I never got the chance to write about my trip, because of the illness I caught there on my penultimate day, but I loved Greece.
As I wrote before, I’d always wanted to go.
My hotel (CocoMat) was amazing, and since it was December, I got upgraded to a Parthenon view.
Through the center of the hotel was an art installation: this is a bunch of wooden birds, whose arms flap, creating a lovely breeze and a lovely sound.
But of course I didn’t spend much time in my hotel. Instead, I conferenced and museumed.
I enjoyed the conference, but I’m too anal to deal with Greek time. Due to the jet lag, I was up early, so I went to the first session, which no one even tried to start until 25 minutes after the official time. The conference organizers welcomed us, and then the Dean said they were having a special event. Apparently, the university’s departments had all had separate libraries, but today they were celebrating the opening of the new campus library.
The opening performance overlapped with the start of the afternoon session (2:30, which I was on), so they announced that we would start the afternoon session at 3.
Of course, only those of us at the opening were hearing that announcement.
I enjoyed the morning, learning that the myth of the Amazons probably wasn’t really a myth, just an exaggeration, since there were great numbers of warrior women in antiquity.
And then, lunch: although one of my Greek colleagues told me I wouldn’t get a bad meal in Greece, the student-run cafeteria proved her wrong.
Then I went to the library, which was set up for a famous opera star to perform in. She got started late, naturally, so I had to rudely leave before she was finished.
Except then we were missing a panelist at 3. The chair didn’t seem bothered. So we just sat around. At 3:30, a woman walked in and sat down in the audience. The chair explained that we were waiting for one more speaker. What a coincidence–she was the speaker. And no, she hadn’t just come from the library event; she hadn’t even heard about it. No apologies . . .
I can’t be Greek.
Still, I gave a well-received talk on myth in Mr. Burns: A Post-electric Play and The Book of Mormon.
Which meant I got to reward myself with a trip to the best wine bar in Greece, Brettos!
