A Bad Experience in Greece

Where did you go for your honeymoon? 

Did you go anywhere special?

I have lots of memories of our honeymoon, which are good and bad, so I thought I would share them with you. 

Photo credit: Denise Larkin

We went to Athens for our honeymoon in 1987. I have quite a few stories to tell about our time there.

My honeymoon was spent in Athens. We went there for two weeks after we were married. I remember how hot it was in July 1987, because there had been an unbearable heatwave in Athens at this time.

During our time in Athens, we stayed in a three and a half star hotel. It was nothing special, but it seemed fine to us. We had half board meals at this hotel, but the weird thing is I cannot remember the name of it, so I am afraid I cannot share it with you. Perhaps, the hotel no longer exists.

Photo credit: Morguefile.com (Athens, Greece)

I remember, the hotel was about 20 minutes away from the centre of Athens, which was great for taking tours around this beautiful city. We had gone on a few trips to see some unique spots.

One evening, during our walk back from being out at a local bar, we had a terrible experience. I can remember this happening quite vividly because it was something that had really frightened me. We were not far from our hotel when some dogs circled us as they growled viciously at us. There seemed to be about five or six dogs I think and I can remember being very scared by them. 

They growled showing their teeth and they wouldn't leave us alone. I was very scared like I had never been before, as these dogs were big and not like any ordinary dogs I had ever seen. Their bodies were skinny and they looked like vicious racing dogs. There was something very odd about them too.

Now, I usually, love dogs, but these weren't ordinary pet animals, as they seemed to be very angry. They growled viciously at us like they wanted to rip us apart. Their teeth looked sharp and I knew they wanted to attack us.

I thought that they might have had rabies because they appeared brutal and fiendish towards us. I couldn't understand why they wanted to be that angry at us either, but I started to scream at my husband that I was scared.

We, eventually, found a doorway inside a hallway of some flats and waited it out in there until the dogs got tired of us. Of course, we seemed to be waiting for hours in there, because the dogs did not want to let us go. I was shocked that they were still hanging around outside and still growling and barking at the door. It was as if we were villains trying to get away whilst being in a different country.

Finally, a Greek older gentleman saw our predicament and found a way to help us. He got a long stick and waved it at the dogs without hitting them. Whilst he did that, he told us to come out and leave. We ran for it. He started to shout at the dogs in Greek and kept on trying to harass them and trick them away from us. I couldn't believe our luck. It was late at night and this man had come from nowhere to help us. We were truly grateful to him and shouted our thanks to him as we ran away.

Afterward, we ran as fast as we could to our hotel and during the rest of the time we were there, we never walked around those streets again at night.

At first, I thought that they might be wild dogs of some kind, but then I didn't know much about wild dogs or if they existed. Recently, I searched on the internet about wild dogs abroad and came across some weird stories of people being attacked by some very strange types of wild dogs in Greece. If you want to know more know about wild dogs, then search online for it. You will see many stories like ours online.