July 26 - 28, 2012: Return to Athens

July 26, 2012: Most of our day was spent flying from Sarajevo back to Athens because there are no direct flights meaning we had to fly through Munich to get there. Other than waiting around in the airports, there was nothing interesting enough to report. However, on the plane from Munich to Athens, Ruth sat next to a woman who had a portfolio containing what looked like music. On discussing this, Ruth learned that the woman was a professional pianist from Greece and had just been in Munich to record some Beethoven quartets as well as some solo modern piano music. Of course this provided a common topic for the two of them to talk about (I could not join the conversation since I was sitting in the aisle seat across Ruth's aisle seat.) However, at one point I did lean over to talk a bit and the woman pointed out that she had purchased tickets for the next night's opera, Puccini's Tosca, that was to be performed in the Acropolis Herodium Theater. She strongly recommended that we go: "Of course you are going to go to the opera. It starts at 9:00, early in the evening (at least by Greek standards)." I pointed out that our hotel was located near the airport which is a good 45 minutes from town by bus, and she immediately rebutted "The bus runs all night. That is no excuse. You simply must go if there are any tickets left. You should check at the box office tomorrow." At first I thought of our flight from Greece to the US the day after the opera; then I thought about trying to catch a bus after midnight where the walk to the bus stand from the theater was a good 30 minutes. Then I thought I'd make the final decision the next day.

We finally arrived at the Athens Airport and collected our bags and went to the taxi stand. Before leaving Greece, I had asked the Electra Palace Hotel staff to check on the cost of a taxi from the airport to the Holiday Inn and was told by the person who called them "15 euros max". So, imagine my surprise when I saw a sign at the taxi stand saying taxis would cost 35 euros before midnight. I swallowed hard and asked the taxi how much to the Holiday Inn which was a short distance from the airport and the driver responded "50 euros". I pointed to the sign saying it was 35 euros before midnight (The time was 11:50) and he responded saying that the time of the charge is when you arrive at your destination which would be after midnight. I protested (much to the amusement I'm sure of other people waiting in line for a taxi) and asked a policeman if the airport bus stopped at the Holiday Inn. "Yes," he responded so I grabbed our luggage and headed for the bus stand where the once per hour bus was waiting. We got on the bus paying 10 euros for the two of us, saving 40 euros! Mission accomplished.

I know it sounds strange, but the Holiday Inn is listed as a five star hotel in the tourist books. And although it seemed like any Holiday Inn in the US, it was a very clean hotel and very well situated near the airport. We certainly were glad when we climbed into our soft beds in an air conditioned room.

July 27, After getting ready, we took the airport bus down town and walked to the Plaka where we window shopped (At least I window shopped -- Ruth did more than window shopping -- it's actually surprising that Greece is in financial problems with the amount of shopping Ruth did!) Here are some pictures of random sites in the city:

While Ruth shopped, I decided to check out the availability of opera tickets and learned that the box office didn't open until 6:00 p.m. but that there were tickets available. So, we spent the afternoon roaming and at 6:00 I went to the box office and purchased two general seating tickets. After I met Ruth, we went out for dinner at the same restaurant we had eaten at the second night with our friends. This time I had lamb chops and were they good! After dinner, we walked to the Acropolis and stood in line for the general seating area. After a half hour wait, we marched into the theater and found seats in the center fairly high up in the general seating area. Fortunately there were cushions to sit on because the stone benches would have made for a looonnnngggg opera. The sun was setting and it was fun to see all the people and orchestra members enter the theater. By the time the opera began, there were no empty seats -- full house! Here are pictures of the theater and the opera set:

The opera was outstanding! The orchestra had a very full and rich quality to it and the singers (once you got used to being in an outdoor concert hall where the sound was not as amplified as in a theater with ceilings) had spectacular voices, especially Tosca and Scarpia. In fact, the audience was so moved by Tosca's voice after one of her arias, I thought that we might spend the rest of the evening applauding her -- it went on for at least two solid minutes. The entire evening was very memorable and a perfect way to end our trip to Europe. And, it was very interesting to see how they integrated the stone walls with the sets by flashing movie scenes on the walls.

The opera ended at midnight and it took quite a while to exit the one door that allowed us general seating area people to leave. Then it was a 30 minute walk to the bus which, although there was only one per hour, pulled up just as we arrived! Luck again. On the bus, we passed this interesting statue made of glass shards (sorry for the blurry picture):

Statue made of glass shards -- looks like a ghost

After another 45 minutes we were in our hotel at ~1:45 a.m.

July 28, 2012: Although we didn't get as much sleep as hoped for, we did manage to get the free bus that Holiday Inn provided to the airport. Our trip back to the US was uneventful except for our layover in Philadelphia. There was a planned two and a half hour layover, but by the time we got on the plane it was three and a half hours and then another two hours on the runway while we waited for the tower to allow us to take off. Apparently there was a bad storm in New York which affected all flights on the east coast. We arrived back in LA many hours late, 

LAX restaurant

so late that there were no shuttle buses for Prime Time available and we had to pay for a Super Shuttle bus to take us instead. We got home at 1:40 a.m. What a way to end our trip! But it sure was nice to be home again. 

And so ends our month long trip to Greece, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, and Montenegro. It certainly was a trip that we shall long remember.