Tear(gas) Drops on my Pillow

Drama just follows me wherever I go.  I try to lead a normal life and no matter what I do, disaster finds me  like a heat seeking missile...even 7000 miles away.  Case in point, my dream vacation to Greece this past Spring.

My BFF Tuck and I had been fantasizing about going all nerd-tastically to Greece for a million years.  We finally pulled together the time and the funds to make an amazing trip happen.  We would fly to Greece and spend a few days there, then take a cruise that ended in Italy and spend a few days in Rome and Venice before heading home.  The "centerpiece" of our trip in my mind was going to be our visit to the island of Santorini.  My inner-geek had been yearning to see Akrotiri since I was in college.  To say I was excited would be an understatement. www.therafoundation.org/akrotiri/

Now Tuck is a perfect travel companion for me because she is 1) as detail oriented/planning obsessed as me 2) as nerdy as me and 3) enjoys gelato as much as I do (which may actually be reason number 1).  Every aspect of our trip had been planned. Hotels reserved, museum appointments made, cruise shore excursions booked.  You name it, we had it taken care of and filed away in our individual travel documents folders (did I mention we were nerds?)

We left for Europe on Monday night on Iberia Airlines http://www.iberia.com/ and arrived Tuesday afternoon.  We were to spend that evening at the Athens Airport Holiday Inn http://www.hiathens.com/ and fly to Santorini first thing Wednesday morning.  We would stay 2 days and Fly back Friday morning and have 2 days in Athens before we boarded our cruise.

One thing we did not account for was the short amount of time we had during our layover in Madrid.  We only had 45 minutes between landing and take off and we literally had to sprint from one side of the GIGUNGOUS airport to the exact opposite side (including taking one of those airport subways and having to go through customs AND security).  We made it to our flight just as they were making the final boarding announcement.  As fantastic as it was that we made it on our connecting flight, turns out that our luggage was not so lucky.  When we got to the Athens airport, our bags did not show up.

We went to the luggage customer service counter to speak to someone (FYI, everyone in Europe speaks English which is a blessing because otherwise we would be sooooooo incredibly screwed). When we got to the counter we explained to the gentleman about our bags and expressed our concerns about getting our belongings in time for our flight in the morning.  He responded in the most non-chalant/matter-of-fact voice "Well, that won't happen because of the strike tomorrow." And then he continued to type into his computer. Confused (and not quite sure we heard correctly) we asked him to repeat what he had just said.  He further explained that Wednesday was a "Strike Day" and that all planes, buses and boats would be "grounded" for the day.  Since the next flight from Madrid to Athens wasnt til Wednesday, we wouldnt get our bags til Thursday or Friday.  "But we are going to Santorini tomorrow?!?!" we said. His response was "Yeah, that's not going to happen"

Obviously that sent us reeling. We had to finish dealing with the lost luggage info and then he told us to go upstairs to the ticket counter to deal with our flight to Santorini http://www.olympicair.com/ .  Once upstairs we found out that the strike was definitely happening on Wednesday at that they had known for a couple of days because this was like the 4th strike in 6 months, but everything would be back to normal on Thursday.  We tried to switch our trip to Santorini to be Thursday to Saturday, but since everyone had known for days about the strike, all of the Thursday flights were booked and the earliest we could go would be Friday.  Since we couldnt risk flying back the same day as our cruise, we had to cancel our Santorini plans. Yes, we were crushed.

We headed to the Holiday Inn and I called the hotel in Athens we were supposed to stay at when we got back from Santorini and they said they had availablity for us to come the next day and stay through Sunday.  One night and one $50 cab ride later we arrived at our cute Athenian Hotel, The Acropolis Museum Boutique Hotel http://www.acropolismuseumhotel.com/

The hotel was adorable and our room was to die for. It faced the street and had a balcony from which you could see the Temple of Olympian Zeus http://www.templeofolympianzeus.com/  we had been in our room for about 15 mins getting settled in and figuring out what our next steps would be (shopping for clean clothes, making sure the airline had the address of the new hotel, etc) when we heard a ruckus outside.  We stepped out on to the balcony and no exaggeration, a strike demonstration parade was filling the street and passing directly beneath our balcony.  It was all very peaceful and spirited with lots of banners and signs and clapping and chants and accordians.  There were probably 3000 people in total participating.  We watched in amazement for a half an hour realizing that had we been any later we would have not been able to get to the hotel because the street was shut down.

the view of the demonstartion parade from our balcony

I turned on the TV to see what was going on and the BBC (which was the only English station) was showing footage of civil unrest in Athens near the Parliament.  It seemed weird because the demonstration was so peaceful and everyone we had spoken to said the strike was "no big deal/happens all the time".  We went downstairs to ask recommendations on where to shop for clothes and Donna, the adorable hotel manager told us she would send us to the area where the locals shop, about a 10 minute walk from the hotel, not the tourist area where we would be overcharged.  She pulled out a map and drew a route for us.  I looked at it and noticed that the path went right past the Parliament.  I told Donna about what we saw on the BBC and her exact words to us were "This Greece. Is perfectly safe. Trust me."

With a shrug of our shoulders, we left the hotel and started walking up the hill towards all of the historic tourist attractions and the shopping district.  The streets were filled with locals and tourists who had no place to go to work or visit since everything was closed for the strike.  People were just wondering around aimlessly.  As we started up the hill we could still see the attractions like Hadrian's Arch www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_of_Hadrian , Lycabbetus Hill www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Lycabettus and the entrance of the Acropolis and Parthenon www.athensguide.com/parthenon As we passed the entrance we noticed a news van parked on the sidewalk doing a story on all of the hub-bub.  Of course, I tripped over the TV cables that were on the ground and was this close to eating shit Greek style on the pavement.

As we continued to walk up the hill, awed by the sites and the faces, we noticed it seemed to be getting more and more congested with people.  We crested the top of the hill and could see hundreds of people in the streets ahead of us.  We paused wondering what we should do and then we saw these white cloudy shots streak across the air.  I asked Tuck "What the hell was that?"  She had no idea.  We were about to continue to keep on walking when all of a sudden, the hundreds of people in front of us started running towards us...in a frenzied stampede.  I grabbed Tuck's hand and yelled "RUN!!!!!!!!!!" and we took off back down the hill we had just ascended as we heard more shots and sirens and screams.  We ran past the news van and ducked into the entrance to the Parthenon.

Even though the attraction was closed, we could still walk around the outside and we took some photos of the cityscape from the Rock of Aeropagos where St Paul spoke to the people of Athens in 51 AD.  After a couple of hours in hiding we made our way out of the Acropolis area and wandered through the Plaka (the village within the city that is all windy small streets which is the touristy area with all of the shops and restaurants) www.athensguide.com/plaka

We kept walking and walking and the next thing we knew, we had managed to make our way to Syntagma Square www.athensguide.com/syntagma  - the area outside the Parliament.  It was a ghost town.  Hardly a soul around and the square had been DESTROYED.  Grafitti was everywhere.  Plants and flowers had been dug up.  Decorative marble was smashed. 

yes, we took shards of marble as souvenirs

Trash cans were lit on fire and still smoking and newspaper vending machines were turned over.

there were at least 3 trashcans still smoking and way more vending machines over-turned

A forklift had been set ablaze.  

poor forklift

Piles of trash had been set on fire in the middle of the street

one of about a million piles of trash that were set on fire

and everything that was glass (and I mean EVERYTHING) was smashed into a million pieces. 

anything that was glass was obliterated

Man, those Greeks really new how to have peaceful demonstrations.

We walked around in awed silence taking pictures and surveying the expanse of damage.  A few minutes later I mentioned to Tuck that my eyes were burning and that my throat was itchy and my nose was running non-stop.  I thought it was weird because I don't have allergies.  It was at that moment that we saw the exploded tear gas canisters littering the street.  Yep, I was having a reaction to the tear gas that was still lingering in the air. AWESOME!

these were everywhere

We covered our noses and mouths with our shirts and headed back down the main street back towards the hotel.  As we walked, we could see that the damage contiued down the hill.  Every glass window, phone booth and ATM along the road was smashed to smithereens.  3 cars had been set on fire (including the news van I had tripped over on the way up).  Grafitti was everywhere and a bank had been set on fire.  The damage continued all the way down the hill and stopped 1 block before our hotel (I guess the wronged masses ran out of steam on the 10th block)

Yeah, we hid in the hotel the rest of the night.

The next day, much to our joy and amazement, our bags arrived at the hotel at 7am.  Donna apologized for sending us directly into the fray and swore up and down "Nothing like this ever happen in Greece. Is very safe here."

We cleaned up and had breakfast and decided to set out on the same path up the hill to try and get some sightseeing in.  Much to our surprise, EVERYTHING was back to normal.  People were working, tourists were shopping, locals were drinking coffee in the cafes.    The strike had officially ended at midnight and in the 10 hours since normalcy resumed, the government had set out to clean up as much damage as possible.  Except for the melted cars in the street and smashed windows which were boarded up with plywood it was like nothing had happened. If not for those reminders, it would have been like I had made the whole thing up... but I guarantee you I am not that clever.

So to recap in my first 24 hours in Greece I:
1) lost my luggage
2) almost got stampeded in a riot
3) got to experience the effects of teargas (for I hope the only time in my life)

I swear it wasn't my fault.