August 3, Wednesday - Piraeus, Greece
Piraeus is the port for Athens. It is a large and busy port about 30 minutes outside of Athens. The Acropolis and other ruins in Athens have steps that Alice and I agreed would be difficult to navigate. Because we have been here and done that we do not mind staying in the neighborhood of the port.
Again we are finding an old haunt to be very different. We docked at terminal C. We have not seen a map that shows how the terminals relate to anything. On our last visit we were docked within sight of rapid transit. This time it is nowhere in sight.
That’s OK. We could see a church from the ship. That would be our starting point. It was a short walk in distance up a slight hill. It took longer than expected due to the aggressive taxi driver who kept insisting that we really wanted to go to the Acropolis. He followed us to the steps of the church.
Inside the church was very nice. We were the only tourists present and picture taking was encouraged. When we finished, an older gentleman who had been praying came over to us. In broken but good English he explained how the priest “does his stuff” behind the altar wall. Then he explained the icons of Mary and Jesus and their placement on the ceiling. Then he was gone. We were very touched by his kindness. This is the sort of experience that really makes our day. This only happens for us when we are on our own.
When we came out of the church the taxi driver was waiting for us. We started up the steep hill and he finally got the message that we were not going to the Acropolis.
About half way up the hill was a large school yard and building complex. It was older but looked pretty good. There were locks on some of the gates but we managed to find open gates that allowed us inside. While Alice clicked away, I noticed 2 workers in different buildings. One was intent on his job. The other was intent on us. When Alice entered a door to see some classrooms, he had enough. He walked across the large courtyard to query me. He spoke no English and I spoke no Greek but when I put my hands up to my face and made a clicking motion with my finger he nodded and started walking away.
Half way back to his project he stopped and walked to the other man. After some animated talking the second man put down his tools and came over to me. I got Alice out and we had a very nice conversation with this fellow. In Greek and English he explained that it was a school closed for the summer and they were doing maintenance. He went on tell us which buildings were primary, middle, and high school. He seemed happy to have met us as we walked together to the gate back to the street. As we left I saw him walk over to the other man. Their conversation was not animated now.
We walked to the top of the hill and admired the neighborhood. We decided to take the cross street to the next block. This took us past several restaurants just opening for the day. This was definitely not a tourist area. These were local restaurants.
At the next street we turned toward the water. It was quite a distance away. These are very long blocks. The large property to our left was fenced in. Right near the hilltop was a church inside. There was no access here. Walking on we passed a large building in disrepair and then some newer ones. There was a driveway with a security gate and guardhouse. Alice asked the guard if we could see the church and he let us in. How bad could church goers be?
It was a long walk back to the church. We observed everything on the way. Of course the church was locked. The exterior was in pretty good shape but unused. This was a Catholic Church and it had a school building. It was closed for the summer.
We headed back to the guard house passing through a small park with wind distorted trees. As we returned to the driveway just before reaching the exit a van pulled in and parked in the shade. It had interesting pictures on the side that looked like it might be for a preschool. Teacher Alice went to get some pictures just as a family exited.
Mom, Georgia, approached us and with mixed English asked what we were doing. She soon understood that we were American tourists off the beaten track. She introduced us to Peter, her husband and her 2 little daughters. She is Greek and Peter is German.
They live in Germany now and drove here to visit family on their holiday. She had grown up here and explained that the big building was an orphanage that had been badly damaged in an earthquake and was no longer habitable. Behind it were built smaller houses that house orphans today.
She explained that their business was to provide parties for children with games and face painting. She talked at some length about their dream of coming to America. She glowed as she talked about that. We exchanged emails and she had us promise to send them pictures from home.
This was a 20 minute meeting that we will not forget. How lucky are we. On this walk with not another tourist in sight we had 3 rewarding meetings with kind and friendly locals.
We made our way back to the ship bubbling over for this great morning.
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