Athens 50 Years Ago

It was 50 years ago today I was sitting at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens while a shipmate snapped this photo. We arrived in Athens, well actually the port of Pireas, on March 29th 1972 and stayed there for some well needed R&R until April 6th. I saw a lot of Athens and had a great time before heading off to more NATO exercises and a trip to Naples.

The Acropolis was very impressive but I was surprised to see all of the graffiti on the stone walls and especially the really old ones from foreign soldiers. 

Athens itself was my first major European city to visit for any length of time. I had been to Cadiz in Spain but that was only for one day. We were in Athens for a week that first time. I would end up spending a lot of time in Greece in various places like Thessaloniki and the island of Crete.

I thought Athens was very uptight at the time. I know the people there were living under a dictatorship at the time. Sort of like Spain under Franco when we were just there too. We did have some fun in bars there but they catered to American servicemen and seemed like they were different from the regular tavernas and cafes filled with Greek people. It's like they wanted to keep us separated. 

We also went on little bus tours of the countryside and to various historical sites scattered around the area of southern Greece. One memorable trip was to the ancient city of Corinth that had some amazing ruins. There was also a spectacular canal through the isthmus of Corinth with ships going through it as we watched from a bridge overhead. Traveling around Greece was a lot of fun and the ancient history was fascinating and everywhere.

We also went to some very nice restaurants and had some fabulous meals with lots of local Greek wine especially when we were out in the countryside on a sightseeing trip. One time we ordered some food from a menu that was not in English and just got whatever. It turned out to be a lamb's head on a plate in the center of the table. We ate the meat from the cheeks. Lots of fond memories of Greece.

There was a tradition of Greek men throwing wine glasses into the fireplace after dancing around the room. Of course when a couple of guys in our group also threw their empty wine glasses into the fireplace we were all asked to leave. Apparently only special people with special glasses were allowed to do that ritual.

And then there was the ouzo but that's another story.