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Dream Comes True In Greece

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 26, 2007

My husband and I spent three weeks touring Greece earlier this fall. The cradle of democracy had much to teach us.

Our first learning experience was the wonderful Metro (subway), fast, clean, efficient and easy to use, connecting the airport with the city. Bags in hand, after 21 hours of travel we made the correct transfer and arrived at our stop and walked three blocks to the hotel.

Second learning experience: Pedestrians have no rights (or so it seems), not even on the sidewalks.

Third learning experience: Sidewalks can be scarce in the heart of the city and in places are only six inches wide.

Fourth learning experience: Cars travel with pedestrians on narrow streets at a fairly good clip. Motorcycles will just as often run down a sidewalk as not.

Fifth learning experience: Never, ever put toilet paper in the toilet, from the best hotel to the family-run pension, or from the restaurant to the big beautiful new archaeological museum. A neat special little covered container is provided for your convenience.

These are just a few oddities in this fascinating country filled with friendly people who have an odd alphabet.

Cars, more than I could count, whiz by, although if they took away the taxis, traffic would be cut in half. Once in a car, you must keep driving as there is no place to park. Cars even park across sidewalk corners.

While Athens, where one-third of the people in Greece live, is fairly litter free, that is not the case on the country highways. I was taken aback by litter.

Everyone smokes when and where they please. The hotel beds were as hard as stone.

We visited monasteries in Meteoria set on the pinnacles of 'pointy' mountains, so steep that the monks had to be hoisted up by a basket. We boated through the Corinth Canal, and climbed the 914 steps up to the Palamide Fortress located in Nafplio, only to climb hundreds more once we got up there. We visited Mycenae, the site that is 1,000 years older than the Parthenon.

Ever since grade school I wanted to visit Greece. I finally made it!

Doris Guenther is retired and a longtime resident of Tampa.

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