Thursday, August 5, 2004 - Searching for Owens

This morning we sat around talked until everyone was ready. Some of us were going to leave early, but didn’t want to leave others behind and we got on a private bus line and had to pay fare, but we don’t have to on public bus lines. We told the lady where we were going Kifisia and we got to Kifisia Ave. We were more than 20 blocks away from the IBC, my place of work. We asked someone on the street and he told us to take the bus up the street. We did. Some ran the risk of a 40 E fine for not having their credential on. We got to the place and went to get other people’s credentials. Then we tried to find Dr. Owens who was back form lunch over two hours over what his secretary expected. He didn’t know we were coming at that time. We sat in an office on the floor for a half hour. This was after we spent an hour looking for the NBC taverna where she said he would be. We got the lay of the land of our work building that is a few football fields in length. He gave us a tour. The AOB workers went to eat and the CBC (including me) went and found our boss over our boss. He gave us a short tour and told us some of what we would be doing—entering info on what we are watching into a database. The tree of us then went to it. It was 4:40 by then. We asked about island hopping at the travel agency and where the subway was after we ate. We walked toward the Olympic Stadium, but most us couldn’t get in, so we walked around which was a 10 min walk. We got on the railway (not the subway) and met a woman from Corfu who spoke English. She told us where to get off and switch to go to the Acropolis. We got there no problem. We walked around. There was an orchestra playing at the amphitheatre there. The Acropolis closed a half hour before. We got to see a vista of Athens though. One of us asked what the crowd of people that we had just walked through were protesting. He said it had to due with Hiroshimo. Another guy explained it was an anti American peace really—then corrected himself saying that is was an anti-American government rally. I got a picture of one coordinator taking down one of the banners on Joel’s camera. We could here the word “Bush” in the protest chants. After that we walked around the front and say the Agora buildings from a distance and watched the sunset. We stopped at a restaurant right under the Acropolis. We could see the tip of it in the night sky. The owner showed us a picture of himself on page A1 of USA Today. He said his wife was Canadian. I ate cheese filled lamb with potatoes and rice. Everything is soaked in cheese and olives. We had a pork steak, a beef casserole (Mousuka), fried calamari, whole giant shrimp, and souflaki. He offered us a free bottle of wine and two or three declined, so he promised ice cream. We ate for about 8 E to 15 E each. We had to pay for water. It was an adventure getting home, but most could speak English and we asked. We got to the right place, but the last bus had apparently run, so we took a taxi the last 10 mi. The cab driver told us to go clubbing and visit the party like Madonna and Harrison Ford (or as he said “Arisone Fod”). I feel comfortable getting around now. I am scared of jumping in a taxi with a non-English speaking taxi, but otherwise I feel well about getting places.

~ Stephen

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