An Athens Nightmare
For as long as I can remember, I have been the biggest Greek history and mythology nerd. My Freshman year in Spring 2020, I was signed up to go on a Maymester to Athens and Mykonos with some of my best friends, and I even got a scholarship from the Moore school to attend--but of course, COVID cancelled all travel plans that spring, and I was never able to make the trip.
Because of all this, it is safe to say that the hype around Greece has built up as my number one bucket-list destination for quite some time. So, naturally, while I was studying abroad for my international business exchange this past Spring 2022, when my friend Emma asked me if she could visit, we immediately started making plans to squeeze Santorini, Athens, and two other cities into the seven day trip that she would be with me for. Our original plan was Emma’s arrival on Wednesday, flying to Santorini Thursday morning to spend one night there, then two nights in Athens, and leaving Greece Sunday morning to continue our travels, although this did not go completely to plan: we missed our 7AM flight to Santorini on Thursday, and the only solution that made sense was to buy the same exact flight 24 hours later, 7AM on Friday, which ended up being fine because the flight was only 40₤ (thank you EasyJet!).
Since we moved our flight a day later, we had to cut our visit shorter to just one night in each city instead of staying for two in Athens…boy am I glad we did not stay where we did in Athens for two nights.
To start our trip off, we made it to Oía, Santorini on Friday and had an amazing day. I had already been to two other Greek islands during the semester, but Santorini was definitely my favorite; the people were so kind, there were the cutest stray dogs and cats running around the whole town, and we were visiting right at the start of peak tourist season so every shop, restaurant and service was open without it being ridiculously crowded. That night, Emma and I relaxed in our hotel room while planning the following day-- we had done this silly little thing throughout the trip where we would wait until the day before or so to book our accommodation for the next night, but hey, this is easy to do in Europe using youth hostels and still not terribly hard on the budget. Since I had experience being there all semester, I had been in charge of choosing our previous stays, but this particular night I was busy working on a project and Emma was instead combing the internet for a safe but cheaper-priced hotel or rental for Saturday night in Athens. After some deliberation, she said aloud to me from across the room, “Well to stay within budget and in a walkable location, this one place seems like our best option -- the only problem is that some of the reviews say it isnt in the safest area.”
I responded “You know what, I’ve read that on several reviews throughout all of my travels and it turned out that they were just located near the train station or on a quieter street. I haven’t had any problems yet at all. Plus, I’ve heard Athens does not have the nicest neighborhoods anyway, so I’m sure a lot of the hotels close to the city center say the same.” So that was that, and we went to sleep ready and eager to head to Athens’ Choice hotel the next morning.
It was not my Athens Choice.
Our flight landed in Athens around 9AM. We spent some time freshening up in the airport, then took the metro for about an hour into the heart of the city to check-in to our hotel. We arrived at the correct stop, and began to walk the 3 blocks towards our address. Keep in mind that right not it is not even 11AM yet.
Walking on our block, about 100 yards from the front entrance of our hotel, we strolled past a group of homeless people sitting together on the curb. I was used to witnessing this in European cities along with other sketchy situations or even crime, so I was pretty unphased and walked right past the group without staring at them. Emma, on the other hand, had never been out of the United States and had just begun traveling with me, so she was inclined to look at the group a bit closer than I had. After walking past and getting out of earshot, she pulled my arm and asked if I had seen what they were doing. I said I hadn’t, so she painted the picture for me - they were readying their needles to shoot up their drug of choice. Meth, heroin, I’m not sure, but either way Emma was pretty rattled. I was not quite worried yet because I hadn’t really gotten a good look at them to understand the scene, so I was optimistic as we headed upstairs and dropped our bags off. We got ready to head towards the Acropolis around noon for an awesome day in Athens and sunny, beautiful weather.
I suggested that, since our hotel was on a corner, instead of walking the way we had come and passing the same group on our block, we should round the corner and hit the next block to make a circle towards the metro. Feeling confident, we left the hotel turning right instead of left and passed a small grassy area before turning onto the next street. Immediately in the back corner of the grass, I noticed a man sitting underneath a tree staring straight our way with the most grotesque, ugly mean expression on his face, like the man had to be flying high on something. I can’t even recreate the look when I tell people this story. This definitely made me uncomfortable, but I kept walking. As we rounded the corner, I remembered how Emma had looked directly at the homeless group but I hadn’t, so I made a point this time to glance again at the man under the tree. To my disgust, his entire head had turned to follow us as we walked around the corner, with the same horrifying look on his face. I was so shocked I simply made the grossest face I could back at him and sped walk out of eyesight.
After experiencing this, I was definitely beginning to become a bit rattled myself. We hit the next corner and turned, where there was another person standing talking on the phone. I thought to myself “Ok, phew. This man has to be normal”.
However, abruptly right after that, he started shouting at the air. No phone, just the air in front of him. He yelled in Greek so we don’t know what he said, but we could tell something wasn’t right. Moving past him, we decided to cross in the middle of the street to avoid the next encounter as we could see a person bent over a windowsill snorting who-knows-what. Keep in mind it is just now 12 or 1 in the afternoon, and my head was spinning like I was getting jumpscares on- right-after-another in a haunted house.
We finally made it to the metro afterwards, traveled to the historical center and had an amazing day together in Athens. We both went crazy for the Greek monuments and museums, then ended with a rooftop aperitif about a 5-10 minute walk from our hotel where we stayed until around 10PM. We made it a point to stay in the nicer area for as long as we could, and only to return to our hotel once it was entirely necessary and we were completely done for the day. We could certainly have walked, but instead we got a 3-minute taxi ride directly to our front door so we knew we would be safe. Arriving home, it was a relieving feeling as we unwinded and got ready for bed before traveling to our next destination in the morning. We were ready for a good night of sleep and to start fresh the next day; or so we thought.
We discovered that the grassy corner next to our hotel was where the homeless community liked to congregate at night. We could hear them outside our window while we got ready for bed, but didn’t quite expect to be bothered by it much more than that. We were in bed around midnight, and Emma was usually fast asleep around this time, but I had stayed up very late, until about 3AM, searching with intense care to find our hotel for the next city and ensuring we would feel comfortable in a safe area. The entire time I was awake on my laptop, it turns out Emma had been kept awake as well and neither of us could sleep due what was going on outside our window-- the noises. The screams, yelling, sirens (or lack thereof sirens) of what we later realized were “tweakers” going through withdrawal-like symptoms of hallucinations, delusions, and psychosis from the methamphetamine comedown (she and I would later on do our research on the effects of meth use and its popularization in urban Greece since the financial crisis). They were some of the loudest, most horrifying sounds I have ever had the displeasure of experiencing, and I will never forget how loud and clear their screams sounded. When we finally woke up in the morning, we sped out of there, relieved, and ready to make our morning flight out of the Greek capital.
As a cherry on top of the cake, Emma and I both found out following her return to the United States that we had contracted bed bugs from our room at Athens Choice. Thanks, but I don’t think I ever need to return to Athens, at least not until I can afford an Acropolis-view hotel.
