Athens Metro
Athens Metro
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The Athens Metro
makes getting around the city easier than ever including to and
from Eleftheros Venizelos Airport |
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So the main problem was not having to dig
through rock, but having to sift through
history. But this was worth the time spent
because Syntagma square is more than a
metro station. It's a museum. In the entrance
are photos of Athens from 100 years ago when
it really was one of the most beautiful cities
in Europe.
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 The trains themselves are not the super-high-tech
streamlined ones I had expected to see. In fact
they look like the old trains, only newer,
cleaner, smoother and faster. They are fully
automated and a woman's voice tells you which stop
is coming next and to get out of the way if you
don't want to hurtle through the tunnels of Athens
with half of you hanging out the subway
door. The stations were packed with people as were the
trains and in fact on my way back from Rafina one
day with George the
Famous
Taxi
Driver
, the heavy traffic of Athens suddenly stopped at
Holargos, where the metro begins and it was smooth
sailing all the way to the Attalos Hotel. Even in
Syntagma square I noticed as I was going to cross
the street, there was less traffic, which I
attribute to the metro. So does this mean the metro will change Athens for the better? I think so. I believe it is all part of a plan that will make Athens one of the most enjoyable and pedestrian friendly cities in the world. Oh yes...there is no smoking allowed on the metro or in the stations. Also some of the old problems still exist. Watch out for pick-pockets. Keep your wallet and passport in your front pocket with your hand in it. Ladies carry your handbags zipped if possible and close to your chest. People with backpacks are an easy target. If you think you are safe with cargo pants with zipped side pockets, forget it. These guys are so adept that they can cut through any pocket and you won't even know until you put your hand in and find everything gone. They also use confusion as a weapon, for example stumbling into a crowded car or bumping into you. If you want to be safe make photo copies of your passport and your driver's license and leave the originals and all but one credit card in your safe in your hotel room when you plan to use the metro or buses or really, anytime you go out in Athens because you never know when you may be in a crowd and that is where these guys work. Hold your money and credit card in your hand in your pocket. If you get pick-pocketed don't expect much help from the police. You will just end up wasting your time. Go straight to your hotel and cancel your credit cards that were stolen. (That's why you should only carry one with you). You can also read my article Defeating the Pickpockets Don't forget to buy and validate your metro ticket before you get on the train. If you are caught with no ticket or an unvalidated ticket you have to pay a hefty fine.
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As my pal Harry
of Harry's Greece Guide said: "It took 2000 years but
Athens finally has a metro". And not just any
metro, the Athens metro has to be the most
beautiful system in the world and should stay this
way until the graffiti "artists" get a hold of it.
In the meantime even if there is nowhere you need
to go with the new metro, it is worth visiting it
and even taking a ride a few stops (you can visit
the Hilton and the American
Embassy). As you may have heard, work on the metro was slow
because of all the antiquities they discovered.
Every time they dug a new hole they would find a
grave, or a wall or an urn or something and would
have to put down their picks and shovels and call
in the archaeologists who would do their digging
with toothbrushes, which is a bit slower.
Meanwhile deep below the surface, the giant metro
mouse is churning fossilized dinosaurs into
microscopic chips as it tunnels it's way through
the city.
The Syntagma Square station is the crowning
achievement in the marriage between high-tech
transport and archaeology. You walk down some
marble steps and find yourself in a modern
universe. The tickets are sold on your right or by
machines that for now only take coins, though they
are working on this problem.the escalators take
you down to the lower lobby and the trains. But
don't go down right away. There is much to
see.
To the right, on the balcony that surrounds the
lower lobby encased in glass is the stratified
excavation where you can see artifacts from
different periods of Athenian civilization from
Byzantine through Roman to classical Greek, and
pre-historic. There is a grave, cisterns, portion
of a wall, an ancient road, clay drainage pipes
and more. Around the corner in glass display cases are
ancient pots, columns and many of the artifacts
that were found while digging the station. 
The
lobby is a museum and while many people made their
way through the station with the determination of
seasoned commuters, many people were wandering
around examining the exhibits. An escalator takes you down to the lower lobby
(behind the urn) where there are ticket machines
and automatic ticket-stampers that take your
ticket and spit it right back at you. Then there
are long marble halls and more stairs and
escalators which lead to the trains below. There
is also a display of umbrellas in an air or light
shaft perhaps created by a modern artist with a
facination for Seattle or places with more
rainfall then arid Athens, where umbrellas in
summer are as common as bikinis in
Antarctica.
The long marble halls have no advertising and
reminded me of what I always imagined heaven to be
like when I was a child. I had to stop the inner
voice that kept interupting my thoughts, telling
me,
"
walk towards the light,
Matthew.
" By the time I reached the final steps I was
expecting to be greeted by my father and deceased
friends and relatives. Later, one afternoon
in