June 30, 2007 Greek Traffic - Eek!

It is a good thing that I trust Theodosia when she is driving the car! Streets are not terribly narrow in all places but people park wherever they can find a place, both sides of the streets and on the curbs and sidewalks. And where do the people walk then? Why, in the street of course. So our car dodges not only other cars, but motorcyles, scooters, trucks, buses, huge repair equipment, dogs, people, open car doors - you get the picture. Because the view at intersections is often obstructed, the practice is to move into the intersection so you can see if there is oncoming traffic. When there is, they pass within inches of your front bumper.
The narrower streets are not all one-way, so there is much backing up and horn honking and squeezing by and poking one's car into the traffic hoping that the other cars will let you in.
The large main thoroughfares are a challenge just getting into the traffic. There is so much traffic that the center of the city allows cars only on odd or even days depended on your license number. Otherwise you have to go around or use the back streets. There are street signs but the names are long and in Greek characters, and we have gone by before I can even glimpse the name.
There will be no car driving for me! But there is a local bus that stops just at the foot of Theodosia's street and it makes a loop of the Haidari district - for free. That will be my first foray. At the top her street (she lives on a hillside) there is a city bus which will take me down to the center of Athens when I get brave enough and oriented enough to try that.
For now I am satisfied to explore the area on foot. Theodosia and Christos live on the outskirts of Athens. Probably we could call it a suburb. Athens reminds me a little of Albuquerque, NM, because the center is ringed by "mountains" but here they are closer to the center than in Albuquerque. My friends' house is on a street so steep it just stops and does not connect to the street above it which one gets to by a series of steps. They drive their car up the street, park in front of their house and when they leave, they back down the street to the next level. No worry about through traffic!