Sunday, September 23, 2012

Day One of Trip

An uneventful flight into Athens aside from two screaming babies, a tiny one behind and a middle aged one directly in front.
We took a limo into town from the new airport on the new, German owned road. Beautiful drive. The driver was the owner and was furious at everyone over the Greek economic problems--the Greek government, the Chinese and the Germans. The presumed motive is to crush the economy and turn Greece into a European China and a cheap producer for the rest of  Europe. The driver believed that democracy does not work in Greece and the Greeks need a dictatorship.
The Hotel Grande Bretagne has been completely redone with a smaller check-in, the restaurant replaced with a upbeat bar/lounge. The room was lovely and overlooked the square.
It was Sunday and a bit slow but I thought the town looked poor and sad. A shocking amount of graffiti, always a bad sign.
Church was unusual: Latin mass, the congregation mostly Filipino and Malaysian, the gospel in English and Greek, the sermon in French and Portuguese.
We had dinner on at the roof restaurant looking at the Acropolis. The crowd was curious with elegant women and casual men.
It was hard to sleep with the jet lag.

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