"Good Morning. Look at me! This is my name. Are you looking? Well, look closely! My name is Marietta. It means "Little Mary" because I was very little when I was born. I mean, all babies are little but I was very little so my grandmother named me Marietta. The name looks not Greek, heh? Well, that's because it is not Greek, it is Italian because there are Italian people, well not really Italian now, but they used to be Italian, people in the part of Greece where my grandmother was born and she thought I should have this name. The priest and my mother did not want it but my grandmother did so I am named Marietta and you will not find many other Greek women named Marietta so you cannot confuse me with no one else because there is no other Marietta tour guide who has ever been, are you listening? Well, listen carefully because what I say is important! There is no other tour guide, well maybe there is another one somewhere in Italy but I am sure that there is no other tour guide in Greece named Marietta, not even in the part of Greece where my grandmother came from in case there are still Italians there but I have not visited that part of Greece for many years....................." And it never stopped, 8 hours long!!!
The woman's mouth ran far ahead of her brain, which was a pity. She had a lot of information, much of which I knew (thanks to parents and grandparents who read and great teachers!) but there were many on the bus for whom this was all new. After about an hour, a lot of us tuned out or tried to.
First, we went to the stadium which was the site of the first modern Olympics - 10 minutes photo op and restroom stop. She kept referring to the restroom as Walter and Claire (W.C.) and found it terribly amusing. Actually, she found herself so interesting that she droned on and on.
We could see the Acropolis from many parts of the city as we rounded the harbor driving towards it. I had thought we would drive up to it but the car park is at the bottom of the hill and about 80 steps later we were actually there. Normally, that would have taken a few minutes but Mariette insisted that we stop at the first landing (after about 10 steps) and gave us a lecture about the trees, not just what they were but how to avoid hitting low branches - duck. Thanks, Marietta. We would never have thought of that on our own.
Then, the next landing and the next so that it took about 35 minutes to finally get to the Acropolis, which is much smaller (it's still big!) than I had expected when viewed from the harbor. It's absolutely beautiful but still in a state of disrepair, despite billions (yes, billions with a "b") from the European Union since the 1980's. There is scaffolding which has rusted almost away and is certainly dangerous but since it's not in use - no money to pay the workers!
There was a souvenir shop at the base of the hill and the man running it is a certified civil engineer with a degree from Wuerzburg, a famous German university. He is fluent in Greek, English and German and cannot get a job because he does not have the right connections or family name. In Germany, we often see news reports about the nepotism in Greece and here I was, confronted with it. His German was actually better than mine and his English was practially unaccented but he cannot get any other job than running his uncle's small souvenir shop.
He wanted to stay in Germany and the company where he trained during his senior year (and about which he wrote his thesis) wanted desperately to keep him but the German authorities said that there were enough German engineers to fill the job. There aren't, and many companies complain about not being able to hire competent foreign workers but to no avail.
From the Acropolis, we went to lunch at the Metropolitan hotel - hooray! It was excellent, we were the only guests and there was an enormous buffet. Well-prepared and presented Greek food is excellent. I tried to sample a bit of everything but only managed about half of what was there - the cheese pie was my favorite but I did eat lamb and veal.
Then, in true carnivore fashion, I wanted to nap in the bus during the 60+ minute drive to Cape Sounion. Silly me!! Marietta was at it again. After about 30 minutes (doesn't she have to breathe?) she said she would give us a rest. Click off when the microphone. I began to speak to the woman across the aisle when Click on and Marietta was at it again. I fell asleep for about 20 minutes and I swear she noticed it and turned up the microphone.
Finally, we got to Cape Sounion - "You can use the Walter and Claire but if you buy some food from here you have to go away and it eat and there isn't time to eat here. Besides you should not be hungry or thirsty after that lunch. Did you enjoy the lunch? You should have enjoyed it! It was prepared just for you. I thanked the chef. Did you remember to tell the waiter how good it was? It was cooked for you! Lord Byron, this is for the English, uh, UK participants since maybe the rest of you do not know who Lord Byron was but he was famous, a famous English person and he died in Greece, very tragic, because he died so far away from home and he was here and left his name on a stone, it's one of these but it was a long time ago and it's not so easy to see unless you have good glasses, I mean eyeglasses and then maybe you can see it because it's not easy to see............"
And on and on.
From a previous entry, you know that I really wanted to see the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion. It was just a short walk up a small hill, at the cliff edge (yes, I did go near the edge and look over) but of course, we were expected to stop and listen to her talk about Lord Byron again (a famous English person from the UK who died here because he was here at that time) - duh! - who carved his name in one of the blocks. It's still graffito to me even though I am a fan of his poetry.
So, taking my life in my hand, I not only did not listen, I walked further on, to the temple. God did not strike me dead for defying Marietta although I think she expected it.
The temple was erected to be a sanctuary, small and perfect, on a promontory surrounded by water on 3 sides, but in the same state of disrepair as the Acropolis. Nevertheless, the witch still went on a rampage about the Elgin Marbles, a sensitive subject which should never have been broached.
When Greece was under the domination of the Ottoman Turks, Lord Elgin was given "permission" to remove some of the marble figures from the Parthenon and other sites. The action was controversial then and still is but......Greece did not do much of anything to protect the remaining figures. In fact, they did not open a museum to shelter them until 2009, 200 years after Elgin removed the ones now in the British Museum. And, those still in Greece are eroded and rather sad. Of course, when you want to divert public opinion from real problems at home, you can play the "national pride" card and some will fall for it.
An English woman sitting behind me assured those of us who could hear her that there were no marbles in her luggage but unfortunately, Marietta had lost hers. It seemed like a joke then, until Marietta began to cry "poor mouth".
She has worked all her life and her pension will only be 400 euros and that's not fair. She has to pay for her children's education and her son went to MIT and that was very expensive or he is still there, I am not sure. This subject should never have been broached - a German man at the back yelled, "You should pay your god-damned taxes!".
When Greece's financial problems first began to become public knowledge, there were many news reports on German tv with interviews of Greeks who not only did not pay taxes but made fun of the German reporter and Germans in general for paying taxes voluntarily. One interview which sticks in my mind was with a surgeon who claimed that he only earned about 10,000 euros a year - about $13,000. A friend lent him the Porsche he was driving and his wife's job paid for the house (with pool) where they lived. She was a secretary in the Health Department. Huh?
Now, we have to rescue the bastards and I am really not happy about it. But, it's the very old and the very young who will suffer most, not the politicians who created the wreck which passes itself off as the Greek government.
Normally, the tour participants give the guide some money - a tip for the guide and the driver. Most of the people on the bus had taken out money but all of us put it back in our pockets. Had she shown one iota of gratitude for the help Greece has been given or had she not broached the subject of money, she would have been much richer at the end of the day = 45 passengers @ $10 per passenger. If she was lucky, she got a quarter of that - from the Americans who do not know of the bailout.
If we are lucky, we will never meet her again.
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