I believe the correct term for a dance pole is a "mazurka".

:rolleyes:

Took me a while to get that one ....

MikeMPLS -
Keep me posted. I saw a lot of ATH on DEQM runs last year (12,705 x 2 from my city). Been there several times, and know the metro, X-buses for airport & Pireaus, trams, ferries to islands, and intercity buses / trains reasonably well.
I know reasonable hotels 2 blocks off Syntagma, which are then about 4 blocks to the Plaka.

Hey, why not call it the "XENO-DO"???
(Play on Xeno meaning, and "Xanadu"...cough, cough.)

I could make t-shirts w/ FT logo, transliteration to Greek alphabet, dates, and "It's Greek to me" on them, since I am known for making such things - or not...
Let me know...

OMG, if there's a Greek FT logo involved I'm definitely in. Flying 13,000 miles for a t-shirt is insane. Uh, medium, black, long sleeve. Thanks.

Count me out on the Xanadu/Xeno DO ref. Had to sit through the thing at La Jolla Playhouse before it went to Broadway. Talk about Sunday matinee suicidal thoughts....

If someone is afraid to wear a XENO t-shirt, does that make him xenophobic?

^

T-shirts would be cool. Sanity is optional.

Instead of just transliterating, let's make it real Greek, maybe:

Count me as a definite please.

Great news !! ^

So we have gone from pole dancing to T-Shirts!

We may have to prohibit the posting of pictures at this rate.

Pole dancing was never an option. Belly dancing, maybe ...

I first saw belly dancing at a Greek restaurant (George's Tops 24) in Seattle years ago on trip to Seattle with one of my professors & her husband. When I now Google "George's Tops 24", the only trace I can find of it is an article about a dancer who worked there when I was there.

Another possibility is a place is that is supposed to have great food by day & three floors of dancing & music with varying themes by night.

The research continues. Feel free make suggestions.

(Update: Apparently George now operates Nikos Gyros in Seattle.)

Same for your presence buddy! ^

FWIW, I've been in ATH, uh, a couple of times. ;):o

Sure, Istanbul is just 45 minutes away, served by 3 airlines daily.

Also Greek -- there used to be tens of thousand of Greeks in Asia Minor until the fall of the Ottoman Empire. It's not on our agenda, but if anyone is interested the Byzantine Museum has a lot of interesting exhibits.

This Do intrigues me. I just had to cancel a few days in Istanbul, so I could make amends by doing this one and hopping across the border. Count me a strong maybe, once we know the details about the STAR MegaDoII later this month. (Added attraction is to finally meet our two "war correspondents".)

Sure, actually there were a couple of millions of those until the early 20's... However, belly dance was not part of those guys' tradition. :D

Actually, do you know of any Greek famous (or not so famous) belly dancer? I'd be delighted to know...

Greek belly dancing

Even better: "Web site of famous greek belly dancer ALEXANDRA"

ATH DO is a good idea, and I'm interested. Hopefully, schedules will permit.

A few ouzos for the FTers and even the "quiet ones" may be out there doing a tsifteteli. ;)

Interested, sounds like a short but great adventure. Will see more details about the other DO, never done one either way, but have the bandwidth.

Raised in Athens, live abroad now. I usually spend Christmas in Athens, so there's a very high probability I'll be there during the DO. It's still very early, but I'm definitely interested in this.

I wouldn't exactly call her "famous" but hey, if you know her, I rest my case :p

Flights are booked and IC is confirmed. ^

I arrive on Friday at 12:10 pm and depart on Sunday at 7:05 pm.

May I be added as a maybe? Checking on work schedule now.
tom

mot29, hope you can come as it would be nice to meet a regular of the old NWA forum.

I don't know, if I can attend the 1:00 pm activity. :(

I will be there. The only question right now is if Athens will be there.

Looking forward meeting you guys
 

Just booked my flight.
I will arrive Saturday 12:45 noon in Athens (LH 1278) ex. FRA and going back on Sunday 6:05 pm (LH 1283).

What is the hotel where most of the others will stay?
Hilton charges 160 €
The Parthenon 79 €

Actually, I would like to stay with the growed.

Update: I now did book the Parthenon. You can cancel it until two days before. Therefore, if something comes my way, I might switch.

Great news !! Welcome on board !! ^

szg and I will stay at the IC.

non refundable f&f rate is 93€/night, my corporate flex rate 127€

I've updated the attendees list, adding hotels where known.

Also note a change for Sat. a.m. at lili's suggestion: We're heading up the Acropolis first thing in the morning. We can have lunch as we go down the north side of the Acropolis into the Plaka area.

As Aegean Air is now part of Star Alliance, I sent them the following e-mail five days ago:

A few minutes ago, I received this reply:

Okay, I can understand and accept screwed-up English when it is written by a CSR for a foreign airline, but shouldn't they be able to do better in a form letter?

Can't you push this back until just after Christmas just for me? ;) I'll be in London and Rome before and during Christmas and don't get to Athens until Dec. 26th.

Unfortunately, I can't make this one. But hope everyone enjoys the Do and maybe I can make a future one sometime.

Tickets booked, arriving to Athens Dec. 15. I've already visited all of the places in the agenda, but I'll be glad to meet fellow FTers. BTW, the agenda looks great, good job MikeMpls!

Updated the list!

I'll see about moving Christmas, since the change fees are probably lower.

Now that is funny.

I'm disappointed because I arbitrarily booked a trip to Rome the week before (the weekend between FRA and ATH, oh well). I'll still try to see whether I can make it.

Mebbe
 

The timing is good for me, just a question of where my miles are. Would you put me on the maybe list?

Done

Who besides Dovster is arriving early? And of those (incl. Dovster), who wants to do some recon trips? Piraeus (port city) will be the key recon trip since we didn't go there last time.

Also, who wants to learn the Greek alphabet? With a bit of effort (not much, really) you can learn to read the signs & find your way around. I'll be at the DL DO in Oct. & will be willing to spend some time with anyone who wants to learn it; also can do some tutoring as people arrive. My background is with classical Greek, but with regard to being able to read signs & stuff, that's good enough for government work.

Put me down as a maybe. I am a dual Greek US citizen. I will be in Greece at the time of the DO but staying north at Larisa. I am going to try to head down to Athens but I need to see if business will keep me north. Hope I make it. Thank you

I am not certain about the recon trips. I have spent a lot time in the Greek isles, so visiting the sea doesn't mean much to me.

As far as learning the Greek alphabet is concerned, while it might be a good thing to do I suspect that I should first learn the Hebrew aleph bet.

I am really sorry but I am going to have to cancel my trip to Athens.

I just got a telephone call from Aegean Airlines, informing me that my TLV-ATH trip will not depart at 13:15 as scheduled, but rather at 05:40. In Israel, you are supposed to get to the airport three hours before departure, meaning in this case 02:40.

I live three hours away from TLV and doubt that there will be a train at that hour and won't impose on anyone to drive me there.

Then, to top it off, they told me that my return trip, which was scheduled for 11 am, has been pushed up to 01:30, getting me into TLV at 03:30 -- another non-starter.

I told them to cancel.

I looked at El Al but it is not flying to Athens on either my outbound or inbound days and the prices it wants are ridiculous.