From Thessaloniki, with Love

Goodbyes

2009-06-18T12:00:00.004+03:00

Well, the time is here. I'll be heading home in two more days and as it was with everyone else leaving, it's bittersweet for me, too. Though I've considered countless amounts of things I will miss about this city, this country and things that I'm looking forward to going home to, alas, when I sit in front of a computer, I forget most of them. So, here it is - my goodbyes to this country, city, school that has treated me so well for the last few months.

Goodbye, Thessaloniki. Until next year :)

The Top 10 Things to Miss about Greece...
1. Three hour coffee breaks.
2. Evening strolls along the waterfront.
3. Every day being a perfect beach day.
4. Harry's Spot. (Board games, coffee and alcohol, and club music.)
5. Almost endless free time.
6. Not being able to understand what everyone is saying.
7. Open markets.
8. Water, water, water.
9. Relatively efficient public transportation.
10. Siesta hours.

The Less Than 10 Things NOT to Miss...
1. Girls who have difficulties telling the difference between their lips and the open end of a vodka bottle.
2. Euros. (The exchange rate has become horrifying in the last couple weeks.)
3. Dog poop on sidewalks.
4. 50 Euro bills.
5. Not being able to understand what anyone is saying.
This list is short.

Ten Things to Look Forward to at Home...
1. Spicy foods :)
2. All the family(ies)
3. Limes. Grocery stores.
4. Pets. Furry, adorable little pets.
5. A real kitchen with useful utensils.
6. Wireless internet.
7. Bar-b-que.
8. Music....including Matt's band.
9. Family. (Yes, that deserves two spots)
10. "Normal" coffee.

Ανδιο, Θεσσαλονικι. Σ'αγαπο.

Week Seventeen: BitterSweet

2009-06-07T11:51:00.007+03:00

Finals have come and gone and the study abroad students are packing up, saying goodbye. The week has been one of fulfilling "final requests" as though we were all on death row.

Beach.
Taverna.
Harry's Spot.
Beach.
Taverna.
Wine.

What a tough life having to bend to everyone's whims....

We went to one of the furthest beaches from Thessaloniki this week and spent a couple nights in a camper. It was the most beautiful beach and we had it almost all to ourselves. A couple modestly-sized campfires made from scavenged wood. Fire-roasted sausages and marshmallows. Reeses smores.

Sigh.

And now for something completely different....

Finals have come and gone! I am a graduate! No more pencils; no more books; no more teachers' dirty looooooooks!

Come one, come all! To the McGovern house on the 4th of July! There will be food, friends and merriment! A celebration of my joyous return to the States, my graduation, and my not-so-joyous entry into the "real world."

Be there or be square.

Smore-making.

Mousaka.

Kalamitsi beach.

Thessaloniki water front at sunset.

Kalithea.

Weeks Fifteen and Sixteen: Wait? You guys are still here?

2009-05-28T00:32:00.008+03:00

What? I'm not convincing enough to get you all to come out to Greece or what?

The last couple of weeks have been spent mostly just winding down from the other endless weeks of travel and excitement.

What does one do to "wind down" in Thessaloniki, you ask? Well, the usual: homework/ final papers, shopping, the local market on Saturdays, three hour coffee breaks, climb the White Tower, tavernas, beaches. Same old, same old.

Homework only happened because the incredibly slow internet connection in my room went out. Go figure. It magically started working this evening. Go figure #2.

Thessaloniki's first specialty might be nightlife, but a very close second is shopping, shopping, shopping. And window shopping. I like window shopping :)

The local market is something that I had been missing hard-core because of all of our weekend traveling. They sell everything imaginable. I always go for the fresh produce (and feta!), but am often fascinated by the homemade wine, random clothing and shoes, and most especially the "everything" tables that sell corkscrews, nailpolish and toilet paper, among other things.

We like to climb the old city walls in the evening, have a cup of coffee and wait for the sun to set. Our "usual" cafe is up the big hill that overlooks the city so you can see the sprawling cityscape of identical 6-ish story buildings with their miniature balconies making their veiled attempt to consume the Thermaic Gulf.

The White Tower is a sort of "symbol" of Thessaloniki. It was built in something like the 14th or 15th Century by the Ottoman Empire, who used it as a prison an execution ground. Legend has it that it was so blood stained when they stopped using it that they painted it white to hide the...well, gross-ness. It stands at the waterfront and was once one of the corners of the city wall system. From the top of it, you get some great panoramic views of the city and the water...and a nice cool breeze!

Tavernas are definitely towards the top of the list of "things to miss" about Greece. It's an atmosphere like none other that I've found in my life, nor like any other to be a part of again. Plus, we have our "usual" place, and we get free wine there....

And what's better than a beach with the clearest sea water you've ever seen being just a 30 minute, 2 euro bus ride from home? Oh, nothing. Nothing at all.

Winding down is treating me just fine.

Week Fourteen: The Illnesses That Were Bound to Happen

2009-05-11T19:43:00.006+03:00

I have caught two true epidemics. None of that swine flu tomfoolery. One effects hundred of thousands of high school and college students each year. Another latches on to foreign nationals in Greece. My productivity has declined drastically and I often find myself outside with no other explanation than it helps relieve some of my symptoms.

So that I don't confuse you with the medical terms, I'll use the layman terminology - I have senioritis and "I'm in Greece"-itis. Some have tried telling me that these are very serious medical conditions, but in all honesty, I don't think they're so bad. The two diseases sort of feed off of one another, and I'm left with two fairly minor symptoms: I don't want to do any school work or go to class, and I have an insatiable need to make the most of every moment and opportunity this country and I have left.

Keeping my diseases in mind, this week went as follows...Returned from Turkey at 9am Monday and started class at 11am. Went straight to bed after class. "Work" on Tuesday, then out to dinner at a taverna. Then I wrote my paper that was due Wednesday. Classes Wednesday followed by a walk by the water. "Work" on Thursday, including putting on College Fair with the study abroad students for the high school students. Fried foods and tzatziki for dinner. Friday - Class and taverna. Saturday - pretending to work on a presentation for today, but really sitting outside and anything but work. Drinks and board games. Sunday - some sincere effort on the presentation, followed by the acceptance that my diseases were in full swing. A walk by the water.

Just relax and live it up.

Photos:

A necessary appetizer item at tavernas.

College Fair from above

Free mystery shots at Harry's Spot.

Rummikub at Harry's Spot.

Sunset and fishing.

Week Thirteen: Hey - You Guys Want to Go to Turkey This Weekend?

2009-05-04T14:46:00.011+03:00

Not a question that would've seemed so easily plausible four months ago, that's for sure. The answer, as I'm sure you've guessed at this point, was the same as my answer to, "Hey - You guys want to go to Bulgaria for the weekend?" and "Oh, how do you feel about gallivanting around western Europe for two weeks?"

"Let's do it."

Greece celebrates May Day (May 1) as a national holiday akin to our current celebration of Labor Day. We therefore were left with a long weekend and nothing else to do but hop a bus over to Istanbul and discover yet another historically-rich city.

After a ten hour bus ride (10pm - 8am), we arrived. We went on a somewhat longer than expected quest to find our hotel, had breakfast, and started exploring. We saw the major sights of Istanbul: The Ayia Sofia, The Blue Mosque, the cisterns, the Ottoman Palace. We saw a whirling dervish performance, shopped at the Grand Bazaar and walked to Asia.

My typical blow-by-blow is shortened here because what really struck me about Istanbul was not the sights by themselves, but the contrasts embedded within the city, it's history, and it's current life.

Istanbul has been an important location in history since great civilizations first started forming in the area. Mesopotamians, Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, Ottomans, and others all coveted the land that the city sits on because it straddles the Bosphoros Straight, which separates Europe from Asia and is the only water passage from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.

Because of its geographical importance, Istanbul has always been the home of a variety of tugs of war - competition between religions, empires, and warring armies dominate its history. It's been a Christian city (Eastern Orthodox, specifically), a Muslim city, a Roman city, an Ottoman city, a site for Crusade attacks, coveted by both world powers during the Cold War; it has major manufacturing centers, but yet is not an overly developed city like New York or Boston.

Likely from this historical context, Istanbul developed certain dualities that are evident there as in no other place I've been. I'm sure many of these things could be found most anywhere, but to see so many facets of a place in just three days and know we were only scratching the surface of the web of outlooks, ideologies, ways of life... A week later and I'm still struggling to find ways to describe it. So here are some meager attempts:

Attempt #1. The city sits on two continents, connected physically by bridges, ferries. One of our companions, confused until we showed her a map, continually asked us - are we in Asia now? There was a certain novelty in being able to stroll casually across a continental divide, but it was more interesting to see the sort of neighborhood differences between the parts of the city on the different continents. "Asia" is younger, bustling with locals, full of brand name stores and everyday lives. "Europe" is very tourist-focused and in some places, has the same claustrophobic feeling as parts of New York often do for me. For the major city in a country trying desperately to become part of the European Union, it seems totally un-European after two weeks in France, England, and Spain. But, in reality, after two-plus months in Greece and Bulgaria, maybe it's not such a stretch.

Attempt #2. The people of Istanbul seem to have come to terms with the fact that the Turkish language is a rare, and difficult, language. Most of its residents we met seemed to be proficient in Turkish (obviously), English, Spanish, and Greek. The Greeks do not return that favor. We had some marvelous linguistic miscommunications, however - either intentional or not. While shopping at the very large, indoor Grand Bazaar, I asked a merchant if he would give me a certain price for a pair of cups. He said of course. Turned out, he thought I said per cup. Legit, and a tad funny. He was very nice about it, but I did have to look elsewhere for some less pricey cups. Not so funny or cute: in the middle of the very touristy area, we were looking for a nice place to sit down and have a drink. One restaurant wrangler told us to join them on their rooftop terrace. We looked up - "I don't see a rooftop terrace." "Yes, yes, rooftop terrace." Now, I'm not sure why we would think that a Turkish man in the heart of Istanbul's tourist district would know the correct definition of "rooftop terrace," but it certainly was foolish. We had some refreshing beverages on a closed-in top-floor dining area with really big windows and views of nothing but trees branches.

Attempt #3. Now, in any large tourist area, one would be highly ignorant to expect that you're not about to get ripped off every step of the way. Istanbul is no different. Just walk down the halls of the Grand Bazaar and try to go ten feet without someone offering you some hand painted ceramics...that look exactly like the ones that you saw six feet before that and another four feet down the way. Try walking down a row of restaurants without having five or six restaurant wranglers following you for twenty paces telling you all about the amazing food you could eat on their rooftop terraces. Opportunism abounds. "Oh, beautiful ladies! Can I help you spend your money?" If you take care not to get caught up in these sometimes overly suggestive comments, it's easy to find that the people of Istanbul are actually quite generous. The employees at the hotel we stayed at brought us tea anytime we were in the lobby. In fact, they gave us an extra free breakfast when we showed up at 9am and they didn't have rooms ready for us to check into. We had more tea at the bus station when we arrived early. If you tried to refuse tea on any occasion, they asked what you wanted instead - water, coke, etc. When asking for directions, people often stopped to walk us at least partially in the right direction. A man from the hotel walked us 20-25 minutes from the hotel to the metro to catch our bus home - and we never would have found it without him. This service was offered to us - not, here's how you walk there, or you'll get lost, let us call a cab. Just, "Here, my friend will walk you there."

Attempt #4. This story epitomizes my perception of Istanbul. After walking to and around Asia for a little while, we returned to the bridge where we crossed the Bosphoros, and decided to find a place to get some good seafood before heading back to our hotel. We walked down a row of restaurants on the waterside - the wranglers were in full force. "Eat here, we have the best views"...."There's a building in front of your restaurant, that's all you can see."...."No, there's no building."..."You're insane..." Then, we noticed that there were big sun umbrellas on top of one of the buildings. Looking in front, it was indeed a restaurant, but no one was heckling us. So, we walked in, asked if we could sit on the roof, and were led to their - gasp! - rooftop terrace. We sat in the sun, in the perfect weather, had delicious, homemade, authentic Turkish seafood meals, and watched the hustle and bustle in the Bosphoros and on the bridge. And we sat. And we talked. We had time to kill. We listened to the call for prayer from a mosque on a hill in Europe. They brought one of the dishes we ordered much later than the rest, and it didn't get finished because we were all full. The owner came to ask us if something was wrong with it! We told him everything was fantastic, and then we were served a round of tea which we hadn't ordered. Eventually, we paid. The owner came back and gave us some business cards. He welcomed us back at any time....and then asked us to go to the restaurant's facebook page and upload our photos and make comments about the restaurant. This little, authentic, beautiful, friendly restaurant. On facebook. Go figure.

After an outdoor prayer time at the Blue Mosque.

Whirling dervish with live music.

Ancient underground cistern (water supply).

Inside the Blue Mosque.

Fishing between continents.

Busy streets in Asia.

Fish kebap. (kebab....the Turkish spelling is kebap for some reason)

To Thessaloniki, with Love

2009-04-29T00:36:00.009+03:00

Dear Thessaloniki,

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

Week Nine: The Great, the Good, and the Ugly

2009-04-08T01:22:00.015+03:00

This week commenced with a cooking class on-campus where we learned to cook "classic" Greek foods - tzatziki and spanikopita. Tzatziki is a dip for bread, fried zucchini - basically anything you want. It is yogurt-based and has olive oil, cucumber, dill, and, if you want, lemon juice in it. DELICIOUS! Spanikopita is a snack-like dish made with a couple layers o phyllo dough, a layer of spinach, eta, a couple other tasty delights, and then more phyllo dough. ALSO delicious!

The class was an interesting experience - they didn't bother to think about how the chef didn't speak enough English to talk to us and none of us enough Greek to understand him. We also didn't get to participate in the creation of the food. BUT, we did learn some interesting secrets to making better tzatziki than what we have been making and learned how to make our own phyllo dough rather than messing with those annoying dry frozen versions. Yay!

As a highlight of the week, the College Counseling Office, which I have been volunteering with for the last couple months asked me to stay in Greece as long as possible to work with them as an intern. It caused a bit of confusion for a while, but I basically now have a reason to stay in Greece until my visa runs out! They are going to pay for my housing, two meals a day, as well as at least a part of my flight change fee. YAY GREECE!

The week ended with our school sponsored trip to Athens - paid for with our tuition costs. We took a looooooong bus trip down to Athens for most of Friday. Checked into our hotel, had some dinner, took a quick trip downtown where we saw the Parthenon all lit up and had a quick dose of gelato. Saturday, we visited the Acropolis, which is the walled-in group of buildings at the top of a hill in the city. This, of course, houses the Parthenon and a number of other ancient sites. We also visited the ancient agora (market) of the city, some parks, gardens, and winding side streets, and the ruins of the Temple of Zeus (the photo of a bunch of pillars in a big field). The weather was absolutely amazing. 70 degress, sunny and breezy.

On Sunday, we went to see the changing of the guards in front of the Parliament building and went to the Athes Archeological Museum. The guards were wearing traditional military costumes rom the Greek war of independence from the Ottoman Empire in the 1820s. Their shoes weigh six pounds each from the metal inserted in the bottom. This and the way in which they march is meant to imitate horses. Who knows why.

The museum holds many, MANY ancient statues, gravestones, trinkets, frescoes, etc. We were lucky enough to get a guided tour or just five of us, since others on the trip preferred to go shopping! It is a beautiful and fanciful museum full of stories, mythology and history - but not photographs. Guess you'll have to see it for yourselves.

Sounds too good to be true? Guess so.

I had a cold all weekend - bleh. It was a great drain (oh, the pun-tastic-ness!) on my energy and I was fairly done with exploring the city beyond the excursions described above. The seasons changed drastically here and I blame it on that. I'm starting to feel better now.

Also, my wallet was stolen while we were watching the changing of the guards. I had just bought a new purse on Saturday - one that zippered - so that I wasn't traveling with a purse that didn't close. I guess my old one got upset with me because someone managed to unzip my new purse and pull out my wallet without my knowledge. Nothing irreplaceable, though. Such is life.

ALSO, our bus broke down AGAIN, for four hours this time. Woo! We didn't get home until 3am on Monday.

This week has been midterms and spring break prep. I'm leaving in less than an hour for spring break. A couple days in Greece and then meeting Matt in London for a Western Europe excursion.

Wish us luck! Next post in a few weeks!

Week Eight: Sweltering Church, Militant Children, and Clifftop Monestaries

2009-03-30T23:20:00.009+03:00

This week was quite the Greek experience.

A Recap:
Monday - Two hours of confusing the Greek υ with the "Latin" u, followed by lunch then class, class, class.

Tuesday - A lesson in the Greek conception of time. "I am there when I get there. When I leave, I'm no longer there."

Wednesday - MARCH 25 - A combo-holiday for Greeks. The one-two punch of nation and religion: Annunciation Day and Independence Day.

Annunciation Day, for the heathens among you, myself included, is the Christian holiday celebrating the day that the angel informed Mary that she was to have a child, conceived miraculously through the power of God - kilometers and kilometers away in Heaven (after all, Israel DOES use the metric system).

A note to the non-heathens among you - despite God's best intentions in providing for the conception of a child, don't believe any angels that try to give you the "birds and bees" talk. There seems to be a slight angel-human disconnect surrounding storks and diapers.

Sarcasm aside, we decided to make the most of this "twofer" holiday and headed off to the Greek Orthodox Annunciation ceremony. Some notes on the differences between this ceremony and the typical Catholic ceremonies I grew up with:

Come and go as you wish. Stay for 4 hours or 10 minutes.
All women on the left side, all men on the right.
At some point, any point really, make your way up the aisle and kiss the "idol" (painting) of Jesus at the front.
Do the sign of the cross in sets of three and do it frequently.

Demographics: 60% over 60; 35% between 45-60; 5% (including us) below 45. 70% women; 30% men. 99% wearing winter, fur-lined coats while sitting/standing/bowing inside the church.
Service is still given in the ancient form of the language, though it is much more akin to modern Greek than Latin is to, well, anything.
Communion is passed around randomly throughout the seats and left in random baskets throughout the church for parishioners to pick up at will. No communion procession. Literally consists of chunks of bread.
On a non-comparative note, the service was held in a basement (the main church is under repair) that was an absurd 90+ degrees Fahrenheit. Everyone was still wearing their fur-lined coats. We took our cue from others and stayed less than a half hour lest we melt or strip naked - whichever would've come first.

Greek Independence Day celebrates their declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821. I'm not sure this holiday acknowledges that this was followed by almost constant war - for independence, against neighboring aggressors, against the Turks and Germans in the World Wars, for the extension of territory, and civil strife - through the 1970s.

In a awkward show of an elevated sense of patriotism, each town holds a parade on this day in which all the middle and high school students MARCH - in step, arms swinging.... "Ενα, ενα, ενα-δυο-ενα!" replaces the familiar "Left, left, left-right-left!" Though not as impressively organized as I'm sure it's supposed to appear, it is still remarkable to me to see these 11-18 year olds in lines marching military style. A remnant of the dictatorships that haunted the country for years on end.

A group of Greek flag-bearing high schoolers.

High school students from Anatolia - the high school associated with ACT - the university I am studying at. I was somewhat surprised to see them here - Greece has an interesting prospective on the public vs. private education idea. Mostly getting a private education excludes you from most public positions, events, etc. However, getting a private degrees is more likely to show some sort of achievement outside of Greece.

KIDS! MARCHING! WHAAAAAAAT?!

I am somewhat disappointed, for the shear experience of it, that the military parade in Thessaloniki is downsized for Independence Day so that Athens can see the full procession. Too bad we won't be in Thessaloniki in October to see the guns, artillery, and tanks of Greece just an arm's length away in the other major parade of the year!

Thursday - an exciting day of volunteering at the US College Counseling office - tutoring for the writing portion of the SAT which I never took and folding hundreds of brochures for the elementary school summer camp!

Friday - Another experience with Greek Orthodoxy for "Friday Night Vespers" - a long ceremony that occurs each Friday during Lent that consists of chanting stories in ancient Greek and practitioners coming and going as they please. See Wednesday.

Saturday and Sunday - a trip to the Meteora Monasteries. These monasteries are located in central Greece in an area that pre-historically was part of the sea. Starting in the 1400s, monks took refuge in the rocks of this area. Soon, in the sense of a couple hundred years, they had built 20 monasteries on the tops of the rock formations - an astounding achievement of engineering and architecture realized by the most humble characters imaginable. The Greek Orthodox monk's life: 8 hours of prayer, 8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep, repeat.

Historically, Greek Orthodox monasteries serve as a refuge for Greek nationals when facing wartime struggles, and these were no different. Sadly, that is why they number only 6 now, and most have been restored or rebuilt completely within the last few decades.

Kalambaka - the town we stayed in overnight at the foothills of Meteora. Can you imagine waking up to that view everyday?

A view of the courtyard and buildings of the first monastery we visited - actually a nunnery.

Doors to the nuns' quarters. No guests allowed inside that part!

A view of the valley created by the receding waters throughout thousands of years.

Artistic masonry of the church at the second monastery we visited. This monastery is the largest and most elevated (physically) of the monasteries. It did not meet nearly as much destruction throughout the wars and conflicts as the others.

One of the many frescoes painted on the churches' walls. Most of them are inside the churches and we weren't allowed to take pictures there. Not that it much mattered. My camera battery was about dead, so I had to fuss with it to get any of these to take!

The rock formations that the monasteries are built on. The second one we visited is perched on top of the rock on the right side of the picture.

Two monasteries (which we didn't visit) from a distance.

The trip included an initial lunch stop in the town of Trikala - a beautiful town in the middle of nowhere. The town is supposedly home to Hippocrates' first hospital and a section of the town is dedicated to the "old" style of architecture which made for numerous artistically picturesque photos.

Trikala.

The trip also unintentionally included a four hour "break" outside of the second of two monasteries we visited so that the bus could be repaired. Having learned in the last year how to change a car's oil, replace the brakes and install a radiator, I know this much: I can repair a car faster than a Greek can get a bus to start by letting it roll down a mountain.

And now, it's Monday. Again. Greece, don't be in such a hurry!

Weeks Six and Seven: What Do You Mean "It's Monday Again"?

2009-03-24T15:05:00.011+02:00

Busy, busy, busy. Here's an update on the past couple weeks in Thessaloniki and beyond:

1. The first day of Spring!

2. My birthday may have been a Greek national holiday, but my sister's (March 13) was the kick of the annual Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival. This is an international film festival that lasted until this past Sunday. This country must really love us - Maggie's not even here and they gave her a whole film festival!

The real present though was that ACT (the school) acquired free passes for us so that we could attend any screenings we wanted to for free! So, I saw 15 movies throughout the week on topics from poverty to grassroots movements to guerrilla journalism to gymnastics to schizophrenia to nuclear testing taking place in places like Kenya, China, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Tanzania and Myanmar.

Some of the films were good, some excellent, some mediocre. Almost all of them were thought provoking, passionate and important. Thank you, Thessaloniki.

3. ACT is part of a larger campus that houses all levels of education from kindergarten to MBA's. I've started volunteering on my days off with the US College Counseling Office at the Anatolia High School. I have been helping one student prepare for the writing section of her SATs (SOOOOO glad that I missed that new SAT piece by a year!) and am also working on re-organizing their collection of summer programs in the US that are open to their students and re-vamping their application processes for the programs. Sounds exciting, huh?

In any case, the staff at the College Counseling Office is wonderfully friendly, welcoming and appreciative and I'm happy to be working with them. They have a beautiful office that is actually in a lovely victorian-style house with little gardens, vines running up the walls, and pomegranite trees out back. No pictures yet, though.

4. I have to give my Mom some props here for be my trans-Atlantic editor. I've been spending a lot of time in the last couple weeks getting my resume ready and starting to put it "out there." It's easy to forget when you're in such a beautiful place that the real world is getting closer and closer.

No!!!!! Don't make me do it! You can't! I won't! I just want to be a student forever!

5. Oh yeah, and I went to Bulgaria this weekend. To Sofia, the capital city. We took an overnight train Friday night and arrived in Sofia around 8am. After hunting down our hostel, we were given free breakfast, and we met a guy from a town in Wisconsin just 20 minutes away from where one of our travel companions was from. We headed off with our new Wisconsinite friend to explore the city. Sofia is actually a pretty small city and we easily walked around and through most of it on Saturday while stopping to take pictures and go inside many of the historic (and not-so-historic) churches and buildings.

Bulgaria was initially allied with Nazi Germany during World War II, but was defeated (rather easily) by the USSR toward the end of the war, and subsequently became a communist state. Since the collapse of the USSR, Bulgaria has been a democratic state.

We ate lunch at a restaurant recommended to us by the hostel staff. It had traditional Bulgarian food served by traditional Bulgarian waitstaff. Apparently this means rude, slow and forgetful. We got a good laugh out of it, and ate some great food. I remembered to take food pictures this time, but only when everything was half-eaten :)

After lunch, we finished touring the city and headed back to our hostel for some relaxing card games and a free pasta and beer dinner. We went to bed fairly early and were on the train back to Thessaloniki at 7am. All in all, it was a great 23 hours in S(n)ofia...see the photos below to understand the parenthesis.

The streets of Sofia.

The sign on top of the building says, "Be Happy" as in, you're in snowy Bulgaria, why wouldn't you be happy?

We decided to chalk these up to being communist art. I'm not sure there's any other explanation.

This is from a statue portraying a bunch of kids playing some kind of tug-of-war. There's either melting snow on her head, or she's crying because of communism.

This is a communist-made monument glorifying the working class. (Perhaps you sense a theme?)

Beautiful Orthadox Church built in the late 1800s-early 1900s. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside most places.

A series of vendors outside the above church were selling all kinds of Nazi and Soviet memorabilia like this. Hmmm...

Another Orthadox church - this one was built in the 1200s and was completely below ground level. Again, no pictures inside.

FOOD! This was a great traditional Bulgarian dish - kind of like chunky mashed potatoes with a feta-like cheese and dill, topped with another cheese and baked in this iron dish. Mmmmm!

Our grilled veggies was also delicious, but mysteriously came with one raw tomato slice.

The only church we could take pictures inside of. Like the rest of them, the big, open space in the middle is meant for parishoners to stand during the ceremony. The walls are covered with icons of Jesus, Mary, and most any imaginable Saint. They are also fond of dragons, lions, and peacocks in their iconography. Couldn't tell you why.

It has been a busy couple of weeks of running around, things to do and see and new things to think about. Most of all, I can't believe that March is already over. Wasn't my birthday just yesterday? What do you mean it's Monday AGAIN?

Week Five: Who Wants to Chip in for the New Summer Home?

2009-03-10T15:54:00.010+02:00

Okay, yes, this entry is supremely delayed. But that just means that Greece keeps getting better and better. So for week 5 I went on the first weekend “field trip” organized by our school. We went to the city of Volos and the town of Makrinitsa. The city lies at the foot of Mount Pilio, which was the home of the centaurs according to ancient Greek mythology. Volos is also significant in Greek legend as the port from which Jason and the Argonauts left in their quest for the Golden Fleece. While in Volos, we visited the archeological museum housing artifacts from the region from the Bronze age to about the 3^rd century AD. We wandered the city, enjoyed the beautiful weather, and had the best fresh seafood meal I’ve had so far in Greece.

Makrinitsa is a village near the peak of Mount Pilio, which was founded in the 13^th century as a monastery. It was eventually converted into a regular village with houses peaking out from the side of the mountain. Makrinitsa is now a somewhat off-the-beaten-path tourist destination where all buildings must be built in the town’s traditional style with traditional materials. With a glorious view of Volos below, we spent the night in the peaceful town.

As I told Matt after the trip, I decided where I will be buying my first summer home. ;)

Photos of the Week:

Token flower picture. One of many. Also one of the many habits I've inherited from Mom.

A waterfront church in Volos.

Boats in Volos.

If you look all the way up on the mountain, you can see Makrinitsa from the waterfront in Volos.

A replica of the ship that Jason and the Argonauts took out of Volos in search of the Golden Fleece.

The views from Makrinitsa.

A example of keeping traditional building technique alive in Makrinitsa...."I want to build my shop here, but there is a tree that is hundreds of years old in my way. I'll just build around it." We could learn a lesson or two...

Night time.....

Makrinitsa in the mountainside.

Mama kitty. Too adorable.

Idols of John the Baptist and Jesus, Greek Orthodox style. Apparently they really like to portray these cousins in similar dress and positions - the only big difference being that John has messy hair since he's from the dessert. Logic.

Token flower picture #2.

2009-03-05T14:38:00.009+02:00

WHOA! Hold on a second - read the post (below) first, then check out the pictures, huh?

This is the town of Xanthi on its most populated day of the year. Crowd lining the street shortly before the parade started.

When you tell a Greek person that doesn't speak English that you're an American, you're likely to hear one of the few American words they know:

OBAMA!

When people dress in costume in the States, it's common to see someone put on a short shirt and a head band with some ears attached and say that they're "a sexy kitten." In Greece, they like to dress in stereotypical ethnic costumes.... hmmm...

This group was having more fun than anyone, I think. I mean, they are dressed up like beer bottles and mugs...

Tweety with face paint and....wait, I don't think that's Granny...unless Granny was really a man...

Boys will be boys.

The panda pack got a little rambunctious. And I can promise you that's not water in their water bottles. In fact, in the center of the picture, you can see someone holding a one litre box/bottle of wine openly. There was a lot of that going on. Guess they thought they were Jack Black and were trying some of their Kung Fu Panda skills.

I'm not sure why they decided that mixing monks with flamingos was a logical group. But okay...

This is what the streets looked like after the parade. I'm still digging confetti out of my sweatshirt!

Oh, the peaceful side of Xanthi.

Week Four: My Birthday Is a National Holiday in Greece

2009-03-05T01:08:00.004+02:00

No, really...it was. (PS - my birthday was on Monday, March 2, just in case you forgot to send me my present...wink wink, nudge nudge)

Okay, so the national holiday was for "Clean Monday" the first day of the Greek Orthadox Lent, and not ACTUALLY for my birthday, but same difference right?

Let's back up for a minute, though. You may remember my pictures from last week of of the Carnival celebration, right? Well, that was just part of the fun. For the last couple weeks before the start of Lent Greeks, like Brazilians and others, have some rather extravagant festivals. Last week's photos are one example from a local Thessaloniki celebration.

This weekend, we went to a town in Eastern Greece called Xanthi. They have a HUGE Carnival parade the last Sunday before lent starts - this year, March 1. Big groups of people get together, wear the same costumes and participate in the parade with some floats. The crowd brings confetti, silly string, and a spray resembling shaving cream to add to the parade participants' costumes. The parade-ers also bring with them face paints which they dip their fingers into and spread on the faces of the crowd as they go along.

All and all, a great time, though I wish we could've stayed longer. Xanthi is located in a part of Greece that has one of the few remaining Turkish populations in Greece. In the early 1920s, at the conclusion of one of the wars between Greece and Turkey, the two agreed upon a population exchange to ensure the safety and freedoms of the ethnic populations that were living in the other nation. This means that ethnic Greeks living within Turkish borders were (sometimes forcibly) moved into Grecian territory, and vice versa. The exchange involved approximately 2 million people. This means that there are now very few Greeks living within Turkish boundaries and very few Turks living within Greek boundaries. If we had been able to find a hotel in Xanthi, it would've been interesting to visit one of these few remaining Turkish towns.

Now, my national holiday, Clean Monday is traditionally celebrated with kite flying, eating a certain type of bread, and going out to a kind of restaurant called a taverna. Unfortunately, we wound up sleeping most of the day away since our trip to Xanthi lasted from about 5am to 4am. We did make it out to a taverna, though! Tavernas are a particular kind of restaurant in Greece that tend to serve meals family style at big long tables where different parties sit right next to each other. There is live music every night (usually a guitar and a mandolin with vocals). The environment is always boisterous and the wine is usually free (and served by the liter).

All in all, the week(end) seemed to be thoroughly representative of the most fantastic elements of Greek culture...Greeks are a people that enjoy life, and rarely take themselves to seriously. How refreshing...

Pictures from this week aren't uploaded to my computer yet. Check back tomorrow for some!

Week Three - It's History.

2009-02-25T22:15:00.016+02:00

Okay, I've said it before and I will yet again. I am a total nerd. A total history nerd, in fact.

Given that, where better to be than in Greece? Ancient Greeks, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Ottomans. Christians, Muslims, Jews, Armenians. Oh Thessaloniki, you do not disappoint!

This weekend, ACT (the college) snagged us a free, guided trip to the Thessaloniki Archeological Museum which houses all the regional artifacts from as early as 1500 BC (don't quote exactly on that one) to about 300-400 AD when Christianity started to spread through the region in a big way.

The collection houses items that cover a wide array of Greek lives during this period. These include:

All kinds of ceramics including these receptacles that were used for burials...

These various cosmetic items (a bit shy of Mary Kay sophistication)...

This marble slab, though resembling a tombstone, is actually the deed to a house. Others displayed announced slave ownership and the free of slaves, as well as announcements of new laws, etc. Though the Greeks have used the same alphabet from ancient times to the present, the ancient Greeks apparently didn't believe in using spaces between words or any forms of punctuation. MAKESITALITTLEHARDER
FORTHEMTOFIGURE
OUTWHATTHEPURPOSEOF
THESTONEISIWOULDGUESS

Numerous statues of goddesses, gods, emperors, nobility. This one is a now-head-and-arm-less statue of Aphrodite - thus the wet toga contest winning garb...

Tile mosaics like this one that used to grace a dining room floor. The biggest of any of these pieces is about the size of a thumbnail.

And shiny things.
Bronze, silver and gold jewelry and adornments, like this super, super intricate gold foil wreath
used in burying royalty. Can you imagine what a piece of work like this would cost you at Kay's Jeweler's these days?

A Note on Preservation in Thessaloniki: This city has been an important one for succeeding empires in this region for thousands of years. Each of the ones I listed above had their hands on Thessaloniki for extended periods and left their marks. BUT, each successive had a tendency to destroy the previous one's landmarks and other such artifacts that would be materially important. Additionally, up until the mid-1900s, the Greek government was fairly quick to give away building permits without regard to the historical relevance of the site. This of course, caused the loss of an unknowable amount of artifacts and landmarks. C'est la vie.

One thing the Greeks have preserved from their ancient past and molded into their Christianized calendar, is the period before Lent know in many parts of the world as Carnival. The three weeks prior to lent are cause to give in to excesses in celebration before the somber, restrictive season of lent. Without giving in to too much excess ourselves, we did go to a Carnival celebration this week in Thessaloniki. These last few "photos of the week" are of the dancers and bands that performed....

Week Two - 10 Adjustments to Living the Greek Life

2009-02-11T20:59:00.000+02:00

10. The earliest schedule class at school is 11am while "night life" activities last until 4 and 5 am. Apparently. I have an easy enough time "coping" with the late morning start piece of this, but have still only managed to stay out until about 2am. (I blame it all on the jet lag...right?)

9. Our college is at the cutting edge of technology with its wireless internet connection. Our studio has two jacks for the LAN connection, but only one of them works - the network couldn't handle it if we both plugged in.

8. Dinner time is not until 9 or so. I know this sounds like a regular meal time for our family vacations, but our late night meals don't usually last until midnight or so like the Greeks' do.

7. Smiling at strangers who you pass on the street, meet eyes with at a restaurant, or who tries to converse with you in Greek is not the norm. In fact, doing so to elders may be seen as disrespectful and doing so to peers may be mistaken as an invitation...

6. The equivalent of about 30-40 degrees Fahrenheit is characterized as "polar" and "arctic." Those who brave the insufferable "winter" weather do so with knee-length coats, gloves, and heavy scarves. I hope that no Greek ever has to suffer the weather to see polar bears or penguins in their natural habitat - they would have no words to describe the severity of the weather!

5. Despite the current "arctic" weather conditions, the preferred form of caffeine intake for most Greeks is a "frappe" a whipped, iced coffee. Go figure.

4. When you are unable to communicate verbally with someone, you resort to hand gestures, right? An open hand up, palm facing away from you indicates anything from stop to no, thank you to enough to I'm not interested or even asking for a high five - depending on the context. In Greece, this gesture, while moving your hand forward is a grave insult. Try silently ordering food without lifting your hand - I dare you!

3. Smoking is everywhere. Despite a current ban on smoking in taxis and an upcoming ban on smoking in all public places (set for June or July this year) - Greeks show no signs of discontinuing this practice. This may not be so weird for many of you, but after living in Boston for a few years, it's all Greek to me :)

2. This is a bigger city with less homeless people than Boston. They must've got something right. On this vein, restaurant owners openly allow some less fortunate people to walk into their establishments to sell flowers, cds, or play a bit of music for spare change.

1. Different alphabet where H, n, Y and u all make "i" sounds and v sounds like "n."

0. Don't flush your toilet paper. Apparently the pipe systems are too narrow to handle this.

(Okay - so it turned out to be 11 adjustments to live the Greek life. Whoops!)

Photos of the week:

Valentines Treats!

Umbrella sculpture by the water front. No, I don't know why.

Sunday Stroll.

PS - Charlie, I know what you're thinking - Where are the FOOD pictures?! I'm working on it, I promise. Only problem is that anytime we eat out, the food looks and smells sooooo good that no matter my resolutions before hand to be sure to take pictures of it, I'm always elbow deep in tzatziki and before I even think about pictures! I still have a few months to get better at this, though! :)

Week One - Are we there yet? (9/2/2009)

2009-02-09T12:23:00.000+02:00

Between having a journal requirement for Northeastern, everyone's urge to know the details of the trip, and Sarah's suggestion to start a blog, I decided to do just that.

If you've been waiting on the edge of your seat to wondrous details of strange lands far away, I'm sorry to disappoint. There's not much to tell at this point. Mostly just waiting...

Waiting on and for planes (9 hour layover in Frankfurt has been the worst of this trip so far)...

Waiting for information overload at orientation to be done so that I could go back to sleep (jet lag. JET LAG.)

Waiting to break away from this group of 80+ Americans so that we'll blend in some more...

Waiting for classes to start so that we'll make some friends who know the area better. Waiting for classes to start so that I know what to expect....

Waiting for it to hit me that I'm in Greece. In Greece for four months. I still haven't absorbed this.

Best photos from week one:
The view from Thessaloniki's old castle walls. The "castle" was originally built as a sort of military post for the protection of the city. Now it's a beautiful spot to sit and take in the city. Because the castle is hundreds of years old, the walls show the wear of the years.

This is the "White Tower" - creative, right? Apparently this was used as a site for capitol punishment when Thessaloniki (and the rest of Greece) was part of the Ottoman Empire. I guess the tower was so stained with blood they decided to paint it white to cover that up. Gives you a nice warm, fuzzy feeling, right?

A sunset view of the "beach" road. This road lines the waters of the Thermaic Gulf, which is technically the body of water the city touches. The Gulf leads out to the Aegean, and then that to the Mediterranean. A common place to meet and spend some leisure time - you can see why.

This is in the town of Vergina. We took a 1/2 day trip to this small, quaint village because it just so happens to be the place where Alexander the Great's father and son are buried. Lots of really cool artifacts and ruins - all in an underground museum in a random hill in the middle of the town. Apparently the hill was originally created to cover the tombs, and they wanted to leave the ruins underground when they made it into a public museum.