Let's just say you wanted to go visit the Attica Zoo while enjoying a nice two week vacation in Athens. Everything you've read says that this place is pretty awesome, and it's even open on the 6th, which is a big holiday in Greece when very little is open. Now, if it's only about 20 miles from your hostel to the zoo and you're taking public transportation, what would you consider a reasonable travel time?
If you said 3 and a half hours, well you're a pessimist by all standards, but unfortunately correct. It gets even worse once I tell you that the first 3 hours of our trip back from the zoo traveled us a mere 5.5 miles. Yes, we could have walked faster than the first two buses we took. Before you worry too much, we didn't actually spend that entire time traveling, close to an hour of it was spent waiting for the buses to come pick us up, and a good half an hour was spent sitting on the bus going nowhere. Why were we sitting on the side of the road in a bus going nowhere? While that's a good question, I haven't the slightest idea what the answer might be.
With the exception of the buses which are kind of crazy, the public transportation here in Athens is pretty stellar. They have a metro, a train, buses, and of course your own two feet. They also seem to have bus drivers who care a ton about their buses, which would explain why we were very loudly scolded (yelled at) in Greek for propping our feet up on the bus seats while sitting on a bus going nowhere. The wild gesticulations only added to the humor, and while we could tell what we had done wrong, there was really nothing we could do but sit and try not to laugh while a middle aged guy was carrying on most likely along the lines of... kids these days, disrespectful Americans, in my day we never... etc. The whole situation was both shocking and hilarious, because when you're shouting at someone who doesn't understand a word your saying, it's like shouting at a brick wall, and at that point, save your breath and your dignity and move on.
*Catch up on our entire Athens adventure by checking Our Travel Page, or our Greece tag.*
How was the zoo?
ReplyDeleteThe zoo was pretty awesome. We'll do a full recap later with some cute animals! The most impressive part is that the zoo is private and doesn't get money from Athens or Greece.
ReplyDelete