, not once, I thank you, I am sorry for the trouble but what else were they to do, someone moved the key and put it inside so no one could put a key into the outside.” 

Then he proceeded to rant about whoever moved the key.  UGH, please just get me to the airport!!  I have to admit that I thought about taking my bags and leaving him at the airport without paying.  I did not do that, like a the good girl my mother raised, I went to the ATM and brought him 60 Euro.  However I did not say thank you and neither did he.

I would have much rather stayed at the Airport Sofitel and paid 200 Euro for a comfortable bed, quiet room, restaurant on site and no patio with some strange man banging on my roll shutters instead of paying 60 Euros (plus a 4 Euro phone call) for a hard bed, loud complex, no dinner without a painful transfer, mediocre breakfast, rude owner and a stranger on my balcony.

Santorini Greece

As an elementary kid I read about the island of Santorini in World magazine and was fascinated by the white town perched on the edge of a sheer cliff above a rich blue sea.   Santorini, known as Thera in Greek, was a typical volcano island until it was destroyed approximately 1600 BC by one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history.  Most of the island collapsed leaving a semicircle shaped island that looks like a Greek God took a huge bite out of the island. 

While visiting Al and Ardy, I mentioned the desire to see Santorini so Al got right on the computer to check the ferry schedule and find an affordable hotel.  Days later Ardy and I boarded a huge Blue Star auto/passenger ferry early on a Saturday morning.  We sat in the first class lounge near the bow and watched as we headed north around Paros on our way to Naxos where we picked up more passengers and then headed south to Santorini.  About 3 hours later we approached the back side of Santorini and my excitement started to build.  The back side, rarely photographed, has mid-sized cliffs with gently sloping land that looks like farmland.  Then we rounded a sharp corner and began to enter the caldera, WOW, it was completely different than the back side.  The caldera is lined with vertical cliffs of different strata that rise straight out of the ocean to dizzying heights.  The first town we saw was Oia (pronounced Eea) it was perched on the northern end of the island at the top of those steep cliffs.  Some of the city looked as if it tumbled over the edge of cliff.  What a sight!!  The island is much larger than I expected, imagine how big it was before most of it sank into the ocean.  Photos don’t do it justice. 

As we docked we scanned the crowd with “Rooms to Let” signs looking for Hotel Popi.  There were more people with hotel signs than there were people on the boat at least that is how it felt as we were walking through the crowd.  We found our driver and he escorted us to a van that would take us up the switchbacks along the steep cliff to the city of Fira where our hotel was located.  As we entered Fira it was much larger and more modern than I expected it to be.  All of a sudden our driver pulled over next to a Harley Davidson shop, got out, opened our door, and said, “Please follow.”  He went down some stairs, left under an arch, down a narrow walk way, right into a patio, across to another narrow arch, down more stairs to a tile walkway, that lead to a pool and then up a flight of stairs to Hotel Popi.  We were not sure we would ever find our way back but thankfully the Hotel Leta next door has signs and blue arrows painted on the ground and that was the only way we could find the hotel in the evening.  We checked into room 10 that had a beautiful view toward the east over farmland and out to the sea.  At first we were disappointed because we really wanted a west view but the room was only 35 Euro a night and it was much quieter than anything facing west or closer to the caldera. We were just minutes walking distance to the market area and cliff edge.  We just dropped our bags, picked up a map and hit the town for some shopping and sightseeing.  We walked around the narrow streets of the old town lined with many different shops. 

While shopping we were stopped by two guys who asked our opinion about some shirts they were buying.  We talked a bit, gave them our opinion and went to the next store.  They came across and asked again about other shirts so we talked a bit longer, they were from Toronto, were both cute as pie and very fun to talk with.  They helped me pick a pashmina, we said goodbye and continued walking.  About 5:30 we choose a nice cliff side table to watch the sunset over the caldera.  We ordered drinks and sat chatting and taking photos of the sunset every few minutes.  We also had the perfect spot to watch the donkeys carry people and goods up the path from the old port where the cruise ships dock hundreds of feet below.  One of the donkey men, about 70 years old, was guiding his group of donkeys while on his cell phone; old world meets new.  After the sun set we wondered around the narrow streets of the market for a while longer.  Almost every other store was a jewelry store, not just average jewelry but extremely expensive and flashy jewelry.   The windows were full of pieces that were over 5000 Euros; do that many people spend that kind of money on a vacation trinket??  I did see a little bauble that caught my eye; I had never seen anything like it before or since.  It was square cut fancy sapphires of all colors lined on each side with small single cut diamonds and it was priced at 4000 Euros.  It was the most beautiful bracelet I had ever seen, lots of color and sparkle!!  The storekeeper came down to 2800EU (about $3600) but that was more than I spent on the whole two weeks in Greece so I just could not bring myself to spend that much. 

By now it was dark and we were hungry so we found a cliff side restaurant called Archipelago.  It was a bit expensive but I am sure so was everything else with any kind of view.  We both ordered sea food spaghetti, it was a light tomato sauce with muscles, scallops, calamari, huge shrimp with the heads and crab legs that were red and white speckled.  It was delicious!!  Ardy and I sat there and chatted for a long time, she is such a neat lady.  At dinner the wind picked up, blowing right up the cliff, thank goodness we both had brand new pashminas!  But too bad the cute Canadian guys were not at dinner with us.  After dinner we walked back to the hotel, thanks to the blue arrows we did not get lost.

It was really warm outside so we left our shutters open, not a good idea, the mosquitos used us as their dinner.  I tossed and turned most of the night and right at sunrise I looked out the window to see a beautiful pinkish/reddish foggy layer over the sea just before the sun came up.  I rolled over, covered up and tried to go back to sleep, just to be startled by some very loud and very long sounding bells from the church not too far away.  Even though I was crabby because they interrupted my last bit of sleep it was hard to stay crabby because they had such a joyful sound.  I am guessing this was an alert to notify worshipers it was time for church.

Since there was no sleeping with bells continuing to chime I went to take a shower.  Like much of Europe, our bathroom was all tiles and the shower portion was simply a basin with a raised lip, no curtain or door to keep water inside.  The shower head was a wand mounted at the knobs, not up high, so that you had to hold it to wet your hair and upper body.   This is normally pretty easy to do without spraying the whole room as long as the shower head works properly.  Not the case here, this shower head had water coming straight out as it was supposed to AND had water coming out all sides so there was no way to avoid spraying the whole room.  I tried to shower quickly but could not help but laugh the whole time as I sprayed the whole room, even the toilet paper got all wet. 

Today’s agenda was a visit to Oia, the smaller town on the northern point of the island.  Most of the photos that you will recognize of Santorini are taken in Oia.  We caught a bus from Fira for about $2.  After a curvy road with many beautiful views of both east and west sides of the island, we arrived in a courtyard that was the bus stop for the town and probably the only flat surface large enough for a bus in the whole town.  The streets are narrow cobble stone with homes, inns, and stores built into the rock on one side and hanging off the rock on the other.  It was so storybook; there was another beautiful view around every corner.  Ardy and I both felt like we were in a dream or a movie.  We wandered up and down and around the whole town.  We caught the bus back to Fira and had a couple of hours before we needed to catch another bus back to the ferry terminal but I was exhausted from lack of sleep and lots of walking so I plopped into a lounge chair by the pool while Ardy went to find a dress shop.  The bus back to the ferry was only 1.60 Euro and was exactly on time although the ferry was a bit late.  We took the high-speed ferry back to Paros and I am pretty sure I slept the whole way back.  These two days in Santorini were a dream come true!!  Thank you Ardy for going with me, you are a great travel companion!!!

KAREN’S SANTORINI TIPS:

ü  Put Santorini on your top 10 must see places.

ü  Stay in Oia if at all possible, it will be extremely expensive but worth the experience.

ü  Stay at least 4 full days if you can: 1. Fira, 2. Oia, 3. Volcano Tour, 4. Akrotiri Archeology Site and some diving, if possible.  You might be able to do this in three days.

ü  Avoid the rental car, busses are organized, cheap and drivers are CRAZY.

ü  Experience the steps down to the water in Fira or Oia.  Fira has donkeys and cable car while Oia is walking only. 

ü  Wear comfortable thick soled shoes with good traction, the pathways are old lava stone that is very polished from all the years of foot traffic and it is very uneven.

ü  Take a wrap or light jacket, the evenings are chilly

ü  SUNSET – position yourself early, relax and experience every slight change in color of the sky and the way it lights the town.

The Greek Island of Paros

As you know from the Athens post, I was invited to visit friends who live on the Greek Island of Paros.  From Athens I caught a 25 minute flight on Olympic Airlines mid-sized turbo prop plane to the island of Paros.  From the air, Paros was larger than I expected, the center of the island had many large hills.  Al and Ardy picked me up and we took off down a narrow two lane paved road.  Our first stop was to look at the progress of the house they were building.  It was about ¾ complete and cute as pie!!  I could so live there.  I envisioned many Greek, tall, dark and handsome men coming to call on the new mysterious American woman who had just moved to the neighborhood.  I came back to reality and we went to the house they were renting in the meantime.  It was a small complex of white townhouse style squares with beautiful Mykonos Blue doors and shutters.  All the squares were creatively stacked so you did not realize they were townhouses, they each had a lot of privacy.   All the balconies had a trellis that was covered in beautiful bougainvillea bushes, each one full of blooms in so many colors: pink, deep purple, salmon and blood red.  The complex was located in a small beach community with a view of Naxos Island, a rock jetty, a few fishing boats of all sizes with bright color stripes and a local taverna; which in Greek means a small restaurant. 

The next morning we went to church.  I was excited to be able to experience a real Greek Orthodox Church service.  I wore my newly purchased perfect Travel Smith black dress only to realize that I looked just like all the grandmothers in church.  I am supposed to look elegantly simple, not like a grandmother!!  All through the service people came and went, some even arrived just minutes before it was over.  Everyone who enters crosses themselves, puts a coin in the box, takes a candle or 10, lights them and stands them in the sand of the alter.  The whole service is sung by the priest and the choir, it was beautiful but it was all Greek to me, literally, it was all in Greek.  There are small chairs set in rows but not enough for everyone so many people stand.  I was entertained by the YaYas (grandmothers) who try to give up their chairs to other YaYas who politely say no, but Yaya number one will not take no for an answer so there is a small tussle as to who will sit and who will not.  They would get pretty serious!  I also was surprised by the ringing cell phones.   No one but me seemed to pay attention to the cell phone violator.  I was able to attend two different services and both times food was served after; all homemade and delicious!  Plus, the best thing of all was they also served some local homemade liquor!  Sure wish I could get my church to do that.  It might draw a lot more attendance. 

Before I arrived, I had contacted Peter with the Aegean Diving College and arraigned to do some diving.  It took a few days to arrange something but finally we were able to schedule a dive.  I went to the dive shop and met up with Peter and another diver from Israel.  We loaded the boat and went to the channel between Naxos and Paros.  Located in about 80 feet of water is an old steamship that sank in 1981 and the smoke stack is still standing about a foot above the water.  We started by tying off to the stack.  The seas were calm for the area but rougher than I was used to.  At first I was under weighted and then I was over weighted and the buoyancy control vest had a small leak in the hose so I was exhausted before I got to the stack.   I descended into a clear blue world; it was like swimming in the most perfect Kashmir Sapphire with perfect clarity.  There was a lot of plant life on the hull; I saw many purple nudibranches, a huge starfish with thorns and many hairy fire worms.  The ship sat on a sandy bottom where we saw one lone ray.  The next day was much better!  The BC has been fixed and I had my weight correct.  We dove from the shore in a small cove, this coast has been inhabited for over 6000 years and the bottom was littered with pottery shards.  The dive master, a young American lady who is doing graduate studies here, says this pottery dates from the Roman (100 AD) and Hellenistic (300 BC) periods.  The pottery was made from a sandstone looking material laced with white chunks – it looked almost like the sandstone clay was not kneaded enough to break down all the white marble lumps.  This was a shallow dive, about 34 feet, and the surf had stirred up the sand so the visibility was not so great.  We dove over a combination of heavy sand, rocks and sea grass.  The last day of diving was the best!!  We dove on a rock pinnacle that rose to about 15 feet under the surface.  The surface current was strong but below we could hide from the current behind the pinnacle.  The first thing I saw was a huge bright lemon yellow snail with yellow and black striped tentacles that was completely out of his shell.  I also saw a lot of starfish that looked like brittle stars on steroids that moved really fast.  This dive also had massive amounts of pottery, some of it almost fully intact.  Most all of it was amphora style which is a Greek word meaning carried with two hands.  For our surface interval we motored into Aghi Anna, a small town on Naxos and had lunch at a tavern on the water.  The second dive was full of sponges and pottery.  Both dives had amazing visibility today; over 100 feet. 

Early in my stay Al gave me a scooter lesson so I could explore on my own.  I got on and drove around the complex and promptly crashed into a telephone pole.   There was a car behind me and they stopped to help me up, how embarrassing.  I drove up and down the road a few times but I was nervous about getting out on the main road.  Crashing your host’s scooter does not really leave a good impression.  Neither does accidently taking the scooter key with you diving and leaving your host stuck at home all day.  I felt like such an ass when I did that!!! 

I can’t say enough about the quaint small towns with narrow streets lined with different tavernas each with an outdoor patio eating area.  The patio is made from a rock style pavement with painted grout lines to make it look like large flat rock tiles.  I really enjoyed strolling along the narrow streets, shopping then stopping and having a snack or coffee at the tavern and then more shopping.  I never tried a true Greek coffee while I was there and I have no idea why!  I am kicking myself for that today.  Greek coffee is made with a huge spoonful of instant coffee put into a very small amount of boiling water and comes out dark and thick.  It is the first thing I will order next time!  Hopefully they serve it with those oversized packets of sugar.

I highly recommend a trip to the Greek Islands!!  You have to make a stop in Athens to see the great historic sights but I suggest you see Athens and get the heck out to the islands!!  The hustle and bustle of the city is the complete opposite of the calm you will feel in the islands; it’s day and night.  Al and Ardy were wonderful hosts and if it weren’t for their invitation I would not have been able to go and see Paros like a local.  I thank them so much for their hospitality!!  I am pretty sure I still owe them big time!!