Persephone's Dilema...

Did you ever play the game where you hide your eyes and say, "I don't see you so you don't exist!"?  I began to play it when I was about 4 years old...and I never stopped.  This evening I plan to play that game with Athens.  But before I leave this fabulously cheap hostel for the airport and eventually London, I should tell you a secret: Athens isn't so bad.

I arrived from Thessaloníki about 2 hours later than planned.
 The train had lost electricity somewhere in the mountains.  The OSE had over-sold the train by quite a lot, so during the delay most of the younger riders rotated seats with the elderly passengers to keep them from being on their feet.  I ended up seated quite comfortably in the aisle, chatting with an extremely elegant lady (also seated on the floor).

Athens was rainy, cold, and dark.  If it hadn't been for the language barrier and the smears of wet poo everywhere, I would have thought I was home.  I ended up asking a man selling tickets at a porn theater for directions to the hostel.  He seemed embarrassed for me...silly man, I'm not the one running the nudie show!

I fell asleep talking to a Brazillian man named Westley, who woke me in the morning to give me his email.

I spent the day hopping from cafe to cafe, dodging downpours.  At one of the cafes there was a bit of a scuffle.  A group of drunk men began screaming at one another in Greek and throwing empty and eventually full beer bottles at one another.  At one point, a beer bottle shattered on the table in front of my face and a young man pulled me out of my chair and threw me toward a couch.  Then the police came.  Such the to-do! 

When the fight was done the young man pointed to my chin and said something in Greek.  I got a cut!  (It's small and it looks a bit like a pimple.  Such an adventure!)

I decided that it was time to take a walk, rain or no.  I walked all about town.  I was so in my head that I got a little lost, eventually, I made my way to an enormous dinner of lamb, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cheese...your generic Greek feast.  Then they brought me free cake.  Chocolate orange.  I ate it on principle, and stumbled into a food coma.

When I got back to the hostel there were two French girls arguing over which day of the week it was.  I didn't even think, I just answered their question.  They stared at me for a while, then asked me to have a drink with them.

This is how I met the French sisters - Julia and Claire.  We drank and then got over it with pastries this morning.  I had such a good time sitting and watching the world with them that I decided to try something that probably only works in mythology...

I ate a pomegranate...I shared it with the French sisters...but I ate it just the same. 

Goodbye lovely Athens.  Thank you for forcing me "into a better acquaintance with myself."  Thank you for asking me so gently to slow down and take a look at your alleys covered in spray-paint, your sidewalks that are toilette's to animals, your songbirds trapped in tiny cages, your stars and your moon that have lit many a late night walks.  

Thank you for holding so many secrets. 

--
Lindy Cameron Schroeder