"Why don't you speak Greek?!"

Well, I really fell off the posting wagon, didn't I? My time is winding down in Vienna, so I've been busy just enjoying life here and spending time with friends. I don't want to forget my wonderful Greek memories though!

I arrived in Athens after taking the most beautiful Austrian Airlines flight ever. Can I just say that after traveling like cattle on Ryan Air that economy class on a normal airline feels like I'm being pampered? A free checked bag, you say? And free food and drink? You know I'm not a celebrity, right? Making the flight even more pleasant was the fact that there were only two people in my three-seater row. Awesome.

My parents were waiting for me at the airport and looking surprisingly fresh-faced. They'd just arrived from Dallas the day before, and I was impressed that they were a) standing and b) energetic. We hopped in a cab to get to Kolonaki, where we were staying in a rented apartment. My mom began speaking with the cab driver in Greek. Having my mom along on this trip was like having our own personal guide - she speaks the language fluently and was able to make getting around that much easier. Like most large European cities, almost everyone speaks at least a little English in Athens, so you're not screwed without Greek-language skills.

I sat down for my first Greek meal at the restaurant in Kolonaki that replaced the little place my dad used to grab coffee on his way to work. He used to live in Kolonaki, actually, and so was familiar with the area..or how it was 30 years ago. Turns out, things have changed a bit. The little coffee place has blossomed into a full-on cafe. It also served the most disappointing tiropeta I have ever eaten, and I am counting my encounters with the frozen variety in that assessment. On the other hand, it had delicious and ridiculously huge calamari. We spent the lunch fending off curious/hungry pigeons who felt just fine with actually walking under our seats and hanging out near our feet.

After walking around a bit, we headed to the apartment so we could drop off my bags. I'm a huge fan of this apartment - very comfortable and sports quite the nice balcony as well. We made our way to a cab to get to downtown Athens, which involved more walking around and finally eating souvlaki. This was the best souvlaki I've ever eaten in my entire life. Oh my god. As we were walking back to the apartment, we passed by a bakery that had absolutely to-die-for pastries. I bought one of them to take back to the apartment - it took me 3 days to eat it all.

As you can tell from the way things are going already, this vacation was very different from the others I've taken. This one was much more relaxing, my mom could tell me exactly what everything was and what it meant, and there was much less confusion in general about where things were. Looking around at all of the Greek writing and historic architecture was like simultaneously being in the land of equations (sigmas, gammas, kappas, alphas, betas!) and Disney's Hercules. My parents spent much of the trip telling me how things were different there 30 years ago and where they used to hang out. There was a lot more of a personal connection to Athens than I had to some of the other places I've visited.

One thing that hasn't changed much is the stray dog situation. There are dogs everywhere, and they're just chillin'. They go about their business, which tends to be about napping more often than not, completely ignoring people. They read traffic lights (I kid you not), often following the crosswalk instructions better than people. Athens had a stray dog problem 30 years ago, and it still has one now. I found it immensely amusing.

The next morning, we tried to go shopping but weren't finding things to our liking. And it was occasionally drizzling. One thing we did know was that we wanted to go to one of the nearby islands for an overnight trip, so we stopped by a travel agency to figure that out. After a bit of back-and-forth, we arranged to go to Mykonos that evening, by boat. After wandering around Athens a bit more and having lunch (which was a meatloaf type thing stuffed with tomatoes and feta cheese - holy crap, why didn't I think of this before?!), we went back to the apartment, where I picked up my kindle (loaded with Tina Fey's new book), and headed off to the ferry.

This ferry was really nice - much nicer than the last one my parents took to Mykonos. It was very large, with several cafes, and many tv screens showing day-time Greek soaps. Greek people are very expressive - they tend to use their hands a lot when talking, and they tend to show more emotion in their voices as well. So watching a Greek soap was pretty awesome. I spent most of the time reading Tina Fey's book. The ride was uneventful.

After a 5 hour boat ride, we arrived in Mykonos and were taken to our hotel for the night. It was a little ways away from Mykonos city, but after dropping our stuff off, we walked down to a nearby restaurant, where I had fried zucchini. You guys, this was a life-changing experience. Fried zucchini is AMAZING. I got the feeling that the other patrons at this place were locals because they gawked at us quite a bit.

The next morning, we woke up to what you imagine the Greek Isles look like - white buildings with blue shutters and hand-railings. Gorgeous. It was a little windy, so that was a bit of a surprise. We had breakfast, prepared by the inn-keeper, and I'm pretty sure we were the only people staying there that night. This was definitely the off-season. Unfortunately, the bus into Mykonos city only ran once every 2 hours, so my parents thought we should just go off in search of a taxi. I had serious reservations about this because I did not see any taxis in the area, but if they wanted to wander, who was I to stop them? We eventually got a taxi and soon found ourselves at the windmills near the city center.

Downtown Mykonos is adorable - small cobble-stone streets, white buildings with blue shutters (sometimes red or green ones, if the tenants are daring), and always the blue ocean nearby. Because this is Greece, there are lots of churches as well. At lunch, I ordered spaghetti with salmon and quickly learned to order Greek or order nothing in Mykonos. We had a cat keep us company for this meal, a much more welcome guest than those pigeons. There was more walking around, some attempted shopping (whew, talk about high prices), and funny signs (shoes became shooz - awesome - and did you know that the word for sale is ekptoseis? say that 5 times fast). We stopped for excellent crepes - I had a white chocolate and bailey's irish creme one. Yum. For dinner, I hadn't learned my lesson yet, apparently, and ordered bruschetta. I don't know what the heck came out, but it was a cheesy pizza-like mess that certainly wasn't bruschetta. Fortunately, the Greek food we ordered was awesome, so all was well.

As the sun set, we saw a pelican, walked along the beach some more, and got me a pair of sandals. My mom haggled these sandals for me, and her skills are so formidable that the shop keeper looked like a broken woman at the end of the encounter. Some day, I too hope to have such bargaining skills. On the way back to Athens, we took the "fast" ferry (4 hour ride instead of 5). It was slightly smaller, and there were insane amounts of wind, so that's probably why the ride back was..not quite as uneventful.

About 30 minutes after we departed Mykonos, patrons were sitting in their seats or ordering from the cafe. Suddenly, the ship rocked. Hard. As in, I was sitting in an armchair and almost fell out of my seat. The cafe was making crashing noises. The boat swayed...and then rocked hard again. All of the TVs at once told us to get to our seats, and that's when the crew began going over cabin safety. I like how they didn't do this until *after* something happened. My dad made a show of reading the safety instructions, but thankfully we didn't need any survival skills.

The next day, we went to the Acropolis. Wow. Not only is this place amazing because of its history, and what it means in terms of the origins of western civilization, but it is gorgeous as well. I also have a personal connection to the Acropolis - one of the earliest photos my dad has of my mom was when they were dating in Greece. They used to go to the Acropolis in the early evenings and walk around it. Back then, almost nobody would be there (now there are hordes of tourists year-round). My dad took a photo of her at the Acropolis on one of those dates and keeps it at his desk, so I grew up looking at that picture and thinking of Greece and the Acropolis as this magical faraway place. It was indescribable having that come to life in front of me.

We took our time at the Acropolis and got some amazing views of Athens. Afterward, we went to the Acropolis museum, which is on top of an ancient city they are now in the process of excavating. The floors of the museum are occasionally see-through so that you can see the old city below - it's quite breath-taking. They expect that to be open to the public later this year. The museum is a must-see, with all sorts of artwork and pieces of the exterior of portions of the Acropolis. It also has a history of the structures there, and how portions of it went from a temple to the gods, to a christian church, to a mosque.

After a nap back at our apartment, we were ready for dinner. My parents wanted a nice dinner, but we had no idea where to go. We tried to go to this one place, but two certain individuals would not believe me when I said it was in a certain direction, so instead we wandered around a long time before just deciding to go into the next restaurant we found. What we found was a modern Greek gourmet restaurant that was really quite good and also not touristy.

The next morning was Mother's Day, and in celebration we began the day with a brunch at the Migali Vritania, where Churchill once experienced an attempt on his life. This is one place that has not changed in 30 years - it is still one of the swankiest hotels in Athens. In fact, it's so swanky that it intimidated my parents when they lived in Athens into never stepping foot onto the place. Eating brunch there was a way of fulfilling a desire they'd had back then to see what it was like. Also, you eat brunch on the rooftop and have a stunning view of the Acropolis. It was such a perfect and picturesque experience - so relaxing, sunny, and yummy. When we were done eating, we got ready to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier. The soldiers do a complicated version of walking that is both highly inefficient and challenging. They also wear fuzzy balls on their shoes. I grew up with two Greek dolls: a woman in traditional national costume and a man dressed as a Greek soldier. So while I knew what they looked like ahead of time...it still didn't make it any less amusing to see in person.

Also amusing? One of the poor soldiers fell on his rear in the middle of the important procession that took him and two compatriots up to the tomb. Everyone laughed and then clapped when he got back up. At first, I resisted taking a picture with the soldier (I felt it was disrespectful), but in the end I gave in and realized they're used to this and were even encouraging it.

Our cab ride back to the apartment involved a cab driver who was shocked I didn't speak Greek: "Why don't you speak Greek?!" My mom replied that my dad didn't, and it turns out he'd assumed my dad was Greek as well. Then he started lecturing me that I needed to learn Greek: "You must learn Greek because when you get married, then you take your husband back here and show him around Athens!" Then he decided to translate a love song on the radio: "I sell my heart to you." My mom says the singer was actually saying "give," not sell, which makes more sense. In all of these cab rides, my mom heard the same things from the drivers: the economy is terrible, we might leave the euro, everyone is unhappy. It's a tough time in Greece right now.

Unfortunately, my time came to a close there. As we were leaving, I saw a small ceremony honoring the people of Crete who died in the fight against the Turks. My parents stayed two more days, during which time my dad played the hero by chasing down a pickpocket to retrieve my mom's wallet and they both got caught up in a group of protesters as well. Greece was wonderful, though, and I hope I can return some day. Maybe I'll even know a little more Greek by then.

Barcelona

Where is my usual pun or wise-cracking in the title? It's been stolen by a head cold, which hit me full force when we arrived in Barcelona. Great timing, right? Fortunately, Nikita, my traveling companion, was much more with it this weekend than I was, which allowed me to coast along and act responsible only a couple of times. Although the forecast called for showers this weekend, the weather gods smiled upon us and delivered sunny skies and perfect temperatures for a lovely time in Spain (pictures, as always, on facebook).

We flew Ryan Air to Barcelona, which means we actually flew from Bratislava to Girona. Girona is about an hour bus ride away from Barcelona, and from there we traveled another 20 minutes to the nearest stop to our hostel, then walked another 15 minutes up some pretty steep hills to our final destination. Let's just say it was a long day when we finally got our heads on our pillows at 1:45am. We were in an 8-person room, sleeping on bunk beds. I took the top bunk and quickly discovered that every movement either of us made not only sent vibrations through the bed but actually caused it to sway. After the first 30 minutes that first evening of intense dizziness and serious consideration of putting my mattress on the floor, I was accustomed to it and tried to think of it as a sturdier version of a hammock.

Our first day in Barcelona was one of great sight seeing! We did a tour of Gaudi architecture, and what a creative man he was. My favorite building was Casa Batlló - what a gorgeous, creative, and playful structure! I wish Gaudi could design my dream house... Unfortunately, each building had an entrance fee of at least 10 euro and long lines, and we are cheap and impatient, so we were not so inclined to spend that money. It's a shame since Gaudi completely designed the interiors in addition to the exteriors, right down to the furniture. We did go inside Sagrada Família, which was utterly stunning. Gaudi knew he would not finish the church in his lifetime, so he left plans for others to carry on his work. The Spaniards think they'll get it done by 2030...but that's kind of optimistic.

We stopped for a delicious lunch and then headed over toward Las Ramblas. On the way, we ran into a group of people protesting the oppression in Syria. They caught up to us again later along Las Ramblas as they chanted in Spanish and held signs in Arabic and English. While we walked along Las Ramblas, I made sure to get a Nata ice cream, and then we found the famous market on that street. I love the markets here in Europe - fresh meat, fresh fruit, and all sorts of prepared foods are readily available. Like many touristy locations, Las Ramblas had various human statues, although these were some of the more creative ones I've seen. You can see in the pictures I took a winged gargoyle-like creature - he playfully scared a woman who posed with him for a picture, making everyone laugh as the poor lady screamed in terror.

We then headed to Fontana to meet some of Nikita's friends. This gave us a chance to walk around a Spanish neighborhood, away from a lot of the touristy stuff of Barcelona. We had some sangria as we sat at a square and watched some kids play football. Afterward, we went to Parc Güell to walk around and see the sun set over Barcelona. Then we went to Nikita's friends' apartment to chill for a bit, have some dinner, and then head out to a party in the downtown area at another friend's apartment. When we arrived at this small apartment that had practically no furniture in the living room and hallway but instead had a full DJ set-up, there were ten other people there. 20 minutes later, approximately 35 additional people showed up, and we were practically jammed shoulder to shoulder. Most people there were Spanish, but there happened to be 4 Irish men in attendance as well. We talked for quite a while, as they were relieved I could understand their accents (many Spanish-speakers can't) and indignantly recalled times English-speaking Spaniards tried to correct their pronunciation of English words. Nikita and I left "early" at a little after midnight because we were exhausted and all of the shouting to be heard had left me quite hoarse.

We slept in the next day and it was glorious. After a lovely tapas brunch, we headed to Las Ramblas and the market again. This time, there was a small band performing. I had another ice cream and we both had fruit drinks, and then we headed off in search of the beach. Instead, we found the marina...but were determined to find the beach, and after much aimless wandering, managed to find it. People were kite surfing, wind surfing, and surfing, all in wet suits. Of course, two Russian men on the beach first of all changed right there on the beach, and then proceeded to go into the water in speedos. Way to live up to the stereotype fellas.

Then we headed over to the old bull fighting arena, which is now a shopping mall and Rock 'n Roll museum. We had some surprisingly good tapas at the Rock 'n Roll museum's restaurant and headed over to the Magic Fountain to see its light, water, and music show. As we were waiting, Nikita had picked out a girl in the crowd, wearing a white dress, who had seemed lost. We kind of just kept tabs on her as we waited around for the show to start, and boy, we weren't disappointed. During the show, this gal did an interpretive dance around the fountain - I kid you not. The crowd thought it was hilarious - we laughed, clapped, and hooted. I made eye contact with the older ladies sitting next to me and shared a laugh with them. Some younger fellas began trying to copy the girl's moves. It was great. Afterward, we walked around the grounds of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, listened to a guy playing guitar at the top of the steps, and decided to head back to the hostel.

The next day, we headed back to Vienna. This part of the trip was mostly uneventful, except for the weird bus ride back from Bratislava...the driver and passengers were all kind of yelling at each other in German as we were trying to board, the driver turned away half of the people who tried to buy a ticket to get on, and then our journey to Vienna was a roundabout way that went through small Austrian towns instead of just taking the highway. Not really sure what happened there. In any case, Nikita was a fabulous travel companion and unfailingly patient with not just my head-cold-induced flightiness, but also my often ignorant questions about Russia. His access to an iphone with GPS made our trip much easier, to the point where it actually felt like cheating to me. Is it really a trip to a foreign country if you actually know where you are most of the time and aren't flailing around and serendipitously arriving at your intended destinations?