Public Transit. My fave.

My experience in Greece has been a wild ride, full of both ups and downs. I have so many great highlights from my time here already that stick out in my mind, and conversely a few low spots as well. My experiences on the public transportation system of Greece follow the same pattern. I have had some days that went smoothly, not a hitch or hiccup, and other days that made me want to pack up and go home immediately. The system sounds simple on paper, three main metro lines and a bus system that runs every thirty minutes. No big deal, right? Wrong. I have never been into Athens the same way twice, much less made it back the same way I came. I think I’ve been into town at least seven times, and each has an experience behind it.
One of the more frustrating excursions was a simple run to the mall with two of the other girls here, Jessica and Becca. We had an afternoon free of homework and responsibility after returning from Egypt and Israel, so we wanted to go into to town and go shopping where prices are fixed, no one would try to sell us for camels, or profess their undying love for us as a selling point. We just wanted a normal day at the mall for three normal American teens. We left the Artemis right after lunch and headed for the bus stop. We waited for a good hour, because when buses say they run on the half hour every hour, they mean whenever they want. We finally hopped on the first connection to Markopoulo and got off at the stop to wait for the bus to the Metro station at Koropi. That bus never came. We’re still not sure what happened, but in any case, we waited for another hour or so to no avail. We checked every bus that came by, none were going to our destination or even the correct line. We tried asking for help, and for the first time in the three countries we had visited at this point hit the language barrier hard. No one could speak English well enough to help us, and at this point we barely even knew our own names in Greek. One lady offered to split a taxi to the station, but that was a little out of our comfort zone and price range, so we stayed and waited. Finally, we were so fed up with waiting, that we hopped on the next bus to Athens and asked for Koropi. No problem, right? Wrong again. The bus stopped in the center of Koropi and because it looked nothing like what we knew, we stayed on the bus. The ticket lady came back and kurtly asked why we had missed our stop. We were so confused at this point we had no answer for her. Finally she said she’d make us a deal and gave us new tickets to some other stop. We passed the stop with a Metro station everyone on the bus was gesturing us to take, got up to get off, stood by the doors and waited, but they never opened. The bus drove away with us still on it, lost and confused as ever. At this point I just need a metro stop, any metro stop, so the next stop we see, I fly off the bus. Everyone on the bus was yelling at us about something, but I didn’t care. I knew I could walk to the station and get to the mall somehow from there.
We made it to the station that I had never heard of and can’t find on a map now and asked for directions to the mall. We finally made it around five in the afternoon. We shopped and had a good time at the mall but lost track of time as we shopped. We thought we could make it back for the last bus if we left around seven, so we hopped back on the metro. Unfortunately, we hopped on the wrong metro and started heading downtown on the green line. We figured this out about a stop later, got off and ran across to the other side of the platform and tried again. We knew we needed the yellow line, but couldn’t find it. This is the day that made the metro make sense finally. The signs are color coded. How we hadn’t noticed, I’m not sure, but we finally did that night. We got on the right line and finally made it back to Koropi. We thought we would be back in time for the last bus, but because of our last few wrong turns on the metro, we were too late. We stood around and hoped something would show up, but it was just too cold to be unsure of the bus, so we called a cab. The first company we called simply yelled ‘Strike!’ and hung up on me. That was encouraging. The second company said they’d be there in fifteen minutes. Twenty minutes later, I called again. Five more minutes, he said. Ten later we gave up and got into a very overpriced cab, just happy to be on the way home. It was quite the experience.
I have now used four major cities’ subway or metro systems: New York, Washington DC, Athens, and London. When compared, New York is the scariest and dirtiest, Washington and London are the most helpful and self-explanatory, and Athens is just better than the bus. Anything is better than the bus system here. I strongly dislike the fact that I am never certain of the Metro or bus times here. In London, travelers are never far from a tube stop and the trains run mere minutes apart. One can always catch something to somewhere. I can’t say that of Athens. It seems as though there are only a certain number of ways to get from point A to point B, and if you get it wrong, you’re out of luck. Having more stops and more ways to get from stop to stop easily like London might make me feel more confident about my ability to get around.
I see the great advantages of the Metro in Athens. It cuts traffic congestion and pollution in half. It saves families a great deal of money getting around town or back and forth to work everyday. It helps tourists save money and time on transportation like buses or cabs. It provides jobs for the engineers, ticket booth workers, and maintenance workers. I appreciate the discounted rate for students and the freedom it allows us to come and go whenever and wherever we please, but I am occasionally discouraged by my lack of understanding of the system. I dislike that I can’t ever predict how long it will take me to get where I’m going, making me unreliable to those counting in me. Maybe if I lived here permanently, I would eventually master it, but for now, it’s tough. It has really made me appreciate my car and my freedom to get in it and go anywhere in the States. But I have enjoyed learning the system with my friends here and seeing where we end upon our adventures. Overall, I’ll miss other things about Greece a lot more than I will miss the public transit system, but I do think it is a helpful system for Greece.