1st of April, 2022.
Lampros and Konstantina stop. They are not going much further, just after Tripoli, but at this point I am taking anything.
They are very lovely people and are super interested on my travels. They give me some Spanakopita (spinach Greek pie), which Konstantina baked and also some fruits. They are very relaxed and it seems to me they are a perfect match to each other. They drop me off in a gas station by the road.
Unfortunately there are not too many people stopping by. I cannot decide if it is better to be by the gas station or by the restaurant, about 100 metres away. I decide for the restaurant but I keep walking to the gas station every time a car comes.
Suddenly I see a pick-up pushing a boat and I remember I have seem this same car back at the roundabout I was before. He stops at the gas station and I come asking him for a lift. He is a bit reluctant at the beginning but then he asks me if I am alone, and when I say it is just me, he says I can come.
His name is Pilo-something, and he says it means something like “for many years”, and he is not even 50 years old even though he looks much older. I am sorry if it sounds rude but soon you will realize he is not the most pleasant person, so it is acceptable to be a bit rude.
When I tell Pilo I am travelling for 5 years all over the world, he tells me that I am crazy and that I should go back to Brazil, find a man, have kids and take care of the family. Laugh. Laugh. Cry. So there will be always people in this world of humans who will think like this? And he is not even married, or have children! So clearly that is a state that he believes it is for women.
Then he starts to complain about his girlfriend who broke up with him calling her stupid several times. Ah, excuse me! She was stupid for put up with your crap for Loki knows how long. Braking up with you was the most clever move she could have possibly done.
For the last, he starts to complain about his boat. Boats are expensive and bla bla bla. He even shows me the receipt for the piece he has just bought but cannot use. The only thing I can tell him is that’s why I don’t have a boat! He didn’t think it was funny, though. I did!
Pilo-something is going to Korinto, and after we meet his friend who will help him with his boat, they drop me off outside Korinto, by a gas station.
A man with long hair and long beard stop his car. And there was something about him and the way he was looking at me, that made me to refuse his lift. He was not going to Athens anyway.
A car with two men with Asian features stop. They are both wearing masks. They are going to Athens and say they can take me there. Yay!
Nin and Dun are from China. Nin lives and works in Athens, with his wife, and it seems that Dun came to visit. Even though they look like teenagers, they are 30 years old. They are very polite and pleasant, and Nin warns me I should be careful with my hitchhiking. They are going to Chinatown and that’s where they drop me off.
I think I haven’t been to a Chinatown in a big city before. It is insane! I say it is crazy! I simply don’t understand why somebody would come to another country, so far and so different of your own, just to settle in a place surrounded but other people from your country, and living exactly how you used to live in your own country. What is the purpose of that?
Anyway, I still don’t know where I am and what will I do. The idea of contacting Anna Maria and Rafaela crosses my mind. It would be great to have a safe place for the night, not having to figure out how to get out of Athens in a rush right now, and also I would love to see the girls again. And it seems like the perfect move when, after only walking a few blocks, I ended up in Omonoia Square, from where I know how to get to their flat, and it is not that far. But I am stupid enough to not call them but I decide to send an email. Unfortunately they don’t manage to see it until is too late so I go for plan B. Or should I call plan H because it is just like hell?
I have some of the Spanakopita yet, luckily because Konstantina insisted I should take some extra pieces! And I also decide to (finally) buy the Galaktoboureko with Kataifi, which I have seen here in Athens before, in a bakery here in Omonoia Square. It is now or never! It is nice but not as delicious as I though. So I have that for dinner.
In a hotel, after sending emails to Anna Maria and wait for an answer as long as I could, I take directions to a McDonald’s, so there I can make a plan of to get out of town. Why I didn’t do it in the Hotel? I don’t know, don’t ask me.
It is Friday night so the streets are packed with people who do not have anything else more interesting to do with their lives than to get drunk and look for someone to flirt. Basically a nightmare to someone like me. To make it worse, the direction I have for McDonald’s are wrong (HOW?) and I have to walk more than I though. Great! I am just exhausted and almost dying but who cares?
But that is just the beginning! At McDonald’s a huge amount of people are standing outside and all over the place, waiting to get in. What a fuck? They have even called some police to contain the crowed. Oh, dear Loki!
Walking down the streets, almost hopeless, I get into a fancy hotel and ask them if I can use their wi-fi. All the workers are dressed up in uniforms, and I am approached by a very polite young man saying “That bag it seems heavy, let me take care of it for you”. And even though he is just trying to be nice, I cannot help myself but to think you have no idea how heavy it is but you should not touch because I am not a fucking guest! Of course I don’t say anything.
In the end, everybody turns out to be just lovely. The receptionist lady show me the way to the restaurant; the young man take my backpack after all and say he will keep it safe; another man helps me to a place where there is a plug; and for last, the manager is a very kind man, who sees very surprised when my answer to his offer of a refreshment is that I don’t want to bother them anymore than I am already. He says in a very surprised tone: “What are you talking about? Tell me: what do you want to drink? Coke? Orange juice?” I answered orange juice and in a few minutes he brings me a full glass of fresh squeezed orange juice and tells me that if I need anything else, I should just let him know. One minute in Paradise.