We have now been in Athens for the past week. We have found that there is no such word as service in this country. The service mantra is "Like it or leave it". We have been in stores, travelled on their bus line 'KTEL', and visited tourist destinations. If it is a simple transaction they are nice enough, however, do not ask questions or deviate in any way.
The worst interaction we have had was at Delphi wanting to catch bus back to Athens and needed to be on the 1.30pm as the next one was at 4pm. We had a plan, buy bus ticket, eat food quickly starving by this time and it would take 3 hours to get back to Athens. The KTEL man was not there OMG!
He finally arrives, proceeds to answer his phone call and ignore us as if we didn't exist. He has lovely chat with friend still ignoring us, 5 minutes later whilst still chatting to his friend he processes the tickets. We give him 200 euros, the tickets cost 54 euros, he screams at us, it is getting later and he does not accept cards, we are in a small town. What do we do? Panic. We go across road to the Periptero (Little shop on street), my husband is sent to bank, it is now 1.25, no husband ,no food and bus coming soon. The KTEL man comes out screaming at me "where are you to pay for tickets!!!?". By this time hungry, children bored, still no husband and peeved, my reply from across the street was "you are a backwards country and will always be a backwards country!!!!". Finally husband comes back with money, buys tickets and leaves. We got on and the bus was full! after our long wait husband had to stand for 2 hrs and me for 1 hr.
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