Woof
Street Dog
One thing my parents couldn't get over when they went to Athens six years ago, was the number of cats and dogs that just roamed the streets. Athens even had feed bins around the streets to feed the horde. With the coming of the Olympics though, a lot of them were rounded up and....culled would be a nicer way to put it. There's still some around but they all now wear collars. We think that they may have to part of some sort of registry because they're still street animals. They all have such beautiful personalities (I guess because the snappy ones get destroyed pretty quickly) and are very, very smart. I saw one of them wait at a pedestrian crossing and watch the oncoming traffic so it knew exactly when to cross. The above one was one of about a dozen sleeping on the grass near Hadrian's Arch.
That's the other thing. The dogs tend to congregate in the monument areas wherever you are in Greece.
Oh and to explain about the Tari nick - the full thing was Tari Luinwe. It was just my full name put into a Lord of the Rings Elven Translator web thingamabobby. I needed a nick once and couldn't think of anything so I just used that.
Vodafone is evil y'know
From the window of Hotel Apollon. 
In Athens, we stayed in the original heart of it all, the Plaka. Tiny, little windy streets full of cobblestones, Albanian beggars, hawkers, cheap tourist merchandise and...Tom.
Tom took up residence in the remains in one the houses that got pulled down after the last earthquake because it was too expensive to be repaired.
Tom lived just outside my window.
Tom is also very, very crazy.
Listening to the shouted conversations with the locals that liked to pay him a visit because he was a source of amusement, we discovered that Tom is Irish, has lived in Greece for about seven years, is anti-war and hates Vodafone with an absolute passion.
He hates Vodafone because after he called the local US Embassy in Athens to tell them how he felt about the war, Vodafone told the CIA exactly where to find him and they paid him a visit.
So since then he's been moving around and had taken up residence in the rubble just a few days before we got there (hence the local novelty factor). To display his anger he had started up a cafe of sorts offering various delicacies such as Bin Laden's Head and Blair's Balls. He also was selling jewellery but I think he just enjoyed sitting back with his five cats on his deck chair and turning all his fairy lights on and watching TV mostly.
How he got power I have no idea.
Rule number one. Respect a man's car and a man will respect you.
From the airport to Athens Friday, April 14, 2006
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??
Weep all ye who enter here
It has absolutely nothing to do at all with the posts or the purpose of the blog - I just love that saying. If only a thunder clap sounded every time it was said. That would be awesome.
Anyway.
So apparently my travel emails didn't bore the masses absolutely braindead stupid and people actually liked them. I mean really. Who woulda thunk? I actually deleted a couple of emails because I thought it was too annoying to keep hearing from me. Taking that into account and the fact that there's so many stories that I can't get out all at once and photo albums are kinda boring if you don't know the history behind the photos, I've decided to restart this blog (I deleted all the other entries so there's nothing to see.... move along now) and post the photos on here one by one or two by two and gossip about them slowly but surely.
This way I don't have to repeat the stories, I can actually type up the stories as I remember them and people can do what they like with them. Because that's the power of the InterNut.
Plus it gives me something to do while I'm waiting for Season 2 of Veronica Mars to be released on DVD in the US (I love her. I want to be her in my next life) and the next installment of 24.
So without further ado, the first photo.....
