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This morning, we went to the National Museum in Athens.  It houses a lot of artifacts from the sites we visited on the trip I just returned from.  Pictures were allowed there, but I didn’t take too many because I feel that the outdoor sites and monuments are much more impressive and worthy of being photographed. 

One thing I’ve noticed at all the museums we’ve been to is that it’s very difficult to identify the employees, until they approach you to tell you not to get too close or not to use flash when taking pictures or to ask for our permit.  This is because they wear casual clothing and do not have any sort of identification that they are museum staff.  The one exception so far is the Acropolis Museum, where staff are dressed in dark suits with name tags and headsets- very official.  At the other museums, it looks like a visitor in the museum sat down in a chair in the corner of the room and started texting or chatting away on their cell phone.  The women have their purse next to the chair and usually some water.  I am really surprised by this.  I’m not saying museum staff should be dressed formally in suits like at the Acropolis Museum, but I think some kind of uniformity or identification is necessary. 

After the trip to the museum, a group of us that is going to Meteora this weekend went to Larissa Station, the train station, to buy our tickets for tomorrow.  This is another “culture shock” experience.  At the station, there is a specific section for buying tickets in advance.  You have to take a number then approach the window when it’s your turn.  That was fine, but when we got to the window, it was up to me to use my Greek skills to get the tickets.  It was a challenge!  Everything would have been fine, but the train on the way back from Kalampaka was sold out of seats, which I understood.  However, we could still get tickets, but we would have to stand.  I had trouble understanding why the train was sold out, but eventually I understood (with the help of a lot of gestures).  We got our tickets, and hopefully they’ll get us there and back with no issues.  Thinking about it now, it really wasn’t that bad, and we managed to get what we wanted.

The experience made me realize how spoiled we’ve been so far.  We go everywhere in groups and usually go to touristy places where people speak English pretty well.  Lots of signs are in English, and even on the metro, the station names and announcements are in Greek AND English.  I’ve never had to order a meal completely in Greek or ask directions or buy something using only Greek, until buying the train tickets today.  I’m going to try to use Greek a lot more, especially when they speak English, because then they can fill in the words I don’t know.  It’s easy to be lazy and assume everyone speaks English, especially when we travel in our big group of Americans.  I don’t want to feel like a tourist the whole time I am here, and one way I can feel less like a tourist is to start speaking (more like trying to speak) the language.  I also want to get to know Athens better, which has been difficult since I have been traveling every weekend since I got here.  The train for Kalampaka leaves tomorrow morning at 8:20, and there is wireless internet at our hotel, so my next post will be from Meteora.