Some things I forgot to mention

I've realized that I've been rather lazy lately and I'm sorry. I guess life just feels so normal here now that I think things aren't really worth mentioning. But there have been a few things lately which shouldn't be overlooked.

First, our photographer friend Dave was in London for a night on a photo shoot and gave us a call. After checking his email, we took him to our favorite Turkish restaurant and then for drinks.

We also went fly fishing in a lake in South Cerney. After a few lessons, and a lot of grass fishing, we were set free in the stocked lake to try to catch some rainbow trout for dinner. Rather than using the standard fly fishing method, I had better luck using a slingshot method the guide taught me to fish in areas with a lot of overhanging trees. And I think I caught the biggest fish of the day.

Leo learned how to dress a fish (pull out it's insides and clean it). I also learned how to cook a whole trout, which was an interesting experience in itself, and which made for a delicious dinner and leftovers which are still in our freezer.

Finally, Leo and I took another trip to Paris. We just went for a weekend and stayed in our cousins' apartment in Vincennes (Thank you Bob and Barbara!). We had an amazing lunch in a dingy looking restaurant in Boulogne-Billancourt before going to the Albert Kahn Museum. The three other diners in the restaurant were all eating something out of big clay pots, so we decided we'd eat out of the big clay pots too. It turned out to be an amazing couscous meal with stewed vegetables, chicken, and sausage.
We wandered around Vincennes a bit and the wonderful market they have there on Sundays.
We also went to the Porte de Clignancourt, which I think is the largest flea market in Europe, filled with stalls selling shoes, clothing, antiques, furniture. We bought some paintings done by an Armenian artist who makes reproductions of illuminated manuscripts and Leo forced me, in my pathetic French, to purchase the paintings and try a bit of haggling...it was very sad, but we did get a good deal. This time in Paris was much more relaxed that our previous 2 trips. I guess since we've already seen the major site, we were able to take our time and see some less touristy areas.

Thanksgiving

I never realized how much I loved Thanksgiving until I moved here. Originally we were going to go out to dinner, but didn't book far enough in advance, so they were all booked up when we called. I was devastated! And totally surprised by my reaction. Needing desperately to do something for Thanksgiving, on Wednesday I went to Whole Foods in search of a bird. I was thrilled to find tons of turkey, pre-made side dishes, and a bunch of other Americans shopping for their Thanksgiving dinners as well. I decided to cook a duck, since the turkeys were all too big. This was my first time cooking a duck and I was really pleased with how it came out...and how the whole meal came out. We invited some of our English friends over to share the feast with us, and although we didn't get to spend Thanksgiving with our families, it still felt like the holiday I love so much.

Just a few more photos

The obligatory picture in front of the Parthenon. One of the two places Socrates may have possibly taken the hemlock...if he even existed.An odd sculpture in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.What once were rabbits hanging in the central market, where we ate our lunch one day.Leo pondering the awesomeness of the Temple of Zeus.
THE END.

The rest of the trip...in photos

Us at the top of a mountain (ok hill) we climbed on the island of Delos. The amphitheater in Delos. Sunset from our hotel way up the mountain in Mykonos. Yes, we did eat at a Chinese/Thai restaurant in Mykonos. It was the closest restaurant to our hotel and we were tired from going up the big hill to get to the hotel and didn't want to walk down again (and then back up) to find dinner. A cool bar we found in Athens where they make all their own spirits.

More Naxos

In an effort not to bore you with long entries and few pictures, I'm going to try another approach, more photos and short captions...so as to finish this section on Greece before our next trip. On our second day in Naxos we rented a car to drive around the island. The island is so small with so few roads, there are no real road maps...which you think would make things easy, but somehow we ended up in a small town driving down a pedestrian street with an old man laughing at us, trying to direct up to Demeter's Temple in Greek. We eventually made it to the temple. We ventured further and arrived at Apiranthos, which is a small own perched upon the side of a mountain and made almost entirely from marble. Not only did Leo have to contend with driving on narrow, winding mountain roads, he also needed to contend with goat roadblocks. Naxos has always been a large exporter of marble. We passed this large quarry on our road trip. One of the goals of the car trip was to find on of the abandoned kouros statues which again, after a few wrong turns, we eventually got to.

Naxos

John flew home out of Santorini and we caught a ferry to Naxos. Originally it had not been on the itinerary, but we were so happy we ended up there. When we pulled into the port we had decided to look out for people from specific hotels that were recommended in our guidebook, so as to avoid the chaos we found when we got to Santorini. Our choice of the Pension Sofi was perfect, and even better than the guidebook had said. The hotel owner's father drove us to the hotel, just a 5 minute walk from the port, and her husband sat us down, gave us raki melo (raki with honey, which is a specialty in Naxos) and a plate of tomatoes, cheese, and olives (all homemade/grown) and gave us an extensive description of everything to do and see on the island, which was mostly in Greek. Not even Leo was able to pick up on everything he said, so we just nodded and drank our raki. After dropping off our bags in our inexpensive, big, beautiful room with a lovely balcony, we headed to the main street along the port. We were a bit dismayed at how empty the place was. But we found out that this was just due to it being Friday, during siesta, and things began to pick up later in the evening. We walked all around the port then back to Appolon's Gate and watched the sun set, then found a nice taverna for a quick meal before heading back to our lovely room for some much needed sleep.

More Santorini (sorry it's taken so long)

As it is cold and rainy here in London, it's the perfect time to reminisce about nicer, warmer times. Day two in Santorini we took Mario's advice and headed for the black sand beaches of Perissa. Although it was a bit overcast and chilly (the only time on the entire trip) we found a bar with a constant stream of the Rolling Stones playing over the speakers, and we sat and drank and played cards for a few hours before catching the bus back to Fira...once we found the bus stop...and once the bus actually showed up. On our last day, we went up to the north end of the island to the town of Oia. Again, we took Mario's suggestion and headed down the 300+ old stone steps to the small port where we had an amazing lunch of freshly caught octopus and fish as we looked out on the boats that brought the fish in that morning. Rather than climb back up the steps, we found out that there was a ship that went from the port to another small port loser to Fira, so we figured we'd hop aboard. We were dropped off at the port near Fira where the two options to get up the cliff are to take the funicular or to ride a donkey up the steep and windy path. We opted for the funicular to get back up to the top.

Crazy weather

Sorry to interrupt the Greece reminiscences, but I just had to mention that last night it snowed in London. This is the first time since 1934 that it has snowed in London in October. And the weather just keeps getting colder.

Santorini

We took off for Santorini on a beautiful clear day and didn't even need the Dramamine we took for the ferry ride. There is nothing quite like coming into the port in Santorini, since you are motoring into a caldera formed by one of the largest volcanoes in history. All you see around you are a few small, burnt and uninhabited islands in the centre, then these huge cliffs, with a sugaring of houses at the top. When we go off the ship, we realized that climbing up to the top of the cliff in order to get to the main town of Fira wasn't an option. We looked for the elusive city bus which was supposed to take us into town, but couldn't find it and were told the next one would be coming when the next ferry arrivedabout 4 hours later. We were then bombarded by people from the surrounding hotels, anxious to get us to stay there and promising great views far outside of the main cities. We finally found a taxi and our nice taxi driver let us know of a good place to say in Fira, and dropped us off at the Hotel Flora, where the prices were reasonable (since it didn't actually overlook the western coast, but we had a nice view of the eastern coast from our balcony) and the rooms were big and clean. We dropped off our stuff and headed to the main street. Since the shops, restaurants, and hotels are built along the cliff, the entrances off of the main street are often just doors looking out to the sea with steps leading downward. Leo led us on a death march along the main street, which we found actually connected separate towns...we saw three of them by the end of our hike. We hiked through Fira, then Firostefani, and then Imerovigli. The views were incredible and we marveled at how low the walls were which overlooked the cliffs that descended into the ocean (in the US there would probably be much higher walls, someone guarding them, and signs everywhere telling you to stand back and be safe). As walked...and walked...and walked, we passed by swanky hotels, pretty people sitting at pool bars, churches, rundown house, and finally we came upon this sad donkey, which appeared to live in a cave. Feeling much like the tired donkey, we headed back in the direction of Fira with the hopes of finding a cute little bar we had passed at some point in our walk. Luckily for Leo and John, I have a much better sense of direction than they do, so we were actually able to find the place. We had a drink outside overlooking the water, then headed inside to talk to Mario, the bartender, who gave us some free drinks, taught us about Santorini wines, told us all about the island and printed out a map for us of the places we should see and where were should eat. He also gave us an itinerary for Athens, which we would hit later on in the trip, since he is from there. After two bottles of wine, a few rounds of cards, and an interesting conversation with an American staying at the attached upscale hotel about politics, we headed to one of the restaurants Mario suggested and had yet another amazing meal.

And now for pretty pictures

Heraklion in Crete was our first stop on our Greek adventure. Our friend John (aka Country lawyer) decided to come with us on the first half of our trip. After a raucous night out with Leo's coworkers...with too many shots of whiskey consumed...we hopped on a train the next bleary-eyed day to Gatwick airport where we sat around getting antsy, since we are the only people that still get to the airport in the prescribed "2 hours before your flight departs". A couple of pints and some lunch later, we were on our way aboard a very comfortable EasyJet flight (which is a very budget airline for those of you who don't know) which had leather seats, plenty of leg room, and they even showed a movie (the latest Indiana Jones, which I don't recommend to anyone). We got in to Heraklion around 10 pm, dropped off our stuff at the Hotel Rea and headed for Lion's Square, which we were informed had many bars, restaurants, and souvlaki shops. Seated at a souvlaki shop, with some food, and beers, we toasted to the Mediterranean lifestyle and began our vacation.

The next day consisted of walking around the city, which we found out was actually rather small, since we kept finding ourselves back at the same locations time and time again. We also went searching for the Archaeological Museum, which on that day, we weren't able to find. The main problem is that maps in guidebooks never actually list all of the street names and never show you things like elevation, which was necessary in Heraklion since it is quite hilly in parts. And Heraklion suffers from a lack of street signs, so the entire time we were there we were utterly lost. We did wander into a portion of the agora (the market) where we found a small taverna which served mainly fish...and where we had our first amazing Greek meal. We didn't really know what we were ordering and relied upon the help of the waitress, who I guess, seeing that we were Americans, decided we could eat a great quantity of food. A large plate of fresh fried calamari, a huge Greek salad, then three whole grilled mackerels (we had thought we'd be getting three small sardine-like fish to share) arrived in front of us. But we managed to eat it all!

The next day we thought we'd head a bit out of the city to see the ruins of Knossos, where King Minos lived and where the stories of the labyrinth and the Minotaur were born. Again, due to lack of street signs, winding roads, and out of date guidebook information, we spent a long time looking for the bus to take us out to the site. Eventually, Leo found someone to ask for directions, and thanks to his awesome language skills, we found the bus and got to Knossos. The site is quite big and full of pushy tour groups, but we still enjoyed ourselves. The reconstructed parts of Knossos really do help you get a sense of what it might have looked like (so three cheers for Sir Aurthur Evans). Once back in the city, we took a bit of a siesta, then reconvened for some drinks, followed by a few more drinks in our favorite Heraklion dive bar...Route 66 (I think we went there every night we were there). The place played mainly classic rock music, and the occasionally cheesy 80s ballad, and was full of young Cretan, rather than German tourists (who were everywhere else). We were sitting there playing cards and drinking ouzo, when we struck up a conversation with a guy from Athens, who was stationed in Crete for his compulsory service in the Army. He shared some freshly brined olives with us, and we bought another round of ouzo, and spent the night discussing politics and the workings of the world.

The next morning, we took a bus to the south of Crete, to the beach at Matala. The drive across the island was beautiful and quite frightening (with tons of narrow roads along the mountains, with drop-offs below filled with car parts). The beach at Matala was equally as impressive as the drive. The beach is in a bay, surrounded by cliffs on either side, full of wind-carved caves. The caves were originally Roman tombs, but in the 60s, they were inhabited by hippies (including Cat Stevens and Joni Mitchell) looking to live in a beautiful place but not pay for it. We came back from our day at the beach sun burned, exhausted, and looking forward to our next day's adventure...Santorini.

Doing my duty (ha!)

Since this blog is not just about pretty pictures of places we've visited, but also about living in a foreign country, I thought I'd just mention my latest "life abroad" factoid. I received my absentee ballot for the presidential election and mailed it in yesterday. Even though my vote doesn't actually count (unless there's a run-off in New York, which there won't be since the state always goes to a Democrat), it still made me feel good...and like I was still connected to the US in some small way.

Hopefully, when I eventually come back it will be a nice place to come home to.

Home again, home again

We got back from Athens yesterday to find  dead mouse and our internet was down...not the perfect end to a wonderful vacation, but at least we got in early enough to relax a bit before getting back to reality. I promise to post pictures and tell stories of our adventure soon...but now, off to work...YEY!

Putting our educations to use

I'm not sure if the Ancient Greek that we studied in college will help, but we'll find out soon since we're heading to Greece today. We'll be flying into Crete and then out of Athens 16 days later...unless we love it so much we decide not to leave. Try not to miss us too much.

A Country Hike

This weekend the sun ACTUALLY came out. So we decided to spend as much time as we could outside, in the sun, and out of the city. Leo had found a website that gave information about hiking trails around the UK, and became enamoured with hiking on the Ridgeway, one of the oldest paths in the world, which has been in use for around 5,000 years. The entire trail is 85 miles long, but we opted for a 6 mile hike between two towns, Princes Risborough and Wendover. The day before our hike we purchases a book about the Ridgeway, an ordnance map of the area, a compass, and some food. We tried to make it an early night (well Leo did, and I forced him to go to a club to hear some DJs, but then he made me stay out even later than we had anticipated), and we woke up around 9:45, packed our gear, and headed for the train; well, walked 15 minutes to the tube, rode that for about 20 minutes, got out to walk to the train station, and then we were off.

Only about 8 people got off the train with us at Princes Risborough, and luckily two of them were hiking on the Ridgeway as well, and had a much better book than ours, so we were able to get from the train station to the trail. They, however, headed west and we headed east. The trail took us through large open fields between farms, through national parks, through parking lots, and along the country estate of the Prime Minister (we got to play with his sheep). It was a bit strenuous at times, and really, really muddy...but we had a wonderful time! We had thought about going to Tring, which is about another 5 mile hike from Wendover, but once we got to Wendover at about 3:30, and sat down to have a pint at the first pub we spotted, we decided to save Tring for another weekend. We returned to the city exhausted, sore, and smiling.

Labor Day weekend

Even though we may be in a different country where Labor Day is not celebrated, we ended up celebrating it in true American style. Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day and the sun actually emerged from the smog. We walked along the Regents canals in the morning, seeing one of the locks being put to use, then headed over to a friend's place for a BBQ. There was much drinking, some chess playing, bad music on the radio, and jean legs were rolled up and shirts were discarded (not mine!). The burgers were great, as was the company..and at least for a day London didn't seem to bleak and lonely.

Shoreditch festival

Since it's gloomy, overcast, and cold today, I'd like to remember the happier, sunnier times. This past weekend we attended the Shoreditch festival - your typical free neighborhood festival, complete with ethnic food stalls, port-o-potties, bad music, and large fields to sit and waste the day in. The forecast had called for rain on Saturday (as it does every day), but when we got up it was bright and sunny out. So we went on a stroll with Caron and Tom and ended up at the Shoreditch festival. When we got there, at noon, people were just starting to arrive, the food was just starting to be cooked, but the bar (a large, dark tent made to resemble a pub...humorously called the Pigeon's Arms) was already up and running. So we bought a pitcher of Pimms and lemon soda, and sat in the field soaking up the sun - since we were all lacking in our vitamin D. After one pitcher, we all got some great Ghanaian food, got another pitcher, reclaimed our spots on the grass and just relaxed...until the sky clouded up, the temperature dropped, and the wind picked up, which meant it was time to head home.

Another birthday thank you

Last night we went to see The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Globe theatre, thanks to Leo's parents, who got us tickets for Leo's birthday. The theatre was great, aside from the uncomfortable seats (benches too close together with no back rests..perhaps leg room wasn't an issue in the olden days). The play, which was one I had never read, was quite amusing and all of the actors gave great performances. Plus, once again, we were able to bring drinks into the theatre, which never gets old. Thank you for the tickets!

The one nice thing about it raining all the time