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

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