Greeeece

Just in case general consensus was that I had no yet discussed Greece enough, I'm on it.

So as we left off we were on an island. Well we left that island and immediately went to another island, this one by the name of Santorini -- which, for some reason, always makes the Sublime song "Santeria" come up in my head. Literally. Every time. I think it's pathologic.

Anyway to Santorini.

Santorini: A ring of volcanic islands in the Mediterranean complete with small, white villas perched atop treacherous cliffs and a central, steaming volcano composed of nothing but igneous rock and tropical umbrellas. Here we met up with a variety of other UTHSCSA travelers, and successfully crashed Adam and Jen's honeymoon (which I would do again later on by myself). We did more of the standard tourist things including boarding an "old-fashioned" boat to take to us to the volcano, a couple of visits to other islands, towns, and beaches, dancing at the local discos, and a swim in a natural hot springs which, despite their name, had no ability to actually warm anything. The views were continuously amazing, and especially so at night where the patchy strands of city lights separated by hundreds of feet of black cliffs from the dimly reflecting ocean surface below made it seem as if you were walking amongst a city in the sky.

The beauty of the island aside, curiously enough the singularly most memorable event was a conversation I had with a slightly older Greek woman I encountered when we were attempting to find our friends in another group that had come out later (Neeti, Shailee, Ruchie, Neha, Sandra, Annie, Anne). After thoroughly searching the entire grounds of the hotel listed on the their itinerary I heard a clanging noise coming from the locked up main office building. I knocked on the door and said, "hello!" A few seconds later, the door unlocks, and out pops a woman fresh from the shower and in a towel to inform me that she would be out to talk with me in a few minutes. Thinking she could perhaps tell us where our friends had run off to or if they had even arrived yet I agree to the rendezvous and waited outside. She returned and our conversation went something like this:

Me: Hello, have some American girls arrived?
Woman: American girls?
Me: Yes, some American girls arrived today?
Woman: You want a room today?
Me: No. I am looking for some friends. Like six Indian girls, an Asian girl, and some white ones.
Woman: Your friends need a room? How long?
Me: They're staying here for a few days. Did they arrive today? About eight American girls.
Woman: We don't have room today, but we do tomorrow. Would you like to stay tomorrow?
Me: Did some girls arrive today? From the airport? About ten of 'em?
Woman: You want a room?
Me: No.
Woman: You and your friends need a room we can give you room.
Me: Yes, we'll think about it. Thank you. Goodbye.

The actual conversation was about three times as long, but with a couple more, "do you want a room?" thrown in.

Crete: After Santorini I joined the long lost group (the Indian girls + Sandra, + Ann(i)e), and we took a fast boat over to Crete where we missed a bus, got on another bus, got in a taxi, and then finally arrived at our hotel in Chania somewhere around midnight. The hotel clerks, very friendly people, graciously waited up for us and then kindly served us an early breakfast treat of raki which, like ouzo, is a Greek hard liquor. Unlike ouzo, however, it tastes only like alcohol. Finger nail polish remover actually, but the Greeks never tired in giving it to us for free. In Crete we went to a gorge. The largest gorge in Europe allegedly, but after seeing it I feel the title of simply "gorge" is appropriate enough. We left Crete via night ferry, shared in some drama, and arrived into Athens our final destination the next morning.

Athens: we saw the Acropolis. Despite droves of people and large quantity of scaffolding it was a pretty amazing place. I was not aware of the number of structures which make up the hill top complex, and all along the way are a variety of other ancient Greek structures that wrap around the mound upon which the Parthenon itself is perched. I can only imagine how spectacular the experience must be alone and without all the signs of current reconstruction efforts. Aside from Meteora, Athens and Santorini made the trip. We spent a few days in Athens total, but the rest of our activities were fairly unexceptional and I've grown tired of listing them. One final advisory, though, the Acropolis, due to the high volume of traffic its stone walkways receive, is quite a slippery place. The race between Anne and I for the most falls was a close one, but, style points aside, I think I won.

As a minor finale, the best food in Greece: Mousaka. I keep calling it the "Greek lasagna" and some day someone will agree with me.

As a grand finale, I offer you Paul's pictures. Thanks to heavy investments in technology it can be said that his photos are, for the most part, entirely better than mine. Enjoy.

Greeece

Aside from not riding mopeds, I did other things in Greece as well. Specifically, I went places. And these are some of those places:

Houston - Not only did I make the mistake of deciding to take public transportation to the airport, I made the mistake of doing it in Houston. The price for this error was about three hours of commuting, abrasions on my feet where my new sandals were not in agreement with my anatomy, and my arrival into the check-in area just as the KLM personnel were pulling up the ropes. That and the standard layer of sweat and grime that seems to perpetually cling to the humid air in Houston. Ro was gracious enough to let me stay at her place so that I could attempt this foolish endeavor, and I am grateful for her kindness. Especially when she kindly let me steal her Obi Wan Ginobli shirt which, it turns out, has no actual power to make the Spurs play better.

Amsterdam - I was here long enough only to hear my name paged overhead as my flight threatened to leave without me. Thank you Dutch customs.

Thessaloníki - The regional capital of Macedonia and the graffiti capital of the world. Here we all collectively, save Megan I guess, learned that Greeks, though generally friendly people, are terrible at giving directions. I am pretty sure Paul, Rachel, and Liz would have had to camp out in Liz's giant green suitcase had we not found them. Once settled we saw some sites, played some Uno, and, later, caught a train. Despite the locals' recommendation of Applebee's for a good restaurant, we had our first Greek dinner at a popular tourist trap after being advised by what may have been a prostitute.

Meteora - We arrived at night, wandered a bit, and then conveniently found the only French place in town where, despite the limited English spoken by the owner and the limited French spoken by us, we stayed for a night and were comforted by the French iconography and pictures of Charles de Gaulle. That was actually in a small town called Kalambaka. Meteora itself, a collection of towering stone spires and medieval Greek Orthodox monasteries, has no hotels and is an amazing and unique little enclave nestled in the middle-of-nowhere Greece. We taxied up and visited a few, but the real adventure began when we took one of the mapped out "hiking trails." In reality, however, these were less "hiking trails" and more "suggested places for a good hiking trail." The path started out accessible and clearly demarcated enough, but it quickly gave way to a difficult to penetrate collection of holly, silkworms, and loose rock. Never ones to back down we continued on towards our goal, a fourth monastery, only to completely bypass it and have Liz somehow lose her glasses along the way. A dapper looking Greek monk or goat now undoubtedly has a nice pair of light green lady shades. We departed the next day via bus as the trains were not working thanks to some May Day strikes. Where's some Pinkertons when you need 'em?

Athens Part 1 - Not much to say. We had some gyros, Megan had a crepe, Liz replaced her glasses -- I am pretty sure Liz and I saw an 80 year old transvestite -- and we went on the ferry. After I ran to four or five different ferry ticket queues stupidly looking for our tickets at the wrong place that is, but I've said too much.

Paros - Our first island. Lots of little towns spread out over a fairly large, relative to the rest of the Cyclades, island. Here I learned to drive like a Greek though I cannot say I quite ever learned to park like one. Here we also learned that we had arrived far too early in the season to actually enjoy anything in Greece. Megan couldn't find her kayaks, Liz's butterfly reserve was closed, and the mine/cave on Antiparos was inaccessible. Thankfully there was ouzo; unfortunately it tasted only partly like licorice and mostly like alcohol. As a result of the limited options we spent a lot of time at the grocery store, examining the cheeses. Actually that was the girls' thing; I couldn't decide on how much coke to buy. (Friendly coke, not coke coke.) It was also here that we learned that for Megan the louder you shake the plastic Yahtzee cup the better. I did not miss never playing that game again. We eventually left Paros again by ferry but this time without the ticket issues.

That's the first half of the trip in brief. Or, alternatively, "What I did in a Foreign Country for Nine Days in Two Hundred Words or Less."