,
Miss Niece was not having the best of days, to say the
least. It was her very last day in
Athens and instead of scampering about with her gaggle of girlfriends, taking
in the sights and snapping digital memories, she was hopelessly lost, a lone
foreigner ambling about a suburban Greek neighborhood. To make matters even worse, she couldn’t
quite discern which street she was meandering along, struggling to decipher
what appeared to be a mishmash of incomprehensible letters and symbols,
spelling out directions to everyone but her.
Linguist she was not, as it was “all Greek” to her, these ancient hieroglyphics, whether Egyptian,
Mayan or the skillfully crafted design of Chinese calligraphers, penned
scribbling of the secretive cryptic kind. Not clear as mud, all that the Kid knew was
that she had somehow strayed from the well-trodden path, gullibly
traipsing along winding lanes and avenues, blindly following Auntie Nora’s
crudely drawn map. Yep – You got it –
You can fathom a guess as to how rapidly it all went downhill from the get-go!
You mean batty ol’ Auntie Nora’s intricately crayoned colour
coded map, with the pretty lime green arrows pointing to every handbag shop
within a mile radius? The laminated
florescent hued 9 x 11 inch artistic masterpiece that would rival even the best
of Google Maps, quite the creative showpiece of the mad genius kind? You mean the map that Miss Kid was too
embarrassed to be seen carting around, discretely sequestering it in the back
of her hotel closet, along with the stacks of innumerable magazine clippings of
her delusional relative’s “Prospective Greek
souvenirs and satchel wish-list acquisitions” binder? Okay.
Okay. I confess. So I’ve gone a tad overboard with the
descriptive and perhaps have exaggerated a teensy weensy bit over here, but hey,
you get the picture, right?
In my own defense, and since I’m the one who is writing this
memoir, Miss Smarty Pants Niece ditched a perfectly good map and set out on her
own to scavenge for trinkets, clue-less, map-less and direction-less, relying
on mere instinct to guide her. All that
she remembered from a quick glance at The Map, was that the exclusive handbag
boutique she was searching for, sat just a hop, skip and a jump away from the
Metro station – just around the corner, past the café, sitting smack-dab squarely
in back of the weirdly grotesque statues that lined the rue.
It’s a crying shame though, that most of the signage was in
Greek, the lettering literally tripping her up, as Le Niece’s knowledge of the language
was limited to just a couple of words, none of which included “where am I”, “what street is this” and “I am hopelessly lost”. Non. Instead, her crazy ol’ Auntie had insisted
she learn more commonly useful phrases such as “how much does that cost” and “do
you ship to Canada”? Like,
seriously?
The alpha, beta, gamma and deltas were in a class of their
own, tongue twisters of the foreign language kind, rendering Miss Kid
illiterate, on a desperate search for a dictionary, compass and map. Those Epsilons and Zetas had won round one,
but not for long.
Next week – Stay tuned for more of Le Niece’s hilarious Athens Miss - adventures!! Does the Kid manage to eventually find her bearings and clip clop back
home? More will be revealed, reported
and recounted, so, stay tuned!!
Come follow along as Miss Kid traipses
about the birthplace of democracy, polishes up on her ABCs and gathers a wealth of
memories on her fabulous Greek adventure away from home (far enough away from
the clutches of her cuckoo ol’ Auntie Nora).
Photos - courtesy of Maradzidra
Photos - courtesy of Maradzidra
Pink Sneaker Tidbits of Fascinating Info
and Interesting Facts:
Did you know that the Greek alphabet is
over 2,500 years old and was adapted from the Phoenician alphabet and consists
of 24 letters?
Did you know that it is one of the first
alphabets to include those ever so useful vowels? The Phoenician alphabet included letters for
consonants only.
Did you know that each letter harbours it’s
own unique meaning and symbolism?
Did you know that since each letter has an
attached wealth of meaning, that only a few symbols strung together are enough
to convey your message?
Did you know that Greek letters are utilized for depicting mathematical symbols?
Did you know that the first two letters of
the Greek alphabet are Alpha and Beta – hence forming the word “Alphabet”?
Did you know that the last letter of the
Greek alphabet is Omega, meaning “the end”? How cleverly appropriate.
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