Day 6 of cold
showers, and I find myself huddling as close to the laptop battery as I can to
warm up. I guess I should explain. Apparently, in this house, showers are
traditionally taken at night, not in the morning. In addition, the concept of a water heater is
foreign (pun intended). Instead, they
have a boiler that uses oil to heat the water.
This boiler must be switched on when hot water is required, and then
given at least 20 minutes to heat up the water.
However, as I said before, showers are taken at night here, so the
boiler is not normally switched on in the morning. Which means that if I want to take a shower
in the morning to wake up, feel refreshed, and be clean to embrace the day; I
have to take it cold. This has led to a
series of three-minute showers where every possible “extravagance,” such as
using conditioner or washing unnecessary body parts, is excluded. On the flip side, I actually wake up faster
and strangely invigorated, right before I plunge into my waiting clothes. I told my wife that it’s like a game of
Freeze the American.
Today, we headed
back to Monasteraki, so my wife could buy some remaining gifts for her
co-workers and friends. I have a
completely different approach. I spend
money buying gifts for me, because it’s my vacation. If someone I work with wants a gift from
Greece, then they need to spend their own $2000 and go to Greece and get it
themselves. I don’t want to waste my
few, precious moments hunting around for some crap that costs too much and they
won’t like anyway. I want to spend it
enjoying my vacation, and if I find something I like along the way, then I’ll
get it.
And enjoy is exactly
what I did today. We happened upon the Olympieion
today. This is better known as the
Columns of the Olympian Zeus. It’s the
remainder of a colossal ruined temple in the heart of Athens that was dedicated
to Zeus. And when I say colossal, I mean
that the remaining columns tower over 55 feet in the air! If you want to feel small and insignificant
or marvel at the accomplishments of early man, then this is the place to do
it.
There is a beautiful
stone archway that sits on one side of the ground and points back toward Athens
proper. This is known as Hadrian’s Gate,
name after the Roman Emperor who dedicated the temple when it was finally
completed during his reign. Also in that
same direction, you can see the Acropolis towering on its mountaintop high
above the city; and in the other direction a skyline of Mount Hymettus.
Tonight, we went out
with some of Georgios’ friends to a neighborhood bar called the View. It’s a quaint, comfortable little bar that
features cozy décor, friendly staff, and a laid-back atmosphere to enjoy
conversation with your friends. I had a
nice time getting to know Georgios’ friends:
Pericles, Voula, Georgios, and Evi.
They are very nice people and seem like very good friends for my
brother.
On a side note, I am
about to lose my patience with my wife.
Driven by the stress-imposed environment that one always feels when
finding themselves suddenly under the thumb of their parents once again, as
well as the manic monster that she turns into when trying to drive in the
craziness that is Athens, she’s getting on my last nerve. She has started to snap at me when I ask a
simple question, because she’s like a tightly wound rubber band all the time. The worst part is that she doesn’t even
recognize that she’s doing it.
There also seems to
be a habit in this family of immediate gratification. You must drop everything and attend to
whatever it is that they want at the very second that they want. There is no concept that you might already be
doing something. For instance, I was
lying down yesterday, and Georgios came home with some football jerseys that he
had bought me. My wife bursts in and
starts telling me to get up, so I can try them on. A moment later, her brother comes in carrying
the bag. Here I am, standing there in my
underwear, trying on jerseys, because they didn’t even give me a chance to put
pants on. (Which would be my normal
state of happiness in most cases, but I do have SOME modesty when it places me
in an awkward situation.)
