new year's eve in greece!

i was just going through my old entries and realized that i never wrote about my new year's trip to greece!!! how could i? shame on me!

the beginning: right, so here goes: ingrid and i set off, dc to new york to athens. got delta's business elite to athens (so, so nice to have that fabulous service for the 10 hour flight!). arrived in athens along with a lot of james madison university (jmu) students who were apparently doing their very best to typify the "ugly american." ingrid and i couldn't get away from them fast enough.

after a bus ride that dropped us off without explanation somewhere in the middle of athens, then a subway ride, we found our hotel/hostel, the thisseus inn. hostel-like quarters, no heat (but hot water!), barely any illumination, but at only $8 each, we loved it. plus, there was a souvlaki stand just outside our door. that first day we did exactly what you're not supposed to do, and went to sleep, getting up later to find food and walk around town (plaka) a bit.

next morning, we went to the acropolis, which, along with the neighboring plaka, is the only thing worth looking at in athens (imvho). it was fabulous! over and over on this trip, i marveled at how very old all this stuff is. wow.

the pelopennese: after the acropolis, we caught a bus to nauplio, on the pelopennese (the peninsula sw of athens). i had read some travel article that strongly suggested spending as little time as possible in athens, and instead to see the pelopennese. turned out to be very good advice, as the pelopennese was lovely. idyllic. bucolic. in nauplio, we got a slightly more expensive room ($15/night/person), that had heat. unfortunately, it only had hot water at night (well, that's a bit unfair, since we got up really early the next morning--before the staff had arrived to turn on the water). we walked around the very lovely old city, and marvelled at the large rock overhanging the city. that rock was our destination the next morning.

we got up early, so we could climb the 900 (!) stairs up the rock to the top, where there is a 17th century venetian fort (actually, 5 forts) that is wonderfully well-preserved. the greeks (europeans in general, i think. actually, everyone but americans) don't think it's necessary to put up safety railings and things everywhere, so the forts looked (i'm sure) pretty much as they did when they were in use. there were places where the walls of the fort gave way to nothing but clear morning air and a large drop down to the turquoise meditterrannean sea. never would you see such a thing in the states.

we climbed back down (my calves hurt the next day) and hopped a bus to epidhavros, a 14,000 seat amphitheatre built in 400 BC. it's nestled into the hillside so well that it was only rediscovered in the 1800s. the acoustics there are so perfect that from the top row (54 rows up) you can clearly hear a coin dropped on the stage. those ancient greeks really knew their stuff!

back to nauplio to pick up our stuff, then on (again via bus) to olympia, via tripoli. the scenery in the internal of the pelopennese is great--tiny hillside (cliffside?) towns with tiny roads making sharp switchbacks every 100 feet. olive trees and orange trees. flocks of sheep. unfortunately, the trip from tripoli along these mountain roads was made mostly in the dark, which did not sit well with my motion-sick-prone body. ah well...

we arrived in olympia and easily found our hotel, the pension poseidon. no heat, and hot water only the first night we were there. cold cold cold! next morning we made our way to the archaeological site of ancient olympia, where, of course, the first olympics were held. they were held every 4 years, and were a time of peace between the states involved. ancient olympia was my favorite place in greece. the birds were chirping, the sun shone, the breeze blew slightly. we saw the requisite temples to zeus and hera, the baths, the palestra (where atheletes warmed up and where wrestling matches were held), and, best of all, the stadium.

the ancient games only involved track events, so the only olympic venue was a track. you enter at one end, through a gateway and open-to-the-sky tunnel (is there a word for that?). the track is a rectangular dirt/sand field. the sides have been banked up, for spectators. the ancient starting line, a marble slab inlaid in the dirt, is still there. 2400 years ago, atheletes started from that very line. ingrid and i, of course, posed for photos on the starting line. after photos, we took off our cameras and jackets and raced each other down the track. that short race was the best experience i had in greece. i ran down the same track that those ancient greek atheletes ran down so many years ago. it was powerful.

we spent the rest of the day hanging out in the (very small) town of olympia. we toured the town, tried (and failed) to check our email at the local internet cafe, checked out the bus schedule back to athens for the next day, bought groceries, and finally found a taverna with a fireplace (heat!) to relax in.

george: we were sitting there in the taverna, drinking cappucinos and playing scrabble when a greek man (george, we later found out) appeared, surprisingly speaking english. he wanted to know where we were from. we told him, and he went away, only to reappear 10 minutes later with two drinks. "the greek national drink," he said proudly, "ouzo and orange juice. for you." we drank, not knowing that ouzo is licorice-flavored liquor. sufice to say that licorice and orange juice do not go well together. george went off again, and next arrived carrying two postcards of runners carrying the olympic torch into the ancient stadium. "that's me," he said, pointing to a very nice looking greek man of about 25 in short runner's shorts. we carefully investigated, and it did indeed appear to be the same george, 20 years previous. not bad!

he asked us more about ourselves. didn't care a whit about my psycholinguistics revelation, but lit up at ingrid's announcement that she is a mathemetician. "have you heard of pythagoras?" upon ingrid's assenting nod, george quizzed her: "can you solve this problem?" she could indeed, with a simple application of the pythagorean theorem. so, a note to all you junior high/high school students out there: remember your pythagorean theorem--you may be able to impress a greek man with it one day! george went away again, conferred with a gentleman at his table, and came back with another math problem, this time an integral. ingrid solved it in about 30 seconds, and wrote one for george (had to get him off our backs, so we could finish our scrabble game). george and his friend never did solve that problem ingrid gave him...

later, as it was getting time to start thinking about the general concept of dinner, we thought to ask george (him being a local boy and all) for recommendations about where to go for dinner. he took our request (i guess) as a hint that we wanted to be taken out to dinner by him, so he invited us to go at 9:30. he promptly left again, and ingrid and i started debating. should we go to dinner with this strange greek man? where was he taking us? we thought seriously about walking out of the (nice and warm) taverna right then, but figured that olympia was so small that he'd be sure to see us.

9:30 rolled around, and george reappeared. ingrid and i had decided that we would go to dinner with him as long as we didn't end up at his house. turns out, he took us to the grand opening dinner at his brother's new 4-star hotel. we had a lovely multi-course dinner complete with wine and song. we met george's childhood buddy angelo and "the professor," one of their school teachers (philology) from long ago. the professor was definitely the highlight of the evening, with his total lack of english, mad-professor hair, and jolly laugh.

after dinner, george was actually fine. he walked us back to our hotel. he wanted to have brunch the next morning. we non-committally agreed. next morning, we snuck out of the hotel and down to get breakfast. but olympia is *very very* small, and george saw us on our way from breakfast to the bus stop. we tried to explain that we'd overslept, so couldn't meet him. dunno if he bought it. he sent us on our way with a pile of his business cards, suggesting we send any of our over-35 female friends his way. okay sure, george.

back in athens: the bus ride back to athens was completely uneventful, but long. got on the bus to pirgos (450 dr) then to athens. the weather was awful--it even hailed. we stopped halfway; the greeks all needed to smoke, and we needed to pee.

back in athens, we found the student and traveler's inn, on the main pedestrian street in the plaka. 11,000 dr per night (~$30), we got a *heated* room with a very creaky double bed, balcony, and sink. 24 hour hot water... we highly recommend it. plus, it was right next door to our favorite moussaka restaurant!

so, new year's eve. we got all dressed up (me in a short red velvet dress over black pants, with fairy wings on. ingrid in a leopard print knee length skirt with orange lace trim and a black tank top) and went to dinner next door. there was a *line*. a first. 2 guys ahead of us, but the waiter sat us down ahead of them. hmmm. turns out, they had requested we just be sat at their table. they were 24 year old italian policemen from the heel of italy (cosimo) and napoli (carmine). not the brightest lights in the chandelier, but then again, they didn't speak a work of english and my italian is limited to music terms (adagio, pizzicato) so i couldn't really say. ingrid and i had our usual greek salad and moussaka. the boys had spaghetti. i'm not kidding. we talked. or rather, we taught each other words in each other's languages. what struck me most about them was their prosody--it was a characature of italian prosody. they lengthened the penultimate syllables sooooo much!

after dinner, the 4 of us headed to sindagma square for the festivities--ingrid and i decided we weren't going to be able to get rid of them. at the square we busted open the champagne that jan gave me for xmas, then moved on to ingrid's bottle of ouzo. ouzo, it turns out, is much better straight than in orange juice--thanks george. the music that was playing was very somber--we were surprised (isn't this supposed to be a celebration?). a light rain was falling. but it didn't detract from the fireworks that went off at midnight. lovely.

just after the fireworks ended the crowds dispersed--or tried to, anyway. we fought the crowds, trying to make our way to the club privilege. we walked (slowly because of cosimo's supposedly bum leg--ingrid and i had our doubts though, since cosimo seemed to be able to go plenty fast when he wanted to) around where we thought it was, but saw no sign. cosimo and carmine said they knew of a place. so off we went.

we arrived at the lava bore. paid 5000 dr to get in. had a drink from a bartender who was a little to full of himself. spinning bottles and glasses around yada yada. started dancing with our italian boys and quickly discovered cosimo to have *no* rhythm. carmine was better rhythmically, but a bit unimaginative. danced a bit with who ingrid called "that spastic italian guy." ended up dancing with some dutch guys (love the dutch!). ward was my particular dutch guy. he and his friends were in athens visiting another friend who had some sort of internship there. they're from utrecht. he was saying that in holland only couples who'd been dating for a year danced the way we were dancing. i think the dutch need to loosen up. i gave him my email address--we'll see if he uses it [later: he did. we exchanged several emails back and forth, actually. though they've stopped now (august 2001).].

ingrid and i finally left about 4am. home to bed.

bummed around on new year's day. on the 2nd, we hopped a bus to delphi. 3 hours up, through what turned out to be beautiful countryside. delphi was lovely. mountains, lakes.... if only we had known, we would've spent less time in the pelopennese and a couple of nights in delphi. we could've gone hiking! oh well. we saw the old temple to zeus and another to athena (that's the one you think of from the photos). there were signs all over imploring visitors to be quiet, to preserve the mystic feeling of the place. but at closing time (only a hour after we got there) a park employee started yelling and blowing a whistle at everyone, to make them leave. so much for peace and quiet. we took the bus back to athens and started packing.

on the 3rd, we went to the airport, fearful that we wouldn't get on the plane. it was full. overbooked. there's only one flight a day, so we were sure we'd be back at the hotel that night. i was running out of money. and the flights the next two days were even worse. we sat and sat. finally, they called us! we were getting on! yay! and first class, even!

we rode first class all the way home. not bad, i'd say, for $330. good trip, good trip.