All About Athens

Sunday, June 24.

Waiting at the Athens airport for my flight to Chios, which has been delayed by 45 minutes.
The waiting area here (after security) is not nearly as nice as the main part of the terminal, which has many shops (duty free shops as well as international brands like Swatch and Hermes) and restaurants (including a McDonald's) and services.
This area is more spartan and crowded, though there is a booth selling cigarettes and newspapers and another selling drinks and telephones and restrooms.
It is also warm (from the doors opening to the outside) and noisy!

Ioannis and his wife and daughter took me to dinner last night at a restaurant in downtown Athens near Syntagma and Mitropolous. We sat at a table on the sidewalk - though it was after 10, it was still very warm. We had tabouleh and greek salad for appetizers. I had smoked trout and pasta, served with olive oil. Everything was delicious.

This morning I took the metro to Omonia Square and walked to a catholic church I had found on the U.S. embassy's web site - I still working on translating the name of the place. In any case, the mass was in Polish I'm certain. The church was nothing special, a basic rectangular layout. The tabernacle was in the wall behind the alter. Also on that wall was a large icon-like picture of Jesus that reminded me of the huge painting of Jesus in the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. The Mass was very crowded - I arrived a little before 8:00, not knowing what time it would start, and waited until someone opened the church at 8:00. I went right in and took a seat, and people just kept arriving until Mass started at 9:00. I think there were folks standing in the back and maybe outside as well.

Went to a nearby bakery immediately afterward to buy a big cinnamon roll and some water and then headed back to Syntagma to see the Parliament (where they were getting ready for the changing of the guard) and some museums, where I did some shopping. Along the way I bought and ate a peach, which was good: ripe and juicy. Took the Metro back to the hotel and then a taxi to the airport. Ioannis had suggested taking the Metro to the airport, but in this heat (over 40 degrees Celcius - 104 Farenheit) I didn't feel up to carrying all my baggage to the Metro station (at least 0.5 km according to the map I just picked up here at the airport).

At the airport I rearranged my stuff (going from tourist to traveler), checked in, called home using the phone card I purchased this morning, and got some lunch (a fountain Sprite - no ice - and a ham & cheese pie) at the Athens airport food court. I stopped by the airport Chapel, which is full of representations of icons painted on the walls, and some actual icons as well. Definitely not non-denominational, like those at U.S. airports.

I was thinking about the Church of the Holy Apostles, which I saw Saturday at the Ancient Agora, and the church I visited this morning. The first is certainly the more interesting building (being 1000 years old) but it is now merely an interesting building - it is no longer used for church services. The second was not an interesting building, but it was alive as Church, the Body of Christ, in a way the first is not. And though I understood very few things said this morning (besides the Alleluia) I knew what was happening and could celebrate with these strangers the Eucharist that all Catholics around the world celebrate today.


Saw lots of tourists this morning around Syntagma and often walked past couples or families or young adults speaking English. Tourist-oriented stores (selling souvenirs and sponges and postcards) and restaurants were open, but the finer clothing and jewelry stores (and a store selling Greek Orthodox religious articles) were not.
Also saw lots of natives headed to the beach; the Metro will take them to a tram station, where they can board a tram that heads down the coast to various beaches. Many were wearing coverups over swimsuits; others had blankets or mats to put down. I believe that Ioannis and his family were headed there as well.

Now 5:30 and we're supposed to leave at 5:45.