Have passport. Will Travel.

Rule number one. Respect a man's car and a man will respect you.

From the airport to Athens

Ah yes. After a 16 hour flight and a 4 hour layover in Singapore (You have to go to Singapore btw, just for the airport. It's awesome), the contradiction begins.

In Greece it is cheaper to hire a chaffeured car from the airport than it is one of the taxis.

It was actually a gorgeous car. He'd only had it ten days and was exactly like the car from The Transporter (hence the title quote). He was actually a pretty funny guy. He'd driven all kinds of dignitaries including Gough Whitlam when he'd visited Greece in the 70s.

This ride was also the introduction to the chaos that is Greek Driving. (It has capitals because it needs to be said in a booming movie style voice). The rules? It takes you awhile to figure 'em out but there are rules.

Speed limit? Double what the sign says and take off or add on 10% depending on how you feel. We didn't do less than 80km/hr and even went up to 160km/hr.

Lanes? If three cars can fit next to eachother, who cares if there's only lanes for two?

Helmets? Puh-lease. If you die, then you've won the lottery! (So my cousins kept saying....except a lot of people win the lottery in Greece then. It has the highest road mortality rate in Europe).

Indicate? Only if you're going to do something crazy, otherwise just change lanes!

Hazard lights? Used while driving if you're about to do something incredibly crazy like drive slow.

Double white lines going around blind corners? Are to be ignored. At all times. This would be why we almost got run off the road (and over the edge) twice and apparently Mum and Dad almost got hit after Chris and I left.

He who holds the line wins. Even if you're clearly in the wrong (like driving down the wrong way in a one way street) if you sit there and keep honking your horn and not move, chances are the other car will move and let you through.

Parking? Wherever you can whether you can or not. Probably why the Smart Cars and these tiny two seater Mercedes were so popular because you could even park with its butt against the kerb and not go past the edge of the cars that are parked the traditional direction.

By the end of the trip I was beginning to think that you didn't have to get Ls in Greece, you could just grab keys and drive but we did see two L platers which then begs the question... what do they teach them and what kind of driving do they have to do to pass??

posted by Tari @ 3:10 pm