Kastoria day eight. We awoke early today, Afroula called at 0600 because Penelope had been up all night with teething pains. After Stella reminded her that she raised four children of her own, and has been the surrogate mother (day care provider) for hundreds more, she realized that she could handle the problem on her own. Penelope has two new molars she did not have before we left for this trip. DO NOT BE SURPRISED, we went back to sleep as soon as we hung up the phone. But we were up for the day by 0900, an early day for us. Since we are here in someone else’s home eating their food, drinking their soda, washing our clothes with their detergent, wiping our derrières with their paper, we decided that we would re stock the house with some essentials and a few extras. I am not sure how they will take it once they realize that we did this. Greeks are a little weird about gifts and gratitude. It is almost like they are insulted, like they think we feel that they can’t afford it or something strange like that. It is not like that at all, we just want to show our gratitude subtly. I am not sure if it was the sun or the fact that I woke up two hors before I have been but I was really tired after lunch today. So I laid down for a short nap that turned into a two hour nap. Someone that shall remain nameless was supposed to wake me after an hour. I wont tell you who it was but her name rhymes with Mozzarella, or hella, or fella, or… what the hella, it was Stella. (This is only here because she won’t want it here) At six we had some pizza with Christostomos (Chris) and his granddaughter. It was pretty fun. There really was nothing exciting to report about this encounter. The man is seventy-five years old, and lives in a village that has a population of four. We are twenty six and twenty eight and live in an area that has four million. Plus I think he is loosing it a little, on the day we met last week I introduced my self as Art. He called me that three or four times, then he started calling me Niko, my son’s name. Today when he arrived at the house he called me Art, once, then I was Adam for the rest of the day. It is sort of funny really. I can pretend that I am a different person and talk about all of my alter identities as if they are friends of mine. Tomorrow we are going to the bizarre/flea market. Should provide some interesting stories.

¶ 5/30/2005 11:32:00 PM //

Kastoria day seven. Yet another day of sleeping in until 1100, one of these days I am going to have to stop doing that. We got ready after a small breakfast and went into town. We went to pick up the little gifts for the up coming baptism. Why we were there we decided to get a few more, so we have to go back in a few days. Since we were already downtown we decided to do a little shopping for the kids. We can’t come back without gifts for the children; they may not speak to us again. We found some great toys for them. Then we picked up some books for the kids and for Stella. It can be hard, as you may imagine, to find books in Greek in America, and ones we find are very over priced. It was about 1330 when we decided to sit at one of the waterfront cafés. Two coffees and an ice cream were the order of the day. I think we sat there for about three hours. We have not had this kind of time to sit and talk for quite some time. I know it sounds like a cliché, but I am falling in love all over again. Not that I was out of love, but I am felling that “New Love” feeling again. Do you know what I mean?

¶ 5/30/2005 07:45:00 AM //

Kastoria day six. We did nothing in the morning today; we slept in until 1100 then every moment after we spent dreading our 1400 appointment. At 1400 we had a dinner date with some friends of Stella's grandparents. The only reason they are still involved with the family whatsoever is that after Stella's grandparents died they were given the keys to the house in the village. Since we had picked up the keys a few days before we then had to spend an afternoon thanking them for being such “great people”. I can’t remember the last time I felt so awkward. Attending this dinner was Glika, her husband Takki, and their daughter Tonya, and of course us. I think that the only person that wanted to be there less than me was Tonya, she is a high school aged girl that I’m sure had better things to do. What you probably should know is that this family was not only friends but neighbors to Stella's grandparents. All of the summers that Stella spent here Glika and grandmother tried to get Stella and Gkila’s son, Stereo, to date and fall in love so they could get married. As a result Stella spent nearly every day making up excuses why she could not be seen or visited by this family and their son. Because she had made all of these evasive maneuvers over the years, Stella does not know the family AT ALL! The initial meeting was friendly and polite, kisses and hugs for every one. This is the Greek way. We then sat down in the small but cozy living room for some small talk. I picked out a few words here and there. They spoke of the weather here and in Chicago, talked about the bad economy here, and how the fur industry is all but dead. They then reminisced about the good ole days when every one had their own fur business and how nice it was when Stella's grandparents were still around. The TV was playing in the background. I had never before been so engrossed in “The Kid part III, The Next Karate Kid”. It was playing in English with Greek subtitles. It began just as we arrived and ended as we were leaving. One good thing I can say about the visit was that they lived on the fifth and top floor of the building and had a great view of the city and lake from the balcony. After two and one half hours of Karate Kid excitement were on our way home. The walk did not take long, twenty minutes maybe. The rest of the day we just spent at home with the family. Very Nice.

¶ 5/29/2005 04:23:00 AM //

Kastoria day five. Greece day seven. Vacation day eight. We spoke of hermaphrodites today, we were in the English speaking room and I was asking about the book Stella is reading, “MIDDLESEX” by Jeffery Eugenides. You see, the rest of the country speaks Greek, in the room we are staying in we speak English. Anyhow the story so far is about a Greek couple that have a grandchild that has both sex organs. Oh yeah, the couple are brother and sister. Vomit! At 1100 we met with an old woman that was neighbors with Stella's grandparents (on her fathers side), she has been holding the keys to the house in the village, Messovraho. The village is about fifty kilometers from the house in Kastoria. It is well into the mountains. It is also just a few kilometers from Albania. In the past there was such a problem with Albanians coming into the villages that it is legal to shoot and kill any Albanian who comes onto your property. To my knowledge it has not happened in this village. I am getting a little off of the subject. The drive to the village took about an hour. The hills and mountains are so very green, full of life. The sky is deep blue, the clouds stand out in stark whiteness. If this is not the reason for the colors of the Greek flag then it has to be from the colors of the sea and the bleached buildings. There are so many things that are blue and white. It’s great! Once we arrived at the village I was breathless, my lungs collapsed from the lack of air at this altitude. Seriously my breath was taken from the beauty of the area. There are about fifteen houses, one church, one school and one cemetery. The four people that live in the village full time are farmers, they grow beans. We were to meet Christostomos, an older man whom was born in this village, in the very house he lives in now. He worked for a security company in Chicago, IL for thirty years and came back to his home town to retire.

¶ 5/28/2005 08:59:00 AM //

Kastoria day four. It seems that I am falling into a deep state of vacation. I no longer know what day it is automatically, and I have not worn a watch for the entire trip. Additionally, I don’t have a cell phone and I am not using my PDA. The only real connection I have with you other working stiffs is posting these notes on the internet. We have been calling the kids using phone cards and payphones, which is the only tie I have with home; it is great to hear from them, although the calls are short. Penelope just breaths in to the phone and makes cute little baby sounds, while Niko tells me what he watched on TV today and if he is going to the park later. They seem fine staying with Yia Yia and Pa Pou. Niko has been sleeping with Joanna (Stella’s sister not her cousin) in the same room that we had been staying in. And Penelope is still sleeping in her crib. Today when we went into town, we bought some signature Kastoria foot wear, leather slippers, fur lined moccasins and such. We also found a little shop that specialized in Greek baptisms, and all the things that go along with it. We found the most agreeable little boubounerais. For you that were at Nikolaki’s baptism you know what I am talking about, the little gift that we gave every family. We did not stay in town long, it was starting to rain. We walked to the taxi stand area and caught a cab back to the house. I think it is great that you can ride a cab for five miles and only pay €2. I have been in towns that just sitting in a cab costs more than that, and the rate goes up for multiple people and the price climbs with each eighth mile. So now we are at the house. I think it is so great that the whole family is home in the morning for breakfast, they come home to eat lunch together, and finish the day out by having dinner together. When we got back, the family was just arriving to have lunch together. So we all sat around the table, ate, talked, and laughed. After which Laki took Marianthe back to work and then he want to the basement to go to work his self. Then Stella, Joanna and I went out to the balcony. They had a nice conversation and I started writing this post. The weather here is so mild, not hot, not cold, just nice. Although when you are in the direct sunlight it feels hotter, I guess it is because we are closer to the equator or something like that. I have already gotten tan. We then fast forward to 1800. We called for a cab and went in to town, Stella, Joanna and myself. We went to yet another café on the waterfront. The view at night on the water is very beautiful. We sat and talked for a few hours. Finally came home around midnight. So it is now time for bed so GOOD NIGHT

¶ 5/27/2005 08:39:00 AM //

Kastoria day three. I slept for almost twelve hours last night, that makes it 26 May 2005. I know that if you are reading this you my think that I am very lazy. Well I AM ON VACATION. Jealous, well get your self a Greek extended family and you come and stay with them and relax too. We did some shopping today, well I should rephrase, we tried to go shopping, but for some reason the only shops that were open were the restaurants. It was very strange. So all we got out of the day was getting some exercise and had some great quality time. Stella and I have been having a great time, next time we will have to bring our children. When they are a little older they will probably enjoy it here. Maybe. It may not be exciting for kids. There was a very funny argument tonight. While Stella and I were out in town, Joanna came home for lunch and started watching TV. While she was watching, the TV just quit working. I don’t know what is wrong with it, in case you were wondering. The funny part was the conversation between Joanna and Stavros. He was telling her how much trouble she was going to be in when their father came home from Thessaloniki. So she got the little TV out of her room and placed it on top of the other TV. We were all sitting around watching it at about midnight when Laki came home. This was a little anti-climatic because he was not even mad. He just said he would fix it, then sat down and had some dinner.

¶ 5/26/2005 02:35:00 AM //

We decided to stay in this morning, this being our fifth day on vacation, fourth day in Greece and second day in Kastoria. Today is 25 May 2005. We woke up and did some laundry, ate some breakfast, washed some more clothes, ate lunch with the family, and after an afternoon nap we (Stavros, Joanna, Stella and myself) took a drive to the highest point in town, a mountain peak that overlooks the city, and had some frappe at the café. It was a very beautiful vista. I think I could retire here. We then drove around the base of the mount that happens to be in the center of the lake that the city is on the shore of. After the drive we came home for some conversation. This has been the most relaxed I have been in years! I went to bed at about 2200.

¶ 5/25/2005 02:33:00 AM //

Today is 24 May 2005 and it is our first full day in Kastoria, Greece. As stated before, I woke up at 0530. had some coffee with the family, and got ready for the day. At about 1130 Laki took Stella and I down town to a bank, Citi Bank actually. We converted some Dollars to Euros, $500 = €385 minus a €2 surcharge. From the bank we walked around town. On the waterfront at a café called Café Roman we sat and had a Coca-Cola, it was very nice out this morning. We then walked the streets dodging cars, you probably don’t know but the sidewalks are VERY narrow. We picked up a book and a map then found ourselves lost. We reached the end of town not realizing that we were going the wrong way. Not wanting to spend the whole day getting more lost we hailed a taxi and returned to a part of town we recognized. All of the sudden a storm rolled in over the mountains and the thunder and lightening started, no rain though. We came to an internet café that is across the street from the house and checked our mail. To those of you that wrote back I read your messages, will respond individually at a later time.

¶ 5/24/2005 09:30:00 PM //

Well well well, where do I start…? On 20 May 2005 Stella and I got a ride to the airport from Gia. The Airport? Yes the O’Hare International Airport. We had purchased tickets to travel to Greece back in October 2004 following my reenlistment; See I got a bonus for signing up for six more years. I am getting off track here. We arrived at the airport at 1300 for a flight that is not until 1550. When we got to the counter at 1330 we were told that there were no more seats together and that we would have to sit twenty rows apart and on apposite sides of the plane. Not happy with that I pulled out my gun and shot the ticket agent right in his goatee, it was quite messy when the bullet exited the back of his scull and took all of his neuron-matter with it, well that had entered my mind for just a fleeting moment. Barley long enough to realize that I had even thought it really. We go to the security area and endure the new ritual that we have become used to if we want the pleasure of traveling by aircraft. We soon found gate M03. The wait was minimal, 25-30 min’s maybe. The Boeing 767 was bigger than I remembered, the plane was bigger not the seating room. So I was in seat 20a, a window seat with only one seat next to it. Stella was in 40e a center seat three rows from the back. When the Italian man that was to sit next to me arrived I asked him if he would trade with Stella so we could travel next to each other, he declined because Stella’s seat was not an isle seat. I went to the back to see if one of the two guys she was sitting next to would trade me. The younger less hairy man agreed. I was now next to the love of my life for the eight hour trip to Milan Italy Malepensa airport. I do not remember the last time that I was so uncomfortable. The woman that was in front of me had her seat reclined all of the way back the entire flight, this action effectively shortened my seating space by 4 inches. My knees were hitting the seat in front of me and my bottom was numb most of the flight. I know it was only 8 hours but it seemed like an eternity. If Stella had not been there I probably would have lost my temper about six hours into the flight. We arrived in Milan without much problem. We exited the airplane and were taken through another security check point. Then to Terminal B. between the Security and the terminal we passed through a customs checkpoint. We showed our passports and tickets, were asked no questions and got a stamp welcoming us to Italy. Three hours later we were boarding a bus at the terminal to take us to the airplane. This time we were seated with each other. Two hours later we are in Athina, Athens, Greece. Again I was surprised by the amazing lack of customs check. We did not even have to pass through a customs area. We changed some Dollars to Euros and found the baggage claim. Just outside of the baggage area we found the bus that the hotel told us to take. It was about 13 Km from the airport to Plaka. We arrived at Syntagma in Plaka (a square in the old town) and found the hotel nowhere near by. We hailed a taxi and he took us about 15 blocks to Vourni Street and to Hotel Marina. We were given a room because Stella is Greek, not American. We were also given the off season rate of €70 in stead of €85. We got a room on the 9th floor, room 708. The room is nice and the balcony is HUGE. But the view is of other buildings. The neighborhood is not too nice, not bad just run down. We found some stairs outside the door of the second bedroom. When I went to the roof I was amazed to find that we were so close to the Acropolis. The view from there is spectacular. After check in and a little time to get settled, we went out to explore a little bit. We walked to a little concrete park that had some fountains and a pay-per-use toilet, €0.50. Since it was about time to eat (my stomach was yelling at me) we stopped at a little sidewalk restaurant, Stella and I had the same thing, the only thing on the menu, Pork Steaks and French fries with a Greek Peasant Salad; yes you read correctly, Stella ate PORK STEAKS. We went back to the hotel shortly afterwards and passed out on the bed. We were just lying there talking and before we knew it the über long day had taken its toll. We woke up at 0300 on the 22nd; I guess we were not used to the time shift yet. We just got ready and went out. At 0415 we left the hotel and went around the block to a little Kiosk, got some aspirin and some bottled water, I always get a somewhat dehydrated when I fly, and that gives me some pretty bad head aches. Afterwards we came back to the hotel for a little bit; within an hour or so we were off again to see the Parthenon at the Acropolis. Along the way we stopped at a sidewalk café and had some coffee and pastries all in view of the Acropolis. (Very Beautiful) After breakfast we continued down Athinas Street where we soon ran into Hadrian’s Library Archeological /Restoration site. This was to be the first thing I would see that was built so long ago, 132 BC. Still standing was a wall and some columns. There was some restoration activities in progress, for example some of the fluted columns had broken near the top and had new marble carved to match it exactly. It was quite interesting. Next was the Roman Agora Archeological site. This was the public area or square built by the Romans after they took over the country. There was not much in the way of restoration going on there just what was found on the site, no rebuilding. From there we started up the hill to the Acropolis. It was very interesting and awesome. After a 1000M vertical climb we reached the ticket office. We paid €12 a person to get in checked our bags at the cloak room and we were off to climb the steps of the Parthenon. There were just a few main structures on the Acropolis, the Parthenon, the Temple, two theaters and one other building I am not sure what it was for. From the top of this mount where all of these buildings were standing we also had a view of Athenian Zeus’ Temple. All of these were in various stages of restoration, many were obscured by scaffolding. Of all the ancient things that we saw the Acropolis was by far the best. I am in awe of how these things are all still standing more than 2000 years after they were built. Think about it, if you saw a building today that was 200 years old you might be amazed. There just are not many things built that have that kind of longevity except maybe the Great Pyramids of Egypt. We were most hungry after this excursion so half way down the mount we stopped at an outdoor restaurant. If I get nothing else from this trip it will be Great food. I think I was meant to be born in Greece. I love the food. I have always liked the Greek food that I have eaten prior to coming here, but having it for every meal and prepared by Greeks that make and eat it every day is a whole new experience. It is just wonderful. Following our meal we stopped and purchased a few items and decided to take them back to the hotel before more exploring. It was a hot day and we were quite sweaty, a shower was defiantly in order. At some point after I got ready to go back out and before Stella finished fixing her hair I fell asleep, so Stella laid down next to me and we slept for about five hours. When we awoke we thought it might be morning and that we may have missed our bus to Kastoria, but we had not. As it turns out that will be an adventure all its own. But now it is 2200 and we want to eat dinner, so we ventured out into the city again. We had remembered seeing an internet café on the way to the Parthenon earlier so we headed there to check if the advancement results for E-6 had been released yet, but they had not. We left there and got a bite to eat at a corner shop and sat down at a square nearby. I have to say this was the shortest meal we had eaten here, all sort of transient people were staring at our food, and Stella got a little nervous. This area had many people our age there as well, I tried to assure her, but we hurried with our food and returned to the hotel. It was still such a nice night that we pulled some chairs out onto the balcony and that is where I began to write this and Stella started her own account of this trip as well. It was getting pretty late and we knew we had a long day ahead of us so we started picking up the room and repacking our suitcases for the bus trip to Kastoria. Kastoria einai polu wrea! We ended up staying up all night and checking out of the hotel at about 0630 and walking the two blocks to the bus stop. Bus 051 was the one we took to the bus station where we spent €37.40 for each bus ticket. We only had to wait for the bus to leave for about 20 minutes. We sat in seats 7 and 8. This is in the second row so we had a great view out of the gigantic front windshield. You have seen the type of bus we were on it was not a city bus but one of those nice Mercedes Benz Tour Busses. Our tickets read that we were to arrive in Kastoria eight hours after we pulled out of Athens but for some reason I thought it would not take that long, I was very wrong – it took every second of that eight hours to get there. The further we got from Athens the more the country started to remind me of Utah and the other mountainous northwestern states. It was a picturesque ride, there were wild poppies EVERY WHERE. Tall snow capped mountains separated the forests from the sky. The sea was turquoise and deep blue. We stopped twice for about 20 minutes each along the way, Had we not stopped I think I may have cut off my own legs to rid my self of the torture of sitting for so long, I don’t know why but as I get older sitting for long periods of time make me more restless than a five year old child starring at a bowl of candy that they have been forbidden to eat. Finally at 1550 we arrived at a parking lot in down town Kastoria. Standing there was a man that was the spitting image of my mother-in-law, which is not too surprising since this was her brother. Laki greeted us, took our baggage to his van and took us to his home. Waiting for us at the house was Marianthe, Stavros, and Joanna. Everyone was so happy to see us that I forgot to be nervous about not knowing how to speak Greek. We brought our things into the house and we were shown our room. As soon as we had our bags in the room we were invited to sit down for dinner. Pork steak, Greek potatoes, tzatzki, bread, and salad was the meal we were served. It was delicious. Like all of the other Greek mothers I have met so far, one plate of food was not enough for a growing boy like my self. I was offered more food many times, but after declining six or seven times Marianthe finally believed me that I was full. We then were swept to the living room for coffee and conversation. They spoke and I listened. I know very little Greek so I did not have very much to say. I wish I had learned more before we left on this trip. I can get by, I am nervous to speak because I can’t form complete sentences. I know how to call things by name, but can’t say that I did something with it, I can ask simple questions but if the answer is more than just a few words they may as well not answer because I don’t understand. The family is very, very kind. Joanna knows the most English of anyone in the family followed by her father, Laki. Stavro knows a little bit but their mother, Marianthe, knows almost no English at all. Please don’t get me wrong, I do not expect these people to know English, why should they, they live in Greece not America or England. I think it is great that they know any English at all. Just the simple fact that they try talk to me in my native tongue is great. In one day I think I have learned more Greek than I have in the last seven years. Soon after Stella and I started dating she bought me a book called “Greek Made Easy”. This is how I learned my alphabet and numbers 1-10, 20, 30… I started to learn some vocabulary, just a little. A few years later we found a web site that had a class online but it really was not too much help. While we were still living in Hawaii we used to take long walks, during these times Niko would sleep in his stroller and I learned the Greek names of the things we saw along the way. So things like trees, grass, flowers came first, then sky, sun, ocean, water, sailor came next. I look back to these times fondly, but at the time I remember that Stella could get so frustrated with me. It was not her fault; I am just not very quick when it comes to remembering a new language. She had to tell me things many times before I would remember them. Later after we moved to Chicago we found an adult Greek language class. It was great, fast paced, but quite informational. The only problem with the pace was that as fast as I was learning it, I would forget when we moved on to another lesson. With repetition I think I could have become near fluent in the language but I had to stop taking the lessons when my working hours changed on the base. About five months before we were to leave on this trip I bought a computer program produced by “Rosetta Stone” to resume my path to learning Greek. I was using it quite a bit until my laptop stopped working. Then we packed up our household goods to be shipped to Washington as part of soon coming transfer to a new command. I forgot to keep the CD so I could study more. I am getting a little off the subject here. We sat in the living room looking at pictures of the kids and the rest of the family and they told stories form the past eight years. Stella has not been here since right before she joined the Navy back in 1997. They were all concerned for me because I looked bored. I kept telling them that I was fine, I was okay… and I was. I just did not know what was being discussed at the time, but because of that I had a blank look on my face. It is all still pretty exciting for me. Soon Joanna, Stavro, Stella and I went down town by the lake and hung out at a café on the waterfront. This city is so much nicer than Athens. (For those of you that know me, you know that I have taken hundreds of pictures. You may never see them, but I took them. A few might make it to the web site.) The weather here is very mild. It was almost midnight and still it was in the 60’s. Back in Chicago we have only had one or two days that the high for the day was better than this. By the time we got back to the house we were so tired. As soon as my head hit the pillow I was asleep. Right now it is 1106 24 May 2005, I have been awake since 0530, just five hours since I fell asleep. I am a little jealous of the Greek lifestyle; they stay up late but don’t go to work until 0730-0830 and only stay there until 1530-1600. Whereas my regular work routine begins at 0330 so that I can get to work at 0500, I work until 1400 for the navy, than I take a nap until 1630 and go deliver pizza from 1700 to 2200 and start allover again. I know that it would be better if I only worked one job but I was saving for this trip, you see. The weekend is my vacation. You are up to date as of today.

¶ 5/24/2005 11:03:00 AM //