Our trip to Spain and Greece

A repost of my e-mails to family during our trip

Bathelona, October 9

Been too busy to write. Up early to play tourist, naps in the afternoon, dinner late, repeat.

Skipping nap to send update.

Flight to Newark ok. Two beers at airport,$20, makes everything in Spain look cheap! Delayed while Obama was in airspace about an hour, made most time up. We were allowed to use throne during delay...

Barcelona is great...weather has been good. We've had whole squid, octopus, anchovies, baby eels, small fish, snails, and more tapas. Have pictures...

At our second dinner last night (one dinner wasn't enough) we sat at a table with two couples one french and one  german...they spoke to each other in bad English, Kris spoke French, I drank beer and nodded.

Beer is from all over the Continent, good selection of draft most places, we had sangria with paella just because it seemed the just thing to do. Saturday on La Rambla is a trip. A zillion people, shops, restaurants, buskers, vendors, and pickpockets.

We are heading to the Barri Gothic for Mass tonight at Santa Maria del Mar. More tapas. More beer.

Head to Greece tomorrow. More later.

bob and Kris

Greece, October 13:

We made it to Greece with no problems. Kris' friend Viviane told us a cab driver named Margaritas would pick us up and would have a sign with our name...there was a man with the sign, who greeted me and kissed Kris on both cheeks...I thought the cab drivers were pretty fresh, but it was a joke....it was Antoni, Viviane's husband. Viviane popped out and hugged both of us.

Antoni is not a typical Greek. Many Greeks can be warm but appear very serious. He and Viviane met in Paris, he speaks French and a little English. They are a sweet playful couple who opened their home and hearts to us. We are eating and drinking like Greeks, except Viviane is a Belgian cook...her mousaka is heavenly. We'll get no better on our trip. Last night we had mezzes again (every night is mezzes...I thought we'd left tapas behind in Spain, but they just change names!) cuttlefish, olives, eggplant spread, anchovies two ways, feta, salad, "greek caviar", and fresh skate...a real treat. And beer, wine, ouzo.

They took us to Xanthi in Thraki, where Antonis' family is from, a fairly long drive into the more Turkish section of Greece. Interesting Byzantine architecture we won't see elsewhere in Greece. We've seen quite a few different villages, all are unique, and the same in some ways. We have been the talk of the town in Karperi (Viviane's village)..they don't see many (any?) Americans here!

We went shopping with Viviane, bread store, fish market, vegetable market, etc. we are seeing a lot of village life. Antoni took me to the cafe...men only.

Viviane said Greece is at one end of Europe...geographically and culturally.  Women are delegated to a subordinate role and the rules are different. They follow the Sadler rule: the egg always loses to the rock. Cars never stop for pedestrians, the biggest push their way to the front of the line, taxes are optional for some. We stopped in the municipal building to see a painting of Viviane's on display and there were no smoking signs on every wall...the boss in a dark suit was puffing away in the reception area. Cars double and triple park, speed limits and stop signs seem optional...BMWs fly by around the double yellow line and crosswalks are dangerous. It is hard being an egg in Greece.

We've had some misty weather and some rain. The Greek beer from Thraki is ok. We've had a little Greek wine it has been good...waiting to try dopio, local Greek wine out of the barrel. Antoni promises to play the bouzuki for us tonight after beer and ouzo. He and Viviane had restaurants where she cooked and he performed...

Kris and Viviane are having a great visit, reminiscing and talking...sometimes they break out with a duet of an old 60's song.

I may not be able to send an update for a while. We're off to Athens tomorrow, cruise on Friday...I'll see if we have email access, if so, I'll send more from the islands.

bob

Athens, October 21:

We made it to Athens fine...we originally planned to take the train, but with the possibility of strikes made air reservations before leaving home, which was good, because the trains were on strike the day we traveled.

We had excitement at the ship, we were not on the ship's roster...a mix up in Athens. They wanted to move us to another ship with a different itinerary. I was emailing our travel agent and they found a couple who took the other ship because they had already been to Ephesus....but it was touch and go for a couple of hours.

The cruise has been great...Santorini was sunny and warm, we walked to the highest point on the caldera, a two hour round trip hike...we planned to go to another small town but an oil spill on the main round jammed up the busses, the hike turned out to be more fun. We stayed in Santorini longer than planned, some engine trouble that required an engineer from Athens to fly in...we were worried we were jinxes. The total delay was fairly short and we made up the time to Patmos. Patmos was serene, it is a very quiet island, we took a cab to the castle and walked back into town. The cave of St. John was moving.

Turkey was very friendly and cleaner than Greece...at least where we were. Mary's house was very nice it was very special for Kris, Ephesus was very interesting. This was our only stop with some rain, but we avoided most of it. The seas were very rough off shore so we stayed over night and left for Samos early the next morning. We had plenty of time in Samos and visited three towns...one is the home of Pythagoras. Samos was our favorite island.

Last night was Mynokos...we visited three beaches. It was end of season so many places were closed in the main town...we stopped at a couple of bars after dinner but no big parties for us.

We met a lot of nice folks on the cruise, there are only 35 on the boat.

We are heading back to Athens tonight.

Athens, October 23:

Back in Athens...Friday we walked around the Acropolis...it is BIG & OLD. We visited the new Acropolis museum...very nice and a good way to orient yourself for a visit to the real deal. The promenade around the Acropolis was built for the 2004 Olympics and very classy we have walked a lot here. Last night we ate at a taverna...more tapas. Sardines, olives and zucchini with a mound of garlic paste. There was music, the guitar player serenaded us and got Kris to sing in French...she held off dancing, even though he asked her up several times...he was around 70, but cute!

Today we went to the Acropolis we took the long way in and walked around it again; this time much higher up...it got BIGGER & OLDER as we got closer. We had the path to ourselves and it was spectacular. Weather was great, cool and sunny. I got a picture of me in the cave of Pan, who I think is one of the gods of cooking...the other must be Pots.

At the top we ran into the large tour groups from the big cruise ships, but they moved asking pretty quickly and the crowds were pretty light overall.

After two weeks of Greek food we gave up and went to an Irish pub. A couple of pints of Guinness and sandwiches and we are ready for another taverna tonight...maybe fried cod and herring. We met a local couple at the pub, she's Canadian and he's a Yank...he's lived here for years and says he's stopped speaking Greek...says you get treated better if you speak English. So the little Greek I learned doesn't help much...most folks in Athens speak some English. But I think they made up the word signome, which is supposed to mean excuse me or beg pardon. Greeks never say it, they just kind of barge through. Not really rude, just different...but it takes a bit getting used to.

Mass was at St. Denis in Greek this evening...we'll hold off to 9:00 for dinner...you can see the Acropolis all over town at night, they light it up...the sucker is huge!

Bob

Heading home, October 25:

We had a nice Sunday in Athens. Saw the changing of the guard at Parliament. The guards wear traditional uniforms from the war to overthrow the Turks. A white kilt with 400 pleats representing each year of Turkish rule. It makes the kilt look like a petticoat, and the pom poms on their shoes makes a strange looking uniform...but these are tough dudes. The shoes they wear are made with nails on the bottom so they would sound loud marching, there were not many Greek soldiers and they wanted to sound like more so they stomped around to fool the Turks.

We saw the rich side of Athens...a Lamborghini and all designer clothes. It contrasted with the rest of the neighborhoods that are gritty.

We hit the Irish pub one last time at lunch the area was a zoo with sidewalk flea markets. Sunday is the day to sell all kind of junk on the streets. We had dinner in a very traditional taverna...no English menu and waiter spoke just a few words of English. We got a good meal and two tall cold Mythos for $20 US.

We are ready to head home, we had a great trip and it was long enough so we are looking forward to getting back to our regular routine.

And while we were fooled by our first "taxi driver" who kissed Kris on the cheek, our real taxi driver, George, who we used three times in Athens kissed Kris on the cheeks when he picked us up after the cruise and then again dropping us off at the airport this morning!

Bob