Bah Humbug!

Well, here we are enjoying a lovely dinner before I totally ruined my own evening. Aaron and I, along with our friend, Jan, had tickets to see A Christmas Carol last night. I was so excited- it's one of my favorite stories and I'd never seen it performed on stage.

We ran into terrible traffic on our way into downtown Cincinnati, then proceeded to get lost looking for the restaurant where we had reservations. I absolutely hate being late so I was a little jumpy by the time we finally arrived 20 minutes late. The restaurant was really gracious and we proceeded with a nice dinner.

We were cutting it close to get to the theatre on time so we made a beeline as soon as we paid our bill. I had to parallel park (got it on the second try) and Aaron shouted, "Go, go, go!" We all jumped out of the car and ran toward the doors but I screeched to an abrupt stop as I realized... I had just locked the keys in the car, WITH THE CAR STILL RUNNING! Who does that??? I was horrified. I had never locked my keys in the car, let alone while it was still on. Of course, with the fancy electronic features on most cars these days you probably can't do something so stupid but this is a totally stripped down rental car with manual windows and doors. Great.

I insisted that the guys go into the show while I tried to extricate myself from the mess I created in just two seconds of complete brain malfunction. The police officer sitting outside the theatre couldn't help me so I got a phone book from the ticket office and picked a towing company with a nice big ad- how else do you do it in a strange city? The dispatcher said, "Well, in that area it's going to cost you $60." I was in no mood to shop around so I soon had help on the way.

It was about that time when I realized that I had lost one of my favorite bracelets, one my mom had brought from Mexico. Not my day.

I was imagining someone seeing an empty running vehicle on the dark city street and taking the opportunity to break a window and drive away. SO, I decided I better go stand by the car. God bless the Cincy police officer who offered to sit in her squad car and watch for the tow truck driver so I could go in and see some of the show.

I felt awful being one of "those people" who come in late to a show and make everyone stand up so they can get to a seat. I had to sit in the back row to minimize the disruption. About twenty minutes later, I felt my phone vibrate and had to apologize yet again to the poor people whose toes I was trying not to stomp on my way out. The phone call was from the tow truck driver who had driven twenty miles to get there, was not familiar with the area and couldn't find the theatre. Oy! When I got to the car, it wasn't running anymore- not a good sign.

The driver eventually made it, unlocked the car in just a few minutes, restarted it and advised me to keep it running for at least 20 minutes to recharge the battery. So, I sat in the car trying not to cry and trying find the lesson in the experience, knowing that Scrooge was taking his trip down memory lane with the Ghost of Christmas Past as I sat there.

It was not Dickens who said it, but "All's well that ends well." I saw the whole second half of the show sitting in my seat between my two dates. And afterwards they insisted on going back to the restaurant in search of my bracelet. Miraculously, it was sitting in the middle of the parking lot and hadn't been crushed by tires. Although by that point I felt like having a good stiff drink, I cut my losses and went to bed as soon as we got back to the hotel. My pride still feels the sting today but I'm trying to get over it. After all, it could happen to anyone. Right?

Another new city- Philadelphia

Who's your favorite founding father?

One of these things doesn't belong... the guy without a pony tail!

Yesterday was our first day here and the weather was sunny and unseasonably warm. We sqeezed in lots of exploring and I learned so many great bits of American history trivia. Did you know that George Washington was really tall? He was around 6 feet 4 inches! He towered over most other men of his time, when the average height was 5 feet 7 inches. They speculate that he was asked to lead the troops in the Revolutionary War partly because he had such a commanding presence. Good thing he turned out to be a good leader too.

Did you know that Ben Franklin was 81 when he signed the Constitution? He was the oldest signer and far exceeded his life expectancy, dying a few years later at the age of 84.

As I was signing a credit card receipt at the national park gift shop, the sales clerk noticed I was left-handed. He told me that since 1981, all but one of our Presidents have been left-handed. Hmm? It seems more than coincidence but I wonder what the common link could be. Can you guess who was the odd one out?.... George W. Bush.

We saw the Liberty Bell and toured Independence Hall. It's been an educational visit so far and beyond that, Philly seems like a really neat city. We haven't eaten a Philly Cheesesteak yet but there is still time. It's been a great first stop back in the States to finally see the city where our nation was born.

To each his own...meat

Our friends went out of town and gave us all the leftover food from their fridge. The usual stuff- lettuce, eggs, cheese and some meat products. Normal German breakfast food strikes us as a bit funny; it's what we would eat for lunch- deli meats, cheese and bread. But there are also some more interesting meat-based foods and we have now had the chance to try some of them.

Fleischsalat is one of those (and yes, that does translate as meat salad). It looks like small strips of bologna in a mayonnaise and herb bath and it pretty much tastes like that too. It wasn't as terrible as I imagined but I couldn't help thinking about how much fat and cholesterol I was ingesting and not enjoying it. It was just too thick and the rest of that container went in the trash. Leberwurst (liver sausage) was also in our basket, a "treat" that I first experienced with Aaron's grandma years ago. He grew up eating it so a little bit was tasty for him but I can't quite reconcile myself to organ meats. We didn't finish that one either.

There is a kind of meat gelatin that is common around here. They take pieces of meat, veggies, herbs and make a vinegary jello with it. It looks quite strange and I'm not sure that there is anything in typical American cuisine to which I can compare it. Maybe back in the 70s when there was a Jell-O craze people made this kind of thing?? Anyway, this was the last leftover food we tried. Again, it wasn't disgusting but the rubbery texture was a bit disconcerting when trying to make a sandwich with it. It's quite low-calorie though since most of the volume is made up of gelatin. Maybe a good diet food?

All of this stuff is available at the same little markets where I shop but I never paid attention to it. So next time you go to the grocery store, look around at all the things you don't buy- you might find some interesting things. I dare you to try some of them!

A thousand steps up!

This is Palamidi Fortress, supposedly the best-preserved Venetian castle in Greece. It was built in just three years in the early 1700s, then captured by the Ottomans less than a year later. I guess looks aren't everything. Nafplio was a battleground for centuries and there are three different fortresses in this little town dating all the way back to 300 B.C. This is also where the hero of Greek independence defeated the Ottomans for good in 1822.


This massive structure sits atop the mountain just behind town and gives a rather striking impression. Even more impressive and literally breath-taking are the steps leading up to the fortress. There are somewhere around a thousand of them- no one seems to know for sure. Aaron wanted to run up them for exercise one morning and I (reluctantly) agreed to go. We found that just walking 1,000 stairs was quite an aerobic workout! The next day we climbed them again but spent some time exploring the vast ruins and taking in the fabulous views. There are 650-foot cliffs facing the sea and you can see mountains and islands in the distance. The climb was definitely worth the views!

Have we learned anything new in the last 2,500 years?

I know the answer is a resounding, "Yes," but last week, standing among the ruins and shards of civilizations that existed at least two millenia ago, I marveled at the knowledge that these ancient people already possessed. Mathematics, architecture, metal-working, physics, medicine, etc. All of this would have been important for the survival and comfort of the people but what really struck me was the value and appreciation of artistry. They weren't just surviving, they were thriving and enjoying the "finer things."

Sure, they needed bowls and pots for cooking and carrying water, but they were not only aesthetically pleasing in form; they were decorated with elaborate designs and depictions of gods, humans and animals. And how do you explain jewelry? It serves no functional purpose- it is simply for adornment. They had gold, silver and bronze, amber, amethyst, ivory and glass.

There was theater and music. They were playwrights and actors. They built stadiums with such amazing acoustics that 17,000 spectators could hear the actors' voices without microphones. They knew comedy and tragedy, sarcasm, irony and parody.

And for me maybe the most amazing of all were the sculptures. They were perfectly proportioned and lifelike. Some even seemed to be in motion. The faces were expressive, showing joy, fear, annoyance. The sculptors must have had tremendous knowledge of the human form. Imagine the skill it took to carve stone to look like flowing fabric and to see the subtle outline of a leg beneath the gown.

It was truly remarkable and I am so grateful for the experience of seeing it.

Fish- it's what's for dinner!

Since Nafplio is a coastal town seafood was the specialty. There were lots of little fishing boats in the harbor so you could believe that it would all be fresh. The local dishes include octopus (see far left corner of display case and fish roe (that is, eggs) salad, but since we knew it would be a splurge we wanted to make sure we got something we liked. So we asked for fish, and this is what we saw!

The owner of the place greeted us at the door and took us to the kitchen, where another man started opening drawers filled with the above delicacies! Now that's fresh! He asked us if we wanted something fried or grilled, whether we wanted the same thing or two separate dishes. Based on our answer he slapped a nice big red snapper on the scale (you pay by the kilogram)and said, "Okay. Go sit down and I'll come take your drink order in a moment."

We sipped our white wine, ate a yummy Greek salad and bread and before long our fishy was served up on a platter. We paid for the whole thing so of course we were served the whole thing. I have a little bit of an issue with meat that is still attached to the animal it comes from but Mr. Snapper was so tasty that I was able to ignore his little tail that was just hours earlier still happily swimming in the sea.

After our meal the waiter brought us dessert "on the house"- fresh pears and candied fruit drizzled with honey. Light and delicious! It was a very nice gesture but totally made us think we must have bought the most expensive fish in the drawer! Ha!

Moped adventures in Greece

We packed so much into our week that it is hard to know how to hit the highlights. Leaving Athens, we took a bus to Nafplio, a little town on the Aegean Sea. We stayed there partly because it was relatively close to two ancient sites we wanted to see- the best-preserved ancient theater at Epidavros and the ruins of Mycenae, a citadel dating from 15th century B.C.

Somehow I got the idea in my head that it would be fun to rent a moped to do our sight-seeing. I’d never even ridden a moped. The only places renting them gave us a moment’s pause; they didn’t exactly look like places where honest and forthright business took place. But we paid 25 Euros, left Aaron’s passport as collateral (yikes!) and got a bright yellow Navigator Tiger, along with two stylish helmets and the all-important map. Off we went!

Aaron quickly saw that for our bargain price we had gotten a vehicle without working gauges- no speedometer, no gas gauge. Super! We had no idea how far we could go on one little tank so we started checking it every time we stopped.

I didn’t realize just how windy it would seem going 40 or 50 miles an hour without a windshield. As we got up to cruising speed, I was nearly strangled by my helmet as it lifted up and blew back. It was too big for my little pin head. As much as we tightened the strap, it didn’t seem to make much difference. I momentarily considered stuffing my bikini into the helmet to fill up the extra space- just momentarily though.

The first leg of our trip went great. The theater at Epidavros was completely worth the 18 mile trip there. Unfortunately, the other site was 20 miles in the opposite direction from Nafplio. We got a bit turned around but ate a picnic lunch and eventually got headed toward Mycenae. By then the road seemed rather long. The seats were clearly not designed for long-distance comfort for two riders. The sky started to look a bit ominous and I began to worry that if it rained the site might close early. Since we'd taken a wrong turn, we were a bit behind schedule.

Just as we made our final turn and began the final stretch the moped engine died. Yup, you guessed it- we ran out of gas. It turns out that in a 5-liter tank, even when it looks like there is “plenty” of gas left it can go pretty quick. There we were in rural Greece, where all you see for miles on end are olive groves and orange groves. We had come through a town but couldn’t really remember how far back that had been. Aaron pushed the Tiger to the side of the road and we rode on fumes down a hill for maybe 500 yards. Then we walked. Luckily, it was less than two miles to the nearest station and it didn’t rain. The whole thing was extra funny because Aaron and I barely said a thing. The engine died; I asked, “Are we out of gas?” Aaron answered, “I think so,”and we turned around and started walking. Neither of us got mad; I think we both expected it to happen.

All’s well that ends well. Mycenae was still open, we had plenty of time to look around and nearly had the place to ourselves. After another twenty miles back to Nafplio it was nearly dark and we were cold and saddle sore. We traded the moped for Aaron's passport and when the owner asked if we’d had any problems, we said, “None at all!”