This is a work of fiction

At first, they said no flights would leave Europe for 24 hours.  I first heard about the volcanic eruption on Iceland by accident, early Friday afternoon.  Tired and begging for some entertainment, I found the only English-speaking channel available on Crete, BBC News.  I was surprised that the first I heard of this major international event was rolling across the ticker at the bottom on the screen  while watching a special on surfing in Scotland.  The official British stance, despite over 17,000 flights cancelled that day, was "We'll be looking into it first thing Monday." The brush-off colored my mood for the next few days.  I was distracted myself with Cretian artifacts and museums and archeological sites, but alone, at night before sleeping, or drying off after a shower, my thoughts of the uncertain lingered.

A day became two weeks.  Meteorologists reassured the press that the volcanic ash would shift east and south, eventually rising into the jet stream and dispersing into the ozone, making the skies safe again for air travel.  What they hadn't counted on however, was the length of the eruption.  Most people didn't realize it at the time, but a volcanic eruption isn't just a sudden burst of lava, but a slow dance between earth and air.  

I watched from my second home in Athens, the outdoor coffee shop Cafe Acropolis, as the sky behind the Parthenon faded, day after day, from the cuerelean blue Greece was famous for to this white-gray haze, hiding the moon, the stars, and eventually even the sun the Greeks had worshipped for millenia.  The satellite pictures I downloaded showed the stream of ash spiralling down from the Atlantic across the Northern Hemisphere, only to be reach the equator over Southeast Asia and be swept back up again.  Like a marble, I thought, a sad, beautiful marble.

I began to watch my spending more carefully, lest I had to extend my stay.

Weeks became months.  Patience was wearing thin among those displaced.  In the beginning, airline companies purchashed cruise lines to bring wary travellers home, but piracy reimmerged with force as ship after ship was raided.  American tourists and their fat wallets had not gone unnoticed.  Meanwhile, naval navigation immerged as the new most powerful geopolitical tool as satellites, unable to be maintained, faltered.  All commercial ship travel eventually ended completely.  The offical stance of the American government shifted from rescue to integration.  Many people were angry.  Several American embassies were bombed, including the one in Athens.  A group called the American Relocation Group claimed responsibility, apparently travelling American students like myself, angry the government had not done more to intervene, took matters into their own hands, damning us all.  The Department of International Defense, issued a statement that all displaced American students should be considered dangerous and potentially threats to both local and international political powers.  Some feigned membership and turned themselves in, desparate to go back to America, reasoning that coming home as a domestic terrorist is better than never going home at all.

Most of my fellow classmates had left Greece by now out of fear, scattering across Europe, seeking out friends of friends or settling in slums populated by other like-minded and displaced travellers.  Those that stayed in Greece did not acknowledge me, as they had already begun their new lives here and it was too painful to see a face of a place they would not return.

Makes you fall, do silly things

So I did genuinely mean for my previous post to be my last one for a while, but I had such a serendipitous experience, I really just had to share the story of how I found this gorgeous book:

After I finished blogging I decided to take the Metro down to the Cycladic Museum to see that erotic art and Eros exhibit (like I said).  I got there, bought my ticket and started furiously jotting notes from the introduction wall about Eros and it's many definitions, etc.  As I'm writing, Bob and Andrew, my faculty, came up behind me, muttering to themselves, very confused.  After asking a few curators, it seems the exhibit ended about a week ago, and one statue and this wall was all that was left :( I started browsing around the main store and they had one book on display, the one pictured above, except it was in Greek.  I asked the lady if they had one in English and she said to go downstairs to the bookstore.

I walk down and there and to my right I see exactly what I want, and as I'm pulling it off the shelf, I fumble and about eight of these two-pound books come tumbling down onto my head.  My eyes squeeze shut, my water bottle drops on the polished wood floor with a big echoing clank and I let out a big, embarrassed "Oh!" The young cashier, looking so put together in her black three-piece suit rushes over, asking if I'm okay, gathering up the books, apologizing and wondering aloud how this could have possibly happened.  In the meantime another curator rushes downstairs to investigate and also begins apologizing and asking if I'm okay.  We laugh and exchange apologies, and the curator Greeks with the cashier while she's ringing me up.  "In Greece, we have saying," she says to me, "when seeing love, for first time," tapping herself on the forehead, "hits you on head, with force, makes you fall, do silly things."

They were so nice.  I will have to go back and thank them again, hopefully get that phrase from her, use it in my presentation.

Last Day in Athens for a while

Well haven't updated in a bit.  Mostly because I have been so unbelievably busy.  In these few days, I visitied the Acropolis and visited the Parthenon.  I visited the Acropolis Museum, and hiked Mt. Lyccabetus.  Here are a few tidbits:

Breakfast in the morning.  Best breakfast I've ever had - ever.  Nothing cooked, everything fresh.  Greek yogurt and honey.  Sandwiches made of rolls, salami, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers.  Olives and feta (which I'm kind of over by now).  Guava juice.  Tea and a cigarette.  The best way to starts a day. Ever.

Snapped this right inside the Metro (subwat system here).  It's a picture of what they discovered when they began construction.  The quality of the pic isn't great, but the corridors were literally covered with pottery and artifacts everywhere.  I didn't snap any pictures of it, but they also have at each underground station artifacts on display where they were discovered.  There's graves, sculptures, pottery, everything you can think of.

Typically, there are stray dogs everywhere.  They're super tame and friendly and most of them have collars and are regularly fed, either by tourists or locals, but at most historic sights they aren't allowed. This one managed to sneak in, and is alive, I promise, just napping.

Snapped at the Acropolis.  So that mound in the background, yeah, I hiked that, Mt. Lycabettus. As in, walked down the Acropolis, across the city, and up that freakin' mountain.  More on that later...

This is the opposite view of the Acropolis from the top of Mt. Lycabettus, elevation a little over 900 feet above sea level.  Ran out of water halfway through the hike because my stupid water bottle leaked all over the inside of my bag.  I have officially decided to stop smoking. Not right now.  But soon.

Kayla pretending to beg at the top of Mt. Lycabettus.  

Flowers + view from Mt. Lycabettus

Exhausted.  Sunburned.  Dehydrated.  Pulling it off pretty well.

Snapped earlier today just outside of the Acropolis Museum.  Under the Museum are active excavations going on, and the Museum is designed so that you can see them, in all the different stages of maintenance and uncovering.  Some of the sites are from over 2,000 years ago.

Lastly, here are some of my sketches.  I'm still rusty, but in many museums you can't bring your camera in.  And actually, I prefer to sketch them because you create relationships with the things you're viewing in a way that just snapping a picture really doesn't duplicate.  The one on the right is Afroditi from the West Pediment in the Acropolis Museum, and the other is a column from the Parthenon.

Well that's about it.  I'm done with my coffee and I've got about three hours to go to the Cycladic Museum.  There's an exhibit on erotic art and eros I really want to check out for my project before we catch our ferry to Crete tonight.

last day @ Athens Backpackers

Woke up early this morning with this song in my head for some reason:

Miss Restless by Polka Dot Dot Dot

Broke out my iPod for the first time since being here to listen to it.

So, today is my last day at the Athens Backpackers. It's been a good time, but I think I'm ready to move on to a new place, with new people. I think I got very lucky in randomly choosing a hostel with such a central location that managed to find me three of my classmates from just randomly walking around.

The cold is almost gone now, I'm on my last leg of it.

Slept in my clothes last night I was so tired. Quite excited to have access to laundry today.

I feel like I've already seen so much since being here it's hard to fathom there's still more yet to come.

My goal is to learn a new Greek phrase every day. So far I've got

Good morning (Καλημέρα) pronunced cali-mera, works for both a hello and goodbye

Good evening (Καλό βράδυ) pronounced cali-spera, works for both a hello and goodbye

Please/You're welcome (παρακαλώ) pronounced para-khalo

Thank you (ευχαριστίες) pronounced, okay bear with me, eff-er-ist-oh, accent on the -oh

It's incredibly rude to not greet the owner of an establishment when you walk in for the first time.

Perhaps it's the jetlag, but I've been having unbelievably vivid dreams. Last night, I dreamt I was the head advisor/assistant for a Californian politician, who for some reason reminded me of T. Boone Pickens, and he was supposed to be endorsing an act similar to Proposition 8 to legalize gay marriage in CA and he kept beating around the bush until finally I said to him, "Look, if you don't agree with it, if you don't think it's what the people want, don't sign it, but you can't keep stringing people along like this!" And he smiled at me and said, "That's what I was looking for, here, let me sign it."

Oh! One last bit of good news! My friend Anthony from Houston is graduating in May and we are finishing up final plans to meet in Florence once I'm done with class! I have a flexible ticket, so I may end up extending my stay in Europe for a week or so and visit a few more countries while I'm here. Oh happy day! We shall see!

Anyways, my check-out time is fast approaching, and I still want to shower before heading out. Καλημέρα!

good sweet glorious jesus

I came face-to-face with my arch nemesis a few moments ago. I was walking up the stairs to the 3rd floor of my hostel and there he was, wiggling his ugly antennae at me. While that might sound perverse, it might as well should have been. We both squirmed. Kayla said, "Aw, it's so cute." And I wanted to smack her. You try growing up with cockroaches and then we'll see if it's so cute. So now you know, Athens has cockroaches, almost identical to the giant flying tree roaches of Texas. I was too freaked to get a picture. Sorry. The past two days have been a bit of a blur, but I will try to recap as best I can.

Met up with Carter and Alonna yesterday morning. Tried to go to the Byzantine and Christian museum, but I guess the cab driver didn't understand, because we ended up somewhere completely different, and decided to go to the War Museum instead, probably the least-predictable place for Greeners to be. Got in free, thank you Insternational Student ID Card. Here are a few tidbits from the museum:

This and the following reliefs are from the Temple of Apollo, mostly depicting scenes of Amazonarchy. Amazonarchy is best described as depictions of a female warrior class in battle with the Greeks. Check out those facial expressions and use of perspective!

Fun fact: most relief pediments were placed high atop temple walls, so they were sculpted to give the impression that the figures were actually leaning out of the rock, towering over the viewer.

For a little bit of modern warfare. I snapped this picture with Tanner in mind, specifically:

I also thought the positioning of the machine guns was a little bit dirty. ;)

There were also a collection of children's renditions of the Attila invasion of Turks into Greece in the 1970's, a bit morose in my opinion:

After that had some delicious lunch right outside of the Monastiraki district, the outdoor shopping area of Athens, with lots of womens' shoe stores, A LOT. Then, we got hopelessly lost and ended up having to hike the Acropolis in order to get back without getting too badly blistered. Which, on the plus side, gave us some amazing views of the city:

Yes, it really is that high up. The night ended with drinks with Kayla and Jordan at the Athens Sport Bar, where they play sports on the tele 24/7! I have also decided I have a favorite sport: rugby. It's the best game in the entire world! It's like a cross between football, soccer and keep-away all at once!

Today was still interesting, but far fewer pictures. Went off the beaten path with Kayla and Jordan and took the Tram out to the various suburbs of Athens, which could be misconstrued as New Jersey or other various shorelines of the East Coast.

We took the tram out to the very last stop, stepped off and it was like walking into a completely different world from the widely sheltered portion of Athens we had been getting familiar with for the past couple of days. It's bright outside, and dry and wide, and people are scattered but not looking like they are going anywhere in particular. The coast is there, but cluttered with docked sailboats in various forms of disarray and repair. The ground is dry with brush and graffiti and trash and junked cars. Stray dogs sleeping in the sun. From behind loosely fenced, barbed wire courts, children play soccer, basketball and other things. We walk across the freeway (they do have freeways here) on this blue bridge I swear I've seen in my dreams years before, and down this path, behind yet another loosely constructed fence, we find a cheap amusement park for kids, complete with towering moonwalks, carousels spinning in the hot sun, arcade games and other cheap forms of carnival attractions.

We're starving by now and keep seeing this one sign in English (which is VERY rare for this part of town) that says FREE FOOD COFFEE FUN leading towards the back of the park. We decide to walk inside and it's dimly lit, low-seated couches, empty for how wide it is, all adults smoking and drink coffee drinks. No food to be seen. Some people notice us, but most are engrossed in their own conversations. I imagine this is the place the rebellious teenagers go on the weekends, seedy with large windows looking onto a dirty coast, a good place to recover from a heroin binge. We decided to go elsewhere. I will make a point of coming back here before I leave and take pictures. It was beyond surreal.

Taking the tram back to town, I'm convinced there is a spell on Athens that activates every day around 5pm. I looked around and every other person was dozing off in their seat. The dry heat, the work of the day, all hits around mid-afternoon and everyone wants to do nothing but sleep sleep sleep the fatigue of an old city away.

All around, a good day. I can't believe I have another 3 1/2 weeks here.

First Morning in Greece

καλημέρα! (good morning! pronounced calimera)

I will probably have less time to blog once I start classes so I'm getting in as much as I can now.

After my last post decided to walk around for a bit before going back to the room and showering. I was out for no more than 15 minutes and lo and behold I ran into Carter and Becky from class. Or rather, I was walking around the Plaka looking rather lost and scattered and I heard Carter shout "Kristina!" They got in earlier yesterday morning and are staying at the Art Gallery, the first hotel we will be staying at once classes start. Didn't get a chance to hang out with them very long, and went to bed at like 5:30 in the afternoon.

Woke up ridiculously early this morning, around 5:30, and bummed around in bed for an hour or so. Got to hang out at watch the city come to life this morning. Went to the hostel's sports bar for breakfast. I don't know what I was imagining, but breakfast included tea and toast with the Greek version of Kraft singles cheese and tomatoes. Almost all exclusively Americans staying at the hostel, most younger than me and I watched as the wait staff cleaned up after them as they left their tables littered with trash and sat with their feet propped on their luggage. I remembered what Bob said about boorish Americans and sighed.

No internet access at the sports bar so I am now enjoying Greek coffee across from the Acropolis museum. Stopped by my first kiosk here to get cigarettes. Even opening the cigarette boxes is different here. Enjoying coffee is different here. You are expected to purchase something, but once you do, they let you stick around as long as you want and there is no hurry for you to leave.

Still no idea what I want to do for the day yet. My cold is mostly under control after a long night of sniffling, coughing and lots and lots of water. Still waiting to hear from Kayla, left her a note this morning that I was at the sports bar and for her to find me, so hopefully we can connect.

Have Arrived

Sitting in the kitchen right now in my hostel. It's about 5:30pm, but it's 8:30am in Oly.

Orange trees line the side street the hostel is on.

They are playing Jack Johnson and Coldplay overhead.

The weather's pleasant.

Everyone is prettier in the Netherlands.

I rapidly developed a sore throat and runny nose over the course of the flights, so I picked up some medicine at the pharmacia and plan on taking it easy for the next few days, as much as I want to party the night away.

Food is better on international flights.

No major problems with traveling, made the planes, made the buses, made the walks, still have my passport, haven't been mugged, now if only this pesky cold would go away.

Also, the drinking water here takes some getting used to.

Jet lagged, but if I can hold out for about 4 more hours, I think I will be over it completely.

Met a nice girl named Kate traveling abroad with her class from DC on her break.

I have decided I am a top-bunk person.