Being in Athens a second time did not seem quite as exciting as my first visit, in part because of the loss of novelty, and in part because I was fighting a cough and none of the conditions there promoted health. It was fairly cold, as I said, with temperatures ranging from the low 40s to the low 50s and cloudy by day. But I had come prepared with thermal underwear, sweater and overcoat. The thing that bothered me was the feel of the air, dry and particulate. The air around the city streets seemed dusty from subway excavations, sooty from diesel exhaust, and smoky from cigarettes everywhere. Wherever we walked, even down a narrow street in Plaka, void of people or running automobiles, I sensed a cloud of just-dissipated smoke. I began to suspect that smokers lay in wait around every corner, conditioning the air with their exhala­tions, then disappearing into a storefront as the sound of our footsteps approached. But I never caught them in the act.

Because our first two days there were holidays—Christmas and St. Stephen's—none of the museums and few of the shops were open, so we had nothing to do but walk around the public areas. On Christmas we walked into the National Gardens, found a relatively secluded bench, and consumed the picnic items that Maryl had purchased in Thessaloniki: canned ham, gruyere cheese, crackers, and olives. The ham was not very appetizing, so after enjoying the rest we cut the meat into small cubes, then strolled around the park leaving tidbits under the bushes here and there for the families of cats that lived in the park.