Day 2 has arrived and we managed to sleep for about 6 hours and then it was time to start the day! Not sure when our internal clock will adjust to the time change but the nice thing about Greece and many other European countries is at 4 o’clock everything shuts down for a rest. We would be counting on that to get us through the next 30 days. Day 2 started off with a visit to the jewelry and shopping district. How did we get there? We started off on a short train ride. This would be the beginning of many hilarious comments from my mother. It is funny how heightened your senses are when you realize that the term “bathing” is a word that only applies to some as a daily occurrence or suggestion. Let’s remember that I have been to Greece before but only as a young girl. Revisiting Greece as a 25 year old woman is now a different experience. I also did not spend this much time on the mainland. None the less, my uncle would be our tour guide for the day.
The weather is very hot in Greece in the summer. Similar to the weather we are experiencing here in Ohio as I write this. The defining difference right off the bat is deodorant is more likely to be used here than there. Moving around a metropolis and riding public transportation among those who may not bathe daily or wear deodorant almost put my mother over the edge. Look, I get it, but my mother never minced words or held back on her opinions. At some point I asked her to just whisper her thoughts. That was not a suggestion she accepted. All I can tell you is that we accomplished our souvenir shopping in a few hours and then my uncle told us we would ride the bus back home. To this day I do not know where in Athens we were staying but I learned quickly that the better choice of transportation was the train. He selected our seats at the back of the bus because we could enjoy the fresh air flowing through the open windows. The only thing we experienced was the smell of B.O. and cigarettes to which my mother LOUDLY proclaimed “You could open a stand on every corner here and sell deodorant and cigarettes and become a millionaire”. I was crying laughing because she wasn’t wrong.
This was only day 2 and we still have the Acropolis to tackle!
A Voice For Women 