didja miss me?

Hello, everyone, I'm back from Greece and recovering nicely from a sunburn the likes of which I have never seen. It's always hard to describe places you've been without sounding inane and gushy, but I shall do my best.

Lisa, Lisa and I arrived in Athens and took a bus into the city, so my first impression was "wow, there are a lot of apartments here." The city is mostly made up of these four and five level apartments, all with balconies, some very close together. Everything is covered in a fine layer of white dust (as opposed to London, which has black dust) Greeks LOVE their cars and they drive like insane people. And everywhere you look is marble. Marble buildings, marble tiles in the bathroom, marble stairs, marble curbstones, marble street markers, oh, and marble statues of course. Naturally. Greece is very proud of their heritage. Lisa explained to me that for four hundred years the Turks were an invading force, but the Greeks managed to hold onto their culture in secret, until Lord Byron came and saved the country in the 1830s. (that's a joke) Lisa and I spent most of our time shopping through Athens--well, Lisa shopped, I became incredibly depressed because everything was sized for mutant European women who much smaller than Americans. But we did go to the archaological museum, which houses a fine collection of things that were dug out of the Athenian soil...I went in expecting to see wooden bowls, arrowheads, maybe some rudimentary tools, but what I saw was gold jewlery, terracotta pots, bronze and iron weapons. Then the sign informed me that these items were 5,000 years old, and my brain refused to comprehend a number that large. The rest of the museum was given over to "classic" Greek art...this would be the time period most people think of, when Sophocles was busy writing and Aristotle was busy thinking. Lots of pretty Greek boys with nothing on standing around looking bored while tourists studied the fine art of marble carving up close. Sometimes...closer than others.

A few days after we arrived we went and saw the Acropolis, which is a fancy Greek word meaning "edge of town." The Acropolis is a hill that has the best view of the city, and it's also where the temple to Athena, the Parthenon, is located, as well as the theatre of Dionysos, and the theatre of Herodes Atticus. The theatre of Dionysos has not been restored, the stage and seats are slowly disappearing due to time and banditry, but seeing it was kind of an emotional experience. I mean, this is it, kids, this is where western theatre began. Lisa and I sat on the (marble) seats and I told her the story of Oedipus Rex. I would have like to have acted it out, eye-gouging and all, but you weren't allowed onstage. The Parthenon is the superstar of Greek cultural attractions, and, like all superstars, it was surrounded by German tourists. The actual building has been undergoing restoration for the past 25 years or something ridiculous like that, so half of it is covered in scaffolding. It was still pretty damn impressive. In the 1800s, Lord Elgin got "permission" from the Turkish sultan to remove the friezes and other sculptures from the front, and they're still in the British Museum--so I have to make another trip to see those. I told Lisa that I stood in solidarity with the Greeks who are demanding the return of these art treasures. It's not fair to have them so far from home, especially when there's a room waiting for them at the museum. Then she accused me of being another Lord Elgin since I took a tiny rock of marble home as a souveneir. Whatever. Greeks are so emotional.

The best part about the trip was the food. Lisa and I found a magic gyro shop down the street that had proper Greek gyros, none of the plastic you find at Wisconsin fairs. Here I got to practise my Greek every night: "theo gyro, parakalos," which means "two gyros, please!" I also learned "ena" which is one, and "tria" which is three, but I didn't learn "four" which would have been useful when trying to buy stamps. Oh well. The best food in Greece is the simple Greek salad which is fresh tomatoes, red onion, green pepper and cucumbers, drizzled with olive oil and oregano (no--more oregano, Greeks love oregano), then a few olives and then a chunk of feta the size of a small book. Mm. So good. I also had tzaziki, which is a heavenly white sauce with cucumbers and onions. I'm crying right now just thinking about it. So good.

Lisa took Lisa and I to visit a small island in the Aegean sea called Aegina on Tuesday. Here we spent the afternoon on the beach, taking in the sun (by this time Pasty McWhiteperson had learned the value of her sunscreen), reading and swimming. Well, I went swimming. And I got stung by a jellyfish. How cool is that?! Just a little one--a kind of rash around my wrist, but I kept looking at it going "wow! I'm in a place where you can get stung by jellyfish! Is this really me? I'm so cool!" The water was too cold for everyone else, so I had the place to myself. We were in a little town called Agia Marina which reminded me weirdly of Door County and Florida--only because the season hadn't started yet, it was almost empty. So, the next day, when Lisa had to go back to the UK and finish her essays, I decided to go back to Aegina by myself and have a few days of total relaxation.

I checked into the Hotel Rachel--I think I might have been the only guest--and spent two days doing nothing. There was nothing to do except relax. I took a bus up to the temple dedicated to the nymph Aphaia, and wrote a little (until the German tourists came) then walked back to the ocean and spent four hours by the water reading. (by the way--"Shadow of the Wind" is a BRILLIAN BOOK. READ IT. DO IT NOW. It was the only thing I had in English left and I was really worried I was going to not like it but be stuck with it, but it turned out to be amazing. GO READ IT.) Then I had a big Greek dinner: tzaziki and bread, souvlaki (like a shish-kebab), Mythos beer, then Greek coffee and apple pie. I wanted galactobourico, which is sort of a creme/milk pastry pie, but they were out. Greek coffee, by the way, is amazing. It comes in a cup like espresso and has kind of a chalky texture, something to do with the way you boil coffee and sugar together, but it is so good.

I felt really refreshed when I left...ready to go back to London...the trip back completely sapped my energy. I took a bus...caught a boat...took the metro...caught a bus...took a plane...got a coach...then a night bus...and finally a minicab...and arrived back here at about 3AM--5AM Greece time. Collapsed into bed and slept until quarter to three. And I could go right back to bed now. I had a great time though. It was very weird being in a place where I couldn't speak the language. The word I used the most was "efarchisto" which means "thank you" as in "thank you for putting up with a stupid tourist." It was also very eye opening to be in a country where the history that informs it is longer and different. I thought London sat on it's historical laurels--here there has been human habitation for 6,000 years.

I did a lot of thinking, especially when I was on Aegina, about the nature of travel and exploring different cultures--I came to the conclusion that if a person finds something "different" they should work harder to learn about it, instead of being afraid. (...note to self...) I also figured out what my own personal problem was, so that left me cheerful annd happy. A good time, then. Except now all I can think about is Greek coffee...and tzatziki. Damnit. And I never did get that galactobourico...One of the side effects of this trip is now the kebab place down the street has been completely ruined for me. For who could enjoy their dried out sad kebabs when one has tasted the beauty and joy that is the magic Greek gyro? damnit.

Pictures soon!