War - The Fun Kind

I taught Kelly the card game "war" today. It blew my mind there was a single person who didn't know this game. Anyway, this has been added to our two card game list, the first being Toepen (pronounced Toopin, it's Dutch).

We saw the catacombs today. So cool! The ancient Romans built 5 stories of tunnels under the churches that span a total of 11 miles. For shelter? As a hideout? No, to put their dead people. There are countless human-sized "shelves" carved out of the walls where they laid their dead to rest. I'd love to show you photos, but they weren't allowed.

Kelly and I were going to leave Saturday, but Kelly happened to read that Simon and Garfunkel are giving a *free* concert at the Colosseum Sat night to end their tour. So we (and probably hundreds of thousands of others) are going to go see them tomorrow night. What are the odds? That's rhetorical, the odds are 23774463 to 1.

Treatise on Coffee

So I’ve had coffee enough times now to understand its allure: it gets you buzzed. I mean it tastes good enough. As a kid I hated the smell, but once you add some milk and a dash of chocolate, it’s pleasing to my adult palette. Taste as a drinking motivator pales, however, in comparison to the wonderfully awake yet calm and floaty feeling the drink provides. It makes everything seem a bit less urgent and more manageable. Now granted this is after just one cup - Kelly assures me additional cups will add jitteriness, which I can easily see. I have to concentrate on pacing myself when drinking coffee, since my goal-oriented mentality would have me plow through it immediately, as I do food. In conclusion, now when I hear people say “Let’s go get a cup of coffee”, I will hear “Let’s go get buzzed.” Do *not* discuss the buzzy pleasure of coffee with anyone who works for the government. If the government fully understands this vice, surely they will make it illegal or allow Pfizer to patent it and charge $60 a cup.

Yesterday Kelly and I visited the Vatican. We saw two main attractions: St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. St. Peter’s was awesome. Huge structures, awesome views, gigantic sculptures. It’s an enormous church housing the remains of a bunch of dead Pope’s, each surrounded by sculpture. It also has services being held in the different wings, nuns bowing their heads before statues, and a confessional area. Just a real cool place to experience.

The Sistine Chapel was fairly neat, but it was no St. Peter’s. The Sistine Chapel itself is a big ceiling covered in paintings whose vibrant colors almost looked three dimensional to me. Apparently they recently cleaned the dirt and grime from the ceiling, making the colors much more vibrant. It’s a great room to stand in, for sure. However, the way they have the Sistine Chapel experience set up doesn’t work. You are forced through a maze of a museum…at least 30 rooms…before you get to the main event. And each room has sculptures, art, tapestries, and paintings on the ceiling. By the time you get to the Sistine Chapel, it’s just one more room with a painted ceiling. It’s like visiting an exhibit housing the world’s biggest rubber band ball, where the path to see it leads through dozens of rooms of ever-increasingly large rubber band balls. It numbs the impact of the biggest ball.

Today we visited a photo museum, which turned out to be a bunch of shots of celebrities in Italy in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. It was like a giant People magazine from 40 years ago. I’m stopping this paragraph right here, because it’s very boring.

We’ve been in Rome for 5 days now, and we’re planning to stay for a couple more, then on to Cinque Terra.

More Rome, Italy

Story time, boys and girls, gather round. Last night Kelly and I decided to eat at the very touristy Piazza Navona. There's a huge fountain with statues in this big square, surrounded by fake bag salesman, artists, and restaurants. We sat down at a restaurant where the menu looked good, but then I saw our neighbor's food and pointed it out to Kelly. The tomatoes were wilted, cheese was too goopy...it was bad enough to make us want to leave. So we did. It was a little embarrasing to tell the guy who had just sold us streetside that we were leaving. We ended up at a neighboring restaurant where we confirmed the food looked good. In Sorrento, there had always been a wine around €8, but here the cheapest bottle was €20. So we ordered a €20 bottle of Merlot. The waiter, dressed in a tuxedo, returned with a Cabernet, telling us they're all out of Merlot (once we asked...I'm not sure whether he was going to mention it). After a brief huddle, Kelly and I decided that's fine. The waiter proceeded to open and pour the wine in our glasses, without offering us the traditional taste pour - an all but meaningless tradition, I admit, since you're not approving the wine, just validating it hasn't gone bad. Oh, the irony. My first sip tasted fine. My first sip of any wine usually tastes good or bad depending on my mood and what I've last eaten, rather than the actual quality of the wine. A few sips later it dawned on both Kelly and me that the wine was horrible. I mean if it were €2, I wouldn't have blinked, but for €20 (wine with dinner has been generally cheaper here than in the States) it was nasty. Another few minutes passed, and I asked Kelly, "Did we order sparkling wine?" We hadn't, but that's what we were drinking. Hundreds of tiny bubbles had formed all around the rims of both our glasses. This confirmed it: the wine was nasty. In a retroactively sagacious move, I had convinced Kelly we would order just the salad and wine first, so we could have a nice, slow dinner (food in Italy tends to come rushing out all at once). Our salad was mediocre, the wine was obviously rancid, and our waiter was sort of giving me the creeps. What kind of waiter deprives me of a taste pour? Not only that, his snootiness had begun to emanate, though I had no specific action on his part to justify it. Not yet.

Not a very good story so far, is it? That last paragraph is but the platform, or background for where the real story begins, which is here. But see, if I had told you that up there, you might have just skipped to down here, and I needed the up there to set the mood first. Okay, mood set. All the above negatives and Kelly and I decided we would just leave. We were only in €8 Euro for the salad - we would show the wine was bad, pay for the salad, and try our luck at a restaurant recommended in our Frommer's Guide (by now we weren't taking any chances). The waiter returned, and I point to the bubbles. He picked up the glass, mystified for a few moments. I tried to explain we just wanted the bill, but mid-attempt he set down the glasses and darted off. He returned a minute later with a new glass, gesturing that he thought the first glasses had caused the bubbles. He poured another glass while Kelly and I tried to explain the wine tasted bad, it wasn't just the bubbles. He was pretty pushy by this point, not listening to us or noticing our screaming-loud closed body language. He walked off while Kelly and I waited for the bubbles to form (it took a while the first time). At this point, Kelly really wanted to insist the wine was bad and make our waiter understand. I was past that. I knew he understood. It had clicked in for me: this is the place where tourists get screwed. He was hawking wine to us just like Mr. Sunglasses and Mr. Gucci Bag 20 feet away, with absolutely no concern for any objection we might have. I just had to wait for the bubbles to form in the new glass. The original bubbled glasses had been my opening move, ushering in the new glass had been his rebuttal, and the existence of bubbles on that new glass would be my closing argument in an attempt to escape what I was fearing was a possible €20 sentence. He came back and I showed him the new bubbles starting to form at the bottom of the glass (duh! If any of you can invent a glass that carbonates water, please patent it). He looked twice as mystified as before. Nice play. I was trying to ask for "just the bill please" when he whisked off again. He returned with another bottle of the same wine. Now we made our point louder: we just want the bill and would like to leave. He finally got it, and looked like a sad puppy we had just kicked in the gut. Speaking of guts, I had a knot in mine by this point. He removed the bottle and all three wine glasses and sulked away. Now I felt really guilty. This poor guy just wanted us to be happy after all. He had brought another bottle to please us and we shunned him. Maybe my read on his snootiness had been misguided. I was preparing to pay and walk away shamefully. Until, that is, he brought the bill for €17, explaining, "I only charge you for 2 glasses of wine." Now it doesn't need mentioning, but I will still mention that we had drunk a quarter glass of wine between the both of us. What a move! A transition from pathetic waiter into "you can make it up to me" waiter. He was plea-bargaining: €10 to avoid confrontation and potential insults in a foreign country. I pondered my counter-move. "Okay," I agreed defeatedly. Kelly was worked up by now, and as he walked away she said, "I'm going to go talk to the manager." I was able to convince her that the manager wasn't going to be on our side. In my view, any establishment that allowed a guy like this to be as rude as he had been would not be happy to return our money. Plus I had now solidified my view of this being the place where the tourists get screwed. In this area, there is no word of mouth. There is no prize for having good food or service. It's a huge tourist area where people show up and then realize they're hungry. These restaurants pour all their money into paying a guy full time to stand outside and hard-sell you that their restaurant is the best. This makes good business sense when you consider tourists provide no repeat business. Kelly went to the bathroom, and while she was gone I concocted my checkmate. After briefing Kelly, I left €10 on the table and we calmly walked away. Okay, so Kelly was more like one of those Olympic race-walkers who left me in the dust. Despite her dead giveaway, we got away. It was beautiful...instead of trying to argue up the chain of command at the restaurant, I just chose my way: the highway. We went directly to a Frommer's recommended restaurant and had an absolutely award-winning, delicious, relaxed, well-served meal. The restaurant was so quaint and non-corporate that the waiter didn't even bother with a test pour of our wine. Isn't that adorable and refreshing?

Today we saw the Colosseum. The structure is huge and very majestic from the outside. Unfortunately, the inside didn't add that much more for me, and cost €10 per person to enter. Really, we could have seen everything from outside through the huge archway openings. I'm finding I don't like tourist attractions where everybody lines up and pays to get in (have I already written about this?). It just cheapens the whole thing for me. I am enjoying much more the various huge buildings and sculptures that are staggered throughout Rome. They're free and there is no line. I like the feeling of stumbling across a gorgeous fountain with sculptures of warriors and mermaids. It's like going to see a great movie you've never heard about. The Colosseum was for me like [soliciting movie suggestions], it was good, but paled compared to my lofty expectations.

By the way, al Qaeda has threatened Italy with terrorism if they do not meet their demands in Iraq. Kelly and I were able to witness first-hand at the Colosseum today the Italians' ingenious response to the threat: the volunteer security checkpoint. This is brilliant because it saves much wasted time and hassle. They have set up a metal detector at the entrance, but there is nobody manning it, and you can walk around it if you wish. Therein lies the brilliance. Terrorists can walk through the metal detector, and everyone else can simply go around since they are no threat. Bravo, Italia!

Kelly and I will be staying in Rome for about a week or so total. Despite the rants above, we both really like it here.

Rome, Italy

Rome, Italy

I love Rome. It's big with lots of people and energy, kind of like New York. Unlike New York, there are *giant* fountains, statues, and ancient structures everywhere. Kelly and I semi-lucked into a great deal on a hotel, too. €70 (woo hoo, I found the Euro symbol!) a night including A/C, breakfast, TV - great price for Rome. So far all we've done is eaten and shopped. Kelly agrees Rome is great, but didn't think so the last time she was here. I asked her why she thought that was. She said, "Maybe it was the fact that as soon as we left the train station an Italian guy told us (in broken English) 'I wanna f*&% you in the ass!' and then the next night our room was robbed." Whatever, she doesn't have to be so negative.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that there is one thing that trumps my sometimes hatred for shopping, and that's ridiculous bargains. We stumbled across Kelly's favorite fashion emporium, Zara, which she didn't even know existed in Rome. They had a men's section as well. Everything was around €10. It was creepy awesome. The price would be marked as you would expect, at around €50 or so, and then it would say 70 or 80 percent off, and the total would be between €9 and €13. Kelly was deciding whether to try on a dress, and she assumed the discount was €12 off. When I showed her it was €12 *total* she said, "That settles that one!" She ended up getting it. I also bought a nice button down shirt and funky colored pants, for a total of €21. I find it's better to buy clothes when I find the deal, versus when I need them. That way I usually spend about a fifth of what I would have. The occasional purchase like this is how I keep my wardrobe from stagnating, which would be all too easy for me.

Kelly and I hit the once a week open air market today. It's an Italian Kobey's Swap Meet (analogy for those from San Diego). It had a host of legitimate stores, as well as a section run entirely by gypsies (whose women all had gold teeth...cREEPy). It also had quite a good many illegal brand-name knockoff salesmen. We had seen hoards of these guys the night before as well. They have black duffel bags (which match their skin color...it's all Africans who have this job here) full of Gucci bags and Yves St. Laurent sunglasses. None are real, and you can get them for cheap. The interesting part comes when a police car is spotted or heard. A wave of subtle hand gestures and verbal signals ripples through the whole row of them, and they quickly begin packing their stuff back into the duffel bags. This happened while we were there, but it became apparent the cops were there for someone else, so we didn't get to see them dart off with their duffels, which Kelly said she has witnessed before. It's such an interesting system. I long to understand the behind-the-scenes of the whole operation, just like I'm really curious about the inner workings of casinos (but that itch has been scratched by many TV networks). Someone needs to make a documentary about fake Gucci salesmen and gypsies.

I need to take a time out and plug my iPod and Etymotic earphones. Neither is cheap, but the combination is making my vacation. I have my entire CD collection, plus dozens of audiobooks I got from the library all in the iPod. I'm also copying the pictures we've been taking (full size ones, and videos too) onto the iPod with a Belkin device I bought, which is how we're able to take so many pictures for 5 months without deleting them. The Etymotics are earphones and earplugs all in one, so they completely block out noise on planes, trains, or wherever, leaving me engulfed in whatever I'm listening to. I can now actually make that crying baby shut up. One of the biggest pluses I hadn't even realized until I got here is that I can now "read" in the car, bus, or train via audiobooks. I can't read real books because I get extremely car sick.

Sorrento, Italy

Sorrento, Italy

(As we were leaving Corfu for Italy, I snapped a couple photos of the wall of cigarrettes at the duty free shop. The photos are under the Corfu folder and are worth looking at. The warnings on the cigs are...well, blunt, even more so than I remember from my last trip to Europe.)

My first coffee tasting was pretty uneventful. It was mediocre cappocino at our hotel. For those who may not know, this is the first time I have ever tasted coffee. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it's true. I decided spur of the moment it was time. Looking back, I relish the spontaneity of it. There were plenty of significant moments to enter the land of coffee - at the Y2K crossover, on my 30th birthday. Nope, just a random day when I was tired of keeping up the charade. My opinion? It tastes just like coffee smells, and just like coffee ice cream and candy tastes. No sparks yet, but I have yet to have *good* coffee.

Ah, Italia. We arrived by 8 hour ferry in Brindisi, where we hopped another 6 hours of trains to Naples. Naples is nutty. The traffic in Naples makes New York look like a leisurely Sunday drive. Our cab driver came inches from downing a moped that skirted between us and another car. All three vehicles were moving different directions at the time. Naples is very large, dirty, congested, and frenetic. We stayed one night, then pressed on the next morning to Sorrento, where Kelly and I have been for the past 5 days.

Sorrento is more like it. It feels like the kind of cute town where celebrities would vacation. There are tons of outdoor cafes, restaurants, and gelaterias, as well as shops selling clothing, sandals, and unique woodwork. Hotels line the cliffs by the water. There's really only one "beach", and in truth it's more of a boardwalk. There is some sand, but it's all controlled by the beach gestapo, demanding what adds up to around 15 Euro to enter and sit in a lounger with some shade. I don't got that kind of scratch, so Kelly and I laid on the pavement near the sand, which turned out to be more comfortable than I would have expected. I had been swimming a couple times in Greece, but hurt my shoulder when I swam upstream for too long against a strong beach current. Thankfully, it healed up after a week of resting it, and I have swum twice in Sorrento. You can see in the top-view beach photo there's a little inlet between the protective rock wall that makes a calm area separate from the ocean. It was calm as a swimming pool, and sometimes almost as crowded. But it was good to get exercise, I had been getting a bit restless.

Trying our best to skimp on unnecessary purchases like sandy real estate have enabled us to eat like royalty during dinner. Highlights included a caraffe of wine with peaches (how no other restaurant has ever served me this before I'll never understand, it was heaven), local Sorrento gnocci (pronounced guh-nokey by the Californian woman sitting next to us after being corrected two times by the waiter), and a lasagna I had for lunch that was so good it tasted nothing like what I know of lasagna. The food is extremely good here.

Kelly and I visited Pompei on day two or three. Pompei was fricking hot. I mean, no hotter than anywhere else, but it's been around 90 here (and humid), and Pompei is enormous and has virtually no shade from 1pm to 3pm. That's why we made sure to visit it during that time. Seriously, the place is huge. We probably saw a third of it, maybe a half, but that's being generous. Except for the roofs which were almost all destroyed, much of the buildings are intact. It's literally walking around an ancient city. Pretty neat. It was made not at all neater by the electronic portable audio guides we rented. The added information about the ancient site was offset by the cheap sound effects awkwardly worked into the dialog. During the reading of a letter written by a guy who was there just after the volcano hit, they mixed in a volcano noise during most of the whole thing, drowning out the reader's voice. Does a cheap, non-level-adjusted volcano noise increase my knowledge of Pompei? I don't think so.

We just got back today from Capri, an island 30 minutes by hydrofoil from Sorrento. I liked Capri the first time I visited, when it was called Ithaka. At least, that's what I concluded when our ferry pulled into the exact same-looking port town. Capri is even more of a place I would envision celebrities vacationing. Kelly told me Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick just went there. Even so, I still agreed we would go. We hopped off the ferry and began following a sign that said "Capri Centro". Sounds good, since I wanted to visit the centro and also ride the funicular, which was in my guide book without a description of what it was. But I wanted to ride it, dammit. So we're walking to the centro like the sign said, and it starts off as this very narrow walkway uphill. Around the corner it continues uphill...and then uphill...and then, well, you get it. It took until halfway up before Kelly realized the main town is extremely elevated, and the funicular is the cable car thingee that whisks you up there, instead of the 30 minute uphill walk we endured in 90-whatever degree, humid heat. There's a photo of Kelly making a hand-visor that lets you see how high up we hiked from the water. While atop in the main town, we enjoyed a delicious watermelon drink and visited the shops. (Don't worry, I got my funicular ride on the way down.)

I was a little distressed by the shops on Capri. They were nice shops, don't get me wrong. Ferragamo, Gucci, and a bunch of other famous designer shops. It just occurred to me in a sort of shopping epiphany just how much shopping is associated with travel. Boatloads (and I mean serious boatloads) of people had flooded Capri, and pretty much all they were doing was eating and shopping. Sorrento itself is comprised almost entirely of food, drink, and shops. I've got nothing against shopping, it just hit me as kind of sad that many people go on vacation, only to spend the majority of their vacation hunting for crap to bring back home with them. When a Native American tribe would travel for a buffalo kill or to pillage a neighboring tribe...yeah, that makes sense to me. But we're talking about 75 Euro wallets (on sale) and 400 Euro sweaters on Capri. It just seems like so many places are defined by their shopping, and it's so much of what people do when they go so many places. I'm sometimes just as bad as the masses, it just struck me negatively this afternoon. I want to travel the world, not the world's shops.

One thing it is important to realize about Italians is that they are always yelling. It doesn't really matter if they're trying to emphasize a point or not, they just yell. The first few days in Italy I kept turning around after hearing a shouting match, in an attempt to ensure I get to watch and avoid the fight at the same time. Every time I turned around I was disappointed, because I could tell from their facial expressions the people weren't fighting, but just conversing. Now every time an Italian walks by us and shouts something emphatic to their friend, I fill in my own dialogue to try to amuse Kelly: "I'm slightly hot right now." "You are a good friend". Etc.

Kelly and I decided to leave tomorrow for Rome. We've had enough of this calm (we are going to skip Amalfi and Positano) and are ready for the excitement (read: crowds, crime, pollution) of a big city. Also, I need to get me some huge sunglasses which all the Italians are wearing, and possibly some leather sandals. And we heard that Rome has great SHOPPING, being cheaper than the other Italian cities. I'm looking forward to getting to Rome so I can do some SHOPPING.

I Tasted Coffee

I tasted coffee.

Corfu, Greece

Corfu, Greece

Kelly and I left Kefalonia for Corfu, where I am writing from.  We took the Dolphin, which is a fast boat that looks like an airplane fuselage someone plopped down on the ocean.  I should have taken a photo.  Anyway, it must travel 30 to 40 mph along the water, the fuselage lifted above it by huge underwater fins.  The ride is very similar to an airplane in turbulence; it bumps, dips, and jerks from left to right.  In contrast to my fraidy-cat reaction to plane turbulence, however, I liked the Dolphin ride.  There’s something comforting about knowing you can only drop the height of one swell.
 
In Corfu, we found a taxi at port and told him to take us to Paleokastritsa, a cute beach town Kelly had been to previously.  We told him we were looking for a room to rent.  In the Ionian Islands, and elsewhere I suspect, a room for rent (or let) is its own entity. It means a modest room for rent with no hotel amenities like a reservation system, concierge, or window screens (Kelly currently has 21 mosquito bites…she counted.  I’m not too far behind).  Because the rooms have no advertising, the taxi drivers take you to the places that give them a kickback.  Our driver took us to the rooms of George Mikalas.  George met us by poking his head through the cab window with a huge shit eating grin on his face: “Where you fruuuuum?”.  When we told him California, he said, “Ameeeeeerica!  You are from Ameeeerica!”  (Other gems came later, such as “You know why I like Biiiihll Cliiiihnton?  Because he likes too much a tha wiiihmen (big expectant laugh).”  George proceeded to hard sell us (his view - sweet talk us) into taking a room from him for a few days, but tell the taxi driver we would only stay one night (so the required kickback would be less for him).  Somehow within 15 minutes of that, we ended up prepaying for 4 nights of room rent and 3 days of car rental.  When it was over, Kelly and I felt a bit violated, but it actually worked out very well; we got great deals on both and it’s worked out great.  You can see the picture for yourself…my best way of describing George is a drunk, Greek John Malkovich.  He’s got that same uncomfortable, lingering stare of a serial killer.  He’s controlling and overbearing, but he’s actually a pretty nice guy who owns half of Paleokastritsa and waves to everyone who drives by.
 
Kelly’s mission on our trip is to save every stray animal.  This is done largely with food.  She bought a large bag of cat food that she puts out for every hungry cat she sees.  One such cat was outside our room in Paleokastritsa.  She ate about a third of the food, then walked a few steps towards a tree and started meowing.  It was a determined, non-random cat call.  No cats came, so we were puzzled, until a further inspection of the tree revealed three tiny kittens hiding in and about the tree roots (Swiss Kitty Robinson style).  Okay, even I thought it was ridiculously adorable: a cat calling for her kittens to come eat, and they’re too frightened to leave the tree.  The mother looked so relaxed after she had eaten and knew her kittens were eating.  Kelly left the whole rest of the huge cat food bag by the tree.  See the pictures for cuteness proof.
 
So that’s the cats, now on to the dogs.  There is an organization called Care Corfu that Kelly had contacted about volunteering.  They rescue abandoned dogs and house/relocate them.  There we met Chip, who is a very nice German fellow who cares for the dogs by himself part time.  Seventy dogs, one guy part time.  You can imagine it’s not quite doggy daycare.  The dogs were in 10 cages, about 6 to a cage, give or take.  The hill to the compound walks right by all the cages.  I felt like fresh meat arriving at a prison.  The dogs went crazy from within their cells, inciting each other to more and more violent barking.  One even whispered that I smelled pretty…I was a bit scared.  Most of the work involved is feeding them and cleaning their shit, so that’s what we did.  I was on shit hose duty.  Their shit is super mushy and runny due to the food they’re given (which is actually very expensive and supposed to be very good for them, despite the side effect).  Anyway, it hoses easily, so while Kelly and Chip let the dogs out of their cages to give them some attention and feed them, I sprayed the shit out of the cages.  I discovered I’m quite a skilled shit sprayer.  I already had the natural ability, but now I’ve got the experience behind me. 
 
Most of the dogs are flea and tick ridden, some are painfully skinny or sick, and all are running around in their own filth.  Minutes after I had cleaned the cages they were again filled with poop.  It was incomprehensible.  I’ve never seen dogs poop so much.  Among 6 dogs in a cage, they achieved like 0.5 ppm while we were there.  Despite having no bowel control, the dogs were all amazingly sweet.  Their barks were large, but they just wanted a chance to show their love by jumping up on you or licking your hand through the cage.  The organization is very successful too.  I was getting depressed until I learned they turn over the dogs quite aggressively.  They are shipped by the dozens mostly to Germany, where owners there fix them up and adopt them.  Many left or were about to leave in the two days we were there.  Unfortunately, Greeks treat their animals like things.  The animal pretty much exists for human purposes and nothing else.  The impression we got is that there aren’t many Greeks coming in to adopt the dogs.  But hooray for the Germans.  Their model of dog treatment should really expand and become the dominant culture in all the worl…um…maybe not.
 
On our second and last day of volunteering, we arrived too late to help feed/clean, but we brought 40 bones and 9 balls as a treat for the dogs.  Chip thanked us and assured us he would ration them out the next morning (Kelly and I agreed we would let Chip give the treats to the dogs, rather than be the heroic Americans that come parading in with goodies one day, and Chip’s still just the guy that cleans their shit every day).  Doggie volunteering was clearly Kelly’s interest from the get go.  I found it rewarding as well.  It felt good to give the dogs some attention (and treats), and also to see how a non-tourist part of Corfu works.  Makes me feel we are traveling and not just vacationing.
 
A main draw for coming to Corfu was to visit Kelly’s friend Elisa, who just gave birth to a baby boy.  We visited with her and little Ermano (who is very small and cute), her husband Costas (whom she met here and who inspired her to live here ever since), and the rest of the extended family that are visiting.  The company was great and it was very nice to be in a real house, it’s been a while.  See requisite baby pictures on the photo site.
 
Kelly and I also chatted (at length) with our first English-speaking couple, Gary and Mandy (man I hope Mandy’s the right name, I was really drunk).  They summoned me over to their table at dinner while Kelly was in the bathroom.  It took three tries to pry me out of my food and drink coma, but eventually I made it over.  (We had exchanged niceties with the couple a few nights before, when we were both feeding the cats at another restaurant as the waiter shooed them away).  They’re from Nottingham (England), and were extremely friendly.  It was very refreshing to have a conversation that didn’t start with me imitating a washing machine or cat (in an attempt to find a laundromat or cat food). 
 
Today is our last day here, and we visited a castle I wanted to see and went to Aqualand, the local water park.  Pictures from the castle were impressive, with views of crystal clear (deep) water very far below.  The waterpark was very fun as well -  we ate ice-cream and had an enema, courtesy of the steepest waterslide.  Tomorrow we ferry to Brindisi, Italy.  Greek food has been very good, but we’re both eagerly anticipating Italian food…and scenery…and ambiance.

Kefalonia, Greece

Kefalonia, Greece

Kelly and I finished up our time on Zakynthos driving the island in our rented car. We found this amazing swimming hole, with green-blue water, red starfish, and many enthralling Italians. Kelly and I listened to an Italian boy whining, and agreed we could never find his whine frustrating. Every bratty complaint was a sweet song played from the soothing recesses of his choir-boy-sounding vocal cords. On our way back, we stopped at a local winery, where we bought 1.5 liters of wine that was poured straight from the barrel into a water bottle.

We are now on Kefalonia, the Greek island just north of Zakynthos. It is fairly similar, with more idyllic beaches, weather, and food. We stayed in Sami for a couple of nights, where we rented a car, and ferried it over to Ithaka for the day, the very remote island spoken of in the Odyssey and Iliad. Again, it was more of the same, but with even less English spoken. In Sami we were staying at a rented room in a very traditionally Greek area. Roosters announcing the dawn; old Greek women watering their lawns with buckets. By the way, in the cartoons the roosters crow once to announce the dawn. In real life, the things go on for hours. And we had to keep the windows open, since we had no A/C, and all of Greece is having a big heat wave. I haven't written about it much, but it's super hot here.

We drove around the islands' hills and beaches to see some of the beautiful sights. Of note was Myrtos Beach, which was stunning, especially looking down from the cliffs above. There were also many goats on the roads. The two main tourist attractions we saw were an underground lake, which was freezing cold (both water and air temp), and an underground cave theatre. The pictures say it all. The cave especially was breathtaking...they used this huge cavernous space as a theatre, where up until recently they still held performances. It's covered in bats, stalactites and stalagmites, and the ground is slippery from all the condensation. I've never been in an underground cave theatre or lake, it was very cool.

Kelly and I are now staying in Lassi, a nice town crawling with British. I mean it might as well be an occupied territory. But it's nice because many people speak English. There are tons of terrific restaurants, and I even found a chess game with the guys that run the beach umbrella and lounger rentals. They're pretty much right at my level, which is hard to find. I beat the first guy and lost to the second guy, but I can take him if I concentrate. If I lose to him again, I plan to lobby Bush to declare war on Kefalonia.

I am writing from an internet cafe in Argostoli, the most populous city on Kefalonia. I was here yesterday checking email when the power went down. Turns out the power outage hit all of Greece. It's an international story now because of the upcoming olympics. It was caused by some kind of mismanagement of the power grid. I'm just wondering what happens if they lose power to their airport security and customs check at a critical time. That could be devastating, if in fact they had such a check. Fortunately, during this outage I was able to get back to our room without hitting many traffic lights, which had caused gridlock in other areas.

Today Kelly and I are off to see Skala, supposedly one of the best beaches on the island. Tomorrow we take the Dolphin (fast boat) to Corfu, where we will meet up with Kelly's friend Elisa and her husband Costas, who have just had a baby. Even though we probably won't sleep at their place, I am consoling myself that the baby cannot possibly be louder than the rooster.

Athens, Greece

Athens, Greece

Zakinthos, Greece

Kelly and I spent 2 full days in Athens. We had both heard Athens was not a very nice place, but we disagreed. The air quality was bad, and it wasn’t one of the world’s paradises, but I thought the people were friendly, the sites pretty cool, the shops unique, and the food good. We visited an archaeological museum that just re-opened after a two year closure. It displayed all kinds of sculptures, as well as medieval masks, swords, and vases. It’s trippy to realize these things you’re looking at were made in 500 B.C. It makes you feel you’re living in a medieval place, as does the modern day custom we had to obey of throwing your toilet paper in the trash instead of the toilet. “Bring out your dead!”

Kelly and I found a local jewelry shop with unique, beautiful jewelry. I could tell it stood out because Kelly said, “This place has unique and beautiful jewelry.” Kelly bought us each a ring, and I’m quite taken with them both. Mine is silver with a sunken layer of oxidized (darker) silver underneath, and Kelly’s is a naturally cut rock that looks kind of like a diamond crossed with a geode. I like that we each have a special ring that we bought together to wear for our journey. It’s somehow very satisfying.

Our second full day in Athens we saw the Acropolis/Parthenon. The summit which houses it rests high above the city, and is viewable from almost everywhere. It was used in ancient times as a lookout and a place from which to protect the city. It’s under huge renovations, with large wire framing around most everything. It’s supposed to be done for the Olympics, but they’re going to need to hurry. We hiked up the long hill in the early morning and got to enjoy the sites almost tourist-free. By the time we were coming down, huge tour groups had already begun to invade, each faction loyally following their unit’s high-ranking tour guides. I unsheathed my long bow and picked off as many as I could, while Kelly poured boiling oil from the summit, but alas we were unable to defend our fortress. The sights were cool, but as a modern day stronghold, the Acropolis sucks. Hopefully the renovations include adding laser equipped sniping towers.

The coolest experience in Athens by far was when Greece won the Eurocup (soccer). We tried to watch in several restaurants, but they were too crowded and we could barely see the ball. We watched in an outdoor restaurant for a while and finished the game in our room. Greece beat Portugal 1-0. Athens went NUTS. Handheld air horns blowing, cars driving recklessly down the streets with horns blowing. Our room had a balcony from where we could see most of the action. It was getting so out of hand, I wasn’t surprised to see a couple of cop cars come whizzing by with sirens blazing. I was surprised, however, when I realized they weren’t going to stop the madness, but were participating in it. At one point, a cop car pulled over to a fanatical Athenian, and the loudest shot rang out. I turned to Kelly and said, “Holy crap, they just shot that kid!” but then I realized the kid had just set off an M-10,000 firecracker. The cop responded by turning back on his siren and flying back down the street. The whole city came together to celebrate as one. It was very refreshing compared to celebrations in the States where after the first cries of happiness, at least a few people decide to go overturn a car or break into a storefront. Because it was a relatively orderly (if not ridiculously passionate) victory celebration, the police were just another set of celebrators. From our balcony, Kelly and I watched 3 separate fireworks displays from all over the city, the biggest of which was just a few blocks away and quite large. Kelly and I smiled at each other when we realized it was July 4 and we had gotten our fireworks celebration after all.

The next day we headed for Zakynthos, the smallest of three Ionian Greek islands we intend to visit. Within one minute of arriving (which involved a trip by bus and then by ferry), we were approached by a woman offering to drive us to a room she had available. She had pictures, and the place looked awesome – a clean room right on the water. I asked how much, and had to stifle my victory jig when she said 25 Euro. In Athens we had paid 4 times that for a room. As soon as we got there we went swimming in the sea. New favorite sea: Adriatic. It’s very salty, but man is it clean, clear blue water. It’s just beautiful. And no jellyfish and sea lice like all the other beautiful water I’ve swum in. I threw on my goggles and swam laps right outside our hotel.

Day two we took a cruise around the entire island, stopping to see the Blue Caves and Shipwreck Beach. I took a lot of photos, which I was able to upload. You can check them out at my photos page. This is where all photos will be (there is a link to them in the top left Links section for convenience). Sorry, no photos from Athens yet unless I can find a Firewire port to connect my iPod, I already transferred them there from the camera. We ended our second night with a treat of fresh fish (similar to red snapper) eaten right on the water by our hotel, and with me passing out directly afterward for the second night in a row (from my seasickness medication).

Today is day 3 on the island, and Kelly and I are off to rent a car to do some non-guided exploring. There are some mountain towns and other beach areas we’d like to explore, possibly to stay in when we leave here. We may try to help save the Loggerhead turtles too, they’re endangered because the bright lights confuse the newly hatched turtles and they run for the clubs instead of the water. Personally I think the clubs may be a better time, but Kelly insists they’re better off if they reach the water. Okay, Kelly just informed me it’s a minimum one month volunteer commitment. Enjoy the drum and bass and glow sticks, turtles!

Journey Officially Begun

I just got a spam email asking me if I want to block spam from my email. Oh spammers, how did you track me down in Athens? I’m trying to take a photo of me in this internet café, but can’t seem to connect my camera to this computer. Ah, well.

Kelly and I are safely in Athens after the long journey. All we did when we got in last night was eat and sleep. The sleep part went alright thanks to my little friend melatonin. Dinner was souvlaki from a local café, and it was insanely good. I certainly have never had lamb seasoned quite like that before. I had heard lamb in Greece blows away any in the States, and it’s true.

My dad was nice enough to drive us to Los Angeles for our flight. As we crossed the non-border border check, it struck me: The border control guy waves two lanes of cars by, checking each car’s passengers, basically the color of their skin. I assume suspicious looking Latino’s are questioned to ensure they are in the country legally. Keep in mind, this isn’t at the border, where arguably it seems fair to check everyone coming into the country. This is within our country, where thousands of U.S. Latinos no doubt drive through every day. How can this selective checking go unquestioned, while people cry foul if we use airport screening that flags people who look Middle Eastern, or better yet are shown as nationals of certain countries? The practices both invade the rights of legal, upstanding citizens of America. Regardless of whether you think these screening methods should be used or not, their legality is clearly not defined and enforced uniformly. And personally, if one’s going to be legal and the other not, I’d rather err on the side which helps keep terrorists off planes.

And speaking of terror, I had a thought pop into my head yesterday while I was sleep deprived. A terrorist organization is like a startup company. It lacks all the bureaucracy of a large, inefficient country, and therefore is able to act swiftly and effectively. It has passionate leaders who actually believe in the cause they are trying to achieve, versus the leaders of large countries, who are only interested in doing what furthers their popularity ratings (whether those are represented by poll results or stock prices). It pays crappy, but there is a promise of great fortune once the mission is achieved. And what causes startups to go under? They lose their funding, which is exactly how we’re trying to attack Al Qaeda. Oh, yeah, and we went to war with a country whose people look like the terrorists. I have a mental image of George Bush waving cars at the border check and stopping Iraqis.

And still speaking of terror, Kelly and I retrieved our luggage at the Athens airport, and proceeded to go through customs. Customs in Athens works like this: you get your bags and walk out of the airport. There was not a single effort made to determine what we were bringing into the country. Now this means one of two things. Either they have no customs screening process at the airport, or they do and Kelly and I were able to inadvertently subvert it. Either way, good luck to the Olympic Games Security Division. As for Kelly and I, we’ll be long gone by August 13.

It’s been less than a day, but so far Athens doesn’t seem like quite the craphole I was led to believe it was. Maybe it depends on what part you stay in. Or maybe once we hit the islands, I will agree that Athens was a craphole. Time will tell. And I’ve got plenty of time.