My Greek Olympics: Hotel, Metropol Cafe, First meeting

Metropol cafe in the square, across from the Cathedral.

Hotel:

We arrive at the Athos, a small European style tourist hotel. We go in and I register and get room 101, then walk to the elevator. I am shocked again at the size, about as a phone booth. I try to put my two bags in and I don't fit. The lady at the counter says I can, but I decide to go up the stairs, only one flight. The women insist I use the elevator, but there is no way will I fit with the luggage so I take the stairs.

 I get to the room and put my stuff down, the room is small, but not to bad, I have a patio out the narrow double doors. I see David and he says to get one hour sleep then I will have to get up, it is the best way to get over the time change. I am asleep in an instant. The next thing I know I am woken by a knock on the door, David is getting me up and says we are going to a cafe for some beer and food. I am still disoriented by the trip and the new surroundings. I hope to get settled in as soon as possible, I am looking forwards to the experience.

Metropol Cafe:

We walk out and up to Apollonius street (named after Apollo) and down two streets to the Metropolis square and the Metropol cafe, my second home for months to come. We eventually call the Metropol the "annex" and get to know everyone who works there very well.  We sit and I am introduced to Bobby, Paniotis, Stellio and Silvia. Beer arrives, Alpha, along with small plates of cucumbers, olives, bread, feta, and tomatoes. We have a few drinks and eat all the food, it isn't too bad but not very exciting either, mostly finger food.

Paniotis is tall and middle aged, but seems older. He is a structural engineer and works at the cafe as a second job. Stellio is younger and thinner than Paniotis and is a waiter. Bobby is also middle aged and works as the "greeter". He is the person who stands out front and greets people as they come in or tries to get people to sit and eat. Silvia is the cashier and works inside. It is a funny setup with so many doing jobs that one person would do in the US.

We walk off after a few hours and I am exhausted, David says I need to stay awake until at least ten o'clock, I try. I get back to the hotel and I have to deal with the short bed but I am asleep in an instant, the first real sleep since I left 36 hours ago. My bed has a foot board which means my feet must rest on the wood as they stick way out over the end. The shower head is to short and of course there is the no toilet paper rule, I flush it anyway.

First meeting:

The next morning we meet and I see Jay for the first time, we all get together and have the hotel breakfast. A standard fare of hard boiled eggs, yogurt, cereal, fruit, hard bread and coffee or juice, it is the same every day and is very common throughout all of Europe. Vic arrives and tells me that we were going to a meeting with Raytheon, I was to go and get an impression of what they had to say, there might be a possible partnership in the works. Vic and I take a taxi to the meeting, it was at a hotel not to far from where we were (Intercontinental). I find out that these people were the competition during the bid, much bad blood between them and us, but since we won they wanted to play with us now.  Later we find out that a $10 million bribe was paid by Raytheon and they still lost.

The meeting was short and I wasn't sure what the point was, we left and go out to get a taxi back to Syntagma square. We stand on the street and try to wave one down, it is kind of drizzly and we eventually walk to another hotel where we find a cab. Vic fills me in on what had happened and now I see what the meeting was about.

We get out of the taxi and walk up Likabettos street in Kolonaki to go to the offices of our consultant Semos and his partner Trep. It is a cool day and a bit of rain falls, on the way Vic fills me in on all the shit that has been happening with the contract, he is bitching and complaining about the stuff that went on with the contract award and what a mess it was. I had taken part in the contract writing but not the negotiations. We go up the hill and soon are at the office building which is in an area of embassies and private homes, we ring the bell and in and up the spiral staircase.

I worked on the initial proposal in DC and I thought that what was written then was the contract. During the process of the award parts were re-written to meet new requirements and expectations. When the proposal was brought over, it was hand carried to insure it made it on time. The idiots that were bringing it decided to take a sight seeing trip and the proposal wasn't delivered until late afternoon. It turned out that the proposal was changed and it had to be re-written on the spot that night, it was due in the next day.