F. Harry’s toe and T.A. withdrawls.

Greetings from Athens. I’ll get to F. Harry’s toe soon. It’s Monday the 2nd June and I have a lot to catch up on from the last few days. This may be a long one folks. Hang in there.

Let’s start with the 28th May, the day I left Tel Aviv for Athens, Greece. My flight wasn’t untill 6pm but I got there at 2pm as El Al likes to ask a lot of invasive questions, followed by a bag screening, undies rummage, juggling test, aramaic tongue twister quiz, seat allocation, meal preference question and seat realocation once you find out the size of the mans ass sitting next to you.

First thing in the morning I pack, say goodbye to Cocka and go to see aunty Alia for lunch. While I’m there we call Dana and Russell, ask how Occy is doing, how’s the weather yadda yadda.

Aunty gossips with Dana about baby clothes, husband issues etc.

Mum calls to say hi, talk grandson clothes, ex-husband issues etc.

Then Eli calls, chats about nephew clothes, boyfriends issues etc.

Aunty nearly falling asleep having to hear about everybody elses problems.

Probably one of my favourite photos. See larger here.

After lunch and listening to some of aunty’s poetry I said “see you later” and caught the train to Ben Gurion Airport. This is a great airport. It’s huge and very clever on the design. The main shopping, dining area is in the middle with the terminals like spokes of a bicycle heading out from the centre. There is an amazing water feature in the middle which looks like the roof is caving in from water damage.

Departures on the left. Arrivals on the right. Along the left wall are 60 posters celebrating each year of Israel’s independence.

The central luonge and shopping hub. See larger.

Leaving Israel airspace takes about 2 and a half minutes. Out the right side of the plane I could see Tel Aviv and the coastline fade off into the background as we jetted over the Meditteranean Sea towards the Greek islands and Athens airport. How is it that on a 2 and a half hour flight to the west not only do you not change timezones, but an hour and a half movie gets cut short as you land? Weird!

My first taste of Greek words. Oh no…Another language to be confused with!

The hotel I stayed at was the Mare Nostrum, located about 12 kms from the airport in a place called Markopolou. It’s on the coast somewhat isolated from anything interesting or entertaining for tourists like me. The crappy narrow road leading to the hotel runs through mostly olive and fruit tree farming land, half built houses and large mountains surrounding lightly populated areas. It’s about 35kms from the heart of Athens.

The view from the Mare Nostrum Hotel.

Weeeee! The welcoming troup of hotel minstrels and part time chefs. No, he’s not dancing, he slipped on a banana peel.

Most of the media team are staying here. Greek, Scandinavian, English, Australian, Japanese and many more voices fill the air. I’m shown to my room which is nice (dull) and cozy (small). My view of the water and pool is a welcome sight. The tv shows 33 channels of shows I can’t understand (Greek, Russian, French, German) and the water pressure in the shower is ok (crap!).

The view from my room. See larger.

I find the others I’ll be working with and head out to a nearby restaurant for a quick bite and go to bed.

The beachside restaurant named “The Boys”. Should have called it “Lame food with a nice view”. See larger.

The next morning We go out to the WRC site which is about 40 minutes drive to the north. The media HQ is on an old airforce base. 300 odd (I mean that) people are assembled here, media, rally car crews, spectators. And 4 fucking porta-loos! More on that soon.

Thursday is a warmup day. I get familiar with my workspace (small windowless room in a hot trailer).

Ian, my collegue, in his small, hot, windowless trailer room.

The rest of the team in their large, very well airconditioned, windowed trailer.

Thursday was an easy day. I finished up early and headed back to the hotel for a swim and a night in of confusing European television and the sound of plates breaking from the upstairs diningroom. Part two soon.