Levi's View

You don’t always have to start at the beginning although in this case, I really should.

For it was quite a memorable one. In the backpackers world it is not often you are met at the airport – for these moments are cherished and eagerly anticipated – but when it is by total surprise, well that’s just about enough to bring any budget-conscious, English-starved, friend-from-home-deprived traveller to tears. But, it happened and it happened to me in Athens!

Courtesy of Jamal and Chloe (names withheld to protect those that we hold dearest.) who spent, I imagine, a wildly exciting 5 or so hours awaiting my arrival (and my bag - which was the real source of my delay, it arrived a day later). Anyway my friends, that was only the beginning and perhaps to the clued in observer, a sign of things to come.

Things heated up quite quickly when we arrived in downtown Athens; yes I know can you believe the airport is not downtown?

I managed to get propositioned by a dirty old man while eating a banana on a dark street corner late at night (go figure?) whilst waiting to be smuggled into Jamal and Chloe’s hotel.

Anyway after the people smuggling was arranged and executed, I myself had to snuggle into a pair of budgie smugglers (which the kind folk at British airways had provided in lieu of my delayed luggage) before we could hit the town in search of food.

After a brief parade and photo shoot, my first lingerie modelling experience, we headed out on the town and ran into some more mischief … as you do. Just the usual confusion over random stalkers, where to eat, what one should order, what you end up eating, and how much one should bother paying for the experience. All in all, a standard traveller experience when you have no idea what the heck is going on!

Speaking of not knowing what’s going on and standard traveller experiences, which really go hand in hand, I would like to talk about drug taking and backup plans. Kids, don’t do drugs. And kids, always know where your nearest exit is, and remember your nearest exit could be behind you (British airways just keeps on giving.) Which really leads quite fluidly into what happened during our 2nd full day together in Athens.

Now the original plan was to head out to Delphi – a UNESCO listed world heritage site about a 5-hour bus ride from Athens. Instead, due to some poor advice about travel times and bus schedules, we were forced into plan b (at 7am might I add) and our backup destination, Sunion – an archaeological site perched a top a cliff about 90 mins from our hotel.

Let us just say that because of this “cock-up” (a common term in Athens) the day did in fact turn out quite brilliantly. And thus because of our little backup plan the Delphi debacle turned into surprisingly spectacular Sounion.

Anyway, alliteration aside … it really was a spectacular day – one better spent looking out over the shores of the med, rather than riding a hot bus for the best part of the day.

We picnicked with our stolen rolls and sandwiches (from our ever providing hotel, bless them) and gazed out to sea. Undoubtedly though the greatest part of this day, for me at least, but I assume for Jamal and Chloe too, was when they popped their sleeping pills and started drooling on themselves and for good measure, snoring too!!

Thankfully the bus was sparsely populated enough that the scarce few passengers were able to move to the far extremities of the bus in order to best avoid the escalating (drug induced) nasal orchestra that was echoing all over the place. In case you were wondering, this performance was repeated on both legs of the trip!! Kids, don’t do drugs.

Although many lessons were learnt, about backup plans and drug taking, much happened in our brief few days together and it is wise to stick to the best stories. (That or embellish the dregs to the point of them reaching an entirely new level!) And it goes without saying that as always there are three sides to all of these stories and as such you the discerning reader should reach your own conclusion about what truly would have taken place. Although trusting the word of airport-vagabonds people-smuggling drug-takers seems a little unwise to me … nevertheless …

I hope to write further pieces on the travels of Jamal and Chloe but anticipate that due to a couple of pending lawsuits (character defamation and slander … pfft) I will be kept very busy over the next few weeks. So until next time kids, remember don’t do drugs, know where your nearest exit is and then all that’s left is too … get it on like donkey kong!!

Josh O.