Part 28: Cinco de Mayo May 5, 2012

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, and maybe partially due to the fact that you cannot get Mexican food anywhere in Sofia unless you make it yourself, the international crowd had a nacho competition.  The residents of Pink House are known for their general disdain of cooking, so we weren’t really all that excited about making something, but we bit the bullet and decided on dessert nachos.  

Then, we were all in.  I spent Friday evening making flour tortillas and was up by 9 am frying chips.  That’s right, we made our own chips.  My roommate coated them in cinnamon and sugar and then we started on the chocolate shavings (thank goodness our neighbors let us borrow their food processor.  It takes a looong time to grate chocolate by hand), Crème Fraiche, and warm berry salsa.  It was a masterpiece of delicious bad for you calories. 

We took our nacho entry to the competition.  We didn’t get last place, but we were robbed!  First, creativity was supposed to count.  Second, we had a British judge (no offense M, but what do the English really know about nachos?).  Third, our nachos got rave reviews!  We console ourselves with the knowledge that we won the stomachs of the general public. 

Anyway, it started to rain so we moved the eating to Pink House for awhile.  Then, I went with a group to see The Avengers.  Overall, it was a good time. 

Part 27: Spring Break Episode 5: Is There a Bus? April 15-16, 2012

We got to Thessaloniki late that night caught the bus that my friend K said would get us to his apartment, where he let us stay.  He told us the sign at the front of the bus lights up and tells you the next stop.  It was broken.  However, we found our stop and started walking.  At midnight the church bells started ringing for Easter, and we soon found the apartment and went to sleep. 

The next morning, we got ready to leave and set out for the train station to secure seats back to Sofia later that day.  However, the bus company we found had no seats.  We didn’t realize the other bus companies were across the street, so instead we went to the bus station to see if we could figure it out.  No one at the bus station really knew what was going on either (by this time Q was quite cranky about all of it), but eventually we found out that an independent bus company stops at the bus station at 3:30 pm, but since it was Easter, no one was sure if it would come.  So, we fixed T’s suitcase so the handle worked (sort of) and talked to the lady from Texas who runs the store in the bus station with her husband and waited for the bus. 

I’ve never been so happy to see .bg after a website in my life.  We got on the bus, bought our billetes (tickets, for those of you that don’t speak Bulgarian) and were on our way.  We wouldn’t be stranded in Greece!  J  Q graded a lot of papers for me (people who aren’t teachers see it as a novelty.  Also, I think they can feel the power) and T read The Hunger Games on my Kindle and we watched the beautiful scenery go by. 

At the border, our passports were scrutinized and we bought some junk food (we ate a gross amount of chocolate filled mini croissants).  Back on the bus, we saw mountains and a rainbow.  Eventually we ended up back at the Sofia train station and took a taxi to my house.  We made it. 

The next morning, we decided to hike to Boyana Waterfall.  I’ve lived in Bulgaria 9 months and I have been to this waterfall 3 times.  Most Bulgarians have been fewer times.  However, I had to go here because I knew how to get here (that’s important).  We took the steep route up.  That was a mistake as the trail was a little washed out from winter and all the snow melt made one part in particular a little wet.  However, we made it and the waterfall was in excellent form.  We went down the less steep way and caught the bus back to town.  We stopped at the store to get some pasta for dinner and spent the evening eating and watching Inglorious Bastards. 

I did not get as prepared as I should have for my classes the next day, but T’s flight was leaving really early.  So, I walked her to the gate at 5:30 am and sent her off with 10 leva for the taxi.  I was sad to see her go.  Then I went back home and finished preparing for class.  I came home during my free period to send Q off in similar fashion and my spring break was officially over.  L However, it was really fun while it lasted.

Part 26: Spring Break Episode 4: Look Goats! April 12-14, 2012

We were in Crete by 9 am and boarded a bus that would get us to the bus station where we would then board another bus that would get us to the town our hotel was in.  The nice man at the airport bus stop didn’t mention that the bus to our town also stops at the airport, so we saw the airport in passing twice that day. 

We stayed in the town of Hersonissos, which has sold its soul to the tourism devil, but still, it’s on the ocean and that’s what we were there for anyway and it has a fantastic place to get ice cream.  Once we found our hotel, we took a brief nap (even though Q didn’t want us to) and then put on our sandals to check out the coastline.  On our way, we stopped at some shops in town.  T and I found some nice paintings and she got some soap too. 

We finally made it to the ocean, and the water was cold.  Still, we were there, so we all put our feet in.  We were mostly taking pictures.  Pictures of the sea….  Pictures of flowers….  Pictures of each other… when camera tragedy struck.  In an attempt to take a timed group shot, the wind blew T’s camera off of the pier.  It hit a rock, and it was pronounced dead soon after.  Luckily, her memory card was ok and she didn’t lose any pictures.  

We ate lunch at a place specifically catering to people from England and discussed our plans for the next day.   Additionally, we were debating how to insure that we had enough memory card space for the rest of our trip.  We put that on hold and went to the store for supplies and laundry soap.  Q finally washed his sweatshirt and his jeans (which turned the water brown).  I washed some socks, but the water was relatively unaffected by them.  J

Later that day, we found an internet café and after I ran back to our hotel to pick up cords for all of our digital devices, we managed to get all of our pictures onto flash drives and tablets so that my camera was ready for the rest of the trip.  Then we began looking up plans for the next day.  I really wanted to go to the Samaria Gorge.  However, after Q found a travel agent to talk to about it, we found out it was not open for the season yet (sometimes the internet can fail you).  So, we decided to rent a car and explore the island.  The travel agent recommended the Lassithi  Plateau. 

The next morning we set off on the windy roads (none of which have names, by the way) toward the Plateau.  It was the first time I had driven in almost 8 months, but luckily I my skill-set hadn’t deteriorated.  The plateau is about 7x4 miles and sits at an elevation of 2,760 ft.  It has really fertile soil and is used for farming.  It is surrounded by mountains and there is a cave. 

We got to Psychro Cave, the birth place of Zeus, around 10:30 am.  We started to climb up the mountain and were even offered a burrow ride by a man, which we turned down.  We get to the top and there is sign saying the cave opens at noon.  Thank you, burrow man, for letting us climb all the way up to the closed cave.  Anyway, we then walked back down and had some ice cream at the nearby restaurant to kill some time.  The owner gave us each a baked local potato to eat and sent us on our way.  We stopped at the car to put on shorts (because it was now hot), and climbed back up. 

In Greek mythology, this cave is the place where Amalthea, the nurse that Zeus’s mother put in charge, nurtured the infant Zeus with her goat's milk.  He was hidden here to protect him from his father Cronus.   Lucky for us, the cave was free that day since it was Orthodox Easter weekend.  You go down some steep steps see that the cave, which is dramatically lit (of course), has sort of a pond at the bottom and many stalactites and stalagmites.   

Once we were done at the cave, we decided to take the “very nice road” (according to the restaurant owner) across the mountains.  I had given up my driving responsibilities awhile ago, which was fine with me as the road was through the mountains.  We started climbing out of the plateau and saw goats!   Everywhere!  Goats, for some reason, make me happy.  They are probably not the brightest animals on the planet, but they always seem pleasant.  So, we drove on.  Looking at beautiful mountains and pleasant goats.  Then, the pavement ended.  In a valley.  Full of goats.  No people.  We decided we go on for a little bit and if the road didn’t come back, we would go back the way we came.

Luckily, the pavement reappeared a little ways down the road and we began to climb out of the valley.   Of course, that couldn’t be the last of our problems.  Soon, I noticed that I could smell the brakes.  Hmm, they were a little hot, so we pulled over and looked out over a large cliff.  We could even see a waterfall.  I guess if you have to stop, there are worse places. 

Soon, we set off again, making use of the lower gears of the car.  We drove through some little villages, stopped at a cemetery (it’s been my thing since my 8^th grade history trip to the town cemetery, weird, but true), a weird monument by a small, but elaborate church, we finally started to see the ocean again on the South side of the island.  This took hours, and Crete is not a big island.  There were a lot of mountains. 

We stopped at a beach somewhere near Ierapetra.  The water was cold and there was a lot of surf coming in.  I mostly just walked in the water and let the black sand smooth up my feet, but Q was all in.  We then got back in the car and drove up the narrowest part of Crete back to the north side of the island.  As we were driving we saw a really nice beach, so we turned around and drove back down to it.  The water was calm and no other people were around.  T decided she wanted to go in the ocean since she was here, so I said I’d go too.  We ran in, dunked our heads and then ran out.  It was really cold. 

We got back in the car and headed to Agios Nikolaos.  This is a nice town with an interested harbor “lake” that is relatively far inland.  There are a lot of restaurants around it and it’s were a lot of smaller boats are docked.  We basically grabbed some dinner here and headed back to Hersonissos.  It rained…A lot.  Then, the new road was closed so we had to take the old highway back.  However, we made it and I slept really well that night. 

The next morning, I took the rental car back and we packed up our stuff to go to Heraklion.  We caught the bus (got off at the airport this time) and stored our bags at the rather expensive left luggage place (I guess it made it for the left luggage place in Plovdiv being really cheap).  We then walked into Heraklion. 

We saw part of a town, the ocean, the industrial park, and finally made it to the bus station where we caught the bus to Minoan Palace of Knossos.  The sun was extremely wet that day and the rain was really bright.  It was raining and sunny at the same time and it was really unpredictable.  When we got to Knossos, it was pouring, so we stopped at a restaurant owned by a very Greek-looking man (tall, thin, long wavy hair, a bit scruffy).  The food was pretty good. 

After lunch it was no longer raining, so we went to the palace.  Once again, entry was free (thank you Easter).  This palace was first constructed in 1900 BC and was abandoned around 1300 BC.  It belonged to the Minoans, most associated with King Minos and his son, the Minotaur.  Also, the Minoans are the “bull leapers.”  Recreations of the painting depicting this act are really common.  However, according to the internet, trying to replicate the act as it is shown in the picture will mostly likely end in death as trying to grab a moving bull would be like getting hit by a car. 

Anyway, the palace was excavated by Arthur Evans in the early 1900’s.  He also partially reconstructed parts.  It was interesting, however, we got the feeling that Arthur just sort of went with what he thought sounded best.  Even the signs at the palace said, “according to Evans” and “Evans believed.”   To give you the short version, to Evans, everything is “sacred” and “ceremonial.”   While other sources I’ve looked at also said this was likely a ceremonial center, Evan’s named everything sacred.  By the end of the day we were joking about using the sacred toilets and going down the sacred sidewalk. 

We took the bus back to the city center of Heraklion and decided to do the walking tour from our maps.  First, we were destracted by a gelato place.  Then we got lost.  Finally we got back on track.  How you ask?  Well, it turns out that learning the Greek alphabet on the subway that first day in Athens paid off for T and me.  We could read the street signs and knew where to go.  We walked through downtown pedestrian areas and saw a nice lion fountain from the 1600’s, town hall (with lots of gross trash in the in courtyard), and a couple of churches.  One of which had some delicious smelling leaves all over the floor.  T stole one. 

Then we went got to the harbor.  The harbor has the Venetian fortress, Koules, dominating it.  The structure mostly likely dates from 1523, when the Venetians were doing a lot of “protect the city” building.  We couldn’t go in, but the outer walls are 9m thick and the inside has 26 rooms, including a jail.  We did decide to walk to the end of the pier. 

It was a long way.  Probably close to a mile, if not over.  We also picked up a little dog friend that joined us.  When we got to the end, we had to jump down from a ledge and he was too scared.  T kept trying to grab him, and she finally goes, “It’s ok.  I can do this,” as though he could understand. She eventually got hold of him and got him down.  Then, he was her best friend.  As we walked back, he eventually left us for someone else, which is probably good, since we were starting our walk back to the airport to catch out flight to Thessaloniki. 

To be continued…. again……

Part 25: Spring Break Episode 3: That’s ok. I make lamb! April 10-12, 2012

We arrived in Athens and caught the subway to the area our hotel was in.  While on the train, T and I took some time to try to learn the Greek alphabet.  (Luckily it hasn’t appeared to affect my ability to read Cyrilic.  I was worried my brain couldn’t handle two non-Latin alphabets.)  We popped out of the subway and began walking to our hotel.  Once we arrived, the man checking us in told us that he had us booked in a triple room with one double bed and one single.  “Is that ok?” he said, looking at the three of us oddly.  “That’s great.  Thanks!”  Anyway…

We put our stuff in our room and headed out to find some dinner.  Most of you are probably familiar with the scene from My Big Fat GreekWedding where Tula tells her aunt that her fiancé is vegetarian and she replies with, “That’s ok.  I make lamb!”  Well, T is vegetarian and that’s about how our search for dinner went. 

We walked down the street, reading the menus, seeing that they had Greek salad and grilled vegetable as their only vegetarian options, which aren’t real food.  We even asked one owner if he had any vegetarian dishes and he said, “Oh, no.”  So, feeling hungry and dejected, we found a gyro place that had a veggie option so we decided to stop.  Really we just gave up, but we were so glad we did because it was delicious, for herbivores and omnivores alike.   So good, in fact, that we went back the next day. 

After dinner, we took a look at the Acropolis all lit up before going back to our hotel to sleep.  On the way, we noticed that Athens has a lot of police men out and about.  Apparently they are taking a “we’re nipping anything and everything in the bud” approach to recent events.    I have never seen that many police men in one place at once (on the up side, they were all young and attractive police men). 

The next morning, with the soundtrack from Hercules playing in my head, we started out for the Acropolis.  Q decided he wanted shorts and went back for them, but T and I continued up the hill.  We walked all the way around and saw two theatres (the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and the Theater of Dionysus) as well as caves dedicated to Greek gods and the ruins of church.  We eventually arrived at the Beule Gate.  It dates from 320 BC and is known as the Sacred Way.  It was used for the Panathenaic  Procession, to honor Athena’s birth.  From there you move through to the  Propylaea. 

The Propylaea was designed to “instill the proper reverence in worshippers.”  It was supposed to be the same size as the Parthenon, but during the Peloponnesian War, construction stopped and was never finished.  If you look to your right before you pass through, you see the Temple of Athena Nike.  It is small and dates from 424 BC.  It was built to celebrate peace with Persia. 

From the Propylaea, you get your first view of the Parthenon.  The Parthenon was dedicated to Athena and was completed in 438 BC.  It is huge and perfectly proportional.  The columns even taper in at the tops to reduce the distortion from depth perception.  It wasn’t the most important temple (and was sort of a show of might more for the city than anything religious), but it certainly was the largest.     

At the Acropolis, there is another temple known as the Erechtheion.  It is smaller and was apparently the more holy shrine to Athena.  It was finished in 406 BC and has a porch supported by columns shaped like women.  The temple is said to be built on the place that Athena and Poseidon had a competition to see who the city would be named after.  Poseidon plunged his trident into a rock to bring forth water and Athena created an olive tree.  The citizens declared Athena the winner (an olives are still a major part of Greek society) and so the city is named Athens. 

From the Acropolis you get a great view of the city. We saw the Temple of Zues and the Temple of Hephaestus from the top.  We also saw Filopappou.  From the Acropolis, it looks like some ruins on a giant hill in the distance.  T and I decided we weren’t climbing that.  Famous last words. 

We met back up with Q and headed to the Temple of the Olympian Zeus.  It was started in the 6^th century BC but wasn’t completed until 132 AD by Hadrian (that’s over 600 years later).  Today, only 15 of the 104 original columns are still standing (“but is was completely finished in Hercules,” said T), but you can see the ruins of all the others and get the idea that this place was huge.  It was supposed to be the greatest temple in Greece, but it was finished just before some barbarian invasions in the 3^rd century and was never really repaired.  Still, it was impressive.

Near the temple is Hadrian’s Arch.  While, I didn’t know what it said at the time, it turns out that on one side it says, “This is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus,” and on the other it says, “This is the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus.”  Apparently Hadrian wanted to make it very clear which part of the city he was responsible for. 

From there we walked around the Acropolis to the Monument of Filopappus.  From the map in our book we couldn’t tell that it was on the hill T and I said we weren’t climbing.  But, we did climb it.  It depicts Syrian prince Filolpappus driving his chariot.  This prince gave so much money to Athens that the citizens accepted him as Athenian.  This hill also has a great view of the Acropolis.

From here, we continued on towards Ancient Agora.  This was the city’s commercial center during ancient times and was even frequented by Plato and Socrates.   The two story Stoa of Attalos II was built in the 2^nd century BC and was reconstructed in the 1950’s.  It now houses the Museum of Agora Excavations, which is full of ancient pottery and sculptures.  Surrounding the Stoa are many ancient ruins that lead up to the Temple of Hephaestus.  The Temple of Hephaestus is the best preserved ancient Greek temple in the world. It is dedicated to the patron god of metal working and craftsmanship. 

From there, our last ruins of the day were at Hadrian’s Library. It was built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in AD 132.  I don’t know much about it except that it was large, housed many papyrus scrolls as well as a small cathedral. 

Then we started to walk.  We walked down the pedestrian street to find the location of the airport shuttle that we would need the next day.  Then we took a long and winding route past the Archeological museum.  Apparently all historical sites and museums in Greece now close at 3pm due to budget issues, so we couldn’t go in.  We meandered back to our hotel to rest for a bit before heading back out for dinner. 

Before going to your gyro place, we sat down in a square near the Hadrian’s Library and I noticed a stand selling strawberries for 4 euro/kg.  That’s 2.2 lbs of strawberries for about $5.  I was sold and the three of us ate a lot of strawberries.  We then went to eat at our euro place and wandered around the shops nearby.  On the way home, as usual, we grabbed ice cream. 

The next day, at 4:30 am we headed out to catch the airport shuttle so we could fly to Crete J

Part 24: Spring Break Episode 2: Maybe you two? Maybe not. April 8-10, 2012

In spite of the train being an hour late to Plovidv, we arrived in Istanbul at 5:45 am.  That is 2 hours and 15 minutes ahead of schedule.  It is also a time when nothing is open and you can’t really check in to your accommodations.  So, we headed out, with J in tow, to the general area of our hostel:  across the Golden Horn, near Taksim square.  As we walked, it was getting lighter, and by the time we were crossing the bridge, we could see pretty well.  Well, most of us, anyway.

The fishermen were starting to cast and one had a line with several hooks laid across the sidewalk.  He and his partner picked it up high and Q, T, and I ducked under.  J had stopped to take a picture and was not really paying attention.  He ended up with a hook in his eyebrow.  Oops.  Luckily, he was fine, so we continued on.  We climbed a giant hill and turned down the road we were pretty sure our hostel was on.  We found #30, but there was no sign and no answer when we rung the bell.  So, we did what all self-sufficient, early rising Americans do:  we found a Starbucks.  I don’t think any of us are that dedicated to the coffee monster, but there was one on the corner and it was open, so we hung out there until we could drop our stuff at our hostel and J went to find a place to stay. 

Then began the oddest  check-in experience I have ever had.  As the owner is finding our reservation, he asks for our passports and looks at Q and T and says, “Ah, and you must be brother and sister.”  They said they were college friends and he says, “ooohhhh, friends.” Then he says that (in spite of the fact that we booked 3 people in a 4 person room) we would be in a double room and then one person would have to sleep upstairs in another room.  He looks at me and T.  “Maybe you two?.....  Maybe not.”  Um, yes, us two.  As it turns out, that was just the beginning of people trying to figure us out, but more on that later.

We left the hostel and met back up with J, who had met two people that go to his university in England.   We made a brief stop at the Galata Tower, and after deciding that 15 lira was way too much to make a trip up to the top worth it, started out towards the Hagia Sophia. 

There was a huge line to the Hagia Sophia, so D and C decided to do their own thing.  However, the line took less than 20 minutes and then we were inside this amazing building.  For the historical details, check out my other posts on Istanbul. 

We looked around, read our Rick Steves guide book and basked in the general splendor.  We also looked really, really, bad (having passed the 24 hour without a shower mark).  I did learn something new.  According to Rick Steves, the lettering above the Empress Zoe’s husband’s head is messy because she had so many husbands that the artists just started scraping the old name off and putting the new one on rather than changing the whole picture. 

After the Hagia Sophia, we grabbed some lunch at Doy Doy.  It has a rooftop terrace with a great view of the Blue Mosque.  Then, we went to the Basilica Cisterns.  Still very cool.  After all this, we were done.  We headed back to our hostel to shower and take a nap. 

After showering, I get a text message from J, saying he couldn’t find his hostel.  So, he came by, google-mapped it, and headed out again.  Then, he came back.  He was still lost (and J, if you’re reading this we don’t think you’re slow in the head, we just think you were sleep-deprived like the rest of us).  At that point, we had Q take him home.  It wasn’t all bad, since Q did get ice cream out of it.  Around 5, after J had been dropped off, we fell asleep for our naps and we woke up when Q came down around…. 10 pm.  Whoops.  So much for dinner and going out with J, D, and C.  I just put my pajamas on and went back to sleep.

The next morning it was cold and rainy.  I had my raincoat and T had her warm fleece, but Q had his sweatshirt, because (even though his dad had “told him so”), he was apparently I denial about actual weather conditions, so he had 1 sweatshirt and one pair of genes.  Needless to say, he got a little wet.  They eventually bought a high quality 5 lira umbrella, so they were a little drier. 

We were intending to go to the Grand Bazaar, but we got lost.  It worked out since we got lost at the Spice Bazaar, which I hadn’t been to before.  It smelled amazing in there and there were so many colors.  I bought some dried strawberries (which are delicious, if you’ve never had them) from a guy who asked Q “which one was his,” because “two is too many for one man.”  Right. 

Anyway, after drying out in the Spice Bazaar, we continued our quest for the Grand Bazaar.  We found it and headed in to the massive maze.  T and I both bought a scarf, which we were glad for later since it was cold!  While at the Bazaar we were solicited by shopkeepers in English, Hindi, and at least one other language, which is pretty amazing.  We left the Bazaar (Q stopped to pet another cat) and made our way toward Topkapi Palace, with a quick stop at McDonalds for food. 

We found J at Topkapi and looked around with him a little bit, before he headed off for the Bazaar.  We looked around the courtyards and read about them from Rick Steves.  Then, I stood in line for harem tickets while Q and T took in the armory.  We then went through the harem and the inner most courtyard.  The palace closed sort of early that day, so we had time to go through the Blue Mosque.  It is still big and impressive. 

Then we did some more shopping.  We went to Mahmet’s store and I got some pillow covers (and a free candle holder for being a repeat customer) and Q found a really nice painting.  Then we walked a lot.  We walked along the sea of Mamara.   A restaurant guy even tried to get us to eat “aqui.”  Apparently, in his attempt to explain our unusual group, he decided Spanish was his best bet.  Then we walked through town all the way to the Roman aqueduct. 

The Aqueduct of Valens was built in 368 AD and is 921 meters long.  It supplied water to Constantinople, including the Basilica Cisterns.  After the fall of Constantinople, several sultans kept the aqueduct functioning, as it supplied water to their palaces. 

Finally, we walked back across the Golden Horn and up the hill to our hostel.  After nearly dying trying to cross a road, we made it back to our hostel.  We took a brief rest and then we found a place to eat dinner and got some ice cream on our way back. 

The next morning, we got up and went for a walk along the Bosphorus.  I wanted to copy a picture I’d seen on a poster in our hostel of the mosque near Dolmabache Palace.  So, we walked down, I got my picture and we looked at the outside of the palace (the line was way too long to go in).  We went down to a side gate as well and got there just in time to see a bunch of women from a tour bus manhandling the attractive and armed guard to get him in their pictures.  It was a little weird. 

We then walked back up to get our bags, stopping for some last minute food and shopping before going to Taksim square to catch the airport shuttle.  And so ends Istanbul. 

Next time:  Athens!