Fires and rioters and tear gas...oh my.

Oh no, they didn't? Oh yes, they did. What we thought would just be protests/demonstrations in Syntagma today have turned into full fledged riots. When Yiayia and I were leaving the hotel to go check on our travel plans to Delphi tomorrow, the main hotel doors were closed and there were a ton of people flooding down Nikodimou street. White face paint and masks over their noses and mouths definitely ruled them out as tourists. We were told they were protesters leaving Syntagma Square. So we kept walking. When we turned down the street where the travel office was, we saw all hell had broken loose.

The trash that has been building up in Athens while the trash workers have been on strike for over a week has all been set aflame. Yiayia asked a local what the metallic pops we were hearing were- turns out they were tear gas canisters exploding. We are still feeling the effects of the smoke that filled our lungs, and I got knocked almost over by a rioter running as the police marched downed the street, but other than that we are safe and sound!

Whoops, laptop is dying! More later!

-Aliki

You asked for Go Girl Post- Here's One Better

Be forewarned, this is not going to be my most ladylike blog post. But this is life in Greece. Sorry! :)

When I first mentioned this blog on my Facebook, a few of you asked for a post dedicated solely to the "Go Girl" Yiayia bought me for the trip. For those of you who don't know what a Go Girl is, here: http://www.go-girl.com/ Educate yourself. Pretty funny, yeah? Well it's infinitely more embarrassing (but maybe somewhat comical to the outside observer) to get caught without it in one of those non-existent bathroom situations that we don't have to deal with in America, but is apparently not that uncommon in rural Greece.

One of Yiayia's somehow relatives drove us to Makrakomi yesterday, and from there we all took a trip up to Rendina. The trip up the mountain that Yiayia's cousin (?) said should take an hour definitely took at least two. We stopped about ten times on the way up so Yiayia could umm... "take in the scenery" (aka she has a bit of motion sickness and those winding mountain roads did nothing good for her) By the time we FINALLY made it to Rendina, I'd had to pee for approximately the entire two hour trip.

Since Rendina is way up in the mountains, the townspeople really only live there during the summer months, and when winter draws closer they flee to Athens and other larger cities and towns. So we arrived in an almost completely abandoned town, and guess what? No townspeople means no accessible bathrooms. Awesome. Since I don't speak much Greek, I informed Yiayia of my situation and she relayed it to one of her barely English-speaking cousins, who dug in her purse and came up with a folded tissue. She handed it to me and gestured vaguely some wide concrete steps leading down to a little stream, not even thirty feet from where my grandmother's cousin and his wife stood by the car. Um...what? I looked at her, befuddled, until she told me to follow her down there. So I did. Apparently Greeks are not as "pee shy" as Americans, because she just pulls her pants down and squats and you know...starts to go. She told me to do the same, but I just stood there shocked and frozen in place. All I could think of as I looked at the back of the house that we were clearly visible from, was to hope the family who lived in that house had indeed left for the winter. Obviously I couldn't do anything in front of her, but after she went back up to the car zZzZzZzZz...

Oh, sorry. Must have dozed off. Where was I? Oh that's right, I was at the part where I absolutely didn't use the restroom outside in the beautiful little mountain town my great-grandfather came from. Anyways. Of course by the time my grandmother had to use the restroom, we'd found the one open business in the whole dang town, which of course had an inside toilet. Experiences, experiences..

Anyways, it's much colder here than I thought it would be. I'm ashamed to say that my mom WAS right and despite insisting to her that it wasn't going to be that cold and I wouldn't need a heavy jacket, I'm really wishing I had one right now! But that's a good excuse to go shopping! :) Speaking of, probably time to do a little bit of that. Later gators.

-Aliki

Safe and Sound :)

We have arrived in Lamia! Yesterday. I'm being a neglectful blogger again. ;) We traveled from Athens by train- the ride through the countryside was beautiful. We could see the snow-capped mountains from the train. When the train stopped in a station that said "Lamia", I tried to tell Yiayia this was most likely our station, she swore that she remembered something different. As we were "arguing" the train took off again, and when one of the conductors came by he told us that was the stop for Lamia and that we would have to ride the train all the way to a town called Stilitha before the train would turn back around for Lamia! Another "misadventure" for us but there were some pretty views along the way.

We are staying in the family's hotel, Hotel Delta. It's not the Electra Palace, but it is very cozy and clean. We met up with some of the family last night and had snacks and drinks at the Havana Club before going to a restaurant to have a GIGANTIC dinner. I have food coming out my ears. There is no refusing food here- even if you tell the family you have nowhere to put any more food, they hand you something else and say "Eh. It's good for you."

I got to meet my great grandmother's sister, Efthimia, for the first time today. She is 98 years old! I'm so glad we got to see her on this trip. I know Yiayia was glad too. She kept saying "Garbage can!" to Yiayia. I had to ask her for the story later. Apparently when Efthimia came to America many years ago, my Theo Patrick was a little boy and did not speak any Greek and she didn't speak any English. He was taking the trash out one day, pointed to the trash and said "Garbage can!" and she repeated "Garbage can!" and that was kind of their inside joke ever since. :)

After Efthimia's we went to the Havana Club again for coffee, then to Maria's house for what I was hoping would be a light lunch. Ohhhh no.... Bread, pork chops, beefsteak, sausage, salad, feta...when she tried to bring out some pasta we had to protest. See what I mean about food coming out my ears?

We have walked up the mega-hill from Efthimia's house, and all over Lamia- clear to the second plateia. Lamia is build on a hillside and just stairsteps up, and up...and even further up. We haven't made it up to the Frourio (fort) yet. I think tomorrow we are planning to go to Makrakomi, which is only about 20 minutes away. We have more relatives there Yiayia would like to see.

We really want to go shopping but it's hard to find an open store- the stores close for a sort of "siesta" a few days of the week and reopen a few hours later, and on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays they close early and don't reopen until the next day. The town is pretty much dead during the siesta time, but comes alive again at night.

Not much else to say right now. More updates later after our visit to Makrakomi. Pssst, Kate... "Makrakomi Makrakomi Makrakomi U!" Hahaha. Kali knick knacks, everyone!

Last night in Athens..

The past two days have been busy, busy, busy. We finally met up with the relatives- they were so sweet and wonderful. Although I can't speak much Greek, I was surprised to find that I could follow along with almost everything they were discussing with Yiayia. Aliki and Andreas (Yiayia's cousin and her husband) took us to breakfast at the Grand Bretagne, a very old and famous (and FANCY!) hotel in Athens. Apparently all the movie stars and royalty stay there when they visit Athens. The food was wonderful.

After that we went to pick up Aliki's sister, Nia, and went to eat AGAIN. I swear I did not stop eating for even five minutes yesterday. The advice to leave food on your plate to signal you are full does not hold true with our family- no matter how much I left I kept getting more shoved at me! :) We had a long visit at Nia and Aliki's homes and I was glad to find out Aliki's daughter spoke English so I had someone to chat with for a bit.

Andreas drove us through Athens, and people here drive crazier than anyone in America. Lanes exist, but I think Greek men see them as a challenge to express their individuality and therefore drive pretty much in the middle. At one point I looked over and saw another car getting closer and closer to the my side of the car until it finally scraped up against us- yikes! But that must be an everyday occurrence here because no one pulled over and exchanged insurance or anything like that. I'm so glad Yiayia decided not to rent a car!

It rained and poured all day today, so unfortunately there were no demonstrators in Syntagma Square like we thought they would be. The streets were very crowded with taxis and cars because of the public transportation strike. We braved the floodwaters in the streets to do some major shopping since we leave tomorrow by train for Lamia! :)

Well that's all for now, off to bed since we have to get up early tomorrow to catch our train. Kali nixta!

(Insert Creative Title Here)

Today was a great day! We got up bright and early at 07:00 to make sure we didn't miss out on the Acropolis today. I was surprised at how short and easy the walk up there was. The views were amazing. Everything was definitely worth waiting 21 years for! The excursion went pretty smoothly until I sat on a wall to have Yiayia take a picture of the city behind me, which incurred the wrath of one of the employees up there who ran over yelling "Kato, kato, KATO!!!" Whoops! There were a ton of tourists up there, and doggies too! It's beyond me why they trek all the way up there. The dogs, I mean. We saw the theater where Yiayia, Papou, and the kids got to see an opera being performed back in the seventies.

After the Acropolis we walked back down the hill towards the Agora. There was a beautiful, old church down there. We also saw the recreation of the Agora with all sorts of statues from ancient times. We had lunch at a taverna in Plaka and let me tell you, as much walking as we are doing I think I'm still going to gain weight with all this great food we keep eating!

Yiayia finally got ahold of her family and we are meeting them for breakfast tomorrow at the Grand Bretagne Hotel, then going to Aliki's house to chat and maybe have lunch later on. I'm excited to meet them, and hopefully I'll be able to follow bits and pieces of the conversation.

There's no shortage of shops here, but making decisions on what to buy has never been so difficult! We have been into a gazillion shops looking for jewelry. I did find a little gallery on the corner by our hotel where the artist and his wife sell his sculptures, paintings, and amazing handmade jewelry. His artwork is very modern and each of his pieces have deep meaning. His English was impeccable so he was able to tell me about many of his pieces, what inspired him to create each artwork and the messages he was trying to convey in each one. Check him out: Yanni Souvatzoglou

Dinner was at the taverna right next to the one where we ate for lunch. I don't think that made the man at the first restaurant very happy- when we were walking down the opposite side of the street after dinner he was shouting across, "Which was better?! Eh!" The patsitsio I had for dinner was to die for- definitely the best bechamel.

Bedtime so I can function tomorrow. Kali nixta! :)

"Those things break, you know!"

I'll start with apologizing for neglectful blogging. We've been in Athens for the last two days, and it's AMAZING here. The hotel is definitely the most beautiful I've ever stayed in, and we can see the Acropolis from our balcony! Pretty neat, huh? We've walked about a gazillion miles all around this area of Athens. There are so many nice little shops, and Syntagma Square is also within walking distance. Today we went on a bus tour of Athens, then to the Benaki Museum and drooled over all the costumes. We tried to visit the Acropolis at dusk like everyone suggested, but we got there as soon as the gate was closing at 6:30. So we decided to try Areopagus Hill. Seriously the most beautiful views I have ever seen. Another misadventure that turned out to be wonderful!

We've already hit up an outdoor restaurant called O Thanasis twice for dinner. Thank you Jenny Stas for suggesting it, the lamb "kebap" was the best I've ever tasted! I'm enjoying spending time with my Yiayia, she has been sharing so many memories of her previous journeys to Greece. We even drove past a hotel she recognized from her trip in 1956!

Now for our daily funny. As we were walking around Athens we saw this couple practically PG13-ing it on a bench. Yiayia just shakes her head, and when we walk past them again a few minutes later and the girl is sitting on the boy's lap, Yiayia goes "Well, I hope she's not crushing it." and when I start dying laughing she looks at me and says, "Those things break, you know!" I think it's safe to say she wasn't talking about his legs!!

Yiayia is going to start calling up relatives tomorrow. I'm so excited to meet them! Hopefully they won't be disappointed that I don't speak much Greek, but I know I'll pick up quite a bit by the end of our trip! Bed time for now, we wake up bright and early tomorrow to try for the Acropolis again. Kali nixta, everyone!

Best Lemonade Ever!

Life handed us some lemons, and Yiayia wanted you all to know that we are "having the best lemonade ever!" :) We've made some friends already, Vasilka from Bulgaria who happens to speak Greek, and Irini, a Russian living in New York who speaks no English or Spanish, but lived in Greece for 15 years, so is fluent Greek. We rescued her from the airport after our flight got cancelled.

We are having a great time so far. Yiayia woke me up by singing and tickling my feet, and if any of you out there have never heard my Yiayia sing, it is definitely the most pleasant way to be woken up. After breakfast we took another walk around this part Madrid. There's not much sightseeing or shopping in the area, but there are tons of other businesses and small restaurants and such. We did find the pretty church we passed on the way to the hotel from the airport yesterday.

We'll rest for about an hour, then after lunch we'll catch a taxi to the bus terminal for our panoramic tour of Madrid! More updates later today. :)