What I did today

[hawkwing_lb]

...I went to the beach. I had such great plans for getting up early and day-tripping out to Marathon - but as it turned out, I slept in (again: bloody hell, body, start going to sleep at a sane hour, k?) and decided instead to go to Paralia Glyfada, instead.

Like fine wine - although I'm rather coarser than wine, I think, and not as drinkable - I don't travel well. Especially to new places on my own. (Part of me not going to Marathon is constant chickening out. I hate having panic attacks of o-shit-am-I-going-the-right-way on buses that only go once every two hours.) So getting to Glyfada was a little adventure.

The details of which bus went there which I got from the internet were out of date. I asked the nice man in the bus info kiosk at Akadimias, and eventually (after much waiting) got on bus B2. I had it in my head that there were beaches at the turn-around-point for bus B2 at Agios Kosmas, but when I got there, I could see none. Bus driver said, "Alpha Ena kai Alpha Dyo yia ti Paralia Glyfada," and pointed me at an onward bus stop.

So I caught bus A2 onwards for a couple of stops, and got off at the stop that said 2 Glyfada, where there were a couple of hotels. (It's all apartments and urban retail and minor port/marina industry along that bus route, rather lacking in personality. And the apartments on the landward side all look alike, so I was nervous of finding landmarks. Seaward side, the tramrail runs.)

Behind the hotels and across a smaller road beside a marina, turns out to be the beach. A rocky beach, at that. No sand, just the sea with a throatful of stones. The water is very blue and very salty, murky with salt, and the churn of the sea on the stones means you can't just stand - or squat - peacefully in the water. Or float, really.

In addition to being a nervous traveller-to-new-places, I also happen to be a nervous swimmer when I'm on my own. The water was a lovely temperature, and so was the day, hovering around highs of 32C. But I can't have stayed on the beach above half an hour. It's bloody boring on your own.

So I wandered along to the tram stop, because it was nearby and obvious - and easy to find, what with tramlines leading right to it. In retrospect, I may have been better off going looking for the busstop. The tram, when it came along, was uncomfortable and slightly smelly, and rather than taking 30 minutes or so to get into the centre of Athens, like the bus, took over an hour. (I read my book. It wasn't too hot, and I was still damp from the beach, which had a usefully cooling effect.)

In conclusion: public transport, wonderful. Me = scaredy-cat

Now Athens is cloudy and expecting thunder. If it cools off below 30C tomorrow at any point, I may go for a run.

Comments

[athgarvan.livejournal.com]

I can see myself on that trip!

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

I am pretty confident with public transit, but that comfort would evaporate in a place where I didn't know the language.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I have enough Greek to get around, but not enough so's I fancy getting lost. Again. Done that, walked and hitch-hiked the 15km to the nearest place where buses pass more than twice a day.

(I had company then.)

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

Yikes. My Greek...well, my practical Greek is non-existant, & my theoretical Ancient Greek is...also pretty non-existant. I know...a little etymology? Haha. So yeah. I'd be boggled.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

It's not the world's easiest language to learn, for sure. And I'm no linguist.