Week In Review Sabbatical Style: T-10 days!

10 days left! Can you believe it? I'm starting to get my head around it as I make my last stop in the Balkans--Thessaloniki, Greece. From here I basically start the long stretch of flights home (and by long I mean 7 legs of flights long). Thankfully I'll stop to see some friends along the way in Milan and in Sevilla. I had some things set aside for the week in review last week but then didn't have wifi for a long stretch. As I'm getting towards the ends of things I thought I would see I would try to give a little overview.

So, here you go! It's the week(s?) in review:

• I decided to pop over to Corfu for a few days when I was in Saranda, Albania. It's just a short ferry ride away and was absolutely beautiful. The number of tourists walking around was a bit shocking after spending a couple of weeks in Albania. 
• The "easy" bus connection I needed from the port to the otherside of the island turned out to be a little less easy than I was told. I got a little lost finding the bus stop and arrived just as the buses were leaving. No problem. I was told they were really frequent. Except, when I asked (at 1:30) I was told the next one wasn't until 4. Boo. So I walked around in the heat, with my bag and killed the time. 
• 2.5 hours later I showed up to confirm where the bus would stop at 4:00. The guy told me, no--the next bus is at 6. It's already 5 o'clock. Yep. I forgot about the 1 hour time change. Time to wait...again
• Part of the way I ended up killing the time was sitting around with 5 crazy, old Greek taxi drivers. I shared my cookies with them and they tipped me off about the new road to Thessaloniki. They said it was ridiculous to go back to Albania to make my way to Thessaloniki (which would take a whopping 16 hours), that I could take a direct bus from Corfu to Thessaloniki in about 5 hours.  
• I chose that one. Sorry, Gjirokaster and Korca--maybe next time. The Greek bus was only half full, had AC and passed through lots of lovely countryside (and on new roads to boot!). 
• Only downfall? On the only half full bus, the super curious toddler ended up sitting right behind me. Along with almost constant screeching, every once in a while I would feel little fingers squeezing my arms from behind or poking my freckles. Telling myself there was something wrong with him made me more patient. 
• Throwing out my 5 phrases in Albanian got one of two reactions consistently: proud amazement OR deep belly laugh. Every time I said good evening to my hotel owner in Himare he laughed in a way that I am sure if he had any liquid in his mouth he would have spit it all over the place. 
• In Corfu I decided to do a little sea cave exploration. I'm not a very good swimmer (I realized that, along with riding a bike, I have basically forgotten how to swim), but I didn't let that hold me back. In the end I explored some of the caves not by boat or by canoe, but by tiny inflatable square. 
• The owner of my hotel in Paleo, Corfu gave me a list of native dishes to try while I was on the island. The sofrito was especially delicious!
• I finally fulfilled an item on my Albanian to-do list: swimming on a beach with bunkers. (The former ultra-communist leader had them built all over the country after he effectively isolated the country from absolutely everyone.) 
• I sat in the shade near the Roman agora here in Thessaloniki and had a read through the latter part of Acts and Paul's two letters to the Thessalonians. Seems there is a legacy of friendliness/loveliness in the people here. 
• Because I didn't go back to Albania as planned I have one major problem. I have $200 worth of Albanian currency on my hands. And NO ONE wants to exchange it. I checked into it before buying my bus ticket, but the bank teller incorrectly told me I would have no problem exchanging it at the main bank in town. I went to five banks, seven travel agencies, stopped 2 groups of people on the street and asked one security guide. No luck. (If you have ideas, send them my way!)
• In Corfu town I went into the church there and got to see the mummified town saint (...kinda creepy) but then was introduced to a super friendly priest (monk?) who had spent time in Canada. Along the same lines, I have noticed a lot of really young priests/monks both in Corfu and here in Thessaloniki, which surprised me. 
• And finally, the story of walking home so full of free-ness yesterday (see last post): I walked past the bus station and saw a guy who suddenly and visibly had something dawn on him. He threw his hands up in the air and started mumbling to himself frustratedly. He asked me something in Greek, and when I said I didn't speak Greek he told me in English that he got nervous about a situation with his girlfriend here in town and came to see her (he lived in a village outside of town). He came to try to change her mind, but she broke up with him anyway. Now, he told me, he didn't even have money for the bus ride home, was hungry and, was sad. "You know how is love." Poor guy. 
• He asked if I might have 2 euros to get him home on the bus. The smallest bill I had was a 5, but I just gave it to him, told him to get something to eat with the change and asked if he needed a hug. I gave the guy a hug, told him everything would be ok and was on my way. 
• Today I went to see the town's white tower. And who did I see walking around? The sad guy! Long story short, he is a heroin addict. 
• Poor guy.
• (I didn't really care about the 5 euros--I mostly just felt stupid for giving the guy a hug!) 

The end! A few pictures below. See you soon!

What's a few months? Right?

Beach bunkers near Ksamil

Beautiful west coast of Corfu 

The "Blue Eye" cave (the water was so blue that it almost seemed ridiculous)

My mighty, cave exploring, inflatable square!

Corfu Town, Corfu

The Rotunda (former Roman mausoleum turned church--really striking)

Roman Agora

Enjoying the sunset on the Thessaloniki port

Go Ahead, Make My Day

My dad always went around telling me, Nothing in life is free. Which, ok, I kind of get. There's often a catch in those sounds-too-good-to-be-true offers. The thing is though, sometimes, you do get things for free.

And I love to get things for free.

It's not even the money I save when I get things for free (although that's nice). I just get some kind of thrill out of it. The system glitches, you find a loop hole, or most often, someone is generous--it feels like such a win.

And yesterday was a big win as far as scoring free things goes. I got to go into a ton of beautiful archeological sites and churches for free. It was already something like 95 degrees before the morning got started so I stopped at a fruit stand to buy an orange. I chose carefully and brought the orange to the guy in charge. He then told me, you picked a bad one! (Which I'm sure was true--I am, for the most part, horrible at picking fruit.) He went and picked me out the best one, gave me a bit of a sad face and then told me that these oranges were for juice not for eating.

Oh. (Again, I'm pretty useless with knowing these things.)

I thought maybe I should get a different fruit, but he told me don't worry, it will be ok, just take it. That's right, just take it--he wouldn't let me pay.


I walked along the streets tossing it into the air feeling oh-so-proud of my free orange.

And, the orange turned out to be delicious.

Next stop: Lunch

I had a really late lunch and by the time I found a nice little restaurant I was starving. The waitstaff sent over an older Greek waiter who turned out to be their go-to English speaker. He was super friendly and chatty and I had a nice meal all around. I'm horrible at getting waiters' attention to ask for the bill and so sat eating bread and tzatziki until I could catch him.

And for some reason, somewhere between me asking for the bill and it actually coming the owner-lady came out and brought me a giant beer. I tried telling her I didn't order one, that I was actually just waiting on my bill, until she had my waiter come over and he explained that it was for me, on the house.

Um...thank you?

I don't even like beer and here was this giant one. But hey, it was free!

Then came free watermelon! Ripe, heart of the melon, served with ice watermelon. Oh man. Some of the best watermelon ever.

And then when I ate everything (again) and asked for my check (again) the waiter looked a bit sad and asked if I would like a coffee--on the house. You know if I had the time. And if I didn't want to walk around in the heat. (Which I did, and didn't.)

All right, bring on the free coffee! He got excited and then asked how I wanted it.

Finally I pulled myself out of there, so full that I could barely walk back to the hostel, but smiling the whole way back.

Nice people are so lovely.

(Also, all these free things put me in an even more than usually generous mood, which led to a quite interesting story. But more on that later!)

Sounio, Corinth and Other Greek Leftovers

A catch up blog! These are from Greece a couple of weeks ago:

We took the opportunity to get out of the city a couple of times during our stay in Athens. The city is huge, and even in the off season there are lots of people packed into a small space. We took day trips out to Sounio on the public buses and then hired a guide and driver to go out to Corinth. Pictures and stories below:

Temple to Poseidon (built around 440 BC)

Lord Byron visited Sounio (even scratching his name into one of the columns) and wrote this of it: 

Place me on Sunium's marbled steep, 

Where nothing, save the waves and I, 

May hear our mutual murmurs sweep

The view!

I took a picnic lunch, dangled my feet off the edge and stared into the sea. (It was all fun and games until I saw a snake a little while later!)

These huge wildflowers were all over the area and are here in Cyprus too. 

A shot at the temple of Zeus back in Athens. It's soooo big.  

The Corinthian Canal (It's no Panama Canal...but it will do!)

Part of the old Corinthian road! They used to drag ships over the isthmus along this road. If you have ever read background material on 1st or 2nd Corinthians--you have probably read about this!

Inscription found at ancient Corinth which says that Erastus, a city officer, payed for this pavement. Likely this is the Erastus mentioned in the New Testament.

Lots of headless statues--to save time statue makers would have a bunch of statue bodies ready made. They would then carve up a head that looked like you and stick it down into the neck socket. 

Some mosaics

The Bema/judgement seat--or the place where they would hear cases/trials. It's one of the few places they know for sure that Paul was in.

Ancient starting blocks (you know you want to do it too!)

Roman toilets...or as I like to call them: Paul's Potties! (Because he probably would have used them while he was here.)

We drove and then hiked all the way up to Acrocorinth (the high old-old part of the city where the temple once stood). 

It was breathtaking (both the view and the climb!)

A look back over the plains 

It was very much what I think of when I think "castle." 

Finally we stopped at Cenchreae on the coast. This is the ancient port city from which Paul would have sailed east from. (Also this is where, according to Acts 18:18, he shaved his head!). Phoebe was mentioned to be from here as well. The old port and church are all under water now, but you can climb out on it and have a look at it through the clear water. 

Some of the group hopped across some rocks that were sticking out of the water to have a look at the ruins. Some of the rest of us talked Bobby into moving those rocks. I thought it was hilarious. 

The end! Next up a couple more Cyprus blogs, and maybe even some more Nicaragua...We will see!

Week in Review Sabbatical Style: Week 9!

It's the end of another week. Last week I realized that I had lost count of how many weeks I have been on my "sabbatical journey" so I just counted it up--9 weeks! That's crazy! Some other tidbits from the week:

• That dinner I was telling you about yesterday? The one under the Acropolis? It was the best meal I've had in a long time. (And no doubt probably the best I will have for a long time to come!) I had a pork fillet stuffed with sundried tomatoes, peppers and gruyere cheese. De-licious. The meal was also started off with a round of the Greek version of homemade Raki (which increased the general splendor of the evening even more!). 
• Greeks win on yogurt making. 
• I love my new replacement computer. My one complaint is that they changed some of the buttons around. For 5 years I hit F12 for the dashboard, but now this is the volume key. I was working out the conversions on my budget and kept going back and forth between the dashboard and EVERY time would hit the wrong button. 
• Speaking of conversions...the Euro is brutal! 
• After 11 days in Greece I am headed off to Cyprus tomorrow. I don't really have many expectations (or plans!) but the general idea is to relax for a bit before heading off to walk the Camino. I have been excited to hear that the wildflowers in Cyprus at this time are said to be extraordinarily beautiful right about now. 
• I'm getting really excited (and...a bit apprehensive) about walking all 800 kilometers of the Camino De Santiago. I still haven't decided if I am going to start the walk in St Jean Pied de Port, France (the place generally viewed as the starting point) or in the much easier to get to (and leave my bag in) Pamplona, Spain. I have the time to start in France, but Pamplona would be so much more hassle-free (ok...and save me the trial-by-fire first few days trekking through the Pyrenees). Pamplona is also a common starting place, but I don't want to get to the end and feel like I cheated. (But seriously, after almost 800 km, will I care?) Thoughts? 
• I got to help out in English classes for Albanian immigrants 3 nights this week. I almost forgot how much I love working with English students. These students were especially awesome--one group took us out for gyros after class and another night a class brought some Albanian goodies for us to munch on during class.  
• After teaching me a few words in Albanian (po, po!) the students also gave me a few tips on places to visit in Albania (which I will be doing in June or so). 
• Nonprofit spotlight: This week we also had a chance to work with Nea Zoi (Greek for "new life") which works to counter human trafficking here in Athens. They operate out of a hospitality model which, to me, is fascinating (while they provide services such as alternate job searching assistance, help with medical and legal matters, etc. they also make weekly trips into the brothels or streets and offer tea and conversation to the girls). Check them out here. 
• I listened to a lot of Bon Iver this week. (Thanks again to my brother Casey!)
• Schedule for tonight: Pack (!) and then meet up with an Albanian student group who is teaching Albanian folk/wedding dances tonight (!!). 
• Advanced warning: The hotel I have booked for the first 3 nights in Cyprus does not have wifi. So, (parents) don't freak out if you don't hear from me. 

Alright, mirupafshim! And a random smattering of photos below: 

Hadrian's bust in the Agora

Ancient temple in the Agora

Springtime in Athens

There are SO many stray animals, but they all get fed! We saw a lady going around feeding them in this neighborhood. 

A shot of the sea out at Sounio

One of our students made the mistake of ordering "small fried fish" expecting to find a fillet of Long John Silver's-esque fish. Instead he found a fish grave yard. We all got a kick out of it...but he was not amused. 

A blurry shot of some of my new Albanian friends/English students

More Albanian friends

We stopped in Syntagma Square to watch the changing of the guard. We passed group after group of police in riot gear. As we waited they all started to line up behind us. After waiting a bit I went to ask one of the guards on patrol if we should leave. His answer? Yes. Moving on!

My amazing dinner 

The amazing view

Athenian Saturday

It's Saturday in Athens. The group went off to explore the Archeological Museum and I took the opportunity to wander around a bit, hit up some markets, listen to some street music and read in the sunshine. After a hectic last couple of days (with day trips to Sounio and Corinth and evenings spent teaching English and working with an anti-trafficking organization) it was nice to relax a bit, take care of some errands and to soak up some more Greek flavor before I head off again early on Monday. 

To end the day, and the week, we are getting all cleaned up to have dinner on the roof of a nice restaurant under the Acropolis. No complaints for today!

Flee markets 

Monastiraki with the Acropolis in the background 

The central meat and fish market. I got through about two halls of the meat section before I had to start pushing people out of the way so I could get out of there before vomiting. You just hear, whack, whack, whack as they slice up the meat. 

Squid 

Other fun bits and pieces 

The much more pleasant olive section 

Eggs 

This guy's one-man-band (notice the tambourines attached to his feet) was surprisingly impressive. I sat and read for a while listening to him.