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In Which It Turns Out Mao Was Right All Along

January 10, 2008 by Mike

Rafina

Route: Athens - Piraeus - Sounio - Markopoulo - Rafina

Athens must be one of the largest cities I've traversed on this trip in terms of area. In the nicest possible way, once I'd set off to leave today, it felt like I'd never get away. Still, my exit route, "down to Piraeus then turn left", went mostly to plan, and I've now seen enough of the city to get work as a taxi driver if necessary.

Today I passed various Olympic sites. The signposts haven't been taken down yet -- but then it's only four years since the Games here ended. Londoners, you have been warned.

I also think I rode past the church in Vouliagmeni where Helen and Remy jumped the broomstick#42; five happy years ago. (#42;That's not actually part of the Orthodox ceremony...)

Remy, Helen -- did I get the right church? This one's opposite Marks & Spencer in Vouliagmeni..

Cape Sounio lies at the tip of the Attica peninsula, the last sight of land an Athenian sailor had on leaving his city -- and the first proof he was coming home. The Temple of Poseidon that survives there is one of the most complete I have seen in a while. It's certainly one of the most photographed. Coachloads of David Baileys were moving round the place in an heroic display of mass synchronised snapping.

I waited patiently to get a clear sight of it but this gentleman appeared to have grown roots. Oh well, at least now you have some sense of the size of the place. (I'd say he was about 6'1")

Mao was right. For a start, I'm decadent.. or is it just that, at my age, I'm decaying?

Meanwhile, capitalism eats itself, which comes as no surprise to us unreconstructed lefties, though it would be nice if it wasn't happening to *my* bank.. and what's more the Running Dogs Of Western Imperialism are alive and, well, running around the streets of Greece. Whether individuals or in small packs, they patrol the backstreets of cities and towns, and congregate at road junctions out in the country.

"It happens every summer," Nassos explained to me in Athens. "Families go away on holiday and can't take their dogs with them so they get left behind. But now, people are home and they'll gradually start taking the strays in. They spend the winter keeping each other company until next summer.."

(That's not to suggest that Nassos is a Maoist, by the way.)

Keeping to the coast road isn't always as easy as it sounds. In this corner of Greece, road signs and town signs are non-existant. Not just in Latin characters but in Greek as well.

I made it from Keratea to Daskallo but the only road I could find to Dionisos was a treacherous dirt track. Though that's stretching the definition of 'dirt track': it was more pothole than track; and it was more exposed rock than pothole. And the bits that were left weren't 'dirt' so much as 'mud'.

In other words, half the motorcyclists who read this would have loved it, and will be shaking their heads even now because they know what's coming. I effected a tortuous 17-point turn halfway up a sharp incline, fearing a dozen times that I was completely stuck, or about to fall, before inching my way down the hill again to the safe embrace of the asphalt road.

I am so glad you weren't there to take pictures.. though you'd have had trouble focusing because you'd have been laughing so much.

Beside the Seaside

In Which It Turns Out Mao Was Right All Along

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