Yesterday was interesting in many ways, but the part that I found the most interesting was the elevators here at Petrou Brothers. There are 2 elevators for the hotel and both are quite interesting. They are quite small, 4 is the maximum they can hold, as long as the people are not carrying luggage or lots of stuff. I always like watching the students when they first encounter
these elevators, just because they are so different from American elevators. For example, the bottom floor is zero and one elevator has a fourth floor button even though there is no 4th floor (I always tell the kids that the Petrou Brothers bought it that way in case they added a fourth floor). Last summer the elevators were always hit or miss, some days they were working and some days they were closed awaiting repairs. Last night I rode down to the 1st floor and went to pick up Mara (our Bronze Age ceramicist) to drive her to the airport. When we got in the elevator, the doors closed and then the elevator bounced up and down twice very suddenly and then the doors reopened. We quickly hopped out and caught the other elevator down to the ground floor. I told the front desk about my experience and the lady behind the desk came out and looked at the elevator doors and said she would have someone check it out. I assumed she meant the next day because it was about 10:50 PM. I took Mara to the airport and when I came back to the lobby, at about 11:30, I noticed that the lady from the front desk was shouting through the closed elevator door to someone stuck between floors in the elevator. She had a special key that opened the door but could not reach the slot to turn it. She gave it to me and I opened the door and realized that the elevator was stuck above the ground floor. I then took the stairs up to each floor and opened all the doors and realized that she was stuck between the 1st floor and the ground floor – the Mezzinine level. The problem was that this elevator did not have a door on that level since it does not have rooms, just offices. I told the lady at the front desk and she then called the fire department who sent a large truck to the hotel with its horn blaring and lights flashing – it was all quite exciting to watch. It turns out that the lady stuck in the elevator was actually not a guest at the hotel, but just visiting a friend at the hotel. Perhaps the more amazing thing is that nobody else from PKAP woke up when the fire department pulled up in front of the hotel.Several people complained about street noises, but nobody complained about the fire truck.
RSM
Ancient History Ramblings 
