I spend so much time on the tram, I figured I ought to dedicate a blog post to it.

It is tremendously convenient (stops just a few yards from my apartment building) but is slow. It takes 35-45 minutes to get all the way downtown, depending on traffic. Unlike the underground Metro, the tram has to deal with traffic lights. It's cheap, too. A monthly pass costs 15 Euros, which actually covers buses, too. A pass that would include the Metro would be 35 Euros, but we don't take it often enough to justify the expense. Instead we just spend 1 Euro per ride for the Metro.

It's really funny to watch people board. There are definitely preferred seats. There are only 6 of these single seats: three facing forward and three facing the rear. Many is the time I have seen people run to get one of these seats. OK, maybe not run but definitely walk very fast. Not only people just getting onto the tram, but people who are on the tram, who have one of the less desirable seats, will scramble to grab one of these.

Ranking next are these double seats: again, four face forward and four toward the rear (note: the tram has a driver's compartment at each end, so the tram's front going toward the center becomes the rear going away). In the very foreground you can also see the handrails near the doors. There is a preference for standing location, too. Holding one of these handrails is preferred to holding onto the overhead straps.

You can see several things in this 3-second video. First you can see the "accordion-like" connections between the articulated tram cars. If you stand on the floor at this point, one foot can turn while the other is stationary. Second, note the woman boarding the tram before others are off. There are periodic announcements made at the platforms to allow others to exit the tram before boarding, but because people want those prime seats, they don't wait.
Lowest priority of the seats are these: the majority of the seats. As you might imagine, the end seats are the most desirable of these. Again, people in central seats will move to the end if it becomes available. Moving to the end is not just a matter of sliding down a few seats. Note that there are bars that would prevent just sliding down a couple of seats. Note the graffiti at the end of the car. This is unusual. The cars must be made of some easily-cleanable material because when someone does graffiti a car, it is usually gone by the following day, unlike the stuff on walls or buildings.

Here you can see the straps for standing people to use - much like you'd find on any bus or subway. Clearly they're less desirable not only because they force you to lift your arm and potentially embarrass yourself with a pit stain, but also because you have to stand between people sitting who are forced to stare at you in places where they don't normally look. If you happen to be one of the people sitting, you spend most of the rest of the ride looking at your shoes or up at the ceiling so as not to be thought to be staring at someone's.... well, let's just drop it there.

The next video has lots of info. First, it's a close-up of the screens that show the next four stops, and alternates from English to Greek. They usually work but sometimes they just say "Have a Pleasant Ride" alternately in Greek and English. Second, you can hear the stops announced in Greek and English. Third, you can hear an accordion-playing beggar in the background.
The last pictures are all taken from my balcony of the nearby tram stop. I wanted you to see how close it is to the apartment. I also took the opportunity to show how close the sea is to our apartment as well. We have the ideal tram stop. Trams come about every 10 minutes or so in each direction. As the tram goes south - away from the center and toward the sea - one goes east. While we take whatever tram is at the downtown station when we head home, anyone going further on the tram from the center has to make sure to take the correct tram, which could mean a wait of up to 20 minutes. Similarly, if we were just one stop further out, we would have to be sure to choose the correct tram from one going along the coast and one headed toward the center, again meaning the possibility of up to 20 minutes wait. We are the furthest possible out while still having the option of always taking the next available tram. What's more, if we were one or more stops closer to downtown, we wouldn't be able to see the sea from our balcony.

If there is a detriment to being so close, it can be the noise. The tram is electric and relatively lightweight so it's not load, but we can hear it from the apartment. Here's how it sounds from the balcony.