{"id":433,"date":"2012-10-09T17:27:06","date_gmt":"2012-10-09T14:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travelstoriesfromyworld.wordpress.com\/?p=433"},"modified":"2017-03-20T02:46:35","modified_gmt":"2017-03-19T23:46:35","slug":"waiting-for-godot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tstories.gr\/en\/waiting-for-godot\/","title":{"rendered":"Waiting for… Godot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Here in Athens, the trains seem to have adopted the habits of their citizens\u2026<\/p>\n

You have an appointment at 9.00 o\u2019clock but those will come after 20 or 30 minutes, will cross the platform with a smile as if nothing happened and won\u2019t even find an excuse for their delay. It’s not important if you\u2019re \u00a0sweating – do not forget that here \u00a0is still summer-or \u00a0standing thirsty waiting desperately! The train will never come on time!<\/p>\n

Arriving at at the station of Neratziotissa, I searched for a few minutes the timetable with the train schedule, a habit which I had acquired in Italy because of my \u201cdaily relationship\u201d with the train stations and my fury of checking every single minute whether is everything under control and on schedule! Everything there must be planned, what time do you wake up, how many minutes do you need to get to the train station, how many stops until Milan, everything around you is numbers, numbers that encircle you and make you nauseous … but that\u2019s how it goes .. time is money<\/em> don\u2019t they say?<\/p>\n

Turning back to the station Neratziotissa , I noticed that although the electronic boards with the time schedules have been placed in the station for over a year … they still remain wrapped and carefully closed in cellophane! They\u2019re out of order and there is not even a notice of\u00a0 the date that will be on… Everything is on the air! The time that the next train is coming is a surprise, an adventure \u00a0and the time that you gonna arrive at home or at your work is a miracle!<\/p>\n

I observe the people around me, they don\u2019t have a clue on when the train will arrive at the platform but they don\u2019t seem particularly preoccupied. I wonder if I’ve changed so much, did I become such a control freak that I can\u2019t even bare standing on a train platform \u00a0without knowing the exact time of the arrival? Just for a moment I\u2019ve remembered the platform number 2, the minutes that I was waiting there and always seemed an eternity, \u00a0and still the many things you could do in the next 5 minutes of the train delay … And then I realized how much more things you can do in the greek platforms …<\/p>\n

You have time not only for smoking a cigarette, but \u00a0you have time to smoke the entire package too. You have time not only to hear one song but the whole album, you have time not only to talk with a stranger but to be in a relationship with him. You have time not only for a small espresso but for a whole cup of frappe coffee, and still you have time for playing backgammon and chat with your 300 facebook friends!<\/p>\n

The trains in Greece are as its people, they don\u2019t have standard hours, they always take their time and don\u2019t hurry, they let you wait and won\u2019t \u00a0ever give you explanations … but the most important thing of all, they always smile and if you ask them why on earth were they late, they\u2019ll answer you two simple things:<\/p>\n

1. We had an appointment between\u00a0 9 and 9.30. If you’ve arrived at 9 o\u2019clock it\u2019s not my fault that I got here at 9.30, we are both on time!<\/em><\/p>\n

2. I\u2019m a little late because I\u2019ve stopped to drink a frappe with Tasos and I thought that It would be better to give you some time to smoke your entire cigarette while you were waiting for me on the dock so I wouldn\u2019t force you to throw \u00a0your cigarette due to my early arrival.<\/em><\/p>\n

My train arrived just after putting my last dot in this specific text … So the Greek trains won\u2019t\u00a0 ever interrupt you! They always give you as much time as you need to finish any activities while you are waiting for them\u00a0 in the platform and will also tell you to take your time … because here no one is in a hurry! Do not worry about anything! You’re in Greece mate!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here in Athens, the trains seem to have adopted the habits of their citizens\u2026 You have an appointment at 9.00 o\u2019clock but those will come after 20 or 30 minutes, will cross the platform with a smile as if nothing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1193],"tags":[818,820],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tstories.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tstories.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tstories.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tstories.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tstories.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tstories.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17964,"href":"https:\/\/tstories.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions\/17964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tstories.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tstories.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tstories.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tstories.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}