Cappacino, Spinach Pie and Moussaka

Darren and Molly rolled in again very, very late. Actually, Darren didn't exactly roll in at all....I found him outside our studio door at 8:00 am, sleeping on his shoes......well, that is a whole nother other story.......and best told by Darren:) So, because of their late entrance, I left them sleeping and took off early to the Sunday flea market.

I am hooked on a new diet.... I think that Greek food might go down as my favorite. I have found a european version of Cafe Vienna International~this european instant coffee is really cool because it has chemicals in it that make it foam up like a real cappacino! So that is my new morning drink, when possible. Now in Athens, I have decided the hostel breakfast of hardboiled eggs and tomatoes is not as good as the spinach pie down the street. Nothing like a big triangle of phyllo, feta and spinach in the morning. I feel so Greek....

I wandered the flea market. The garage sale central for bored Athenians. I did not buy one single thing, but I had fun exploring and people watching and seeing all the junk. Junk is universal. It seems to be the same type of junk no matter what country you are in. Old junk. Some of the Greek junk is from China, the Hungary junk is from China, the French junk is from China. The candlesticks look the same everywhere I go. The jewerly is costume jewelry. The best stuff today was the furniture, of which none I could carry home in my bag.

I went back to wake my kids and found them up.....Darren was still intoxicated, I think.....but they rallied to go to the beach. We took tram 5 to the Athens beach strip, hopped off and stripped down to enjoy some afternoon sun. Darren swam in the cold Mediterranean, Molly napped and I people watched. I have decided most Greek men are vain. There were more men at the beach oiled up in speedos than woman. Some men rotated like chickens on a spit to get an even tan. They faced north for awhile, then south, probably equal time. I loved Darren even more, for his white skin, swimming in his boxers, laying without a towel in the sand, hungover......

We watched a guy catch an octopus off the rocks. He brought it out of the water and banged its head on the rocks over and over, making a loud smashing sound. Once dead, he brought it over for show and tell. I thought he wanted me to buy it from him, but luckily, the restaurant must have and he let me be.

I had my third version of Moussaka that night, trying to find the best in Greece. Haven't found the perfect one, so I guess I will have to keep trying.

Ruined

Our friend Darren came in from London for the weekend to spend more time in our delightful company……plus he got a cheap flight and could stay in our studio. So, he and Molly et al went out to clubs until about 5 am that night. A wild night of backgammon for me, I left at 9 am the next morning on a tour to the center of the universe; Delphi. Molly and Darren slept all day.

The bus ride to Delphi was 3 ½ hours. A few others I knew from the hostel came, including a very hung over Patrick, who had been out late the night before (I bought him a box of crackers and he sat in the front of the bus with a plastic bag). I sat next to Wim, and we chit chatted out of Athens, into the country side, thru remnants of cotton fields and along windy roads. We climbed into mountainous areas and went past a couple small ski areas. No snow yet on the hillsides, ski season is short in Greece and this November had been unseasonably warm.

We f.i.n.a.l.l.y arrived to the site of the Delphi ruins, so called because some Greek God disguised himself as a dolphin and took over the area (Delphi=dolphin). The location of the site gave it its uniqueness and charm, the ruins themselves were a bit uninteresting after Pompeii, the Roman Coloseum, the Acropolis etc……but the area was steep, rocky, pine trees, cedars and lots of fresh air. Lots of kitties too. Pompeii had dogs, the Delphi had cats.

The story of Delphi is that it was declared the center of the universe by a Greek god who let two eagles free in different directions. Where the two birds crossed paths was declared the center of the universe and that was what happened to become Delphi. If you touch the stone marking this center, mythology says you will have a series of weird dreams. I touched it, but I have weird dreams anyway, so I haven’t noticed any difference.

People came from all over Greece on a pilgrimage to have questions answered by the Oracle of Delphi. They cleansed themselves in a pool of freezing water and stood in front of the Oracle to ask their question. The Oracle was an older virgin woman, stoned on opium and laurel leaves, who mumbled an answer the priests interpreted for the pilgrim…….wow, what a job. I would like to know what kind of questions she answered.

I have decided I am “ruined” out. No more marble columns for me for a while. I have lost my appreciation for the ancient peoples building skills and efforts carting heavy stone up mountain tops. To me, the stories from Greek mythology are ridiculous, and I don’t understand how a culture could ever be based on such nonsense. I wonder if in 2500 years, someone will look at our culture and feel the same.

After an excruciating long bus ride back, I reunited with Molly and Darren and a group of eight went out to dinner at Plaka Taverna. We had wine from Santorini, made with grapes fertilized by the volcanic ash from the island of Santorini. Owen had octopus, Patrick had a whole fish and the fish eyeball, and there was spanikopita, Greek salad, deep fried potato balls, moussaka, lamb and pork dishes, with flan for dessert. It was a long, but good, day.

Helen of Troy and the Acropolis

In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy is the daughter of Zeus and Leda and married to the King of Sparta. I met a lady at the grocery store in Athens, who invited me to coffee the next morning. Her name was Helen. I called her Helen of Troy, but really, she is Helen of Athens.

Molly and I let her cut in line at the grocery, since she only had one item. She could tell we were from the States (I don't know how everyone can tell?) and so she started talking about her time living in New York and how she loved Americans. Would we have coffee with her? I agreed to meet her in the morning.

We did meet for a cappicino and we talked for an hour until I needed to leave. She was a little hard for me to understand, her greek accent stronger than her english words. I leaned in really close to listen and focused really hard to understand and pay 110% attention to what she was saying. She talked all about her family, her education, the war, greek history,the color of her hair dye and the water in her ears. We exchanged addresses, I had the waitress take a picture, and I promised her I would write her a postcard and send the picture when I returned home. She was a sweet lady and I was honored to spend a little time with her.

I hurried back for my next meeting, a date with the Acropolis. Molly, Liz, Wim and Chau and I all went. Brilliant sunshine, climbed to the top of the hill in the middle of Athens where the Acropolis was built by Athenians in about 400 BC. Temples, temples, temples, ruins, ruins, ruins. The Parthenon is the temple to Athena and I wondered what went on their......many of the remaining ruins are all under renovation and apparantly have been for 25 years and probably will be forever. It was hard to get a picture without scaffolding. Must have been quite the effort getting all that marble to the top of the hill.

We made poses like greek gods and shadow pictures and enjoyed the hot day (unlike a typical November day in Athens). We climbed to the top of a rock hill below the Acropolis for an upward view of the ruins and downward view of the city. Chaum, Wim and I went on to the Monastiraki area for gyros and then I wandered the market area, went to the new Acropolis museum and then took a nap.

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Athenian Thanksgiving

Molly and I flew into Athens, Greece from Rome. We settled into our hostel about a 5 minute walk from the Acropolis.....Because it is slow season, and the weather is only a lovely 70 degrees, we got an upgrade in our room to a 4 bed tiny apartment with a little kitchen, private bath and TV. It was sweet! Right next to a laundry mat and the hostel bar, it could only have been better if a Haggens was across the street.

Arriving at dusk is really not ideal. No time to walk around and see where you are or get your bearings at the start. But we managed to find a greek take-out, self serve restaurant and overloaded on fresh greek salad (with a whole slab of feta cheese on top), grilled veggies, moussaka and something like moussaka with the same ingredients but another name. We brought half of it back to our little refridgerator.

Molly and I had talked about cooking a Thanksgiving dinner and inviting people from the hostel to make a small party. The problem was the hostel kitchen was under remodel and our studio had a microwave and a stop top, but no oven. Hmmmmmm. I love challenges like that. We started inviting people that night, basically going thru a secret interview process before extending the invitation to dinner in our suite. By morning, we had about 10 people coming, mostly Americans but a young man from Belgium and a women from Vietnam. Everyone was so excited! We had to get our act together quick.

I found a bakeless pumpkin pie recipe online. I was going to buy some stovetop stuffing and precooked chickens and shove the stovetop mix inside, stringing them up with dental floss. We hoped for yams and marshmellows, green beans and mashed potatoes. When we found a grocery store, hardly a Haggens, we quickly moved to plan B. No pumpkin to be found, no stovetop stuffing, no yams, no marshmellows, no precooked chickens. Instead, I settled for lots of olives (plentiful, many varieties and cheap), little cocktail hotdogs, instant mashed potatoes, salad fixings and greenbeans. Molly got ingredients for her famous no-bake cookies.

I went back to the take-out restaurant from the night before and ordered up a couple roasted chickens, after haggling back on and forth over price and timing.....I agreed to come back and pick them up at 7:00. Our guests had all offered to bring things too, so I had delegated the dessert, bread and drinks to them.

We ended up with so much food, a wonderful group of people, lots of laughter and kindness going around. We all went around and introduced ourselves, as not everybody knew everybodies names (and I still don't know) and we also shared one thing, from the day, that we were thankful for. For Chou and Wem, non-Americans, it was their first Thanksgiving. We had a soldier on leave from Iraq. We had a half greek American learning her heritage. We had a Columbian living in the US. We had a radiologist, cancer survivor from Texas. We had two Christian Science travelers. We had an American who had relocated to Egypt. Quite the mix and with all the various backgrounds and differences, an amazing night that none of us will forget for a long time.

As chief organizer and hostess, Molly running a close second, I was presented with fresh flowers (complete with vase) and a bottle of Ouzo......to be shared with the rest of the group in souvenier Greek God shot glasses. The group cleaned up, some of us played backgammon, and late in the evening everyone headed down to the bar for Karaoke. I was so proud of my daughter that night singing Mamba #5.

Lesson learned that night was that people crave people and that is human nature. Also learned you can have great fun with people who could have remained perfect strangers, it just takes opening the door. It is amazing such a diverse group could come together to celebrate food, friendship and share knowledge about traveling and life experiences. Maybe it was a bit like the Indians and the Pilgrims.

Bellinis and Tirimasu

We left Italy in style, as it seems to be a place where style is important and to do as the Romans do, we left in style.

We returned to Rome for one last night before flying out. I booked a nice room at the Yes Hotel (YES!) and we headed out for a light dinner. I was told to have a Bellini in Italy. We did....a wonderful cocktail of sparkling wine and fresh pureed peaches, it went down like a lemonade on a hot day. I could have had five more without being satisfied, but at 7 euro a pop, I stopped at one. Molly stuck to her grilled vegetable plate for dinner and I had a bowl of minestrone. We splurged on dessert.

Molly picked out two desserts, a star shaped chocolate pastry with whipped cream accents and rich chocolate drizzles and a traditional tirimasu (for her mom). Mmmmmmmmmm. The tirimasu was overwhelmingly soft, creamy, liquor soaked caked on the bottom, grated chocolate on the top. I could feel my arteries clogging, but if I were to have a heart attack and die at that moment, I would go out happy and in style.

The Hounds of Pompei

Kicked out of our lovely hostel, due to remodeling issues, we headed a smidge north to Pompei to see the famous ruins....I had read about them in my National Geographic Traveler Magazine as an excellent visit.

The town of Pompei will not be highly recommended on my list of visited cities. It is small, uninteresting, unfriendly and a bit dirty. Mafia run? Don't know, just heard it wasn't very safe. We even got in trouble for laying in the grass by a church! Oh well, it didn't really matter, because all we were really doing was touring the ruins and using the hotel as a stop over on our return to Rome. Molly and I bought the last entrance tickets of the day. We went into the walled city in the late afternoon and walked out at dusk, which proved to be a very nice time to see the pillars and columns and arches in the fading light and sunset.

More interesting than the ruins themselves were the dogs around the ruins. Apparantly, in ancient Roman times, the dogs of Pompei were respected and honored. To this day, they still are. Homeless, stray dogs live throughout the area. They all have collars and are tagged. They are fed and given vaccines. There is an adoption program sponsored by an area animal rights group trying to find these lonely canines permanent homes. Molly and I wanted to adopt all of them.

By the end of our walk around the huge site, we had three dogs following us and we didn't feed them anything! One of them stood by a water fountain and when I turned it on, he drank from it just like an old pro. They followed us out of the walled city and onto the streets of Pompei. I kept telling them to "go home", but I realized they probably only understand Italian dog commands, of which I knew none. A man stopped on the sidewalk to give the dogs a treat and Molly and I crossed the street and hid in a store for awhile.

Sadly, we didn't see those dogs again and I can only hope they get adopted by someone Italian soon. For me, the dogs were the highlight of Pompei.

Priceless......Capri

The island of Capri is reachable only by ferry or private transport. We took a bus ride to the Port of Sorrento and bought a ticket on the hydrofoil that left in 2 minutes.........we ran down the dock, out to slip 5 and panted up the gangplank of the boat. In a quick 20 minutes, we docked in Capri.

Bombarded by vendors selling tickets on commercial tourist boats around the island and to see the Blue Grotto, we tried to avoid the commotion as we figured out what to do, found a bathroom and an ATM machine. Can't do much without cash. A local, older man wanted us to go with him and offered various options of touring, from which we could design our own specific adventure. He was kind, friendly, not too high pressure, left us alone to contemplate, then found us an ATM and a bathroom. He also rounded up another couple and told us if we all went around the island with him, it would be a bargain and a great one!

I love bargains. I gave him 50 euros and we were off. His name was Gennarino. His boat was small, but doable. I asked him if he had lifejackets......no, he says, just hold on to him if anything happens. So, no life jackets, no insurance or bonding, no license, no cell phone.....I put my trust in him. The other couple was Italian and did not speak much English, but they were friendly and laughed easy, so it was a good time.

We boated around the whole island. Gennarino had lived there most of his life, so he knew what was what, the legends, the stories and what I understood, was all good. Many rich families have homes on the island, the Krupps (as in appliances), the Onasis (as in Jackie), the Gerbers (as in baby food), the Ferraris (as in the car) and also the King of Sweden to name a few. Romans used to travel to the island in the middle ages to swim. Roman kings would make love to virgins and then throw them off the cliffs so they would never make love to another.......wow, what a way to go.

We saw caves, blue grottos, stalagmites and stalagtites, clear blue water and brilliant shear cliffs. It was awesome to be on the water and to see what you could never see from walking the island. After our boat tour, we did walk. Took a funicular tram up to the top, where the Capri village is and walked around from there. We went thru narrow pathways, right, left, up, stairs, turns......beautiful private residences hidden behind gates, with lovely gardens and a tropical feel. I took 140 pictures that day.

I would love to go back to Capri another time and stay longer.....expensive I am sure, but the memories would be priceless.

Like a Bird.............Heading South

Heading south......out of Rome, past Naples towards the Amalfi coast of southern Italy. We arrived in Sorrento.....famous for limoncella, orange and lemon groves, olive trees and a summer getaway for Italians and tourists. I like travelling during the off season. No crowds, no problems getting a place to stay, the locals are hungry for your business and the peacefulness of the streets is nice....the slower pace is refreshing, although sometimes transportation like buses, ferries, trains, don't run as often or at all. Sometimes the restaurants are closed and the stores have limited hours. As long as the weather is nice, the trade offs are totally worth it to me. And, we continue to have perfect weather.

We are staying at Hostel Seven, a bit outside of Sorrento. It has outclassed everyother hostel we have stayed in, but maybe that is because it is not like a hostel at all. Next to a church, across the street from a local soccer field, the hostel is a newly remodeled paradise for travelers and locals alike. A bar downstairs, with restaurant facility, a rooftop deck with beautiful views, new computers, bathrooms with bidets and luxury showers and coastal view from our balcony. Highly recommend it. We had a live band there on Saturday night and a DJ on Sunday night. On the second floor it was peaceful and quiet, so Molly and I each enjoyed our time.

We walked and walked, to town, back from town. We stopped and watched Mikael, our hostel host, play soccer for a bit. We gazed out at the Mediteranean and felt a mix of Hawaii and Mexico, with humid air, fruity smells and an ocean breeze. Sorrento is a cliffside town. When I picture the Italian coastline, this is exactly how I pictured it. Can't wait to see what's next!

Signs

I remember when I started to think about this trip, I felt I was given signs from a higher being that it was a grand idea. Signs like work options, the ease of renting my house, Molly's university entrance deferral, ect......everything falling together to make the dream become a real possibility. Travelling the last couple months, I have seen different signs.