Day 63. Welcome to Athens my friend

Had a number of experience-building encounters with deft Greek salesmen today.

The first was a charming old bloke in a luggage shop in Patros who, without a word of English, managed to extract the maximum number of euros from me for a rather mediocre backpack. The only thing that was 'special' about the price (he knew that much English...) was that he could retire to the local cafe to buy drinks all round on the profit!

The second was a taxi driver who kindly transported me and my backpack from the bus station in Athens to the hostel in the Plaka area, which is brilliantly located right in the heart of things. Despite his meter clearly showing 6 euros, he blithely charged me ten...but I expected that.

The third was another old duffer who was wandering along the same street as me later that evening.  He had friends in England and I was happy to keep him company as he headed back to his bar since I deserved a beer after that long coach ride. A beer duly appeared. Excellent!

A pretty girl also appeared. I thought it was probably his daughter, wanting to practise her English but, after a few minutes, she suggested that I might like to buy her a drink! Whoa there! Where's my old mate gone? He was chasing another guy who had also been encouraged to buy an overpriced beer but didn't want to pay for it! I paid, made my excuses and left, kicking myself for my gullibility!

Lessons learnt: beware Greeks bearing smiles.