Lisa and Hamish came this weekend, which I was so grateful for because last week I was really missing my Barcelona life. They came on Saturday afternoon and we walked around a bit downtown. Dinner at my place, I made baked fish which was actually quite edible (I'm always afraid to make fish but it's so easy- see chocolate dipped strawberry disaster for further info on why the simplest recipes are not so simple...). We ate outside on the terrace and I brought out rosé wine and was embarrassed to realize it had a twist top. oops. I guess that's what you get for 2.50 Euros. Anyway, it was drinkable and made my super fish recipe seem MUCH more impressive than my wine selection. Then we were to meet some friends for drinks, so since buses stop running at 8:30, we'd have to walk the 30 min to the city center. This was perhaps the most surreal 30 minutes I've had:
1. We walked by a drink stand where everyone was smoking hash, including a taxi driver (this should have been a forewarning for later in the night).
2. The Pinte Pub, a bar we went past, was lined with parked HarleyDavidsons. This was not so weird as remarkable. You kind of had the feeling that if you stood there long enough, someone would get thrown through the glass window.
3. A car full of boys obviously off their heads (maybe they'd come from the drink stand in n0.1) pulled up alongside Lisa and kept saying things (incomprehensible because of my bad French or their slurred speech??). At first we tried to ignore them but they kept following us, so I delved into my vast vocabulary of retorts and insults in French and came up with "vas-y" with I think just means "Go ahead". They said, "vas-y" and laughed then drove off, so I guess it was effective. Maybe they took it as a challenge like "Bring it on!" and decided they couldn't take us. yeah, that's the ticket.
4. Lisa stepped in dog poo, where she had to stop and do a little dance twisting and dragging her foot on the dirt. which led to number 5
5. Two really drunk slurry guys saw Lisa's dance and decided they needed to come over and talk to her about it. They blocked the way but eventually we were able to cross the street when,
6. A girl sticks her head out the window of her apartment and asks for a light for her cigarette.
We finally made it to the bar unscathed (just a little poo on the shoe) and had a nice time with Ruth, who was leaving the next day to go back to Germany, and others from class. We left around closing and went to get a taxi.
7. Taxi driver was driving way too fast and on the bridge crossing over the railway tracks, he swiped an oncoming car which tore off his side-view mirror. He stopped the car on the bridge and got out to go after the other driver, but they were thankfully long gone. The rest of the trip was in silence (out of fear of the crazy taxi driver while he fumed and cursed). We got to my place and the weirdest thing of all happened:
8. The taxi driver charged me the price on the meter and did not try to rip me off! Sent shivers down my spine.
Better just go home and lock the door!
The rest of the weekend was so dull: nothing weird or threatening happened at all on Sunday or Monday.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Greece is Great- part V and fin!
I realize I'm saying "great" a lot. I will have to find another adjective, but I think it is a sign that I should finish this up quick before I run out of words altogether. Meteora was a magical, mystical place (how's that? great, huh?). We stayed in Koka Roka in Kalambaka, the town nearest the monasteries. It is run by a spritely old lady and her son. Her husband was conspicuously absent from all business matters and spent the day playing cards and smoking. Evening time the son lit up the fireplace and made the best juicy tasty meats accompanied by Tzatziki and cheese sauces. I'll post photos of Meteora.
Mytikas-Greece part IV
The refuge was great. Maria, the head ranger, is the daughter of the man who built the refuge and promoted it when it was a one-room cabin. It now sleeps 120 people. Maria’s mother was a German hiker who’d come to stay at the hut. She stayed once, then came the next year and stayed. Maria showed us around, and made us take off our shoes. We had to wear slippers or flip-flops in all parts of the refuge except the reception area. She does run a tight ship. The room we stayed in was in the new area and was colder inside than outside. The food was great and the views to the Aegean Sea were even better. Dinner was great and we met an amazing British couple who were in Greece to celebrate the wife’s, Mary’s, 55th birthday. Mary is a children’s book writer and dedicates her time to visiting schools and having children create puppets to tell stories. She and Kenneth, her husband, also take there puppeteering material to Romania every year to work with refugee children. Kenneth is a retired Classics professors turned story teller, who goes to schools dressed as characters of mythology and tells his ancient stories as Achilles or Zeus. They were really a wonderful, inspiring couple. Also in the room, quietly reading a copy of “the Iliad” was “Rule”, a mathematics teacher from New York.
Lights out was at 10pm, but I think I was asleep before then. The next day we got up at 6, there was no hot water, so showering was out of the question, had breakfast. Dad decided he wasn’t going to hike because of his heel, so Mo and I were going to go to the first summit, Skala, since we didn’t really think we’d want to go all the way up to the high point, Mytikas, by ourselves. To get to Mytikas there is a lot of scrambling up rocks, so not a good idea for the nervous hiker.
Mo and I started up. The whole thing really felt like an epic adventure, with small obstacles set in the way to test one’s worthiness to make it to the top. There were three large snow patches to cross, if you fell, you wouldn’t stop until you hit a rock or went over the cliff edge. Then the trail breaks into 2 and you have to decide which is the true path (that wasn’t so hard, because the other one ended and you had to turn back anyway). By the time we got above tree line, the wind really started blowing. As we stopped to put on our wind gear, I looked back and there was Dad limping up the hill. I guess he couldn’t let us reach such a mythical place without him. It took us about another hour to go up a very steep hill, with loose rocks and gusty winds. We saw several people turn back, but right when we got to Skala, the wind stopped completely and the weather turned perfect. Rule was also at this first summit and together we all decided to try for Mytikas. Rule was wearing a button up shirt and tie; maybe he wanted to make a good impression? 45 minutes of scrambling down then up and then around rock, I went through and overcame all of my fears and phobias about falling, slipping, misstepping, or otherwise coming to an untimely death. The climb was well marked with good steps and holds, but definitely not for the weary. We arrived at the top to views of all of Greece, the Aegean sea was a little overcast so we couldn’t see out to sea well, but the rest of the views were stunning. There was a book at the top to sign and leave your thoughts. We were the first to make it up that day.
We walked down, ate lunch at the hut, and after 8 hours of hiking, we made it to the trailhead. Mary and Kenneth gave us and Rule a ride to Litochoro in their tiny car. Then Rule drove us to the nearest car rental agency, which was unfortunately closed, in what was I would have to say a far more disquieting and frightening experience than climbing a crumbling mountainside. Rule hadn’t driven much in 20 years, and was not, umm, comfortable with his little rental car. I’ll leave it as that, since he did us a huge favor by bringing us back to the Poseidon Palace hotel and we are very grateful for that! (And more for making it back unscathed, I felt like I was in Herbie Goes Bananas). A good meal, good night’s rest and the next day was the trip to Meteora, an area where the unusual towering rock formations were used to built remote monasteries. They were built as early as the 12th c., I think, by a system of scaffolding, ladders and pulleys. Monks and nuns still live in 8 of these.
Lights out was at 10pm, but I think I was asleep before then. The next day we got up at 6, there was no hot water, so showering was out of the question, had breakfast. Dad decided he wasn’t going to hike because of his heel, so Mo and I were going to go to the first summit, Skala, since we didn’t really think we’d want to go all the way up to the high point, Mytikas, by ourselves. To get to Mytikas there is a lot of scrambling up rocks, so not a good idea for the nervous hiker.
Mo and I started up. The whole thing really felt like an epic adventure, with small obstacles set in the way to test one’s worthiness to make it to the top. There were three large snow patches to cross, if you fell, you wouldn’t stop until you hit a rock or went over the cliff edge. Then the trail breaks into 2 and you have to decide which is the true path (that wasn’t so hard, because the other one ended and you had to turn back anyway). By the time we got above tree line, the wind really started blowing. As we stopped to put on our wind gear, I looked back and there was Dad limping up the hill. I guess he couldn’t let us reach such a mythical place without him. It took us about another hour to go up a very steep hill, with loose rocks and gusty winds. We saw several people turn back, but right when we got to Skala, the wind stopped completely and the weather turned perfect. Rule was also at this first summit and together we all decided to try for Mytikas. Rule was wearing a button up shirt and tie; maybe he wanted to make a good impression? 45 minutes of scrambling down then up and then around rock, I went through and overcame all of my fears and phobias about falling, slipping, misstepping, or otherwise coming to an untimely death. The climb was well marked with good steps and holds, but definitely not for the weary. We arrived at the top to views of all of Greece, the Aegean sea was a little overcast so we couldn’t see out to sea well, but the rest of the views were stunning. There was a book at the top to sign and leave your thoughts. We were the first to make it up that day.
We walked down, ate lunch at the hut, and after 8 hours of hiking, we made it to the trailhead. Mary and Kenneth gave us and Rule a ride to Litochoro in their tiny car. Then Rule drove us to the nearest car rental agency, which was unfortunately closed, in what was I would have to say a far more disquieting and frightening experience than climbing a crumbling mountainside. Rule hadn’t driven much in 20 years, and was not, umm, comfortable with his little rental car. I’ll leave it as that, since he did us a huge favor by bringing us back to the Poseidon Palace hotel and we are very grateful for that! (And more for making it back unscathed, I felt like I was in Herbie Goes Bananas). A good meal, good night’s rest and the next day was the trip to Meteora, an area where the unusual towering rock formations were used to built remote monasteries. They were built as early as the 12th c., I think, by a system of scaffolding, ladders and pulleys. Monks and nuns still live in 8 of these.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Latikarya to Refuge 1- Greece part III
There are 3 ways to get to the trailhead, which is about 15km up a winding road from Litochoro, which is still 8 km more from Latikarya where our hotel was located: taxi, hitchhike, or walk from Litochoro, which would mean about 5 hours extra of hiking. So while discussing how we would get there, the idea evolved that we could rent a car from the only car rental place within 30 km, which happened to be right in the hotel lobby. Plan was set.
We got up at 6 am to pack and get ready for the ascent of Mt. Olympus. Then we waited for the breakfast buffet to open at 7 am, and stuffed our pockets with figs, dates and bread rolls for the trip. The car rental desk was to open at 8, so we waited around for a few minutes, then Mo and I decided to go back to the room to get the luggage in order (i.e., take a nap). The rental car guy didn't show up until a half hour later, and I have fuzzy memories about what happened during their negotiations, but in the end, we decided it was better to take a taxi to Litochoro, then another to the trail head. So by 11am we were on the trail, when we should have started at 9. There's a little restaurant at the trailhead with big unfriendly signs saying "no backpacks", "we are NOT a refuge". I went in to ask about a toilet and 3 unfriendly men look up: “Toilet?” I said. "Problem." "Problem?" "Problem." I couldn't come back with a better argument, so walked out feeling dejected and with a full bladder. I guess I would just have to hold it.
The trail up to Refuge 1 was beautiful, it started out through a green, lush forest. At one point there was a line of leaning, partially uprooted trees that, if you followed them down the hill looked like a tunnel. I wonder what would've caused that? Then we crossed a dry riverbed and the forest turned to pine. Looking at the ravine below you could follow exactly where an avalanche had swept by, knocking over the trees on one side then another like a wave. Three hours later we crossed the remaining bits of a snow patch and looked up to see the refuge. It did not come a minute too soon.
We got up at 6 am to pack and get ready for the ascent of Mt. Olympus. Then we waited for the breakfast buffet to open at 7 am, and stuffed our pockets with figs, dates and bread rolls for the trip. The car rental desk was to open at 8, so we waited around for a few minutes, then Mo and I decided to go back to the room to get the luggage in order (i.e., take a nap). The rental car guy didn't show up until a half hour later, and I have fuzzy memories about what happened during their negotiations, but in the end, we decided it was better to take a taxi to Litochoro, then another to the trail head. So by 11am we were on the trail, when we should have started at 9. There's a little restaurant at the trailhead with big unfriendly signs saying "no backpacks", "we are NOT a refuge". I went in to ask about a toilet and 3 unfriendly men look up: “Toilet?” I said. "Problem." "Problem?" "Problem." I couldn't come back with a better argument, so walked out feeling dejected and with a full bladder. I guess I would just have to hold it.
The trail up to Refuge 1 was beautiful, it started out through a green, lush forest. At one point there was a line of leaning, partially uprooted trees that, if you followed them down the hill looked like a tunnel. I wonder what would've caused that? Then we crossed a dry riverbed and the forest turned to pine. Looking at the ravine below you could follow exactly where an avalanche had swept by, knocking over the trees on one side then another like a wave. Three hours later we crossed the remaining bits of a snow patch and looked up to see the refuge. It did not come a minute too soon.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Figs and dates- Greece part II
So, we make it to the Larissa station in Athens to take the train to Litochoro and Mo goes to buy the train tickets. We are sold the tickets and then informed that there was a train coming in 20 min but we couldn't take it, we'd have to wait for 2hours for the next train. As we began to learn on this trip around Greece, never trust the information you are given. You must always ask at least three different people and use the majority rule. So after asking several more people we find out the train is not full and that we can get on it and take the seats as scribbled on the tickets. This was still my first day in Greece, 2nd for Dad and Mo, so I passed the 6-h train ride by reading up on Greece and trying to remember the Greek alphabet by putting together my long-lost knowledge math, Frat parties and sorority rushes (ok, the closest I got to a sorority rush was being in the same campus bus as a bunch of girls, but some of the info stuck) and thankfully, my JOB actually helped because of all the crazy symbols, particles, receptors and drugs that carry Greek symbols. Finally Rho-kinase made itself useful! and thank you PPAR-gamma and -delta. big help. Anyway, I managed to read the nutrition information on my bag of popcorn by sounding out the vowels: p-rho-t-e-i-n-a-s. PROTEINS! I yelled out. Why were all the other passengers staring at me? he he.
Anyway, we got to Litochoro without many further events or embarrassments. It is a cute little town on the Aegean sea about 10 km from the foot of Mt. Olympus, which is quite a contrast going from sea level to the country's high point in just a few miles. We checked into Poseidon Palace, a great all-inclusive resort with its own private beach. In the morning we went to get our buffet breakfast with all the dried figs and dates and yoghurt you could eat. This was also a mostly-German resort (we were in the fact the only non-German guests and everything was written in German- so between my sounding-out of Greek letters and complete lack of understanding up German we had a pretty fun time getting around.) By way, lamb is "lambflesche" and rice with milk is "rischmilche"- pardon my spelling. Anyway, we loaded up on breakfast and packed little napkins aways stuffed with figs, dates, and bread for lunch. Dad had injured his heal pretty badly in a fall the previous week so was still limping and walking with a cane, so he needed to rest up and not move at all. I was prepared to lend moral support by not moving at all myself. So we had one whole day of the most perfect beach weather, a swim in the sea, and a walk to downtown Litochoro (dad rented a bike and rode there) where we all had a nice drink on the beach. *end part II- next time Mt. Olympos!*
Anyway, we got to Litochoro without many further events or embarrassments. It is a cute little town on the Aegean sea about 10 km from the foot of Mt. Olympus, which is quite a contrast going from sea level to the country's high point in just a few miles. We checked into Poseidon Palace, a great all-inclusive resort with its own private beach. In the morning we went to get our buffet breakfast with all the dried figs and dates and yoghurt you could eat. This was also a mostly-German resort (we were in the fact the only non-German guests and everything was written in German- so between my sounding-out of Greek letters and complete lack of understanding up German we had a pretty fun time getting around.) By way, lamb is "lambflesche" and rice with milk is "rischmilche"- pardon my spelling. Anyway, we loaded up on breakfast and packed little napkins aways stuffed with figs, dates, and bread for lunch. Dad had injured his heal pretty badly in a fall the previous week so was still limping and walking with a cane, so he needed to rest up and not move at all. I was prepared to lend moral support by not moving at all myself. So we had one whole day of the most perfect beach weather, a swim in the sea, and a walk to downtown Litochoro (dad rented a bike and rode there) where we all had a nice drink on the beach. *end part II- next time Mt. Olympos!*
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