In Kifisos (or Cephissus?) coach station, a tourist may indulge in juxtaposing the ancient and legendary with the modern and mundane as much as he likes. That bus is going to Ithaca - is it Odysseus's Ithaca? Edessa rings a bell, is it where the crusaders founded a county in the East? (No, that one is newer.) And Leonidio? Is that where apparently they still speak a descendant of Doric Greek?
There was still almost an hour to kill before the 17:15 bus to Sparta departs. For some reason, there are quite a few book stalls in the station, but it's all Greek to me.
So I walked into the main station café. Is that gentleman looking at me?
"Do you have Covid-19?"
"I hope not,,", I said, before I noticed he has a phone in his hand, ostensibly hoping to scan something, "err.. vaccine paper?" (pointing at my left arm)
"Yes."
"Wait a sec.. here it is."
Then I got permission to place an order for a disposable cup of ελληνικός καφές, safely.
The plague of 430BC took away a quarter of Athens's population and arguably cost it its primacy in the Greek world. Okay, now it all makes sense.. or not.
See, a foreign tourist's mind. Dreaming up the most tenuous juxtapositions between the old and the new again.
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| Kifisos bus station |
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