Greek Food

Just thought I would blog a bit about Greek food (I'm in my wonderful, ultra-modern hotel with fabulous air-conditioning waiting for my taxi to come).

Since I have been here, I have wondered why I was so worried, initially, about what I would eat.

Driving back into Athens yesterday, we saw two drive-thru McDonald's and as far as "Western" food goes, that's the only chain store that I have seen.

Our breakfasts have been toast, doughnuts, fresh pastry, cheese, meat, bacon, egg, many kinds of bread, yougurt, and in some places, fresh fruit.

I just have to say that I am not a meat and cheese girl where breakfast is concerned. I like my toast and pastry and some O.J. and I'm good.

Yesterday I watched some Dutch tourists (I asked - it drives me nuts to hear people talking and I don't know where they are from - not like I understood them even when I find out, but at least I know... you know?) eat huge hunks of fresh gruyere cheese and swiss for breakfast and I thought, well, they must need plugged up for awhile. With it being so hot here, you don't want to upset your stomach because it's not like you can find a bathroom just ANYWHERE.

I had a plum yesterday morning and it was from Chile, just like ours in Texas. It was delicious. In Ancient Olympia, I had watermelon and it was sweet like candy - I could have eaten it all.

Lunch is funny here - Sarah and I ordered a sandwich in Ancient Olympia and they brought it to the table with chips and inside the sandwich was the following: ham, cheese, tomatoes, french fries. I can't eat my sandwich with french fries so I took them off - that's when the waitress begins to look at you like you are an alien - with a look like, "Ohhhh, you aren't from here. HERE we all eat 'fried potatoes' on our sandwiches. I'm going to have to watch out for you." I ate the fries, but not the chips - just didn't seem right to eat both.

There's not a lot of snacking here - first, I'm too hot to snack, and secondly, you have to find an establishment that has snacks or a kiosk that sells them and sometimes you just want a water or a Coke and nothing to eat. I have snacked on cashews and that's it. Maybe I should snack the same way in America - might be helpful.

Drinks here are great - you can get them cold ONLY if you are eating dinner or supper. If you go to a kiosk, they are in a cooler, but they are NEVER cool - it's for display only. So if you come, don't be a sucker thinking that you are going to cool off with a cold drink - go eat and then you'll get one - and you'll get it in a bottle, like I used to get when I was a kid.

My favorite new drink is an orange drink that has carbonation - sounds gross maybe, but it is refreshing and I could drink them all day here. When I get home, I am going to see if maybe HEB can get them for me. The names are freaky - one is Louzade, one is Loux, one is made by Fanta - doesn't matter - they are fabulous.

Dinner / lunch here is excellent - I have not ordered anything I did not like. Yesterday in Delphi, I ordered a hamburger. Yes, I know what you are thinking - but no, that's not correct. There's no bun and no sides to go with. It's lamb meat and cheese melted on top with special herbs and then fried potatoes (round like the potato itself) on the side. It was awesome. I have grown to love lamb quite a bit.

Supper is equally wonderful. Last night I had chicken wrapped in bacon on skewers with pita bread and fried potatoes with the most wonderful tomatoes on the side. Sarah and Michael had gyros with chicken.

I really don't know what I was worried about, but I figure I have listened too much to people and let that cloud my judgment. I need to learn from that.

Stay tuned to see what food is like in Israel - I am actually looking forward to it!

All Roads Lead to Delphi

We visited the most beautiful place that I have ever been on earth - Delphi, Greece.

It's spelled various ways - Delphi, Delfi, Delfoi - referred to in the region of Fokida - no matter - all of those ways spell "A W E S O M E".

Our lodging was fabulous - Hotel Varona, overlooking olive groves and the harbor in the distance.

Delphi sits at the base of Mount Parnassus - you've read about it in Greek Mythology. Mount Parnassus was used in various important Greek battles to trap the enemy between the water and the mountain itself.

The town is charming, the townspeople friendly and accomodating, the sites incredible, and the food is just downright yummy.

Apollo's main oracle is located in Delphi - right down the road from where we stayed, shopped, and ate. If anyone wished to know something about their life, he/she journeyed to Delphi to the Oracle and would ask the priest or priestess the question, and they, in turn, would ask Apollo. Apollo wouldn't always just give the answer - at times he would equivocate. Meaning, he would tell SOME of the truth, just not ALL of the truth. Sometimes he would just tell the tidbit of a prophecy of someone's life and wait for them to return and give another tidbit.

Athena had a temple here also and quite a bit of it is still standing.

We visited an awesome Greek restaurant last night and had various traditional Greek dishes. I had pork souvlaki. Souvlaki is "skewered meat" and is marinated and herbed. I had another bit of a yougurt and cucumber mixture - delicious! And home-made fried potatoes and bread. The flies joined us for dinner, as they have each meal here in Greece, and I promptly scared all of us by shooing a fly and knocking the glass Coke bottle off of the table and shattering it into a million pieces. The flies didn't come back after that. :)

We met fabulous shop owners and bought some fabulous olive oil, honey, olive oil soap, and my new favorite drink - a sparkling orange drink. It comes in different packages, but I love it!!

That's all for now friends, Jerusalem awaits me tomorrow. Wish me luck!

The Greek Countryside Rocks

Hi guys - pictures are finally on here!

We traveled to Ancient Olympia yesterday - home of the very first Olympics. Wow - and I mean WOW! It was really cool to see the temples that they erected to Zeus and Hera and I got to see an ancient "gym" where the wrestlers would practice before their matches.

Our hotel in Olympia is going to get slammed for massively false advertisement. They probably won't like Americans too much after we get through with them. The rooms were back from the '50s - I needed a rake to work on the shag carpet like I used to have to do at my Mema's when I visited. The bathroom was abhorrent and for the piece de resistance - NO FLIPPING AIR!!! We purposely chose hotels that had air conditioning and decent bathrooms because we wanted a break at the end of the day, sadly, what we got was crapola.

We followed a highway near the coast and friends, the water is just like what you would think - teal, blue, dark blue, aquamarine - lovely. We left the Peloponnese and crossed over a bridge in Patra and drove on to Delfi, where today we will see the main Oracle of the god Apollo (who was Zeus' son).

It's been hot here - I can't drink enough water! I drink only one or two cokes with meals only and the rest of the day it's water. I loved drinking from the artesial fountain yesterday in Olympia - I put my hands in and washed my face and then went to work drinking. What is it that they say - "When in Rome, do as the Romans do"? I was a true Roman yesterday.

We met a fabulous couple last night - she is from Denmark, he is Greek - they married and live here and own a shop. They enlightened Sarah, Michael, and myself on quite a few things. Taxes here have risen from 19% now to 21% - in July they will be 23%. School is out TODAY here in Greece and education is quite different here.

More later, friends - I'm back in Athens tonight getting ready for Jerusalem!!

Day 1 in the Greek Countryside...Oh My!!

Sarah, Michael, and I all breathed a sigh of relief when we finally left Athens yesterday morning. We are all in consensus that the archaeological sites are the best ever, but alas, the city is not! The graffitti EVERYWHERE, the people who don't speak English (we understand we are in their country, but we were told that "almost everyone speaks English - that's "bull-horse-hockey"), the general rudeness or lack of affectation of those from the city are simply off-putting.

I can attest to the charm and loveliness of not only the people of the country, but of the places we visited as well. Even if the country-folk didn't speak English, they understood us and went to whatever length possible to help us with directions. Thanks goes out to the woman at the petrol station, the man at the petrol station, the young toll booth worker, the walker with red-rimmed sunglasses, and all the others I don't seem to remember right now. God really is good, friends.

I made an international friend yesterday, too. Her name was "Jan" (can you imagine?) and she was from Australia. Poor girl fell and broke her arm in her hotel in Turkey before coming to Greece and her advice to me was never to fall in a foreign country. Amen, Jan - Amen. We met Jan and her tour group at three of the places that we visited - Sarah is a true "tour guide" - she planned all of it and in true tour guide fashion!

The pictures above are of Apollo's temple at Ancient Corinth and another highlight of our tour, the colosseum at Epidaurus. Both fabulous and worth seeing. The colosseum was heck on my feet - massive cobblestones and today my poor foot is feeling it. I found out before I left that I have "plantar fasceitis" (sp?) in my left foot and boy, do I not like it. I have said a prayer every night and every morning for not so much pain, and the ability to walk. I wasn't doing so well yesterday evening, sad to say. I have tried propping up my foot, but as any of you foot hurters know, it doesn't help much. I would love it if you would say a quick prayer today - I don't want to miss a thing!

Driving through the countryside was magical, except for our GPS, affectionately named, "Lucy." She has a British accent and we had to name her because, well, she talks to US, so we need to talk to HER. She says sweet things to us like, "Signal too low... Recalculating...Signal too low...Recalculating...Turn right...turn right...Signal too low...Signal too low...Signal too low." Do you sense the pattern here? Friends, please hear me - if you EVER travel in Greece, get a RELIABLE Lucy, and not the bumbling little fart that we have. I will give her props - she was right 1/3 of the time, when her signal wasn't "too low" and we praised her...and other times, told her she was a piece of crap and other times told her to shut up and other times just unplugged her. The Greek countryside is a force to be reckoned with and there are no I10's or I20's or I35's to go down - no 146's either.

We encountered sheep and goathearders yesterday ON THE ROAD - a windy, scary route that reminded me of when we used to visit Colorado and you had to keep your eyes on the road or you would promptly barf. Mother would be proud - I kept my eyes on the road and did not barf, but came close at times. The hearders were kind and waved at us because, well, it was either we get by or we hit their babies. Not an easy task on Michael's part, as he was driving. Michael does win the award for "Bestest Greek Countryside Driver Ever" - he was so patient.

Also, we encountered armed guards yesterday. On a road leading to Lord knows where. Scared us all to death and we promptly kicked it into reverse and got the "heck outta Dodge" - we were scared that they would pull us over or something!! We escaped and all is well, friends.

We made it to our hotel in Ancient Olympia late last night - we had reservations at the Hotel Antonios. It's on a hill overlooking some of the town. I'm about to eat breakfast and will blog more about it tonight. 'Till then, friends.

Athens, Greece - New Acropolis Museum

After the Greek Archaeological Museum, we traversed over to the New Acropolis Museum.

Sarah found out some background and this museum has been talked about and on television over the last year, as it opened last summer.

The "New Acropolis Museum" stands directly above ruins from outshoots from the Acropolis and the story is that the Greeks protested vehemently as to NOT wanting the new museum, although I enjoyed it and ranked it as one of the nicest museums I have ever been to (and folks, that is a bunch!).

It is sterile and modern, and the pieces "pop" against the sterility. As you walk around inside, the floors are see-through, so you can look at the archaeological findings of the pieces of the Acropolis. I was really impressed, although Sarah and I observed that those in skirts played "peek-a-boo" with all of those beneath them (I walked to the far right - I have nothing to show the Greeks LOL).

I met a lovely Houston couple in there and got to talk to them - the wife said that it took she and her husband over half a day to make it to the apex of the Acropolis and that I should do it because she WAS older than me. I didn't want to point out the obvious, but I should have said, "Yes, love, you have age on me, but I'm in the heavyweight division." I thought it funny, but her husband found me later and told me not to go - that it almost did him in! Sarah and I had already discussed that I didn't think I could perform the Herculean task of climbing the mountain in the intense heat of the day, so she and Michael went and took pictures.

I wasn't feeling my best at the end of the museum tour, so Sarah and Michael and I parted ways and I went to have lots of water, a Coke, and some strawberry sorbet.

I went shopping for alabaster statues on the way back to the hotel and found some lovely items to go in our "Mythology Trunk"!

Well, we are off to Corinth in the morning - wish us the best of luck! Greeks are interesting folk!

Athens, Greece - Greek Archaeological Museum

I made it to Athens last night about 11:00 p.m. Greece time (there is a massive time difference - it's made some of today difficult - :) ) and arrived to my hotel at Athens Way.

Sarah, Michael, and I went this morning to the Greek Archaeological Museum after a wonderfully proper breakfast on the rooftop of our hotel.

The walk to the Archaeological Museum was downhill (lovely!) and we made it in no time - since it is Saturday here, many were still snoozing!

The pictures from the musem are incredible and I will put one or two here - I enjoyed the museum so much! They allowed you to take pictures with no flash and boy, did we ever! They had Prehistoric pieces as well as those uncovered from temples on islands and around Athens near the Acropolis.

Sarah and I really like the museums that let you take pictures, although many don't.

I will tell more about our next stop in the next blog!

I Made it to London Yesterday

The flight to London yesterday was perilous!! I don't mean danger in the air, I mean a packed flight on a double-decker airplane, and a kid in front of me that wiggled so much I have bruises on my knees (I showed Sarah - she's my proof!)

I watched "The Blind Side" for the first time and loved every minute of it.

On my layover in London, I realised (British spelling for homage) that I would be unable to make it into downtown - Heathrow has grown so much, it made it impossible to leave as you run from terminal connection to terminal connection.

I am putting a picture in here of a lovely place I ate at the airport that served traditional English food - I had fish and chips and it was superb!

More to come on my first day in Athens!!

It's Just About that Time!

I can't believe that I am almost on my way to Athens.

Something is up with British Airway's website - I have been trying to check in online for hours.

Oh well, I'll try again tomorrow!

I've been in Brownsville, Texas, working for the University of Texas at Brownsville teaching an Advanced Placement Summer Institute. Awesome facility, students, and co-workers here! Mel Gibson is in town shooting a movie with a woman that no one can quite figure out who she is - we have gotten the names down to two: Sharon Stone or Jennifer Anniston - we just can't get confirmation of which girl it is. :)

Well, I hope you guys are ready to follow me on a fantastic journey!

See you in Greece!

Where There's a Will, There's a Way...

Yesterday at 4:00 p.m. I experienced massive anxiety because British Airways emailed me to say that they had cancelled the leg of my flight from London Heathrow to Athens.

It's pretty safe to say that I didn't quite know what to do and went running into the hallway and hollered, "SARAH!!! They cancelled my flight!!!"

Poor unsuspecting Sarah pops out of her room hollering, "They WHAT??"

I said, "I don't know what to do! What are we going to do?"

Sarah calmed down quite well for my sake and advised me to phone the BA office as soon as I could possibly get it done.

Well, I had a lovely chat with an American BA agent who quite wonderfully got me on an earlier flight, thus letting me be in London for 5 hours instead of 9.

I was MOST appreciative of her computer skills!

So friends, it's still good.

There have been a few folks thinking that maybe Sarah and I shouldn't be heading off to Greece and Europe in general. I kind of look at it like this: when the apostle Paul was preaching throughout (what is now) Greece and Turkey, he would decide upon a place to go and preach "The Message" and God would say, "No, Paul - not there, not now." I think that some could look at what is going on as maybe God putting His hand up and saying the same to us; however, since things seem to still be working out and the path is uninterrupted for the moment, I would tend to think that He is giving His blessing to us and we will be protected. Thank goodness for Max Lucado who has taught me the most about grace. :)

Keep on praying, friends. I appreciate you all!

It's a Beautiful Morning!

Well Friends -

The end of school is upon us and I can finally feel like a chapter is closing.

I've been packing my suitcase and checking my lists five hundred times.

I can't believe that in one week I will be in the air on the way to Greece.

You all will get to see some awesome pictures of London when I have my 9 hour layover there. I'm going to Harrod's, Fortnum and Mason's, Westminster Abbey, and time permitting, the Tate Gallery. So be looking for those!

Enjoy the day!

Hallelujah!!

Good Morning All -

Had an awesome traveling dream last night and didn't want to wake up this morning. I must have been standing on the hilltop in Olympia (enter the "Gone With the Wind" music) and then the alarm went off - darn alarm. LOL

Best of news - nothing new on the ticker this morning. Prayer is good - God is good. Lovin' it!!

School is almost over and the "Hallelujah Chorus" is playing in my head! Love it!!

Have a Terrific Tuesday!!