Barefoot in Athens

(ATHENS, GREECE) Here's another travel tip for you. If you happen to be in Athens and you have to ride the metro, avoid crowds and keep your wallet in your inside shirt pocket with your jacket zipped up. Yesterday, my partner Jerry was rushing onto the metro in a vey big crowd--Athens is terribly crowded--I got into the car ahead of him. There was a bunch of young men pushing and shoving. Jerry got into the car and the young men got out, acting as if they were on the wrong train. We looked down and saw a wallet on the floor. At first we thought it belonged to somebody else, but then Jerry reached into his pants and realized it was his. I suddenly said, "Check to make sure you haven't been robbed." He opened the wallet and all the cash--Euros and dollars-- were gone. The young men had distracted him so he didn't even feel the wallet had been lifted.

Well, what can you do? We had enough money elsewhere and we managed to get some cash from a Greek ATM. Strangely enough, I was reading an interview with Diane von Furstenberg in the Delta magazine on the plane coming over and she was pickpocketed on a recent European trip. Other than that we've had fun--the Acropolis, Agora, Plaka, wonderful food. More from Greece later.