Greece - Jumping Ahead to the Present

I realize that it is too hard to write about travels that have happening at the moment.  So, I am going to jump ahead and write about our travels pretty much as they happen and then go back from time to time and play catch-up.

So, we left Italy for Greece, hoping that we would leave the rain behind us. We drove across the boot of Italy and took a ferry from Brindesi to Athens.  We were quite traumatized to see what looked like hundreds of trucks backing up onto the ferry and having to wait almost an hour and a half for our turn did nothing to calm our fears.  However, in the end, we were able to drive straight up onto the third deck of the ferry and park.  Even that was really weird because almost no directions came from the crew and it was pretty much left to us to figure things out.  We went into the lounge and tried to get comfortable for about a hour, not looking forward to the very long night ahead of us.  Then David had a bright idea!!  Why not sleep in our own bed!!!  So, up to the outdoor deck we went with no one stopping us; into Yertle we climbed, made the bed and went to sleep!!!!!!  At 4:00 am the ferry made its first stop and I slept right through it.  At 7:00 am we woke and found we were only one of two vehicles on the upper deck and it was a breeze to turn around and drive down the ramp and out!  Well rested and amazed!!!!

Our campground in Athens was very expensive, but very very convenient.  We had a bus stop right in front of the campground which took us to the subway and into Athens.  They have a system where one ticket allows you 90 minutes of travel, and the subway system is really good! I have been collecting plants along the way and now cart my little garden with us wherever we go

One of our goals was to apply through the U.S. embassy for our Peace Corps passports and the other was to find a doctor who spoke English and could help us work our way through the medical check-up procedures for the Peace Corps..  Unbelievably, we found a vice-consul in the embassy who made our passport and visa application easy and then found a doctor from the list of English speaking physicians published by the embassy who was able to get us what is called a complete physical (cursory at best, but just what we needed to get all of our testing and exams done:  eye, teeth, chest x-ray, mammogram, much blood work, many shots such as polio, measles, mumps and rubella and a few others.  Here are our TB shots!  Since the shots are in a series of 2 and have to be a month apart, we did all our sightseeing and paperwork and will return to Athens on March 11 for the second series of shots.

In between doctor and embassy we did a lot of sightseeing and enjoyed the great weather.  Not a drop of rain!  Not warm enough for summer clothes, but sunny skies were all we asked for!

Our first great day was visiting the Acropolis museum.  But before we could even find the place, we saw a crowd gather at the Parliament and got to watch the changing of the guard.  I thought it was way more interesting than Buckingham Palace!

 We had been to the Acropolis years ago, so chose not to go again.  But this museum, new in 2011 was amazing!  First of all, it is built on top of the ruins of a village at the base of the Acropolis and the museum is arranged so visitors can look down into the excavation work as they tour all the statues, freizes, etc. taken from the temples on the Acropolis.  Also, the museum itself is full of the original stuff taken from the temples on the Acropolis.It was a great museum!!!!!   We also saw `the remains of Hadrian's Library, right outside the old Agora right in the center of old Athens!  We have seen Hadrian's wall, now his library.  What next.

Then it was on to the Agora right in the center of old Athens!

Sunday night we had a great time.  We visited the home of Georgia and Papa Stavros Kofinas, the sister-in-law and brother of Gary, the man I worked with in Alaska.  She is a culinary arts teacher and cookbook author and the meal was incredible as was the conversation and whole evening!  We had a great time. 

Then it was off, the next day to the Archeology Museum, after which we decided that, “If you have seen one statue, you have pretty much seen them all” and we decided we had had enough of broken pots and naked men!  This tree outside the museum is just a wonderful example of how little man's world means in the grand scheme of things!

Since we were in no rush, from time to time we spent the day either at the campground or just doing errands, as well as three days visiting the hospital for our medical stuff and two days visiting the embassy.  We had some nice meals, including one where a shopkeeper personally took us to his favorite restaurant for a typical “small plate” meal.  We would have walked right passed this hole-in-the-wall had our “guide” not directed us.  These beets were so simple and so good!!!!

Here I am eating the Greek version of a moon pie.  Yummy!  But we didn’t even think to eat the pig parts!

We left Athens looking for Delphi which we had visited many years go.  We took a side trip to Livadia where there was said to be another oracle.  Couldn’t exactly find the oracle, but the town was amazingly lovely and we spent quite a while there, climbing way up to a church perched high on a hill.  The only problem as that we got to Delphi at around 2:45 and found that the oracle site closed at 3:00.  Too bad!!!!!

sited years ago, but felt it deserved another trip.