Wednesday-Thursday-February 9-10--Athens to Madrid to Santiago, Chile

Wednesday--February 9--Athens--Madrid  

One of the places I hadn’t been was the Olympic stadium and figured I had time to do that today before my flight.  My flight wasn’t until 4:50 p.m. and thought I needed to be at the airport 3 hours ahead of time which meant I needed to leave the hotel by 1:00 p.m.

I had a bit of breakfast and coffee in the executive lounge before heading out.
When I walk by the Contemporary Art Museum I find this bench that says it all, and in English.

I decided I would walk to the stadium so I could get a bit of walking since I knew I’d be sitting on a plane for many hours.  The Olympic stadium is on the other side of Syntagma Square so I knew it would talk about 20 minutes to get there.

Wow, this stadium is incredible.  

The Panathinaiko Stadium, also called Kallimarmaron, is an impressiveAthens stadium near the heart of the city, southeast of the Parliament Building and the National Garden. The Panathinaiko stadium dates back to ancient times, when it was a venue hosting athletic events for the Panathenaic Games. It was originally constructed primarily with wood, receiving an upgrade in 329 BC, when pentelic marble from the mountains north of Athens was used to renovate the stadium. The name, Kallimarmaron, means "beautifully marbled". 

They had a good audio tour that was included in the price of admission (only 3 Euro).  The audio tour takes you around the stadium and explains the history of the Olympics and how this stadium was rebuilt.  I liked the VIP seats with the lion paws.

The audio tour tells you to climb the stairs, which are extremely steep, to get a view of the Acropolis and the rest of the city.  Yes I climbed to the top.  




Wow, anyone who has climbed the SBCC stairs, they are no match for these very steeped pitched ones, but once you get to the top the view in incredible.

The view from the top

My time was up and I thought I knew how to walk back to the hotel.  I start walking through the park thinking it will take me back to Via Sophia.  I pass the Zapponi Building and think I’m going in the right direction. However, when I get out of the park on the boulevard it’s Amalia not Sophia.  

I turn myself around and find Syntagma Square.  I see the gate to the metro is closed.  I thought it was a one day strike.  Then I see an incredible amount of people demonstrating in front of the Parliament Building with lots of police in combat gear.  O.k. something bigger is going on today.  I continue walking because I really need to get back to the hotel and notice there aren’t any buses running.  Although I would love to take some photos I remember my experience from yesterday and decide it’s probably not a good idea. 

As I walk down the main boulevard I see many T.V. vans.  I’ll have to ask what is going on when I get back to the hotel.  

It’s a bit after 1:00 and I get in the elevator to get my luggage from the room but my key won’t work.  I go to the reception desk and they tell me it was cut off automatically at 12:00.  The girl fixes it and I’m able to get my bags.

The taxi driver to the airport was great.  He was born in Australia to Greek parents (who are from Santorini) and came back to Greece 30 years ago.  I asked why he didn't live in Santorini and he said his wife was from Athens and she didn't like Santorini. 


He told me that yes the strike was worse today.  There are a lot of problems in Greece right now with the government cutting back on retirement benefits.  Apparently the public transportation operates so people can get to and from work but then during the day they stop.  Yesterday only the metro but today all public transportation was shut down.  He said things are very difficult in Greece right now. 

I’m a bit sorry to say it, but I’m glad to be leaving.

Getting to the airport three hours ahead just in case was a waste of time.  When I got to the Iberia check in counter no one was there.  I met a family from Brazil also wanting to check in early and they said they were told no one would be at the counter for an hour.  So I found a place to sit and returned in an hour.

When I returned to check in it was very easy because I was flying business class.  The first leg was to Madrid.  I checked in my suitcase and the woman said it would be checked all the way to Santiago.  She gave me my boarding pass for both Madrid and Santiago.  Because I was flying business class I was able to go to their “admiral’s club” so that was nice.  

Admirals club (or whatever they call it)

I only had an hour and a half to wait so it wasn’t bad but it was nice to go to a place where I could be comfortable, use my computer and have something to drink.

The business class on this leg was not very special.  The seats were regular seats but the didn’t put anyone in the middle (thus giving you extra room).  I sat next to a man who was from Madrid but living in Athens.  He is a pilot and got a job as a contractor for Olympia airlines.  He was flying to Madrid to see his 2 year old daughter.

The flights left at 5:00 p.m. and was very smooth.  They served dinner but there wasn’t a movie or any entertainment.  Oh well I just read my kindle.   


We arrived in Madrid around 8:00 p.m., it was nearly a five hour flight but Madrid is an hour earlier than Athens.  I had a 4 hour layover because the next leg didn’t leave until midnight.

When I got off the plane and walked into the terminal it was empty and I didn’t see a screen to direct me to the next flight.  Two gentlemen came off the plane and said, “you look lost”.

“Yes, I am looking for my flight to Santiago”, I said.

“You’ll need to take a train to the other terminal.  If you walk over there you will find a screen that will tell you which terminal to go to.”

“Thank you very much”.

I walk down the hall a bit and there was a screen telling me to go to terminal U and I followed the sign to the train that would take me there.  It was a 15 minute ride.  This airport must be extremely big.

I took the train and arrived at the other terminal and found the Iberia “admiral’s club” here.  I was really glad to have this luxury because I had so much time to wait. 

This lounge was one of the largest I’ve ever seen.  They had three bars and a large buffet of food.  I was able to get free internet although I had to use a cable connection. I wrote for a few hours chasing my blog.  I wasn’t really hungry after having eaten dinner on the last flight but they had so much good food and an open bar.  I didn’t take advantage of that either as it’s not really a good idea to drink a lot of alcohol before flying.

At 11:30 I walked to the gate and had to wait a bit before boarding.

I boarded and found my seat in the middle of the front row.  These seats were great.  The seats were pods that fully extended for sleeping.  I took my xanax and as soon as the plane took off I extended my seat, put my eye shades on and went to sleep.  I think I must have slept for 7 or 8 hours.  The flights was 12+ hours and when I woke the flight attendant told me there was a little more than 3 hours left so I tried to rest some more.  

When I got up again I was a bit hungry and asked if there was anything to eat.  She told me that they weren’t serving breakfast for another hour.  I read my kindle until breakfast.  The food wasn’t so good but it was something. 

Overall I felt a few bumps but the flight was good.  I expected much more turbulence crossing the equator.  If there was I slept through it.

Thursday--Madrid--Santiago, Chile

We arrived in Santiago around 9:30 a.m. Thursday.  I got off the plane and walked toward the immigration station.  As I was walking to the immigration line I saw a sign that said, “citizens of these 5 countries, USA, being one of them needed to pay a reciprocity fee.  The USA fee was $142.00, the highest of any of the countries.  I hadn’t heard or read about this but I didn’t have a choice.  That was the entry fee.

After I paid my $142.00 I walked to the immigration entry line.  The man stamped my passport and welcome to Chile.

I feel pretty good because I slept on the plane.  I walk over to the baggage claim area and anguish a bit over whether my suitcase will come off the plane.  Behold it finally comes and I am relieved.

I change the 40 Euros I have left into Chilean pesos, which is just a little more than enough to get me to the hotel in a taxi.  The taxi costs 18,000 pesos and I got about 25,000.  

I arrive at the Marriott.  I’d used points to make this reservation long ago.  My thinking was that I would be pretty wasted by the time I got to Santiago and I would like a little comfort.  At that time I hadn’t planned on the luxury in Athens.

This hotel is a nice place, a bit out of the center of town but next to one of the city’s best shopping malls.

I really needed a shower so I was glad they had a room ready for me.  There were lots of clouds in the sky and I wasn’t sure if it really was going to rain.

After my shower I decided to venture to the mall to get something to eat and to see what movies were playing (oh how I missed going to the film festival).  I don’t know why but I ended up eating at Ruby Tuesday’s.  I had a caesar salad with salmon and it wasn’t very good and it was expensive.  A mistake.

I walked around looking for the movie theater and found a lot more restaurants that looked much more appetizing.  Oh well.  Certainly not the first mistake I’ve made on this trip.

I found the movie theater and the only movie I was interesting in seeing was Black Swan.  I decided I would come back for the 7:20 showing.  It was only 1:30.

I went back to the hotel and the man at the desk suggested I take the metro into town and go up the venicular to see the view of Santiago.  Well I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that but I was interesting in seeing Pablo Neruda’s house and that was in the same area.  He said I needed to walk about 15-20 minutes to the metro and then the metro was about a 10 minute ride.  

The walk to the metro was about 20 minutes and I could feel the weather changing.  Good thing I brought my jacket.

When I got off the metro the sky opened up and it was pouring rain.  REALLY!  I finally get to summer and it’s raining.

Either I’m bringing it or it’s following me.  Either way, I can’t believe it.

I stand on the street decide to get a taxi, go back to the hotel and not fight the rain.

The best part of the taxi ride was that I actually had a conversation in Spanish with the driver.  The driver was very nice.  I always say my Spanish in not very good (in Spanish) but he said no no it’s o.k.  

Once they think you can speak Spanish they also think you can understand.  I could only understand about 50% of what he was saying to me.  I said a lot of “Uh huh’s” like I was understanding.

I return to the hotel to the tune of a $10.00 taxi ride, after the $1.00 metro ride.  

At this hotel I can have free internet in the lobby so I go to my room get my computer and come down to the lobby.  I met a Canadian flight attendant who was also on his computer.  We discussed the pricing of internet use in hotels and he agreed with me that it’s a rip off.

As I sit writing on my computer the rain is pouring down. There is a glass roof over the lobby so I can see the rain falling down on top of me.

I check weather.com which tells me it’s going to rain the rest of the day and night. YUCK!  I am not a happy camper but I am able to get some more writing done.  As the rain continues I realize I don’t want to walk to the movie theater next door at the mall.  I stay in the lobby and end up eating the buffet they have in the bar area.  By now I am tired and lazy.  The waiter tells me it’s $20.00 for the buffet but it comes with two drinks.  In the end they only charged me $5.00 for a juice.  Language barrier or mistake?

I wrote until after 9:00 then went to my room.

After all I did just fly 10,000+ miles, I should get some sleep.