Driving to Delphi

It took us five hours to get to Delphi--two and a half hours longer than advertised. If you're asking why, you've clearly never been driving in Greece.

The good news is that we survived this ordeal and, surprisingly, so did our marriage. And now that it's over, we can look back and laugh.

Several factors contributed to the long drive.

1. In Europe, they don't fill the rental car gas tanks... you have to do that. Our pit stop for petrol turned into a forty-minute odyssey--first trying to find the gas station, then trying to get back on the freeway after wards.
2. It was hard to match the map to actual driving conditions; some towns (and many roads) didn't appear on the map at all. Others were spelled multiple ways in English--on the map, on various road signs, and it made us nervous. (Lavidia, Livadia, Leveida... same town? You be the judge!) This made for several painful detours and mis-turns.
   
3. Our fear of getting lost had us driving through rather than around several towns.

Things got better once we (a) obtained huge bottles of water and (b) figured out how to turn on the air-conditioning. Still, Mike had to contend with a pretty crazy driving culture. Everyone in Greece goes fast, nobody uses turn signals, and the painted lines for lanes seem to be negotiable guidelines more than anything else. People love to pass slow (re: speed limit abiding) vehicles. It doesn't seem to matter whether the road is curved or straight, in the flat lands or the mountains. Cars were pulling all kinds of death-defying stunts.

Mike did what he could to assimilate, but our little tin can of a car was not made for aggressive driving. (Aggressive parking? Definitely.) The engine struggled every time we passed someone, turned a sharp corner, or went uphill. I could hear it humming frantically even as Mike would chant, "you can do it! You can do it!"

One thing's for sure: we will never forget our adventures in that orange Fiat Panda.

Sweet Teaching Victory!

We interrupt the (probably) never-to-be finished posts about Europe in order to bring you a real-time life update: I passed my National Boards!

Here is a picture of me, triumphantly holding up the computer notice that I passed:

What does this mean, exactly? On an intrinsic level, there's validation for what I do. On a practical level, there's a slight pay hike. More importantly, it means my certification is valid for 10 years, so I've got a decade off from worrying about that particular maze of bureaucratic red tape. No longer will I be jumping through hoops to keep my job. No longer will I have to worry that, if I take a year or two off for kiddos, I'll be ineligible to teach when I'm ready to come back.

Never you fear... I'll get plenty of exercise jumping through other kinds of hoops. This is, after all, public education we're talking about. :)

Athens: Other Sites

Other sites we visited in Athens included the Roman Forum, also known as the Agora. It was built by the Romans after they conquered Greece. While the ruins were very tumble-down (and the plaques were few and far between, we got an excellent view of some mosaic floors.




The Library of Hadrian was built in 2nd century A.D. and once contained a library, lecture halls, garden, and art gallery.


It may not be a typical tourist activity to attend the open-air markets, but this was one of our favorite things to do in Greece! The market in Athens did not disappoint. We enjoyed the shiny mounds of olives, as well as the butcher stations full of recognizable animals (as opposed to ambiguous meat blobs).


We toured several flea markets and plakas, but didn't really take any pictures. Then it was off to the Temple of Olympian Zeus (started in 6th century B.C., finished by Hadrian 7 centuries later) and Arch of Hadrian (2nd century A.D.)


The Temple of Zeus was truly impressive; it's the largest temple in ancient Greece and originally stood 360 feet by 145 feet.






Having traipsed about for a good portion of the day, I entered my "fatigued and obnoxious" phase of the tour. Poor Mike--it's a wonder he didn't pitch me over the wall into some unlabeled archeological dig. We cut through the National Gardens to get a respite from the heat. Hurray for shade!

I wasn't fully recovered, however. My attention wandered a bit at the Byzantine and Christian Museum... tragic, really, as it had a huge collection of art and artifacts pertaining to my favorite era of history. (By the time we got to the awesome display on the fall of Constantinople, I was like, "hey, look. More religious icons. Whatever." So sad!)

Athens: Acropolis

Any sightseeing tour to Athens must include the Acropolis. This ancient "city on a hill" is quite awesome, in the true sense of the word. It still dominates Athens--you can see the ruins from everywhere else in the city.


As my travel journal will attest, words cannot adequately convey the grandeur of the ruins. There's no way to fully describe the experience of walking through ancient Greek ruins... of finally seeing the things you've read about for so long, of absorbing artifacts and staring at plaques that make history come alive. My original attempts to write about it involved such salient phrases as "this was cool" and "wow." Rather than bore you with such inadequate phrases, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

On our second day in Athens, we arrived at the Acropolis as soon as it opened. We worked our way slowly uphill, with many pauses for water breaks. (Athens may have few public bathrooms, but they've very wisely placed drinking fountains at all of the major sites... we were grateful for every opportunity to refill our water bottles!)

Some of our first sights included the Theater of Dionysus and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. Later--at the top of the hill--we viewed both ruins from a breathtaking distance.

The Odeon, a music hall built in A.D. 161, still hosts performances during the annual Athens Festival. We attended a concert at night, but had to leave at intermission--I'd fallen asleep twice, and Mike was afraid I'd take a fatal tumble down the steep stone seating. (Oh, jet lag...)

The Theater of Dionysus: Reason for my grin? This is where Sophocles watched his plays performed during the Golden Age! These photos capture me thinking of of Oedipus and Antigone... having a literature/history geek moment of truly epic proportions.

The Acropolis contains some truly marvelous examples of "shock and awe" engineering. Everything was designed to overwhelm original visitors to the city... and it still works for tourists today! Here we are at the Propylaea, grand entrance to the Acropolis.

Our two favorite buildings up top were the Parthenon and the Erechtheion. It was hard to get good pictures, as the sun was merciless and the entire Acropolis swarmed with tourists. We did our best, though!

Parthenon:


Erechtheion:


Of course, the up side of having so many fellow tourists around was that people were always willing to take pictures for us.


Many of the original sculptures, as well as artifacts found during excavation and renovation, are now housed at the New Acropolis Museum. We had a lovely ramble through the museum at the start of our third (and final) day in Athens. Unfortunately, there were no photos allowed.

Perhaps one of the best things about the Acropolis was the view of other ruins. We got a sneak peek at the attractions we'd be visiting later.

the Temple of Hephaistos in the Ancient Agora (marketplace):


the Temple of Olympian Zeus:

Athens: Fabulous Food

Apologies for the delay in blogging. Leaving the country for a month means that you have LOTS of house/yard work to catch up on once you're home. (Of course, it's totally worth it!) Then there's that whole pesky day job thing...

Of course, it's kind of nice to take a pause in the midst of my hectic to-do list and remember our lovely vacation.

At the moment, I'm having "taste memory" of some of the delicacies we tried in Athens. Unfortunately, our jet lag meant we slept through several opportunities to eat (a misfortune that was NOT repeated on the rest of the trip).

Generally speaking, we'd have two meals a day: breakfast, and late dinner (though often with a snack in between). This was easy to do... the heat made us crave water, not food! Dinner was always a spectacularly filling affair and often took several hours to consume. (The wait staff in Europe isn't quite so concerned with hurrying you through your meal... you can sit for hours at a cafe table with only a lemon soda, and they'll just let you be.)

Our best meal in Athens was definitely Xenios Zeus on the Mnisikleous Steps. To get to this taverna near the base of the Acropolis, we had to walk up several winding alleyways. The view was gorgeous: grapevines and rooftops.


We had an insanely tasty feast, prepared simply with fresh ingredients. The salad was one of the best I've ever tasted, though it was just lettuce, salad greens, and lemon juice. We mixed it with a taramasalata (fish roe dip). There was also super garlicky bread as well as an olive tray. And this was just the first course!


Next came fried eggplant.


When the calamari came out, we thought (a) "We didn't order onion rings!" and (b) "This must be the main course."

We were wrong. There was also fish, still on the bone and absolutely delicious... crunchy skin, tender flesh, and lots of lemon.


This was also the meal in which Mike and I discovered that we are not the biggest fans of ouzo. Bummer! Still, it was nice to try the local libation and get another (literal) taste of the culture.


Next up: some actual sightseeing photos!

Athens Impressions

Athens hotel: Marble House Pension

• Lovely owner who gave us maps and sightseeing recommendations
• Inexpensive and within walking distance of major sights
• Thin walls... experienced when the inebriated Australians on our floor locked themselves out, chatted merrily at the top of their lungs, and then vomited copiously.

Acclimating to Europe

This was my first encounter with a European shower: a tiny square of porcelain, water nozzle on a hose, and two drains... one in the tiled bathroom floor, one in the "stall" itself. Want some walls, or a shower curtain? No way. And hot water? Well... maybe if you're lucky.

Another common sight in Europe: the scooter. Scooters zipped between the multiple lanes of street traffic, often jumping up to the sidewalk to circumvent slow spots and scatter pedestrians. We saw lots of crazy scooter driving in both Greece and Italy. What we didn't see were helmets!

Athens itself

Our first day in Athens fell casualty to monster jet lag. On our second day, we woke up long before anything was open and strolled down the Dionysiou Areopagitou and Apostolou Pavlou. These streets, which border the Acropolis, were redone for the 2004 Olympics. Flowering bushes and trees lined the wide cobblestone avenues, perfuming the air with the scents of sage and sugar. We had the ruins mostly to ourselves--and we certainly didn't mind sharing with that tortoise.

Outside of this area, Athens was an exhausting blend of the ancient and modern. There were many Greek Orthodox churches and squares--not landmarks, just a beautiful part of the city.

Athens was HUGE! The city seemed to spread forever, a mix of bustling thoroughfares and narrow back-alleys. Even from the vantage point of the Acropolis, we couldn't see an end to the buildings.

It seemed that everyone in Athens smoked. There was an ashtray on every cafe table, and the smell lingered in the air--mixing with the oppressively sweet odor of rotting garbage. Also prevalent in Athens: feral cats. The stray felines were everywhere... in the streets, on porches, or hanging out at the ruins. The only exception was the Acropolis; apparently, only tourists feel compelled to climb that high in the heat!

Revote

I put the top two pictures on the sidebar, so we could see them small. Which do we like--bridge background, or Tuscany background?

The Power of Yard Work Parties

Thank goodness, it's not a jungle out there... not anymore, at least.

Check out these "before" and "after" photos and you may understand why we're so grateful to our parents for showing up. Thanks to both families for donating your trucks, tools, and time to scraping back the layers of awfulness in our front yard.

Our parents turned the driveway from Dandelion Central into a place we'd actually be proud to park our cars:


As for the transformation from Curbside Eyesore into Non-Embarrassing Bare Flower Bed... well, that took a little longer than one afternoon... (This one's worth clicking on the picture so you can see how bad it was originally. No, really.)


How did we tackle that shrubbery mess? It took months, but only because we get distracted very easily. It went a little something like this:

Step One: I cut out all of the old plants--including one sad, scraggly fir tree. There was also an initial weeding. (Note: weeds grow back if you don't, you know, put real plants in the bed. Who knew?) As you can imagine, this created quite the yard compost pile! (The picture is just one part of one hedge...)

Step Two: Mike dug out most of the stumps, but we had to hire a stump grinder for the tree.

Step Three: Our parents came over to help us weed and level the flowerbed, which we'll be covering with weed-block (and planting next spring). They were so energetic, they even moved on to some of the other flowerbeds, picking weeds that you can't see from the road. (So thorough!)

Thanks for all the help, family! We'll be sure to call you when we get brave enough to tackle the backyard...

The 2010 Photo?

We are back from our amazing vacation in Greece and Italy!

I imagine it will take me a few days to organize the many photos we took... and even longer to clean them up, then post the generally interesting ones. (I sincerely doubt you all want to see pictures of every hotel room.)

In the mean time, however, I've decided to copy Tara's brilliance. On her blog sidebar, she's posted a family picture from each autumn (going back to 2006). I am going to do the same, and our 2010 photo will definitely come from the trip. So... which of the following do you like best?

1. Athens (in front of the Parthenon)

2. Crete (Captain Nick the Greek's boat)

3. Florence (Ponte Vecchio)


4. Montepulciano (Tuscan Hills)

Sun Lakes Camping Extravaganza

To revisit my twin themes of (a) belated picture posting and (b) my families getting along... the Sun Lakes camping trip from Mother's Day weekend!

My sister-in-law (D) meets her family for an annual camping trip in Sun Lakes. Last year, D expanded the trip to include her in-laws (Mike and me, the eldest brother's family, and the grandparents). In 2010, the trip got even bigger! My parents joined, as did one of D's close friends. There were kids running around everywhere, food being cooked at all hours of the day, and some pretty cutthroat games of hand and foot.

Mike and I won every round, in case you're curious.

My father was happy to take Mike and James (Mike's middle brother) out for two days of fishing on Banks Lake. I spent a lot of time napping and snacking, though there was a poorly played game of miniature golf...

Giving Thanks

I realize it has been quite some time since Thanksgiving. However, I recently discovered these photos on my sister-in-law's Facebook page. I couldn't resist sharing!

It's also worth noting that I'm so grateful that all of my families get along. Thanksgiving participants included: my parents, Mike and me, my brother and his family, plus Mike's brother and his family. One of my sister-in-law's closest friends even came along. It was great, and of course the food was fabulous.

Belated Mother's Day

Recently, I went over to my parents' house for a belated Mother's Day celebration. My aunt and uncle--recently back from their winter in Arizona--joined us for a lovely lunch and a bit of triplet/L-Pie wrangling. A good time was had by all!

I enjoyed getting to catch up with my aunt and uncle. Then there was puppetry with the boys (they love to stick their hands in the bear's mouth...) and reading a Little Critter book with L-Pie. She found the mouse on every page!

I love watching my little family at their parenting and grand-parenting best. And I swear, my parents have the best toys at their house (to say nothing for the cookies). My old Fisher Price dollhouse? Always a big hit... and my mom can play with Hot Wheels for hours.

Here is Renae's beautiful present for Mom. I regret to report that I showed up sans gift!