A toast to Crete

Shortly after buying our map of Crete, we ended up in a shop eating souvlaki and being offered a taste of the owner's supply of raki. As the shot glass was plopped in front of me, I was delighted to learn that the raki was made with cretan grapes. It seems the gods are on side with our decision. I'm thankful for that, and for the tasty dish of olives that came with it. I've also learned that sometimes raki can be made with figs! I say, "bring it on!" Tomorrow we head toward the peloponnese and on to crete and you can bet that I'll have my eyes peeled for some fig raki.

The Es of grEEk

When in doubt go for E it's probably the sound you're looking for.

Greek is not an easy language for my north american eyes to cheat their way through. It seems that there are too many consonants and strings of vowel-like symbols mixed in with other shapes that make me think more of frat boy belches and "Revenge of the Nerds" than of a living language. This means that my ability to osmose the language is considerably slowed. I read more painfully slow than a 4 year old. As I stumble over words on the written materials that surround me, I feel for the people who must endure the abuse that I daily give this language.

Acropolis Now

The things that surprised me the most about the acropolis were that I could see the sea, that I would never see the real acropolis unimpeded by cranes and scaffolding, and that the city of modern Athens literally floods out in all directions engulfing everything in it's path. I've been told that Lycabetus hill used to be inhabited only by wolves. Today those wolves have been reduced to licensed street dogs.

Wild oats

The roadsides in the outskirts of Athens are covered in wild oats. The empty hulls capture the late afternoon sun in the most magical way. I can't wait to be casting my long shadow over them as I learn how to bike tour in Greece.

Sexy little caper

Nature continually amazes me. While out hiking with a family friend of my beau, the plant that produces capers was casually pointed out to us. I must admit that the caper is such a simple little tasty thing whose origins I had never contemplated. To see this wild creeping vine exploding with stunning flowers I was delighted to realize that the caper is a sexy little flower bud.

Athens is dog heaven

"Athens is dirty." "Athens is chaotic." " Athens is ugly."

I had pretty low expectations for Athens. The main piece of advice I got from people who have visited before me was to,"see the Acropolis and get the heck out of the place", but Athens is stuffed with amazing food and historical sights and modern points of interest that extend way beyond the Acropolis. Offering a sample of the house wine to go with your gyro or an extra container of rice pudding to go with your profiterole, the Athenian people are extremely generous with their hospitality. Impressively, this generosity extends all the way down to their four-legged friends and it goes far beyond the occasional table scrap. I've been to my share of countries whose urban centres teem with packs of mangy dogs, but kudos to the Athenians for really figuring it out.

It was the Olympics that spurred Athens into addressing their stray dog population. The impressive thing is that the strays were not rounded up and shot in a back alley or lethally injected behind closed doors, they were and still are taken in and spayed or neutered and then returned to the same place in the street with a shiny new collar and a dog license. How civilized! Today you see a backdrop of healthy, well fed dogs, that are clearly an accepted piece of the cross patch of fabric that makes up modern day Athens. It adds some humane character to what many see as just dirty chaos with an acropolis on top.