Barcelona

February 18, 2011

Journey

(January 14-17)

It has taken a long time to write this blog. Getting really sick for a couple of weeks along with planning trips has put this one on hold once again. But, here goes.

On Friday January 14 we rose at 3:30 am grabbed our bags and made it to the bus stop at 5 minutes to 4 am. An angel that smoked a large cigar was there to tell us that our bus wasn’t coming for another 45 minutes, the one we were supposed to make must have come early. Ugh. We knew we couldn’t wait that long, so we got a taxi to the next bus stop on our route. We caught the night express to the airport just as it was leaving. We were frantically trying to decide which terminal our flight was out of. It was really confusing because there is a stop for terminals 1, 2, and 3, then another for terminal 4. When we arrived at the first stop most people got off and there was a big sign for departures, and one that said arrivals on terminal 4. We took this as the place to get off. We were wrong. And, our bus had already left. The only lady it seemed to be in the airport at 5 am told us there is a free bus outside that will take up to the next terminal. We went out… and it was not coming for 50 minutes. We needed to be boarded by then. So we asked a taxi driver. There was a line of them waiting to pick up fools like us all charging 16 euro just to take us to the next terminal! We didn’t have that much money to spend on a taxi. We stood there, decided to just wait for the bus, when suddenly another express bus like the one we came on rolled up. We showed the driver our ticket from the last bus and he let us come on his bus to take us to the next terminal 8 kilometers away. Have we mentioned that things like this happen to us every single day. Like someone is just testing us all the time. Maybe it happens to everyone, but things would just be nice if they went the way they are supposed to.

Anyway, we got to the correct terminal number 4 and went to the Vueling counter. There was no one else in the airport yet. We didn’t check any bags, so it was a quick and easy 2 minutes with the attendant. We then went to the only place open in the airport; McDonalds. We got a Sausage Egg McMuffin. It was pure bliss, those things I am convinced have addictiveness poured into them and absolutely cannot be reproduced outside of the restaurant. After we ate them however I felt sick. The same way I always feel when I don’t get my sleep. Parts of my body just don’t work that early, I literally turn into a zombie, and probably sound like one too.

We got on the plane, and less than an hour later we landed in Barcelona. It was about 8:30am. By the time we found our way out of the airport, it was 9:30. Then, we found our bus with ease and on the metro with no problem. We had to go 17 stops on our line to the area where Blake’s aunt and uncle Mark and Penny were residing, waiting for us. We took a wrong turn out of the metro station but where we ended up was so unbelievable beautiful, we could not believe we were still in the same country. It’s funny though because Barcelona is in Cataluña, and this area thinks it is its very own country anyway, with its own language and all. It’s similar to the Castellan Spanish that we know however with French and Basque influence, so we had no problems communicating. While we were lost we ran into an info. center. We got a map and figured out where to go. We weren’t far. On our way to the apartment we were looking for, we saw this amazing rock store, it had all kinds of stone beads; we knew we had to come back but we wanted to see Mark and Penny. Right when we found our street, low and behold, there was Mark! We ran right into him. He wasn’t too surprised, he kind of expected to find us wandering around. It was great. He lead us back to the apartment him and Penny had rented for their week in Barcelona. We went up a LOT of stairs to get to their place. I was not in shape to deal with these stair all weekend, and I must say that I was very sore the entire next week from them. Anyway, I finally was properly introduced to Blake’s uncle Mark, and his wife Penny. They turned out to be some of the most wonderful people I had ever met. And, I immediately realized that Mark resembled Blake in so many ways, but even stranger I found so many similarities in myself with Penny. We got along really well.

Meeting Barҫa

Our bodies were telling us to rest, but we were so excited to get out and dig the big beautiful town. We first went up on the roof to check out the view from there. I regret not ever have taken my camera up there. It was really cool. We could see the Segrada Famila, we were RIGHT next door to a cathedral which had bells that rang on the hour all day and all night. We could see all above the city. We then went back down all those stairs to explore. We first went to pick up our tickets to an FC Barcelona game that Mark and Penny treated us to. We knew this was going to be the best weekend we had so far on this trip to Spain. We walked by the ports with hundreds of sailboat, and yachts, and cruise ships. We came upon the huge statue of Christopher Columbus also known as “Colon” in Spanish. Mark and I tried to snap pictures of flying seagulls while we walked on a bridge over the water. We had a lovely time. Blake and I were trying to figure out a way we could quit our jobs in Madrid to move to this magical place. We had found a really great fresh food market too where we bought some salmon and asparagus, and potatoes. We made it all that night; it was delicious of course. We then played a dice game until we all had little slits for eye openings. We didn’t last too long before we were all pretty tired. We decided to make plans for the next day, and hit the hay.

I slept like a rock that night. I didn’t move once, it was the first time in my life I think I woke up in exactly the same position I fell asleep in. This also could have been because we had about 20 pounds of covers on us since we couldn’t figure out the heating that night. It was also a very inefficient very OLD place. But, it was fabulous. I should say a bit about the place we stayed. Mark and Penny found this place on a great website called www.airbnb.com. People can post their homes, apartments, or rooms on this website like bed and breakfasts and anyone can pay to come stay. It’s exactly what my mom does except it’s contracted online. We stayed in a couple’s apartment, where they themselves also lived and had extra rooms. Everything was shared. The living room, bathrooms, kitchen… we could just stay there and treat it like we all lived together. To our advantage however, for the weekend, the couple was gone and we had the entire place to ourselves. Blake and I were a little disappointed to not meet them, they must have been really cool people judging by the way their place was so incredibly decorated. We only knew that one of them was Australian and the other was German. Mark and Penny met the man that lived there later and said they were wonderful, and he was the guy that owned the yellow mini-cars that you can take tours of the city in!

Sagrada Familia

Well I should get on with the day. We decided to first go to Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia. Gaudi, if you are not familiar is the best architect that ever lived according to many people, and would have to agree. His work isn’t like anything else in the entire world, if you know his style, you can pick it out anywhere. The Sagrada Famila is something everyone that has a chance should see. It is a Catholic church that commenced construction in 1882. It stands now about half way complete but is still being built. It is so huge and so complicated that after Gaudi’s death in 1926, architects and builders have progressed slowly deciding how every square inch would have been designed by Gaudi. There is speculation that it may be complete in 2026, but I highly doubt it with the financial situation of Spain. This is a place at least worth reading about if one never gets the chance to visit.

When you come to this place and see it up close, you really begin to start thinking about how in the world something like it could have ever come to be. There are no corners, no straight lines, and every single inch has intricate, organic detail. We were blown away. We saw people getting in what we thought was the right line. There seemed to be lines all over, and they went around the entire block. We chose the right line, but I think we really budged unintentionally. We passed thousands of people that we should have been behind. Well, we got in, no problem. It was also completely free; I couldn’t believe that. When we stepped inside we all couldn’t say anything for about 10 minutes. It was like we went through the doors to heaven. I think that is what Gaudi wanted it to feel like. The light that shown in through the incredibly huge stained glass windows shot beams of bright light everywhere like God was inside. There were reflections of color all over the floor and people too. The pillars must have reached 250 feet from floor to ceiling. The spires which all had spiral staircases were over 500 feet tall! When the church is complete, there will be 18 spires! 12 for the apostles, 4 evangelists, the Virgin Mary, and the tallest of all, Jesus Christ. 8 spires stand now, and I can’t fathom in my mind what it will be like if it is ever really finished.

Casa Batllo

When we left the Segrada Famila feeling like we reached God somehow though Gaudi, we wanted more. We went straight to Casa Batllo afterwards, another one of Gaudi’s most famous works. Casa Batllo was the house owned by the Batllo family in the 1800’s until this day. The Batllo’s commissioned Gaudi to remodel the house in the heart of Barcelona and the transformation was magical. The family decided that the world must see the work of Gaudi, so they let the public come through with all the proceeds from the entrance fee going straight back into the house for upkeep and restoration through the years. The house was clearly inspired by ocean life; there is a sensation of being under the sea when you are inside. There were beautifully curved banisters leading you up the stairs that you just had the urge to feel. And they really did feel amazing, as the wood had been so smoothed over the years from so many people doing the same thing. They winded up and at the top they resembled the spine of a mysterious sea dragon. There were curves everywhere, beveled colored glass that looked like water, spiral ceilings, and blues that started very light at the bottom and grew darker each level you went up in the middle if the house so that the light from the sun would filter through perfectly.

Paella Scavenger Hunt

After the couple hour house tour, we were famished. We went to a typical Spanish bar/café that served tapas, and had a late lunch. We took a detour on the way back to the apartment to check out the beach as the sun was setting and when we made it back we all were exhausted once again from a long day of fun. We went back to that fresh food market with a list of ingredients for a paella recipe Penny found in a cookbook at the flat. We had so much fun rushing around like we were on a scavenger hunt trying to find everything. One of the ingredients, sherry, we had no idea how to find. I think in total, between all of us, we went to 7 stores trying to find it. It helped when we looked online for the Spanish translation “Jerez.” In that research we also discovered that sherry wine actually comes from Spain! And, people in Andalucía love to drink it. We found that it was way too strong to drink, and I am not even sure what it does to the food other than cook off. Anyway, it was a mad search. We went back home put the findings away (for the next night), had a light dinner, and went to bed.

Playa and Picasso

Blake and had planned on waking up a 5:30 am to go back to the beach the next day to see the sunrise. Well, we didn’t wake up until 8, but we still went. When we got there, there was a huge wall cloud across the entire span of the water as far as we could see. We both had never seen anything like it. We later would learn that it is a common thing in the morning on the water. It was really cool. And, the sun was still behind it, just peaking over as we were walking on the sand. So, we got to see the sunrise after all. We collected rocks that were perfectly rounded by the sea for about an hour then headed back so we could make breakfast for Mark and Penny. After we ate, we went to the Picasso museum that was close to the flat. It was a very large collection of his work that went back all the way to when he was a very young child, about 10, when he became interested in art. By the time he was 15, he was doing remarkable professional work. He did not ever stop painting and sketching until the day he died! He did tens of thousands of works during his long life. Penny and I made our may through in no time, but Mark and Blake decided to stop and read every single panel by ever single work, so they dragged a ways behind.

Parque Guell

We then headed off to yet another Gaudi site, Park Guell. When we arrived I heard the call of the green parrots I’d been seeing all over in the previous two weeks. I looked up in the trees and there they were, sticking branches in their tails to build nests in the palm trees. The park is so big, and colorful. There are giant spiral columns the angle inward holding up a large terrace around one path that leads you to the patio with the famous mosaic benches. This place is a photographer’s paradise. There were wedding couples, models, and kids all getting their photos taken with the awesome backdrops in every corner. When we had taken in as much of the park as we could, we went back to the flat to start the paella, so we could eat before we went to the game that night.

Paella

Blake played sweet melodies on Marks guitar while the paella aroma filled the air. Since the guitar bug got back in Blake’s system, he had really been wanting to find a guitar to have all the time, but I’ll let him tell you about the search for one later. The chicken paella with artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, red pepper, and leftover asparagus turned out to be the most scrumptious of all paella I have ever had. It wasn’t a typical Spanish recipie… that’s probably why it was so good- I think it may have been a Moorish dish. Whatever it was, we ate the entire pan, every last grain of rice. We were feeling really good by the time we had to leave for Camp Nou, the football (or maybe I should say soccer to not confuse you) stadium. As I seem to be on a long roll right now, I am going to let Blake but in to tell about the game.

Caitlin

Football game

Barca! Barca! Barca! What an experience this game was (at least for me!). We had the privilege to watch Lionel Messi, coming off a recent hat trick and being named “Best Player in the World” in 2010 and the majority of Spanish national team (World Champions) put on a display of why they really are the best players in the world. I was absolutely in awe of the ease and precise control of their touches as well as the movement of the team. I could continue talking about the quality of play for some time but being that this is already a lengthy blog, I will let you ask me personally if you’d like to know more. Needless to say, the level of play was incredible. FC Barcelona plays in the league called La Liga (The League) which is the main league in Spain.

So to pick up where Caitlin left off with the fantastic paella, we headed out to catch the metro and joined an increasing mass of red and blue clad fans heading to the stadium. We got off the metro and followed the masses towards the stadium passing vendors and pubs along the way. As we made our way into the stadium I became anxious with anticipation to see game ahead. All of my teachers at school (even though they are Real Madrid fans, huge rivals!) said that being inside the stadium was an unbelievable feeling. We came into the stadium and it was wonderful. I was giddy with excitement. The pitch had a slight fog over it giving the players the appearance that they were something out of this world. We found our seats, which were unfortunately separated in pairs across the aisle. We spent some time snapping photos of us in front of the field and then of each other of across the aisle. As the game became closer to start we noticed that the seats by Mark and Penny were still unoccupied so we decided to sit there until the owners of them showed up. They never did show up so we were able to enjoy the game sitting next to our enthused entourage. As the game commenced Mark and I were blown away and kept chattering back and forth about observations we had. We enjoyed every minute of the game and I think even captured Barca’s 4 goals on the camera (nice work, Mark!). FC Barcelona came out victorious over Malaga 4-1. It was an incredible experience. Thank you Mark and Penny for letting us share that with you!

-Blake

Adios Barcelona

The next morning we had a nice breakfast and one last chat about life with Mark and Penny. We then made a quick trip to that stone and bead store and stocked up on some cool beads and rocks. I discovered a new blue rock with hints of turquoise and swirls of metallic called Crisocola (I can’t find the English translation). We got some beads made from coral, wood, jade, mica, amber, and pearls with plans to start making cool jewelry. We spent more time there than we planned so we had to run back to the place to get our bags say a quick goodbye and head back out to catch our flight back to Madrid. On our way back out Blake was yearning to get an FC Barcelona inauguration ball, so we flew in and out of a store to get one on our way. We made it in plenty of time, the way home was much easier than the way there.

Back in Madrid we had a typical week and school then Mark and Penny made their way by high speed train to the not as wonderful city.

Caitlin

In Madrid

For Mark and Penny’s last leg of the trip they came to the city where we have been living for the last few months, Madrid. We had an incredible time in Barcelona and absolutely loved the city, a much different feel than what we have in Madrid. We were curious to see if Mark and Penny held the same beliefs once they explored Madrid a bit.

We were to meet up with them Thursday after we finished with our classes and explore a little bit during the evening. It has been some time since all of these events took place but I believe this was the night when we had an apartment malfunction. As we were preparing to leave to go exploring, Penny stopped in the bathroom quickly before we left. As Mark and I chatted Caitlin noticed that it sounded like Penny was having trouble with the door. It wouldn’t open. We tried from the outside and still had no luck. For some reason, the lock on the inside had gone bad and was not allowing the latch to release. Oh boy. We grabbed what tools we had and got to work. We spent the next hour or so working the door to free Penny from her captivity. It was a ridiculous ordeal. We did free Penny with minimal damage to the door but the latch was done for. No more shutting the bathroom door! We still headed out for a little bit and we walked around Sol and the Gran Via area and showed them the cool areas we had found, which seemed unimpressive compared to the great sights we found in Barcelona.

The next day we received some bad news that our Aunt Charlotte had passed away and it took us all by surprise. I took off work that day because I knew that Mark and Penny would not have gotten the message since they had no internet. So I went to their place in the morning bearing the bad news and bringing my laptop for them to communicate with the family back home. This was a hard part of the visit.

Later that day Caitlin and I stopped back to go find tapas with them but Penny had come down with a bad migraine and wasn’t feeling up for going out. We left Penny to rest and took Mark out to find the perfect tapas restaurant around Plaza Mayor. We didn’t find them. We walked around in the cold with no luck finding the perfect place until we were cold enough to get pulled in to a restaurant by a guy promoting it on the street. It was a good deal and a variety of tapas but the tapas were mediocre and not what we had hoped for. We still had nice conversation and I was a pleased to get to spend time with Mark and Caitlin. After the tapas, we took Mark to our favorite little cinema where they were showing Vicky Cristina Barcelona. It was the best part of the evening and a fitting movie for our recent visit to Barcelona.

The following day we met up again for a day in Retiro Park followed by a dinner at our apartment. I met up Mark and Penny first while Caitlin prepped some food at the apartment for the dinner later on. It was a cold, sunny day but we enjoyed seeing people out and strolled around for a few hours. Caitlin also met up with us at the Park after a while. We departed and met up again a couple hours later for dinner at our place. We made a salad with a homemade vinigarette by Caitlin, apples, pears, walnuts, raisins, cranberries, blue cheese, and brie. We the made an arrangement of vegetables called Pisto which included eggplant, onions, zucchini and tomatoes with red wine vinegar topped with Manchego cheese. It was delicious. We also made langoustines and a pesto pasta. It was all delicious. It was also a great time cooking and eating our own version of tapas, which in my opinion are better than the majority we ate out! We also had a great Chapman mini project after dinner when Mark noticed that our fridge door opened the wrong way. We all got involved and had food out everywhere and where unscrewing and flipping plastic pieces left and right. It actually took longer than the first estimate but let me tell you…the benefit of having the fridge door open the right way has been tremendous. It’s a wonder how you can spend so much time with something working so inefficiently.

On Sunday, we took them to El Rastro which is a huge flea market in the area of La Latina. We had a good time discovering Spanish flea market goods and observing mobs of older women around a 5 euro fur coat bargain bin. After we got our fill of overpriced junk and found a few good souvenirs we explored the area for afternoon tapas. This time we had better luck with a restaurant that served better quality of food and was not a tourist destination. We went down in the cave-like basement of a restaurant and had a wonderful variety of tapas from wine cooked chorizo to extremely strong cheese to baguettes topped with delicious salmon. It was a very nice afternoon. That evening Caitlin and I came back over with our Christmas present from home, the ingredients to make Chocolate Chip Cookies. Since we don’t have an oven we seized the opportunity at Mark and Penny’s place. They were delicious. We also made home made croquettas (croquettes), which also turned out nicely. We had a great last night together talking, cooking, playing guitar/bouzouki and practicing our juggling skills. It really was a treat having Mark and Penny visit.

Blake

Mark and Penny












The apartment









The fresh food market









Segrada Familia


























Casa Batllo











































Colon and the harbor
















Camp Nou











Paella











Park Guell

























Sunrise at the beach











Changing our fridge door

The time we tried to conquer Greece…

It was a different sort of Christmas this year...

These are the happenings between December 23rd and 31st. This is a long one...

Our trip to Greece, oh my, where to begin! I suppose I could begin with a phrase I found myself repeating a lot during this trip – Well, it’s all Greek to me – or I could explain the astonishment I felt in discovering a country that was less on time and worse with directions than Spain. The best place to probably begin though, as always, is at the beginning, but before I do that I’d like make an opening remark on the Greek alphabet. Ah, the Greek alphabet, an alphabet useful only in the Greek language and in mathematics. Unfortunately for me I know hardly anything about Greek language, so while I tried to navigate Greece by reading street signs or eating at a restaurant or really anything else, I only thought of mathematics. Not at all useful for navigation purposes nor ordering a salad. You should have heard us trying to sound out the names…once again, sounded like math. Even if by chance we did have a good command of the Greek alphabet it probably wouldn’t have gotten us very far. The language has no similarities to the languages we know, which are Latin based languages. Greek is Greek based and they are very proud of that. Ok, enough about the language. Let’s go to the beginning.

The first 24 hours.

Our first suspicions about the quality of Greece came when we arrived at the airport. We arrived about two and half hours early for the flight, came into the airport, checked the board and saw nothing about our flight anywhere. Other flights leaving at the same time had a check-in location but ours was nowhere. We asked at information and they directed us towards the counter it would be at but not for some time we found out. We sat with other travelers for an hour in front of the counter until slowly a large line developed. And if you have been an airport before or really any line outside of school, you will know that there are always the people that like to “creep” towards the front. As if they don’t recognize the unspoken order of those who arrived first are at the front. Well those creepers slyly formed another line and when the airline staff finally arrived and solidified the two lines with the rope (failing to mention which side would be for what) we inevitably had to choose and we chose poorly. The line that the creepers forced us into was the line with preprinted tickets and unfortunately for us we have no printer. End of the line. Two hours of waiting for the end of the line. No big deal though. We all fly out on the same plane anyway, right? We’re either waiting here or by the terminal so in the end its all waiting. Either way, the creepers annoy me.

We arrive in Greece and are feeling confident. We strut through the airport to the baggage claim and pick up our bag as it was the FIRST to come out. That never happens. Decide on how to get to our hostel (we decide on the train, since the busses were striking) and head out, cruising like we know what we are doing. We follow signs and arrive at the train station in the airport and are confronted for the first time with the issue of language barriers. We have become so accustomed to being in a foreign country and knowing the language that we fall into a false sense that any foreign country will speak the foreign language we know. Not the case. Its Greece and its Greek. We didn’t even prepare “do you speak English?” in Greek. We sheepishly walk up to the ticket counter…”Do you speak English?” what a slap in the face. I’m always so annoyed when people do that in Spain and now I’m the culprit. I’ve got to learn some Greek…

We buy our tickets, which seemed way over priced (first sign of a failing country), get a hand drawn map on a napkin because they were all out of the real maps (second sign) and head down to wait for the train. Our confidence is slowly fading because the map makes no sense and we are incredibly confused. The train comes, we get on and immediately notice graffiti everywhere. Not only on the outsides of the train but on the inside as well. On the seats. Fabric seats. Who graffitis fabric seats? We are quiet on the train and observe everyone and everything passing on the train. The train eventually stops and we get off to where we need to take another train somewhere. The big question, which train where? Apparently, we looked as confused as we felt because some nice Greek women came to the rescue and told us that the train in front of us that looked like it was from 1962 was the one we wanted. We thanked them and got on the train. This train..wow. It was impossible to tell the color of the train because it had so much graffiti on it. The inside of the train, there was no question, it was blue. A blue that can only be found in the 60’s. It was quite the sight. It was actually more than a sight. It was a feel too. Itchy. It was also a smell. Old. The seats were blue. The ceiling was blue. The floor was blue. The trim was blue. The door was…well, bright yellow. But everything else was blue. We made it to the next stop safely then followed the masses to what we hoped would be the bus stop the hostel directions explained would be right there. Nowhere to be found. We walked through the streets, covered in garbage due to another strike, and finally asked again for directions. More bad directions. Walked some more than asked again then finally found the place. “Welcome! Names please?” “oh, Leinen….well there has been a problem with your room. You can’t stay here.” Oh, really? What happened to it I ask. They tell us it has been destroyed by the last tenants. Oh. Probably didn’t want to stay there anyway. They put us up in a partner hostel and it was fine. The next task was to find out how to get bus tickets for the next day south to where we would be staying. The advice we got was just to go there early in the morning (we had considered going that evening to buy the tickets ahead of time). So we got to our rooms and called to Arlene to tell her we were in Athens and were to head south in the morning. She sounded nice on the phone and agreed she would pick us up at about 12:30 tomorrow afternoon in town she wrote down in the email, DAIMONIA. I capitalize the name of that town because it is spelled incorrectly. We in turn mispronounced it. So no one we speak to has any idea of where we are going. Even the strangers are concerned for us but reassure us that because they don’t know the town doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Ha…great. It’s about 11:30pm now and we haven’t eaten anything. We ask the guy at the front desk where a good place to eat is at. He tells us we could take a bus to the acropolis area. We tell him we are done with public transportation for the day and he tells us there is a nice chicken place a block away. We thank him then walk down to find the place. The streets we walk down seem depressing and hopeless. There is garbage everywhere. There are bums scattered with foreigners selling pirated goods everywhere. Everything is rundown and it doesn’t seem like we are living in 2010. We arrive at the take-away place and have our second run-in with the language. We resort to pointing at the pictures because everything is written in Greek. We get our food, pay and start to say “thank yo…Gracias…errr” and pretty much spit our tongues out searching for the words that don’t come. We leave the place with our tongues hanging confused out of our mouths. We’ve got to learn some Greek. We get back to the hostel and scarf down the food which was really bad and get out our travel book and learn thank you. Efharisto.

Early morning to get to the bus station. We call a taxi and get to the station ok. Buy our tickets without too much trouble and find our bus. The station has the same feel as everything else we’ve seen. Old, rundown and failing. All the signs on the windows are handwritten and everything is dirty. The busses aren’t too bad and we’re happy to be situated and going the right direction on the bus and to sleep for a bit. We wake up after an hour or so to a guy snoring that has everyone annoyed and sending glares towards him. It was the kind of snore that sounds like they are dying or choking or breathing their last painful breath. Sleep time over. We felt especially bad for the woman sitting next to him. We look out the window at a rising sun and we are impressed with the countryside. We also begin noticing it is really difficult to know where we are. We don’t know where we are or how far we’ve gone. We stop for a while in what we find out to be Sparta and its not much like what you would imagine. I go inside and find a map and ask a woman how far it would be to DAIMONIA after repeating it a few times and changing the pronunciation she finally gets it and says ohh DEMONIA with a completely different pronunciation. That could have been helpful to know. We still have 2.5 hours. We get back on the bus and I find myself staring at people wondering if they would have been a Spartan warrior. I don’t think many of them would be now. We take off from the Sparta station and see some amazing things. A huge snow covered mountain range, an incredible gorge, and fields upon fields of olive groves. As the time grew nearer until when we thought we were supposed to arrive, we kept our noses pressed against the glass and our eyes peeled for a sign of any kind that would tell us where we were. We had to do this because the bus driver would not give us any indication of where we were or what stop was coming up

~Blake

We started making frequent stops in small towns and some of them had small signs written in Greek. We were able to match some of them up to the places on the map and we luckily found ourselves getting off at the right stop. Maybe it wouldn’t have been a problem since Arlene was waving the bus down and immediately asked the driver if we were on the bus. Anyway she found us. The woman sort of looked Greek but maybe Mexican, we later found out she was half Indian, half German. She grew up in Germany then lived in Indonesia where she went to high school and college at American institutions. So, her English was pretty good. We never did find out how she ended up in Greece, but that doesn’t matter I suppose. We got in the car and then she called her 2 kids and one of their friends to get in. As we all packed in the car with the extremely smelly kids who had been playing in the red dirt outside we tried not to think about how uncomfortable it was but how excited we were to have arrived and meet the people we would be living with for the next two weeks. Well we were supposed to be coming to stay with her in exchange for our help talking with the kids in English and keeping them occupied for 4 hours each day, right? Well we of course found out really fast that one of the kids knew the basic colors, numbers…and that’s about it. The other knew absolutely none. This was going to be an adventure we already knew. So we got back to the house about 3:00pm on Christmas eve. She showed us the guesthouse we would be staying in which was definitely beautiful, although not very cozy, we were expecting it to be a little warmer. Before we settled in too much she thought we should get to know the dogs. So, we got the two of them on leashes, I am not sure they have ever been on one… and she led us up a rocky path that went around some farmland (olives) and then back to the ocean in front of their house. It was a pretty area, but we couldn’t enjoy a second of it because the dogs were out of control. They pulled as hard as they could the entire way. Blake could hardly hang on so you could imagine what I looked like. Blake’s dog actually ripped out of the collar and took off. Blake ran after it down the road out of sight. Arlene kept telling me how WONDERFUL of a dog it was, because she knew it would come back. 10 minutes later Blake comes back, exhausted, with the dog. Arlene says, “look, you see! What a great dog to come to you!” He about fainted, but didn’t say anything. He later told me that he was in a dead sprint after that dog and happened to catch it when it was stopped for a second to sniff the ground. I had already imagined that was what happened. When we got back we unpacked and showered then went to really meet the family. The boys were uninterested, and her husband said hello and we didn’t see him again until dinner late that night. She said he is ashamed that he can’t speak with you so he is just going to stay away. And, she did begin to talk like we should feel sorry for her because he is so distant. We didn’t really know what to say and we just kind of brushed it off and forgot about the awkwardness we felt.

Caitlin

A Christmas Celebration

Arlene did mention that it would be a casual “German Christmas.” We didn’t really ever understood what this meant, but to say the least, I was a bit overdressed. Also I think we had a bigger appetite than we thought. She asked us if we liked sausage when we arrived. We said of course, imagining what most of you would imagine, well, something really delicious. Well, when we sat down to eat she brought out… hot dogs. Hot dogs and potato salad and a shrimp noodle salad thing. I thought I was going to be sick before I ate the food. But, I was really hungry, so I tried to imagine I was eating Grandma’s honey ham, mashed potatoes, and homemade bread, and Ann’s famous cheesy potatoes from the Christmases I remember. It just wasn’t the same. But we didn’t let it get us down. We were in a really good mood that night and had a wonderful time. They had some other family from Patra visit and they were a blast. We got each of the boys a yo-yo and we each had one. Blake was teaching them all kinds of tricks, he’s like a professional yo-yo’er if you didn’t know that trait about him. We also shared a bag of M&M’s that was sent to us from home, and those were a big hit. We gave them a little ornament to show our appreciation for letting us stay. They didn’t do gifts so they were quite surprised by all of that. Blake got me an awesome poncho that I ended up wearing every day we were there because it was so cold, and I got him a sweet leather fanny pack with bright colored stitching patterns all over it. I’m sure both of our gifts came straight from Morocco. We discovered a nice hot German wine drink that we like, that was definitely the highlight of the meal. Oh, and did I mention while all this was happening, there was a hedgehog roaming about on the floor? His name was Sparky, they just found him outside and decided to keep him inside… Anyway, the kids absolutely wore us out with the yo-yos that night. We went up to our guesthouse, and up the loft by means of a foot wide slightly angled ladder. It was a bit scary, especially when we would have to go back down in the middle of the night to use the restroom. I never got used to that ladder.

On Christmas Day, we went for a drive with the family to visit a historical site called Monevasia. This was an island except with one road built to it, which is where it gets its name. One passage or something close. We had a great time walking through shops in the village built into the cliffs and walking around the old Byzantine monastery. It was a nice day.

The Turning Point

We’ve decided that it would take far too long to explain all that is involved in this next section. So we just left our notes. Feel free to contact us for more details.

Not much to do on Sunday (first miscommunication)/mention the exhaustion from the boys/working in the garden (bad tools, clearing area as if for a garden, but in reality for the dogs to poop in, not being prepared for garden work, being talked to like we know nothing, not having our concerns listened to (ex. Stinging hands, bad allergies, perhaps a better way to do this), breakfast discomfort, walking the dogs, mosquitoes at night, conversations of her personal problems, the food. The relativity of time (what seemed like a week was just 3 days, blinded by beauty of our terrible situation, the loss of beauty…can’t begin to retell all of the small comments that drove us to a point of feeling trapped. Blamed for everything. Never apologized to. To the village (which supposedly had everything, but really had nothing) , the bad café. FEELINGS OF PURE NEGATIVITY (no harmony). Watched Ratatouille and knew we had to go.

The Discussion

We diplomatically brought up that the time we had spent here was not working for us and that we would like to leave a week early. We knew it wouldn’t go well and it didn’t. We said what we had to say and did it with intentions of leaving on good terms.

The next day, we got kicked out.

We came down for breakfast, thinking we had 3 days left of work, fixed our cereal and instant coffee then as we finished and awaited the days orders (we never had our work planned in advance) Arlene shouts from the other room, “Why are you just sitting there?” Well, from that point she basically kicked us out. Fine with us! Unfortunately she wouldn’t let us use the internet to book a hostel. So off to bus station with nowhere to go, a better feeling than the thought of staying in that place any longer…

A new life. Trying to salvage our trip to Greece

We ended up going to an internet café a half mile up the road from the bus station and booking a place to stay in Athens right near the Acropolis. The 6.5 hours ride back to Athens wasn’t as stressful on the way there because we knew where we were going. When we arrived that night we decided to take a taxi because we didn’t want to try to navigate the ancient metro system again. The driver didn’t speak a lick on English nor could he hardly read the English letters or numbers, so it was really fun trying to tell him where we needed to go. When we found our narrow street and the taxi driver about took off a parked car’s mirror…apparently not a big deal…happens all the time, we just looked at each other and got out. When we found the backpackers hostel It was great except when we walked to our room it wasn’t what we thought we were paying for but a studio full of beds and a strange man. We decided it would be worth the extra money to not have any more adventures that day, so we got our own room. We spent the next 4 hours on the internet and phone trying to contact someone at the airport/airline/website we bought the tickets from to change our flight. What a nightmare. We were furious with the entire ordeal of getting transferred and never finding anyone to talk to that could change our flight. We ended up just taking the hour long bus trek to the airport (eacg way) the next morning to change the flight which took 10 minutes to actually change. Why we couldn’t have done that over the phone still boggles my mind. We still have a letter to write to lastminute.com…

Blake

After all the travel changes were squared away we could finally start to enjoy Athens we went on a walking tour that the hostel provided for 5 euro. It was an awesome tour. We didn’t actually go into any of the sights, but there was really no need to. Everything seemed to be right in front of us. The guide was an archeologist, so he was just loaded with info. About the most interesting facts of every corner of Athens and its history. He told us all kinds of things that you won’t find in the books, like a handful out of the hundreds of techniques the Ancient Athenians used to build the Acropolis so it would withstand earthquakes and not fall for thousands of years….which seemed to have worked. One cool thing too is there is no mortar holding anything together! Everything is free standing and locked into place by the shape it is built. This was intentional because if there had been mortar, when an earthquake happened the entire thing would move as one and it would crumble. Each piece in the entire little city was free to move just a little and then fall right back into place. The reason the Acropolis and inside, the well known Parthenon doesn’t look like it’s in perfect condition is because humans tried to destroy it. Many times. And it was once blown up by the same people who were just trying to store all of the town’s gun powder inside of it. It has been renovated a couple of times, but that was the last big disaster and still stands the same way with only about a quarter of the columns standing. Also, some people decided to go steal all of the marble statues that once stood on the Pediments, and they now are in a Museum in LONDON. We took a short hike up to a high point near the Acropolis and the guide pointed out a rock that many famous people in history spoke to the people of Athens on. Interestingly enough Saint Paul spoke to the people there…in Greece where they worshiped Zeus and Athena and hundreds of others…and he spoke about the god he knew of that they already worshipped; their “unknown god”... I guess he knew how to work with his words. Apparently no one listened however, for they had heard thousands of theories of the unknown god. When we got to the parliament on the tour, we got to see the changing of the guards. That was an interesting spectacle. They did sort of a trotting walk thing like a horse, but in slow motion. They also wore shoes with giant pom-poms on them. The guide said that at one point, no one was allowed to carry any sort of weapon, or they would be sent to prison, but they were always being attacked, and with no way to defend themselves, they decided to put blades on the tips of their shoes and conceal them with a big pom-pom. No way would anyone find that suspicious right? Must have worked because it became a big part of their history. Those pom-pom shoes were all over souvenir shops.

After the tour we wanted to go to the flea market. We were walking through for quite a while when we realized that every single shop was just pirated goods or souvenirs that were all the same and way too high priced. We did find some really cool shops where people were making and painting pottery the ancient Greek way. Too bad we had no money and no way to get something like that home. We ended up finding a music store that sold Mandolins and Bouzoukis. We spent some time playing and decided to sleep on whether or not we could afford to buy a bouzouki. They at 55 for a really simple one and went up into the thousands of euros for the little instruments. A Greek bouzouki has a small body and arm length neck. It has 3 sets of 2 strings and makes a very big bright sound. It could sound like a snake charmer or it could make an Irish jig to give you an idea of the music it makes. There are also Irish bouzoukis that are a little bigger and have 2 more strings.

Well that night we decided we need to get something out of this trip, so we went back to look at them again. We didn’t want the really cheap one so we left one more time to think on the one that one a little more. We found a really incredible stone and bead store. I was in heaven. I wanted to buy so many strings of the coolest stones I have ever seen. I wish we had more money on that trip. We ended up buying three strings of my favorite rocks that I found there. One was some wickedly cut moonstone, one was dark brown topaz, and the other was this stone pink and yellow rhodochrosite. I didn’t know what they were when I picked them out but the man that worked there explained to me what they were and where they all came from. He asked if he could smoke a cigarette and had us sit down because he was just glad to have company I think. We chatted for a while, and he ended up giving me a pretty good deal on my gems for I have no idea what reason, I think he could tell how much I loved them. I have to find another source like that.

I also really wanted some authentic Greek sandals. I don’t know why I have always wanted a pair, and they had to be from Greece. Well I was finding that those too were way overpriced, that is until I found this little store hidden away. I went down some stairs and found a sandal shop. And they were way more affordable. I must have tried on 10 pair of only 2 different styles because every single shoe fit different. Bless Blake, he is very patient. He says he doesn’t mind, but even I was frustrated. Anyway I found two matching Greek sandals that made a pair, fit perfect, and are pretty awesome. Since I got some cool things, we had to go get the bouzouki . We got one that we love and Blake played it until we went to bed that night.

The next morning, very early, we were on our way back to Madrid. It was New years eve.

Caitlin