The Modernly Relevant Tumulus

We went to the Royal Tumulus in Vergina (formerly Aigai) today; the discovery there of the tombs of Philip II, Philip III Arrhideus, and Alexander IV along with their respective child, wives and mother was a catalyst for the integration of Macedonia into Greece in the 1970s. You have to remember that, in the ancient times—which is what Greece seems to be trying to return to—the Macedonians were considered barbarians, uncouth peoples who barely spoke Greek (except for the rulers, who claimed Argive descent and, as the Argaeads, participated in the Olympic Games); even their grave goods were decisively non-Greek—a quiver with a king?! Unimaginable! And there’s the added dimension of controversy in the fact that the graves are probably mislabeled, so that all the impressive stuff actually would be of Alexander III’s half brother (yes, for some reason they always call him III instead of ‘the Great’; what’s more fun is the Greek lettering, so Philip II becomes Philip B’).

But anyway. The museum was actually really cool because it was built within the tumulus, so right next to the treasures, you could see where they’d come from. The entire thing was dim…which made all the shinies so much shinier. Unfortunately they don’t let you take pictures in there.

It seems unfair to leave it out, so I’ll mention that we went to Pella, the newer capital of Macedonia, as well and glanced briefly at the massive agora and some large courtyard houses (of the ‘complex’ style, I hear) and some impressive pebble mosaics.

Thessaloniki

A good transition back from Paris; there’s a decent amount of wrought iron here, and we spent today visiting various churches (the Greek word is naos—and that’s masculine in the nominative case—in case you were wondering), so lots of high ceilings. Also, a visit to the Archeological Museum was filled with shiny; and I really, really mean shiny. So many shiny things, so pretty…. I do hate it when they don’t let you photograph them, though.

More Like 1800

We went to Thermopylae, which is now a mostly disappointing site; in fact, you have to know to follow a rather nondescript sign mentioning a fortified hill to see what I'd read about--that is, the monument saying 'Stranger, go tell the Lakedaimonians'...something about still standing guard. But anyway, they should plant blue flowers or something everywhere the water would have been, because it's not visible at all. Evidently they're still working on finding the goat path.

If I'd had a water bottle, I would have commented on how thirsty people looked and then offered them a drink...I couldn't think of anything hilarious to do involving any sort of actual Herodotus, though, and then there's the whole cultural issue point, but that touches too close to what we're actually supposed to be learning, so I'll stop now.

Jars of Brains and Other Things They Don’t Tell You About Paris

Today I began with another visit to la Cathédrale de Notre Dame and then walked through the Île de la Cité, passing by the Palais de Justice and Conciergerie, before heading to the Hôtel de la Ville and the accompanying fashionable district including the Galeries Lafayette (no, I didn’t go in—-nothing, except Notre-Dame, was open that early), followed by a visit to Le Centre Pompidou and the Quartier de l’Horloge, followed by a trip to the Place de la Bastille and the surrounding area leading to the Opéra de la Bastille. I then found myself at the Gare de Lyon, from where I went to the Jardins des Plantes and the Galleries of Comparative Anatomy and Paleontology and then to la Grand Galerie de l’Évolution, passing through the gardens on the way there. Walking by the Mosque de Paris, I went through la Rue Moufftard and the Place Monge before visiting the Pantheon, which was then followed by a visit to the Odéon stop and the shopping area in that environs—including le Grand…something or other…and then la Sorbonne and the Quartier Latin. Afterwards, I went to a different ice cream place on the Île Saint-Louis, and then another one called Cocoa and something (I think it may have been Cocoa et Chocolat), and then la Cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris one last time, where I bought a book on the stained glass more out of a desire to make sure it continues to be maintained than anything else.

The Centre Pompidou opens annoyingly late--11 a.m.--so I didn't go in, which was a shame because I wanted to take one of the crazy lifts and see what things looked like from the inside out (although I had full plans to avoid the art; but they do have free exhibits there). Walking up to that building was madness. It is the craziest thing I have ever seen, and I could feel my brain trying to wrap itself around the oddity of the visual information. Seriously, what the hell. It's cool, though; considering how La Tour Eiffel was also thought a monstrosity when first erected (ha, ha...erotic statements about Paris are stupid), though, I think people will get used to this. The funny thing is that you can see part of Notre-Dame from the west end, facing south, and the contrast is remarkable.

The Gare de Lyon is a fantastic building. I actually found it more visually pleasing than the Opera of the Bastille; I walked by the latter three times before realizing that, yes, I'd seen it. (Actually, I was kind of surprised to have walked to the Gare de Lyon; but it was on the way to where I wanted to go, so a fortuitous coincidence.)

The Jardin des Plantes is pretty nice...gardens, all sorts of things related to biology. My favorite was the Gallery of Comparative Anatomy and its many brains in jars, not to mention dissected animals. Pretty cool stuff. The Grand Gallery of Evolution was also quite impressive, although looking at the section of extinct/extremely endangered animals, I couldn't help but wonder how the presence of these taxidermied animals had helped the problem. They were pretty honest about how the process worked, though; there was an explanation--with possibly real pelts--of taxidermy. In general I've noticed that Europeans don't feel as obligated to sugarcoat things.

The Pantheon: I didn't realize how damn huge it was. It used to be a church, you see; and besides the nicely covered corpses inside, there are some excellent paintings--my personal favorite being St. Denis (the protector of...ah...Paris, or perhaps all of France) picking up his severed head (yes, he did eventually fall down dead, but only in front of a more appropriate place than that where he was executed, and that's all the detail I remember).

Quartier Latin is great for shopping. Would that the exchange rate had been better.

I had pamplemousse rose glace in a disappointingly small cone; I always forget why I dislike grapefruit, but I was reminded. After this, I decided to have some proper ice cream and discovered an amazing store with an orange front advertising sorbet balls covered in dark chocolate. Until this point, I was doing alright with French, but I managed to forget the word for flavor until I'd asked the question in English (why does that happen so often?). Nevertheless, they were incredibly delicious. Dark chocolate that's been in the freezer on a hot summer day and is also filled with all manner of delicious, exotic fruits, walking down St Louis towards the Seine and the Notre Dame--good end to a day.

Even better end to the trip: visiting the Notre Dame de Paris one last time. It's definitely my favorite monument in the world (at last, I can say that and mean it; although I would like to revisit the Lotus Temple of the Baha'i in Delhi...and also see the Taj Mahal, not just keep going by it); and there are many contenders for second.

La morte en jaune

On this day we first went to the Musée d’Orsay, having been compelled to pass it over in favor of the Musée de l’Orangerie yesterday due to the immense line, and then went to the top of La Tour Eiffel, followed by a walk through the Champ de Mars to L’École Militaire—which has a monument to peace in front of it—and then through the garden dedicated to Antoine de Saint-Exupery to Les Invalides, including the Tomb of Napoleon. Afterwards we went for flower-shaped gelato on the Île Saint-Louis and then walked down the Champs-Elysées, stopping only at the Virgin Megastore before heading to L’Arc de Triomphe, from which vantage point we not only saw the sunset but also the display on the Eiffel Tower. This day concluded with dinner at a restaurant, although the metro ride back was a little weird...this clearly drunk couple got on with a couple of dogs, who kept trying to sit on and sniff our shoes; one of them got off at our stop, which was maybe a little like poetic justice and a lot like vindiction. Also there was a dude smoking a joint on board (despite the signs reading Intérdit de Fumer!). It made the day sillier.

The Musée d’Orsay isn’t even close to being as overwhelming as the Louvre, but it would probably still be better viewed two separate times (if you can afford it...); although we did also go to the special exhibit Voir l'Italie et Mourir (the English name sounds really silly...), which was amazing not only because of the layout but also because we got to see daguerrotypes (unfortunately, it was another lots of things on loan, so no photos). Anyway, I got museum fatigue by the time we'd gotten back down to the first floor for the pre-Impressionist stuff, and didn't even give Delacroix's space a go. But in addition to the art, it is another fantastic building with a great view of Montmartre and some surrounding area. (It used to be a railway station, but then the trains got too long...which isn't surprising once you're inside).

La Tour Eiffel...make sure you go all the way to the top. It's also not too bad to walk down from the second floor back to the bottom (and it's worth giving the first floor a look). Did you know it was bronze-colored? I did not know it was bronze colored.

There is a monument to Peace in front of the military school. It's amusing and, really, quite French (and the UNESCO park is also nearby, but we didn't bother as it was getting to be really damn hot).

Les Invalides was every bit as awesome as I'd hoped: we saw Napoleon's and Vauban's and a few others' tombs along with the lovely dome they're housed in, which includes stained glass windows resulting in colored light being filtered through. The enormous crucifix had a yellow window behind it, so entering the place one is not only overwhelmed with how high the ceilings are but also the colors (although really, the bluish light on one of the tombs was the best). It's funny how obviously classical Napoleon tried to make his representation; there's a ton of freizes of him and his various decrees in heroic pose and Roman costume. Apart from this, the medieval arms and armor collection is pretty awesome (they had the armor of Louis XIV, not to mention a gun-spear combo!), and then we ended with the Hall de Charles de Gaulle. This was a very new exhibit and very high-tech: we were given headphones with special receivers that would automatically activate in the language of our choice. We began with the video about de Gaulle and then went through the rooms; the coolest ones were the ones where you could point at the screen and use your hand as the mouse, basically (video recognition, I guess)? Unfortunately, a lot of stuff hadn't been translated into English yet. But it's a really great, if completely biased, gallery.

Flower-shaped gelato is so awesome and not too expensive. It was a chain store that I saw also on the Place de la Bastille and near Le Centre Pompidou; but the best one I'd still say is on the Isle because there is so much cool stuff in the area and you can sit by the Seine (but nice and above the stench) and eat.

The Virgin Megastore has many books in multiple languages, and an impressive collection of bandes dessinées and video games and stuff. It's neat. I went there mainly because I needed a new memory card...1 GB, even at 5.0 megapixel resolution, is nowhere near enough. The street all this is on is quite well-known and deserves its reputation. They had many wrought-iron windows that were just what I needed to stare and stare at and photograph.

The Arc of Triumph is the awesome. If you go up at sunset, you'll have a view of the sun sinking down over the Bois de Boulogne; there aren't too many high places in France so this is a great choice. Also, at around 9 p.m. (whenever the sun is completely gone, right at the last touches of dusk, basically), the Eiffel Tower enters a display of madness that explains how photographers manage to show it all lit up in white (although that's only possible with a long exposure). Seriously, it's covered in racing white lights and can be said to sparkle far more vividly than Edward Cullen.

We looked at this Belgian place for dinner, but literally everything had seafood in it (except the desserts...), which was surprising as Paris seemed to be way better for vegetarians than Greece. (Note: Greek menu appetizers tend to be mostly vegetarian and come in enormous portions; and there's usually at least one main dish that is vegetarian--actually, I don't remember having ever seen one completely lacking them. But they don't do tofu here, not even in Chinese restaurants.)

The ride back, as I mentioned, was strange.

Paris, je t'adore

Note: I'm kind of careless about the spelling and language here, too bad; it's the only way to write these before I start the Thessaloniki adventure.  (Actually I'm on it right now.)

I’d forgotten what flat terrain looks like, but I was soon reminded, flying over all the fields of the breadbasket of Europe. Seeing the Eiffel Tower from the plane—I was on the lookout—was most excellent!

On this day we started with the Jardin de Luxembourg, then went to St. Germaine des Près, the area near the Latin Quarter including the bookstore where once George Whitman handed out books, la Cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris, walked along the river Seine (which, admittedly, smells a little when you’re actually down there), went to the Louvre (fortunately I saw all the awesome stuff before being, basically, booted out), the Museum de l’Orangerie—passing through part of the Tuileries and seeing the Place de la Concorde as well as visiting a fantastic but also horribly crowded chocolate shop, the Angeline and then going to the Place de Vendôme, where I saw the Opera Garnier, and then the special exhibit ‘Une chose câchée dans l’autre’ at the Grand Palais before going to Montmartre—and the Basilique de Sacre-Coeur—for the sunset, followed by dinner at the vegetarian restaurant Au Grain de la Folie, which offered seitan (which I naturally felt compelled to refuse); we could have gone by the Moulin Rouge but that’s a pretty shady district at night. And thus ended the first day.

Well. Going to Paris, seeing all those things for the first time…was simply AMAZING. My friend whom I went to visit knew all the best places to start, so it was not only a fantastic experience but also well-ordered (their metro system takes a little getting used to), and the greatest difficulty for me was getting out of Greek mode into French mode. Oh, I also have a massive love of wrought iron…and Haussmann’s Paris has plenty of that.

The bookstore in St. Germain des Près is called Shakespeare’s something or other (I’m writing this on a bus and I didn’t bring the bag with me) and is excellent for both used and new English books—I got a used copy of Shalimar the Clown (Rushdie) for 4 euro, and a new one of The Devil’s Dictionary (Bierce) for 3 euro. And of course the first food I had in Paris was a crêpe, so that was one box checked off.

I also saw the massive fountain of St. Michel, which is on the way from here to Notre Dame. (The metro stop is shared: St. Michel Notre Dame.)

Notre Dame…what can I say about this place? You don’t need to be religious to experience awe as you walk through—and really even as you look at the insane detail on the outside; did you know that there’s a wrought-iron thing on the top, and that there are carved figures if you look up at the door frames? But anyway: the scale, the detail, the grandeur all inspire humility in the face of sheer awesome.

The river Seine is decorated with many lovely bridges—one of my favorites is actually the Pont de l’Archeveche just west of the Notre Dame—and is always worth walking along, although I recommend above rather than below.

The Louvre…is bloody enormous. I mean, I have no interest in the Egyptian art or whatnot, but we still managed to spend two hours just looking at the sculptures (including the Greek and Roman stuff on the way to the Venus de Milo; hell yes I skipped over the amphorae and everyday objects), and the French gallery and Italian masterworks along with, of course, the Winged Victory and La Joconde along with a number of other famous pieces, including Delacroix’s one of Liberty leading the people and that one of Napoleon making his famous gesture and Madonna on the Rocks, etc. etc. What I particularly appreciated about the Louvre, apart from all the art, is how grand it is as a building. I’d gone to the Numismatic Museum, a.k.a. Schliemann’s House, the day before and that was another place where the rooms were a pleasure to behold…but, obviously, the Louvre is kind of on a whole other scale. The one thing I am genuinely irate about is that this jerk guard outside the Richelieu wing decided that I wasn’t allowed to have a free pass anymore (no one else had any problems—not only did I get it in the first place but we also went to Denon and Sully first!), so I missed out on the Flemish and Netherland masterworks…bah, humbug. Anyway, it’s not just that you’re forced to take separate visits to it but also that you should: I’d probably have forgotten half the amazing stuff I saw in lieu of more amazing stuff if we hadn’t left so abruptly (and we did end up having time for two more museums, so that was good).
(Also good to know: this is how I got a free ticket in--"Je suis étudiante en...Athèns?  Athène? uh...Grèce? (mentally: fuck it...) Athens, Greece." I'm starting to think that I got in because they were generally too embarrassed to ask for any other ID, like the woman in the Panthéon eventually did, at which point I was all...yeah actually from les États-Unis...and then I had to pay five dollars.)

The Tuileries are also just as long as the Louvre, I think…they’re very big. Oh, and to put this out there: I rather like le Pyramide, even if it seems odd next to all the wonders of 17th century architecture.

The Musée de l’Orangerie is amazing for its unique entrance rooms, which are huge ovals with very soothing, enormous canvases by Monet including some water lilies and other things (although not the Japanese bridge), as well as some other Impressionists and an interesting movement into some modern stuff that is still finely detailed and well-painted.

How to tell you’re in Paris: we walked by a total of two model shoots, one outside the metro and one on a pont over the Seine. (Surprisingly, I had to wait more than two hours before hearing an accordion.)

The chocolatier and salon de thé Angeline is a rather nice place; quite classy, although extremely crowded when we went there. The Place de Vendôme, which is just north of this, was impressive…having once had to write a little report on the Opéra Garnier, it was quite awesome to see it for real. Also that entire area is posh, so there were a ton of awesome wrought iron balconies for me to admire.

We went to an exposition within the Grand Palais called ‘Un image câchée dans l’autre,’ which was a brilliant collection of all these images containing some theme of duality, from the Renaissance tradition of hiding faces in nature to Escher and Dali and artists creating a facsimile of another famous painting in some form, as well as the dude who made faces out of food, political caricatures and other images that look different when turned upside down, and some modern sculptures including a really cool one that said ‘YES,’ ‘NO,’ or ‘SEX’ depending on what side you looked at it from, and one that needed a mirror to form ‘ALICE’ in its entirety, and then sexualized images like using a photo of a woman to create the appearance of a penis and torsos designed to look like faces (Magritte’s ‘Rape’ being a famous example). I’m still a bit disappointed that the store had closed by the time we got to the end (and we rushed the end, too), because I would have liked a mini-catalog of their stuff. Since it was a temporary exhibit and things were on loan, we couldn’t take photos.

All in all, Paris has by far the best organized exhibits I have ever seen (at least in terms of art); I can’t imagine how wonderful it would be to be an art student there.

Montmartre: a nice place to view the sunset, although when we went there there was a huge crowd because there were some dudes singing American songs (badly) on the steps up to the Basilica. They didn’t allow any photography inside, which was a shame, because where the Notre Dame’s sheer size leaves room for nothing less than awe, the Basilique de Sacre Coeur was far more…I guess…peaceful? There was something relaxing about being inside there, at any rate, and I wish I could have gone back.

Walking through Montmartre: we passed the grocery store in Amélie (they even had a poster out front), the café frequented by all manner of artists, a place where Picasso once stayed, and lots and lots of little artists’ stores. It’s that kind of place.

The vegetarian restaurant was more than decent, although the meals were small. Paris is really expensive—the stupid exchange rate didn’t help (it was 1.46 or higher through the weekend).

(P.S. the Mona Lisa does NOT look like da Vinci in drag! Just thought I’d put that out there.)

Surreal Things

Last night...let's see, we went to Psirri for crepes (special occasion: yes) and there was a chick with dreads, casual clothes just playing with fire. Juggling it, doing that crazy shit with the ropes, and yes eating it too. We'd been in Gazi what, a week or so, ago and seen some dudes juggling stuff--but this was way better! We gave her money. And it seems like she was slathered in flame retardant, which would explain why her dreads didn't stay on fire...later that night we ended up going to the James Joyce and there was a dude on stilts who started throwing fire too, although we decided not to watch that....

And then today, we went to the University of Athens for a tour of the place (and the Academy and all that), and ended up watching a tiny little graduation! It was sort of terrifying.

Anyway, I'm too sleepy to remember anything else. Paris, here I come. (Insert former I'm-going-to-Athens dance here)

Things Change

Seriously, I'm so confused. One day it's a reasonable temperature, maybe a little hot at midday but not too bad, nice breezes coming in later in the day; the streets are empty, at least as far as is possible in a city like Athens, and then the next day it's both hot to the point where it's painful to be outside, a fact which isn't helped by the humidity and the fact that the breeze is entirely sporadic; and suddenly there's tourists everywhere--the latter I've heard is a problem anyway (100,000 on Mykonos during peak season? Dear god(s)), but still...! You'd think there'd be some sort of warning of what is to come--it's like change is impossible to notice until it hits a critical mass.

In other news, I am torn between eating/drinking well and partying and going to more places.

Also, remember how I was complaining about the smell of cat pee around here (god(s), I hope you don't)? Turns it out has nothing on cat decomposing.

Nature is Hard to Love

What can I say, that’s simply not how I roll. Sure, flowers are nice, but flowers bring insects—including the stingy types—and sometimes the flowers are stingy themselves, and then there’s birds, which are so obnoxious at 5 in the morning when one is trying to go back to sleep….

So you might ask why the hell I would go and climb another mountain, seeing as how I am extremely lazy, fond of sleeping in, and in general displeased by the act of unnecessary movement…well, the truth is that there’s something about studying abroad that especially makes it desirable to basically go places I’ve never been before. With that as an end, even climbing a mountain seems like a good idea…and need I say that it justifies eating far more chocolate (or ice cream or delicious, delicious baked goods) than would normally be acceptable? The food is here is simply incredible. In fact, I even found the perfect close to today (after a house with an anti-aircraft gun outside, goat paths, drinking from an actual natural spring whose water was not sweet like I expected, the picnic that involved actual Greek circle dance, chocolate cake, wildfire-ravaged lands, free oregano, and cable cars): a fresh peach, the first I’ve had of the season.

Awesome!

As to the way I have this tendency to compress all events into a long run-on within parentheses: I don’t really see the point of describing all the minutiae of the day—it’s one thing to have this kind of summary on the Internet, open to anyone, and another thing to actually tell someone a story. Is it really possible to tell more than one person the same story? I don’t think so: even if you somehow establish the same setting for both cases and use the exact same words and gestures, each person will have a different experience of what is actually said simply because of their experiences—the way the neurons connect in their head, the way the information is related to their brain: there’s a wide gulf between sensation and perception.

Last Final Exam...EVER

At least, that's what I'd like to claim...but if I do go to medical school.... It's times like this that really, really tempt me to just give up on schooling entirely and go out there and make some goddamn money.

Or maybe I should stay here; for someone like me who loves fresh food and the avoidance of chemicals, the European Union is great! Also the mountains and the climate aren't too bad and I can't understand any idiocy that might be present.... There's a lot to be said for being an expatriate.


In other news: HOUSE MD, anyone? Awesome! I'm so glad they've found a way to extend interest for at least one whole other season--and it looks like there will be serious drama...good thing Hugh Laurie is up to the task.

Attractive White House

Is basically a euphemism for "young White House;" after all, what else is attractiveness defined as?

I haven't really been following the news as much (well, duh), but I saw some stupid article in the NY Times that had this headline.  I've never really considered these vapid shallow things appropriate for someone of my intellectual capacity (okay, since no one seems to be able to tell--even in reality--I'm being pretty sarcastic; although I don't see why looks or, for that matter, personal life should influence how we choose our politicans), but in a city where riots happen on a regular basis, I guess the opinion of the average human being really does matter.  Sort of.

Anyway, I've heard that at least one person (old yiayia type) has accosted American teenagers and been all, "Obama wtf"--which is annoying, because a) a whole lot of us voted and b) why do you expect him to fix everything for your country?  Funny story, sort of related to this since it involves traveling and America: when they want to be rude, Canadians allegedly pretend to be American.

I don't know...something about the perception of America by other countries that hasn't been said a million times before.

It's like summer in Chicago, but not as shitty

For serious--I don't think anything compares to the level of shittiness that is summer in Chicago.  When you have 90 degrees of heat and rain coming up in the next few days...when the only place to go is the lake and the overcrowded waterfront that's horribly polluted, and you've already been anywhere of note or it's too expensive or too far and the smell everywhere is reeking drunk stupid Cubs fans....

But anyway, it's not like it's super awesome to be in 26 degrees Celsius (what the hell is that converted anyway, besides really hot?), especially when we are wandering around a boring site with a whole lot of prickly plants and not enough shade (well, the second half of the site was okay because there were temples...fuck social history).

I swear there was a giant heat wave over the weekend...I didn't really notice it because I was on the Island of the Winds, so...aaaugh.  Also: I don't want to tan!  Many Americans do not understand the value of avoiding  tan.  Although of course it's way worse here: almost impossible to find sunblock, and it can't be just because of the stricter European rules because there is tanning lotion everywhere.

Lemongrass & Wasabi

Just enough bite to really bring the lemon flavor out…oh god, I do wish I’d had time to try every single flavor. I also realized that, like people here who assume that I can speak Greek just because I know the standard greeting (maybe there’s something else there too but I don’t know what it is), I tend to assume that people can speak English.

Anyway. Meeting people is fun! I met lots of people and now have life goals besides those concerning making an assload of money. I have also noticed that Americans tend to travel in larger packs, making it harder for them to be approached or to do any approaching--it's sort of disappointing, really; all the best stories come from interacting with locals or from meeting really cool people. (Actually, I just remembered that, at the hostel, both we and the other group of Americans were pretty insular.) So yeah, all the dudes I met were either old, Canadian, or Greek (or combinations of these).

In other news, Delos really needs more funding…or at the least more time for them to put everything together; the museum labels were horrid. (Also, of course the best stuff is at the National Museum, so I guess it’s a good thing I’ve been there three times.) Nevertheless, it is perfectly possible to go through the entire site while taking pictures in 3 hours or less and still appreciate how awesome it is.

Something stupid about America: you pay extra for "organic" or "local" or farmers' market stuff...here, it's way cheaper. Uh, what.

Best. Ice Cream. Ever.

Perhaps I should start from the beginning.

For various reasons, I decided to go to Mykonos (and, more specifically, Delos) and, for various reasons, ended up going it alone (which was spectacularly terrifying when a) the metro to Piraeus was closed on the way there and b) the metro to Piraeus ended at a random stop and we were hauled onto an extremely crowded tram on the way back; and at this point you can go ahead and say something unintelligible about the best-laid plans of mice and men). But anyway, I evidently look Greek enough to remind someone of her daughter…well, that was fun, although I do really wish now that I’d completed a quarter of the language before I came here….

To the main point, then.

I was rather disappointed by Mykonos, particularly compared to Santorini, until I went to this little ice cream shop called Kayak.

Sorbet mango jasmine and ginger…is real.

So real.

P.S. The sun really does the Comfort Inn gradient at sunset…Mykonos is a huge money sink…windmills are overrated

Small Towns in Greece

So we went to Delphi and then Olympia...let's just say I'm very glad we only spent one night in each of those places.  Seriously.  Olympia (actually it's called 'Archaia Olympia') has exactly one main street...and a few side streets.


I'll take a city any day over nature.  I know, blah blah, it's sooo pretty...but for more than a day?  Hell no.


Shockingly enough, I have nothing interesting to report about the two and a half days this trip took.

Likavettos, again

Climbed up Mt. Likavettos again (okay, so it's technically a hill and it wasn't a climb as much as a stroll because there's a nice path...but we went up an assload of steps because we went through Kolonaki to avoid the strike, and this sounds better anyway).  It's a lovely view on a clear day!  I think we were able to see the faint hints of the Peloponnese in the background, not to mention Aegina and the nearby islands of course.

Oh, right: public holidays in Athens = strikes.  We could hear the tidal roar of humanity from up above--although we somehow never saw anyone who was actually striking; we just saw a srs fleet of police zoom by.

Also...there was a book tent thing set up outside the Zappeion, not too clear on what that was about but it was kind of neat (albeit horribly expensive, at least compared to prices in dollars...from what I vaguely remember...and I buy everything on sale anyway).