On my first flight out of the United States, I really did not know what to expect.  I flew from Atlanta to Belgium on Delta and then on to Athens via Sabena after a couple of hours' wait.   I guess here is a good place to put in a kind word for Delta.  Sabena was also commendable, though the on-flight smoking was awful and clouds ruined the views of Europe crossing on to Athens (but they can't do anything about the weather now, can they?).  During my second trip I had a hellish schedule: Memphis to Houston to Newark to Heathrow to Athens.  I was delayed in Houston so long (really the weather in Newark was too bad to start out) that I missed my flight to Heathrow and they had to put me up in a room in Newark for a night.  It threw my schedule off and I did not know that I would make it on the London-Athens flight until ten minutes before takeoff.  This mixup ensured that my luggage (one large backpack) would not arrive in Athens for TEN MORE DAYS!!!  This is where I get to say that Continental really messed up.  It will be a cold day in Houston before I ever fly with them again.  The Virgin Atlantic part of my flight was absolutely wonderful though.  If you have the chance I would highly recommend their flights.  I can only hope that you do not have the same trouble I did.  If it were not for my professor living in Athens that summer, I would have been in deep trouble.  She met me at the airport in a cab at 2am and had them drop me off at the school's doorstep.  I was able to scrounge up one change of clothes and then just keep washing things every day, but if I had not been at such an organized place, I would have felt extremely nervous and uptight - plus I would have had to wait in Athens till my luggage arrived, thereby possibly screwing up my schedule even more.

Well if it had been clear, and the plane had gone a little further up... OK, a lot further up... then I would have seen something like this picture as I passed over Attica (the big grayish, greenish area in the middle of the map is Athens.  You can even see the canal at Corinth if you look to the left side where the land narrows):

The City: (885,737 inhab. or 3 million in greater Athens area from 1981 census)
Arriving:  Athens is a city that needs preparing for.  Thankfully now you can do so at various online sites (e.g., Matt Barrett's Athens' Survival Guide , and mine of course).   I highly recommend Matt's web site.  It is a terrific tool and you should check into it if it will be your first time in Athens.  I really should have been totally bewildered but this is where preparation paid off.   When I first landed in Athens it was a big shock coming from two really nice airports (Atlanta's new international wing just before the Olympics and Brussell's very modern one).  The planes do not dock at the terminal, but a bus is sent out to the plane and then they ferry you back to the terminal and you exit through the gates there.   Though the wait on my backpack was nerve-wracking (I got mine 20 min. after all the other passengers on my flight had gotten theirs), I knew which bus to take to Syntagma Square.  You will need to be sure and buy tickets at the booths before boarding.

In Syntagma Square, the 'center' of tourist-driven Athens, I was an easy mark.  You will need to be aware of a certain scam that almost tricked me.  A nice man will approach you and ask you to his restaurant or bar right around the corner for a free drink (or if you are already at a bar some girls may start drinking "with" you).  Whatever the drink may be, the bartender will inevitabley try to force you to pay for the drinks of the people whom you sat near, toasted with, or looked at.  It did not quite work on me, thanks again to reading about it online.   It would have only been about 5000 dr. ($20), and compared to some amounts I have read about other travelers getting taken for, that is not much.  But thankfully I got out of the place quickly.   I then became nervous though, since I was not able to find a hotel that had a room available and it was getting dark.   I was also exhausted from the flights and still very hot.   Reading in a travel guide, you can see room prices really ranging to extremes, so I was not sure what to expect.   On my first night I got suckered.   I am almost embarrassed  to say, but in the hopes that it will help others avoid it, I will tell you that I wound up paying $80 for a room that claimed to have AC (it did not) and a TV (surprise! nope).  Now I know that it does not sound too high, but in comparison to the rooms I stayed in for the rest of the trip, it was much higher in price and much worse in actual accommodations.  After a quick nap, I made myself go look for a cheap place that night, and found one right around the corner! - The lesson here? I dunno.  Just try to give yourself time to find a place to stay, counting for the sure cheats that you will run into.  Try not to arrive at 7 p.m. or later.  Also, never, ever, ever stay at the HOTEL PARTHENON (EVIL!! EVIL!!) in Athens (Though Janice Siegel has told me she had a relatively good experience there).

The Dioskouros Guest House (located at 6 Pitakou), managed by young Americans, Australians, et al. is very inexpensive and it wound up as the place I stayed every night thereafter in Athens.  When I checked back in the summer of 1998, the rates were 8000 drx. per double per night (about US $27).  The rooms are in view of the Acropolis and there is a quiet patio out back with a lemon tree shading the tables.  For less you can share a double or even a quad.  It is really close to the Plaka too.  To get to it, you will have to head northwest into Plaka from Hadrian's Arch.

Plaka is one of the old areas of the city and today you will find it crowded with restaurants, kiosks, and tourists, not to mention the numerous reproductions shops and jewelry stores.   Another inexpensive place in Plaka that a number of students stay at is the Students' Travellers' Inn.  It is in the middle of Plaka and doubles go for 8000 drx. per night (6000 for a single).  They also have dorm beds for 3500 per night, four to a room.  You can find places much nicer and much more expensive, but I did not have to look much further while I was in Athens.