Finally Greece pictures

~ Terry's view of us when we are walking around/looking at things.
~ The Parathion all lite up at night.
~ View of Patras from our morning drinks.
~ Trucks pointing both ways on the ferry boat.
~ When you are first on the ferry boat you have to turn around and back into your spot.
~ How many people does it take to give us driving directions and recommendations? (Georgia, Thioni, Terry, Liz, & Niko).
~ How I navigate with my iPad.
~ Lunch with the gang. (Niko, Georgia, Cathy, Thioni, Liz, Terry, & Paul).
~ Afternoon stop for drinks and sweets.
~ Our afternoon at the beach.
~ Dinner one night in Athens.
~ Our family in front of the Temple of Zeus.

Sorry there's no real order to the pictures. I'm trying to do this with an App I've never used before. Next time I hope to have it figured out a little more.

****when I wrote the post the pictures where in the correct order. Have fun guessing which title/comment goes with each picture. I would fix it but I don't know how! :( ****

We've had a gorgeous day at the beach followed with lunch at another Greek family's house. It was quite the meal and at the house we went to no one spoke English. More to come on that though.

Patras

We left Athens on Thursday and picked up a rental car at the airport. Terry has done all the driving so far. While I have an international drivers license I have no desire to drive while here. The combination of a a manuel transmission, other crazy drivers, some freaking small roads, and not knowing where I am going does not make a great combination. I'll leave the driving to Terry and Liz.

From Athens we drove to Delphi and looked around the ancient ruins. We then got back in the car and drove the rest of the way to Patras. Our family friends, Paul and Cathy, have in-laws who are Greek-American and live here. Paul and Cathy have been here for almost three weeks and we have had the pleasure to hang out with them and their in-laws. Georgia, their daughter-in-law's mother is a kick and she has been a great tour guide. Yesterday was a delightful day of a short walk and seeing a castle. We then when back to Georgia's home for a lunch and the afternoon was spent at the beach. Everything about the day was wonderful! The food and company were especially nice. We even managed make it to dinner past 9pm! And I wasn't the first person who was hungry.

The highlight of the day was going to the beach and seeing Terry in this speedo. I was aware that Terry was bring his speedo as his only bathing suit, however, Liz wasn't. She was more than a little embarrassed! However, it wasn't until he got out of the water and realized that his bathing suit felt saggy that he might be showing more that he realized. He says "it is like the lycra dissolved in the salt water." When we got back to the hotel we realized that the back of his swimsuit was as see through as nylons! Georgia and one of her friends saw his butt through his suit. They thought it was a little unusually for this guy from Seattle to have a see through bathing suit. We all got a laugh out of the situation. When Terry asked Georgia where he could by a bathing suit she kindly passed on a new speedo type suit that her husband didn't like. It's much better considering people now can't see Terry butt.

Today we took a ferry across the Corinthian Sea and then drove another 30mins to a local family beach. It was amazing. The water was clear, the beach wasn't crowded... So we spent a few hours in the sun and water before having our afternoon meal. Being with people who know what to order is great because you get to try so many things that we would never have known about or tried on our own. We then drove back another castle and had drinks and sweets before heading back to hotel. The day was spent with Paul, Cathy, Georgia, Niko, and Theoni. Niko and Theoni are friends of Georgia.

The most interesting part of the day was taking the ferry boat across the water. Unlike in Washington where the ferry boats have two ends (one where you get on and one where you get off). Here there is only one entrance to get on the ferry. So if you are one of the first ones on you drive on and then turn around. Or you have to reverse your way on to the ferry or drive on regularly and then reverse off the ferry. With small cars this isn't a problem but with big rigs it takes a lot more work.... Yet it doesn't seem to be a problem for most of the drivers.

Tomorrow we are heading to a sand beach south of Patras. From there we will say goodby to Paul and Cathy and head south on our own. While tourists may not like Patras we have had a grand time being with our friends and meeting some locals.

I'm finding that uploading pictures to my blog from my iPad might not be as easy as I thought it would be.... Hopefully pictures will come soon...

Same same but different

I don't know what I was expecting Athens to be like, I did very little researching before coming, but this wasn't it. In my head I can't quite put the city into the category of what I know in terms of Europe or SE Asia. Here is a list of a few things that I have been able to place that, in my head, fit in the European or Asian category. (I'm sure more will come to me later... But this is the list for now.)

Things that remind me of SE Asia:
Our hotel room smells like my room did in Nha Trang, Vietnam. The AC only works when you have your key in a slot while you are in the room. So when you walk in after being out for most of the day the smell is a mix of musty/moldy warm air.
Some streets smelling like sewage.
Trying to cross the street is a little tricky. At some point you just have to start, and keep, walking -while praying that some car/bus/moto won't run you over.
When using the toilet you don't flush your toilet paper, you put it in the trash bin right next to the toilet.

Things where I am reminded that I really am in Europe:
Paved streets and sidewalks.
The toilets are clean and are the western style.
Small spaces - in our bathroom it is easy to multiple task. While sitting on the toilet I can turn the sink on, wash my hands, and spit into the sink easily...
You can drink the water and it taste good.
There are cross walks to get across the street.
Tomatoes for breakfast.
There is a metro/underground.
People smoke everywhere and it is hard to get away from it if you are eating outside.
I don't have to cover myself - I can wear a short skirt and tank top and not get any lewd stares.

Things that remind me that I am not in the US(but don't remind me of any other place specifically):
The first floor of our hotel is on what I would call the third floor. So, walking to our (fourth) floor really isn't fun.

On another note I have been very surprised at how friendly everyone has been. I can't remember having any problems while in Europe before... Or any reason to think that people wouldn't be nice or helpful - but I have been very surprised at how helpful everyone has been. For example, we went to find SIM cards for my phone and iPad (two different occasions) and both people helped set up the cards and made sure that everything worked before sending us on our way. For setting up the iPad we were in the store for at least 45mins trying to figure everything out. The man helping us even said that before we left that he would make sure that it worked because we weren't connecting to the Internet immediately. I guess I was expecting more people to take advantage of how naive we are. (We did pay 10 euros to get to our hotel after we took a bus into town - it was a 4 min taxi ride... But sometimes it pays for connivence after traveling 20+ hours).

We have done most of the touristy things around Athens and have worn ourselves out a little bit already. We are slowly relearning that in this heat you have to sit down and have a drink for a little bit instead of going going going all day and then crashing. I'm still having a hard time eating later in the night. To me it seems stupid to eat a snack at five or six only to eat another whole meal 2 hours later. (Liz just checked what time it was and commented on how she is still on an american eating schedule - 6 o'clock and ready to eat!) We have been making it to at least 7 (most nights) before eating.

In other news the metro/underground went on strike today from 12-4. I do realize that this is a comment occurrence in Greece but it is still new to me. There were extra police around the Parliament and the main square. And tomorrow the taxis will be on strike. I find it bizarre how organized the strike is, and that everything doesn't just strike at once... Or that notice was being given that the underground wouldn't be running for part of today (in Greek and English) ahead of time.

That all for now, it is time to think about where we will go for dinner... It will take us at least an hour get out the door and to the part of town we want... So we will be eating after 7 :)

Getting back to blogging

For the past year or so I have updated my blog with random messages or things that I have found on the internet. There has been no timeline I have been keeping up with but my blog has been something that I have missed. I'm not sure if it was being able to keep track of what I was doing, for myself, or being able to let others keep up with what I was doing. Either way, I hadn't completely forgotten about my blog. And now that I am traveling again I miss writing my blog even more. My blog is another journal but for whatever reason I write it in a different format than my hardcopy/personal journal.

So let me backtrack just a bit...

Part of my reason for traveling the first time around, in SE Asia, was that I had dropped out of school and didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I didn't figure out what I DID want to do on that trip, however, I did figure out what I didn't want to do - and that was teach. It only took me half way through my trip to figure this out. Better now that after finishing a teaching program. So with that in mind, I spent a total of three years out of school before finally figuring out that I didn't know what I wanted to study, but that I did want to get a degree in something and I wanted it sooner rather than later. So i jumped back into school with an idea in mind of what i wanted to study but more importantly with the determination that this time i was going to finish my degree no matter what. In the end, it only took me a little over a year to finish my degree. I changed my mind a month into school after realizing that it didn't matter that I got a degree in if I still didn't know what I wanted to do after school. So, I did it! I can now say that I am a college graduate. And because I have FINALLY finished school I am celebrating with a three week trip to Greece thanks to my parents. And yes, they have come along too to celebrate.

So we will see how long blogging lasts...

Truths for Mature Humans

From: http://pinterest.com/pin/57571916/

Count Down

The count down has been on for a while now, but I have finally gotten to the point where my count down is putting my time line into perspective.  I slowly, but surely, can see the end.  I have 199 more days to go until I graduate from college with my four-year degree. While I have no clue where I will be come August; I will be happy to close this chapter in my life.

To Love is to be Vulerable