Solution?

So I made it to Cyprus! And I got here with only a few problems. But if this picture is any indication, I have figured things out:

I haven't had Starbucks since before I left in January, and, I must say, for as commercial as it is...it sure is tasty. (And considering an hour's worth of internet alone costs 3 euro here, I figured I might as well get a coffee and free wifi for a euro more.) The coffee combined with a sea view, wifi and a fantastic oldies playlist coming through the speakers makes for a pretty good morning.

Other solutions?

The first problem was that the security at Athen's airport is ridiculous. They have the airport sectioned off so that there are separate security lines for every couple of gates. That means no lines...but also that the security officers have a lot more time on their hands. Long story short, they took my contact solution. Never mind that I checked with the TSA before I left (even being assured by the agent at DFW that it was ok), my pleas that I needed that specific brand (I could be allergic to another one!), or the fact that it was a nearly full bottle (so expensive!), away into the trash it went. The unfortunate thing is that I nonchalontly pulled the bottle out and gave it to them, because I was so sure it was ok. I know that contact solution is difficult to spot in bags (or so I have read), so chances are if I hadn't pulled it out I would have gotten it through. Oh well, I'll just buy more. Cest la vie.

My other problem was that, well I had no plans whatsoever for my time in Cyprus. I had a hotel booked for my first 3 nights in the city I flew into, but how to get to town from the airport, what to do after that, etc. was all up in the air. I figured I would figure it out when I got here. And what do you know, I did. (Love it when things work out like that!) There was a TI booth in the airport and I found hands down the most helpful tourist information guy I've ever met. Transportation to town? He gave me three options. Map of Larnaka? Check. Other cities in Cyprus? He gave me a detailed map for every single one. He even gave me a history/guide book for Cyprus that is more helpful than my Lonelyplanet guidebook (Rick Steves where are you when I need you!?). He welcomed me to the country and told me not to worry--to use my 3 days in Larnaca to read everything and plan the rest of my trip. That was my idea exactly!

So yeah, it's nice when things actually work out well. I made it to the city center from the airport (for only 1 euro!), found my way to my hotel without getting lost, and the friendly receptionist even gave me a room with a great view. The room was a great deal for this beachside town, but I won't lie...it's kind of like sleeping in an easyJet plane. That's probably because, well, the hotel is owned by the same company. Anyway, my easyHotel room is full of that familiar orange and has a plane sized bathroom, but is clean and has a balcony--perfect for my plan of reading away my time here.

Oh, and I solved one other problem--my realization that it had been over 2 months since I had a hamburger. So what did I do? I became one of those tourists and treated myself to a nice McDonalds meal last night. Feel free to judge me, but I won't care--it hit the spot!

Pictures below:

Larnaka

New boats in the marina

 

Old boats in the marina

My easyJet/easyHotel room

 

My teensy airplane bathroom

The view from my balcony!

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.  

Pueblos Blancos--Nica Style

It's the first of the belated Nicaragua posts! I really loved Nicaragua, so even though I am already living it up in Greece, I had to show it a little blog love (if for no reason other than so that everybody can see there is more to it than the civil war that ended two decades ago!). So here we go: 

One of my first afternoons in Nicaragua we took a little afternoon trip to the Pueblos Blancos (The White Towns) in southern Nicaragua. It struck me as strange that in southern Spain around the city of Granada there are clusters of white villages known as the Pueblos Blancos, and then here in Nicaragua, around their city of Granada, there were the same type of towns. Who knew?

After an helado (ice cream) we stopped in the white church in San Marcos. Our fearless leader Bergman leads the way!

The church holds one of only two "black Jesuses" in Nicaragua

Bell tower: we were all very tempted to pull that string...

Roof view

Street view of San Marcos with volcanoes in the distance

Another shot of the church

We visited a little farm that had every kind of medicinal plant you could think of. They also had all kinds of regular things growing--but things that most of us only knew in their processed state. For example, here Bergman is taking a machete to a cacao plant!

There are the beans--the cacao is inside them. You can suck on them, and they are sweet, but if you bite in, it's bitter. Very interesting. 

We also stopped in Masatepe, Nicaragua's furniture making capital, to watch them weave banana leaves into furniture

We then passed through Niquinohomo which is the birthplace of Augusto Sandino

Ah, and finally we stopped in Catarina to take in the view at the Mirador. The view was so beautiful that it was jarring (unfortunately my pictures can't do it justice!). From there you could see Laguno de Apoyo (a crater lake), Granada in the distance, Lake Nicaragua and the slopes of the volcano Mombacho (see next picture). 

The view was fantastic, the musicians were good, the company was lively and the drinks were cold. An all around good afternoon and beautiful part of the country. 

{...I'm not going to lie...I kind of miss Nicaragua}

Week In Review Sabbatical Style: Week...?

OK, so it has been forever (or at least since Panama) that I did a proper week in review, so here's a go at the old standby:

• Yesterday I bought my tickets out of Santiago in Spain to Croatia. I bought a ticket with Ryanair from Santiago to Barcelona (From the far west to the far east of Spain) for 6 euros including all taxes! Of course then I went to pay and remembered that they charge you 7 euros just to pay with a credit card. Oh well, I won't complain about my 18 dollar flight!
• When I got to Greece it was cold. It was the coldest place I had been in 2011. Colder than London. Colder than Denver. Have I mentioned that there was snow on the ground? Thankfully things are warming up. It's been in the 60s-low 80s during the days!
• Greek food is delicious. 
• I ate Moussaka yesterday, which, while nothing like this one I made, was very, very good. 
• We went to church yesterday at the 2nd Greek Evangelical Church, and as I followed along in Greek as we sang it reminded me of the time I decided I would follow along with the Arabic when I was living in Brussels. I figured one day it might all make sense to me...until I realized that I was following along with the Arabic from left to right instead of the other way around. Oops. 
• I was a bit worried that traveling with the group was going to be stressful. I was wrong. I took a 3 hour nap today.  
• This is my third time to Athens, but the sights are still impressive!
• My usual trick of learning a few words in a language and then using them liberally is still working beautifully. Kalimera, kalispera, efxaristo and yasas (good day, good evening, thanks and hello/goodbye) seem to bring out a smile. I think its just good manners to learn at least a word or two of a language, but it doesn't hurt that it usually brings other benefits... like occasionally a larger scoop of gelato (just sayin!). 
• Today we helped cook and pass out food for hungry people in the neighborhood with the church. One guy came through and only spoke French and Albanian, so I tried really hard to dig back up that tiny bit of that French I learned in Brussels. Let me tell you, it was rough. 
• I'm still catching up on Central America blogs--next up is Nicaragua. Maybe I'll get around to it some time this week. 
• I keep forgetting to take pictures. I'm kind of feeling relaxed about it because I took so many pictures the last time that I was here with bright sun and clear skies that taking more now seems like overkill. I'll have some more pretty Greece pictures up soon though. 

OK, so that is the week in review. I'm a bit out of the habit--I'll be more interesting next week, I promise!

Coffee Tour: Finca La Milagrosa in Boquete, Panama

{Another catch up/Panama blog!}

It was a cold rainy morning in Boquete, but I wasn't going to leave town without a coffee tour. So up we went (myself and my friend Laura) to Senor Tito's Finca La Milagrosa. I got soaked, but then dried out, and then got really hyper sucking on raw coffee beans, chomping down on toasted ones, and drinking cups of coffee made by the owner himself. It was tons of fun and everyone there was so happy and young looking that it also definitely affirmed the benefits of coffee. 

Senor Tito made everything himself! Our guide was quick to point out every two minutes or so, that Senor Tito is sooo smart!

Ready to be go from: 

this

to: 

this. 

There were lots of different things involved in the drying process

Senor Tito roasting us a sample

Coffee beans starting to get toasty in there

taking a look (Senor Tito made that spoon--look closely and you see that its a spoon welded to a screw driver so it's long enough to reach inside the roaster)

light, medium and dark roast (or American, French and Italian)

The grinder (made from an old hand cranked corn grinder)

and our lazy friend.