"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.