My First Travel Blog – Age 9 Athens Greece

It was Athens, Greece in May of 1974.   Of course I am using the term “blog” loosely as I had an audience of exactly one… my fourth grade teacher.

I was seven years old when my Dad was stationed in England and our family moved abroad for a year.  After that he was assigned at two more posts in Germany, so I lived in Europe for almost four years before returning to the United States.

My parents were great about maximizing our time overseas… from England our family vacation was Scotland and in Germany we were able to make quite a few trips.  One of them was a family vacation to Athens, Greece.  I recently ran across my nine year old account of the experience … I guess some things don’t change!

My Trip To Greece

Well, on Monday at two o’clock in the morning we had to get up and ready to go.  We left for the airport at 2:45 am.  We had to be there at 3:30.  When we got there my Mom and Dad went in to see if our name was called (note: flying space available on a military plane) while my brother and I slept in the car.  Our name was called  so we went through customs.  At 4:30 am we boarded the aircraft.  The plane had no windows etc. We departed from the station at 5:00 am.  The next stop was Ramstein.  It was supposed to take the plane 20 minutes to get there but we were delayed an hour because of fog.  When we got there we had to get off the plane because we had to wait two hours for the other group.  The other group joined our group going through customs again!  When we left Ramstein the plane was full!  It was a three hour trip to Greece from then on, nonstop.  We had a meal on the plane.  The aircraft arrived in Greece at 1:00 pm.  We got our baggage at 1:30.  At 2:00 the shuttle bus came and took us to the gate of the base.  From there we took a taxi to the hotel Hilton in downtown Athens.

At three o’clock I went swimming in the hotel’s swimming pool.  That evening we took a taxi to Constitution Square and looked around, then we walked up to Gerofinika’s Greek Restaurant.  Afterwards, at ten-thirty, we rode a taxi back to the hotel. 

On Tuesday morning I got up and went swimming with my brother.  After that we took a taxi to the USO.   There my brother and I played bumper pool.  Then we went to the PX  I got some Adidas.  After that we went to the USO snack bar to have lunch.  We played ping pong until our lunch was ready.  Then we took a taxi back to the hotel.  At 3:00 the Key Tours bus came to pick us up for a tour of Athens.  It went to a couple of other hotels to pick more people up then drove to the bus terminal.  There we had to change buses  The first place we went was the “National Archeological Museum”.  We stayed there for about an hour.  Our tour guide showed us around the Museum.  Then the bus drove us to the Acropolis, and our tour guide showed us around.  Then everybody looked around for themselves and took pictures.  At 6:15 we had to be back at the bus.  Our next step was Lycabettus Hill.  We went by Funicular to the top and saw a chapel.  We went down by funicular and got on the bus.  From there we went to the hotel.  At dinner time my brother and I had room service and my Mom and Dad went out to eat.

On Wednesday we got a wake-up call at 9:30.  My brother and I went down to the swimming pool and later my Mom and Dad came down.  When we went up to our room we started packing.  At 11:30 our breakfast came to us.  At 12:00 we checked out of the Hilton.  We took a taxi to the Dorian Inn.  As soon as we got there we went swimming on the roof of the hotel.  Then I went back to the room to read.  Again my brother wanted to go swimming so we went swimming.  That night we had dinner in the hotel.

We got up at 6:30 in the morning and got ready to go on our one day cruise.  At 7:00 we went to the dining room and had breakfast.  At 7:15 a bus came to pick us up.  Then it went to the bus terminal and we changed buses.  The second bus drove us to the harbor and we boarded the ship.  For a while I sat on the back decks but then went up and sat on the front decks.  When we boarded the ship it was 8:00.  We sailed for a  while seeing small islands.  At 11:30 we arrived at an island called “Hydra”.  At Hydra they had a big sized village.  I walked around the island with Mrs. Burman.  We left the island at 1:15.  When we left Hydra they served us lunch.  The next island we slowed down at but did not go ashore.  It was the island of Paros.  The third island was Aegina.  First we went on a carriage ride then to the beach.  Going back to Athens we went double speed.  We arrived in Athens at quarter till eight and took the bus to our hotel.  After dinner my brother and I went to the roof and took an evening swim.

On Friday we went souvenir shopping around Athens and checked out of our hotel.  Then we took a taxi to the O’club hotel, The Bonavista.  Right across the street was the beach.  At dinner time we ate in the hotel dining room.  Then I stayed in my room and read.

On Saturday at 8:30 we got a wake-up call.  All of us got dressed and went to the beach.  My brother and I swam while my parents played tennis.  When we got back we started packing and then went downstairs and had brunch.  We took a taxi to the terminal.  We were flying Space A back and we were numbers 68-71.  It sounded impossible but we made the first flight because of no-shows!  The aircraft flew straight to Ramstein and on to Frankfurt.  We were home! At last!

Reflections Back

I am grateful to have had several teachers in elementary schools who had us keep journals (called “paragraph books” ) as a dialogue with the teacher.  There are a few vivid memories that did not make it into the report to my teacher. 

I recall the flying space available between military bases, not only did the planes not have passenger windows, but the seats also faced backwards.  Before this trip I had received my first camera – a 110 Kodak Instamatic – and was clicking away during our tour of the Acropolis.  I will never forget my Mom telling me that I really should include people in my photos … that if all I wanted was scenery I could buy more postcards.  As you can tell, that lesson stuck with me for life. I also thought it was the coolest thing at the Acropolis that there was a photographer taking pictures of us sitting on a column in front of the Parthenon and giving (selling) it to us as our own personal black and white postcard.  Another bad habit started early!  Jim and I loved being in the pool and we thought the rooftop pool at the Dorian Inn was so cool!

My most vivid memory and biggest embarrassment of the trip was when I went to the rooftop pool with my brother the second time I had to change back into my bathing suit again.  My suit had a red bandana patterned top and canvas colored bottoms with a red print waist tie.  We had only been up on the rooftop for a few minutes when I noticed an old man staring at me.  I looked down trying to figure out what he was staring at and to my utter mortification I still had my big white cotton underwear on instead of my bathing suit bottoms.  I rushed back to the room in complete and utter embarrassment. Forty plus years later the sting is finally subsiding.

2012 Return

When we returned to Athens in 2012 of course so much had changed… the crowds were much larger, the machines and fencing of the preservation efforts where everywhere and it was a new era in Athens.  To me, it will always glow in the wonders of antiquity and my nine year old memories.