Two and a half weeks passed in which I did not spend one moment with you. After two straight months in your warm (compared to New England) and spirited embrace, it was quite the trying time for me to go without you for so long. How did I survive without you, you wonder? Oh, I simply kept myself busy so that my mind did not have time to wander towards thoughts of you, your cooking, your idiosyncrasies - all of those minute details that make you, well, you.
So sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip...a (almost) three week tour...
As I could not bring myself to part completely with your Greek ways at first, I traveled with two friends, Kate and Sarah, to the small town of Delphi, Greece. This was the center of the world according to ancient Greeks - the locale where two eagles sent by Zeus from opposite sides of the world met (don't ask me how this works, it was Zeus, he was the man). Because of its important central location, Delphi became home to the temple of Apollo, the Oracle of Delphi, a temple to Athena and the treasuries of most of the Greek kingdoms of the age. Because of its completely non-central location in modern times, this site is also one of the least-destroyed of the ancient Greeks that I've seen.
My two companions and I then made our way back to Athens to give this city a second go-around (first time for Sarah). Thanks to some very generous maneuvering by our boss at the College Counseling Office, Eva, we had a hotel almost right next to the Parliament building for about 1/3 of the price (Eva also secured us a free room in Delphi). We re-visited the Acropolis and its sites, which were much less crowded this time and made it into the site of the Temple of Zeus, too.
We also managed to see a changing of the guards at Parliament and leave with all of our wallets intact. We stayed out until about 1am for dinner and ice cream and wandering, and I left the hotel at a not-so-bright hour of 4am to catch a flight at the Athens airport.
You see, dearest Thessaloniki, by this time I had traveled far enough from so many of your familiar features that I was prepared to take the plunge and return to an English-speaking country! I arrived in London around 9am and slowly made my way from one airport to another. Around 9pm, I met someone at the airport who seemed to be from another world (and then I remembered I actually knew him quite well!).
On our first whole day together, we explored the city of London. We started nearby Big Ben and Parliament, but found no legendary roundabout nearby.
We saw Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street - the homes of the heads of state and government for this bizarre English-speaking land. We walked through beautifully manicured gardens, found an Arc de Triumph and some odd-ball war memorials. We found Trafalgar Square teeming with people and missionaries proselytizing the "pagan" Easter. After, we dined in Soho for lunch and then walked along the muddy River Thames. As the sun fell in the sky, we found the "Tower" of London and the famed London Bridge.
Then we returned to our lodgings on the London Underground to allow our weary legs some rest.
The next day was mostly consumed by travel to the city of Paris. We found our way to our hosts' home around 9pm, had some friendly conversation, and then were off to bed again.
We awoke and had a typical Parisian breakfast - espresso and a croissant. Just as in London, we walked incredible distances here. After buying our train tickets to travel to Barcelona the next day at 9am, we discovered a monument commemorating the storming of the Bastille (which is considered the start of the French revolution), found a tourist swarm at Notre Dame (but no Quasi Modo), and visited a lonely old church instead of paying to enter the famous, crowded one. We stopped for lunch at a cafe and ordered meals from a blackboard menu, though we could only decipher the meaning of a few words (how comforting it was to be in the dark about the language around you again! Ha!). We got lost in some small alleyways and then emerged to find the Louvre and its gorgeous, old buildings. From here, we proceeded following the famed Champs-Elysees (lined with trees, gardens and palaces, and then high-end stores) to the "real" Arc de Triomphe. Making our way to the Eiffel Tower, we stopped to rest our feet and watch a Sri Lankan protest and hunger strike(not sure what their cause was since everything was in French).
When we arrived at the Eiffel Tower, the lines were long, so we decided to have a glass - or bottle - of wine before returning to ascend the landmark. (Imagine that, dearest Thessaloniki, in Paris, people wait in lines! Insane!) The sunset while we were part way up, but it was too overcast and hazy to see a beautiful sky. Again, after such a long day, we returned to our hosts' home and went to bed straight away.
We left the next morning to catch our 9:20am train to Barcelona, but arrived belatedly at 9:23. We had to buy an upgrade to first class to make a train out on the same day. Since when are the French supposed to be timely, Thessaloniki? They have the same reputation for timing as you do! This error, though, allotted us some time to buy a pair of fresh baguettes (1.50 euro), some espresso, and a Paris postcard - all things that we would've been terribly disappointed to leave Paris without.
At 11:20am, we were sure to be more than on time to settle into our first class seats to Barcelona. We had a quick "layover" on the way in a town called Montpellier, just enough time to grab some lunch at the train station. We arrived in Barcelona around 8pm and were to meet our host at a central location - Burger King. Sound like a good place to eat dinner, Thessaloniki? You're right, it's not, but after a day of traveling, and seeing a beer tap at the counter, you've got to try it, right? The beer and the food are of equal quality.
We started our first day in Barcelona with two surprising things: first, a over-excited but very sweet and friendly representative of Doctors Without Borders who asked us to sing a song in Spanish with them; and second, a hail storm while we were eating an early lunch.
The weather for the rest of the day was equally as odd - it rained lightly when the sun was out and stopped as soon as a cloud covered us. I know, Thessaloniki, you never treat me with such sporadic weather. After the hail, we spent some time getting lost in the winding alleyways that are lined with small shops. We walked to the port then along the beach and dipped our toes in the (freezing!) Mediterranean.
We had a (second?) lunch at a tapas restaurant that was TO DIE FOR. And found our way to the Chocolate Museum, but they had already closed. While trying to find our way back to the place we stayed, we found the most complete fresh market I have ever seen. We stocked up on fruits, veggies, bread, nuts and cheese and fed ourselves off of for the next three days. We stayed in the hostel for the rest of the night and watch some movies and made some friends.
Our second day in Barcelona we returned first thing to the Chocolate Museum - mmmmmm. Then we went off to Barcelona's Arc de Triomphe. We also saw the La Sagrada Familia Catedral which has been under construction for almost a hundred years and is only projected to be completed in the 2020s. Every facade is different, and the one with the worst light for picture taking turned out to be the most beautiful. Oh well. We also visited Barcelona's OTHER famous Catedral which is also under construction. When we went out, there was a band playing barber-shop-like music and a man who must of been in his 80s at least, dancing in front of them with his cane and hunched stature. We bought a CD. We returned to the hostel again to have some dinner, had some laughs with our Israeli friends, and then went out for a couple drinks with our Brazilian friends.
After a slow start and some fruit salad (with red onion - a delightful touch, actually), we hopped on a train for Montpellier. This small town in the south of France was not on our original itinerary, but after we ruled out Lisbon, Portugal because of time and cost, we thought this might be a nice interruption after all the cities we'd visited. We arrived around 9pm (getting to be a theme, eh?) and met our host, Max and his brother Emeric.
This was a Saturday night, so Max and Emeric were ready to celebrate the week with a couple of drinks and a lot of laughs. We compared cultures, towns, beers, musics. We also discovered the truth behind the Space Invaders - that we had seen in Paris, Max showed us in Montpellier, and we later found in Geneva.
On Sunday, Max and Emeric had a lunch date with their parents at their home outside Montpellier. They took us to the local market in the morning, and then were dropped off in a park nearby their parents place to have a lovely picnic. Their parents asked us to join them for dessert. After dessert and some local (sweet) wine, we were off to meet with some of Max's friends and a walk along the beach. We had a cup of coffee, got rained on, and Max's friend bought us a ride across and above the port in the "gondolas." When we got back, we cooked dinner for Max, his girlfriend and Emeric. Max also helped us find a super-discount rate for our next trip - a train ride to Geneva - a first class ticket for less than the economy class. Yay!
The next day we spent the morning exploring Montpellier in the daylight - its Arc de Triomphe, it's ancient aqueduct, gardens, arcitecture, trams. Truely a lovely, though small city. In the afternoon, we hopped back on to the train and headed to Geneva, first class.
We met our host in Geneva, Zoe, at the train station and she took us back to her apartment. For the rest of the night, Zoe pulled out a map of Geneva she had acquired for us and showed us the fun places to go, the must sees, etc. She also fed us a great, ecclectic dinner.
Since Zoe is a nurse and had to work the next day, we were up and out at 6:45am. We found a place to get some coffee, and then followed Zoe's outlined map for us. We took a nap in a park :), found the world's longest bench (supposedly), played on a play ground, explored the "old city," walked along Lake Geneva, took a ferry boat across the lake, explored a couple gardens and met Zoe back at her place for a bit of a refresher. Then, Matt took me out to dinner for a belated birthday present. Though the restaurant didn't look like much, it was a hidden gem! We had a great fondue dish and a steak with a salad. All of it 100% scrumptous. Afterwards, we met up with Zoe for drinks at a local microbrewery.
Here is a story about how Zoe lives her life: We went to a microbrewery that she had never been to before to try it out. The waitress had a bandage on her finger. Zoe asked her what happened, and upon hearing the story, offered to return with us the next day to remove the waitress's sutures so that she didn't have to go 45 minutes and 10 Francs outside of the city to do it.
This being said, the next day Zoe had off, and she wanted to take us to see some of the Swiss country side and vineyards (we kind of asked for it!). She took us to her parents house, we made some delicious lunch (bread, butter and radishes were part of it - who knew?), then grabbed her car and went for a bit of a random drive. We stopped in a small SMALL country town that had some vineyard signs and walked around or a bit. We knocked on one of their doors only to find out that they had "officially" closed for the day. But, told us to come back in 10 minutes for a tasting.
Now, dearest Thessaloniki, I could go on for weeks about how amazing this particular experience turned out. I will keep the description short and sweet, but I first want to ask you, when will you make this happen for me in Greece? I want some locally made, small-time, Greek wine. Do we have an agreement? Good.
Continuing....When we returned, they showed us into their kitchen (not their official tasting room) and proceed to walk us through their music-themed set of wines. We then learned that "the man of the house" actually participated in traditional hunting forrays - uniforms, hound dogs, horses, and those simple, circular horns you see at Christmas time (don't know the name in English - or French for that matter). Actually, he and his group had a practice that same evening. Zoe asked, "Can we watch?" The answer, of course. And so, we got a couple bottles of wine, some additional top-offs of our tasting glasses, some traditional Swiss food, and, though we couldn't understand it ourselves, some traditional Swiss conversation. Then we caravaned down the road and listened to their practice. Incredible. Thanks, Zoe.
When we returned to Zoe's place, Matt and I made some homemade Mac and Cheese. I think we impressed her :) Then we returned to the bar for some suture removal. After a good night's rest, we walked around a bit with Zoe and then stopped off at one of Zoe's favorite spots for a bite to eat. It has a used book library (also available for purchase) and some relatively cheap gourmet menu. Another amazing meal. Afterwards, we had to run to catch our flight to Amsterdam.
We arrived in Amsterdam and found our way to our host, Robert's apartment. Robert had a dinner party at a friend's place, who also invited us! He has two bikes and so Matt got to cart me around on the back of one. We had a fantastic dinner with some really lovely people. Matt got his first chance to pick up a guitar in two weeks (!) and played some fun music.
The next day we rented some bikes. Robert took us around parts of Amsterdam city, and then took us outside of the city, for an almost 20 kilometer ride out to a small island called Marken (SP?). It was a fantasticly beautiful ride on the eyes and brain. The rest of my body was not quite as happy, but hey. We rode through protective marsh land, past windmill farms, through a small village and out to a lighthouse. We saw some interesting water birds, lots of farmland, and even got to try some fresh milk. We returned to the city via its old shipyard which is now a hip locale with a couple bars, more great food and an old Soviet submarine. We stopped at a grocery store on the way back to the apartment and Matt and I concocted some burritos for Robert and ourselves. Then I passed out. Too much bike riding, sore muscles, and a bruised gluteous maximus.
The next day, we strapped on our backpacks and hopped on our rented bikes to return them. We returned them, and got a celebratory beer for making it that far on bikes (mostly for my sake). We then hopped on a plane to head back to London for our final leg of the trip. We stayed in the small town of Stansted, instead of London, which was an interesting, but uneventful experience which included a totally unfriendly "hotel" owner, a 2 hour search for an atm, and an outrageously adorable pub owner. In the morning we got up and returned to the airport. We hung out for a few hours eating some food, playing some cards and preparing to part ways again.
I caught a flight back to Athens, leaving Matt to fend for himself to get back to Boston. My flight was a perfect re-introduction to Greek culture - loud, boisterous, late, chaotic. I met up with Kate and caught an overnight bus ride back "home."
It is amazing how comfortable I felt returning to my life with you, Thessaloniki. After two weeks of English, French, and Spanish-speaking locales, I was comfortable back in your Greek speaking streets. Refreshing to already know the bus number I wanted to take, to already have a key to get to my bed, my own shower, and clean clothes. You have truely become a home away from home, dearest Thessaloniki. Thank you for continuing to welcome me.
With Love,
Άλλισον
