I haven’t shaved in a couple of weeks and I’ve decided that I’m going to see what I look like with facial hair. I’ve never had it before, I’ve never gotten past the looking really scruffy bit before. I figure it’s something every guy should do once in his life at least. We’ll see how it goes, this may take a while as my whiskers don’t grow very fast…
The trip back was nothing special, with the exception of having the pleasure of sitting next to a Yemeni while he ate a previously saved meal. As soon as we took off and the sun had set (it’s ramadan) he took out an older airline food meal and started to eat. He did so with his hands of course, and there was food everywhere. Thank God out trays were touching, it was the only thing saving me from a lap full of food… I’ve read almost 500 pages of Nicholas Nickalby since yesterday. i’ll probably finish it tomorrow. It’s a good story, but nothing like his “deep” works. It’s fun, I’m glad I bought it…
I didn’t really do much. The hotel I’m in is closer to the airport than the city. It’s a nice enough hotel, but it makes getting into town a bit of a pain. The bus ride into downtown Athens is not only 45 minutes, but it costs the equivalent of 5 bucks each way. I went down there today with some specific goals. I wanted to eat at McDonald’s, buy some books, and find some decent chocolate. Greek chocolate sucks, it’s that simple. I was really happy to find a Nestle’s crunch bar, and I don’t consider that good chocolate at all. I wanted to eat at McDonald’s because I have been craving a cheeseburger for a long time. I don’t think that McDonald’s is very good, but it was one of the better meals I’ve had here… I needed some books for not only my 8 hour layover in Istanbul, but for living in Yemen. There have been many times that I wished I had something to read other than the Arabic equivalent of “See Dick run.” People have asked me if I want them to send me some books, but I always say no. Not because I don’t want the books, but because it will be way too expensive to send them here. If books are sent through the regular mail (the only reasonable way to send anything to me), they have to go through the censor. And I do think that it is THE censor. It seems to be common knowledge that if books go to the censor, I’ll never see them. If you send them through one of the courier companies (DHL, FedEx, UPS, etc.) they don’t go through the censor, but they cost a million dollars to ship to Yemen. Anyway, for the first time in years, some fiction really appealed to me. I picked up “The Name of the Rose” by Eco, and “David Copperfield” and “Nicholas Nichalby” both by Dickens. All of them are books that I have meant to get to for a long time. I’ve always liked Dickens, the last book I read by him was “A Tale of Two Cities” back in my sophomore year of high school! Anyway, I hope that these will last me until I can get back to the states. Tomorrow I leave for Yemen. I’ll be coming back in the middle of Ramadan, should be fun…
I’ve had fun in Greece, but I’ve learned a few things about traveling here as well. I missed a lot of the Athens trip, but everyone agreed that we probably should have only spent a couple of days in Athens. There really isn’t all that much to do except shop if you’re not really into ruins. To be fair, the shopping can be quite good, but it really isn’t worth coming here just for that. Crete, on the other hand, had much more to offer. The scenery was beautiful, and the villages we went through were quite memorable. I don’t know much about the mainland, but I think that the mainland would probably be much like Crete.
I was surprised at much I really didn’t care about the ruins. The “good” ones are nothing more than stones outlining squares and rectangles on the ground, and the bad ones (like Knossos IMO) were filled with concrete reproductions, they didn’t even have the stone squares there! I did think that the temple of Zeus was quite amazing, for about 10 minutes. It’s amazing how quickly an ancient temple of magnificent proportions becomes a a handful of columns guarded by tired, overweight women selling tickets. I’m sure the Acropolis would have been more impressive, and for a little longer, but inevitably I would have the same reaction I’m sure.
And then there is the food. When we first got here, I emailed Tyler Cowen about eating in Athens. He’s an economist, art collector, food critic, traveller, and blogger extraordinaire over at marginal revolution. His response was that he has never gotten a good meal in Athens. “OK then,” I thought to myself, “that’s what you get for asking a food critic..” I figured that he couldn’t find any haute cuisine to his liking. Well, as it turns out, he meant that he couldn’t find a good meal here. We were unimpressed, the best meals I had were a club sandwich (which wasn’t all that good) and some chicken Madras at an Indian restaurant. We went there our last night together here because we really couldn’t take it anymore. Tonight I tried some Greek fast food. There is only one restaurant near this hotel, it’s a chain called “Goody’s.” I had what had to be the worst hamburger I’ve ever tasted, and that’s saying something. The McDonald’s I had for lunch was miles above it, I really wonder how they stay in business.
So what did I like? I really enjoyed hiking in Crete. The landscape is wonderful, and the terrain is not all that difficult. I loved going to the two monasteries that we went to. I’m bummed that we didn’t get to see any churches. We were always wearing shorts, and Butler was usually in a tank top so when we did see a church, we weren’t really appropriately dressed. If I came back here (and I might one day), I would seriously think about planning the trip around monasteries and churches. The icons here can be breathtaking. Butler (a lifelong Episcopal) went into this trip thinking that the Orthodox Church basically made things up, but she left saying, “I get it now.” The icons can really have an effect on you. The icons in the monasteries (and I assume the churches) that is. There are plenty of junk icons around in the tourist areas, don’t let them give you the wrong idea…
I really enjoyed the villages as well. They have a really nice vibe to them, very relaxed and very informal. The cities are a nightmare of noise and congestion. I really noticed the traffic in Crete. We drove through the countryside and there was hardly any traffic at all, but once you hit a city, it was congestion city. Both Herakian and Chania were nightmares to drive in, mostly because of the traffic. Athens is, of course, very hectic as well. If you come here, really try to get a hotel out of a major city. They may not be as fancy, but you will have a much nicer vacation.
I’ve had a great time here, and it was great seeing Dad and Butler, thanks guys! I’m back to Yemen tomorrow and this blog will get back on topic:-)
I went through and added links to the songs and videos on my Never Hear Great Songs and video pages. Now you can actually hear, and sometimes see, what I’m talking about. Links weren’t available for all songs, and some of them are things put to the original song. I never would have expected to see the Crystals set to some Anime, but there you are. Of note is the ultra rare video of “Freedom of Choice” by Devo and a mesmerizing performance of James Brown at his peak. You can see my Never heard great songs here, and my page on music videos
. Have fun!
It’s been over a week since I listened to anything, and my mind is starting to react. It puts music front and center, anything and everything reminds me of some song. My father ordered some “Red Mullet” for dinner last night. Of course my first thought was Bowie, Ziggy Stardust. I’m an alligator, I’m a momma poppa coming for you! I’m a space invader, I’ll be a rock and rolling bitch for you! Earlier today I started humming “Beauty school dropout” from the Grease soundtrack. I mentioned that I had no idea why that album would pop into my head, then my father said, “Well, you are in Greece..” Oh yeah…
I had a run of really bad covers the other day. It started in the taxi, there was a Greek version of one of those ubiquitous FM songs that I try to ignore. Of course I could almost remember the lyrics “something something never get old. something something really don’t care, etc.” It drove me nuts, but it’s a terrible song and I’ve never liked it, being in Greek didn’t help it at all. The next morning, the hotel was playing Natalie Merchant’s version of “Space Oddity.” Later on I heard Phil Collins’ version of “You Can’t Hurry Love.” I’m willing to forgive Phil, he’s a pop hack and “You can’t…” is a classic pop song, but “Space Oddity?” Why anyone would ever cover this song is beyond me. It’s not a very good song, but it had some meaning… when it was released. There are very few types of songs that Natalie is capable of singing well, and she may well have sung them all at this point. “Candy Everybody Wants,” “Carnival,” and “San Andreas Fault” are the ones I can think of. She did do an acceptable cover of “Every Day is Like Sunday,” it suits her voice and style of delivery. Unfortunately for her, Morrissy is the king of that type of singing. Plus, his voice brings all of the baggage of his previous works which really adds to the melancholy…
What other more or less random songs have popped into my head? Hmm, well there’s “I Dig Rock and Roll Music” by Peter, Paul and Mary, I think it’s called “Sunshine Day” by the Brady Bunch, “Straight On” by Heart, “Coming Down the Mountain” by Jane’s Addiction, “Parallel Universe” by the Ret Hot Chile Peppers, and even what I think is Bach’s prelude and Fugue in D #5. Sigh… I’ll be listening again soon, I’ll need it, God only knows what will come into my head next…
Today we went to the little village of Margarites and the city of Chania. Both are over on the western side of the island, so there was some driving involved. Butler wanted to hike a gorge over there, but it would take too long to drive there, hike it, and then come back. So they decided that we’d spend one night over in Chania. On the way there, we stopped in at a village called Margarites. I think the guide said that there are only 301 people living there, but they make a tremendous amount of ceramics there with a special kind of clay. The ceramics didn’t do much for me, but Butler really enjoys that type of stuff. I occupied myself by wandering around and enjoying the place.
We eventually ended up in Chania, wow. We all agree that this is the place that we should have stayed, not Herakaion. This place is beautiful, and out hotel (the Amphora) is amazing. This is probably the nicest room I have ever stayed in from a “charm” point of view. I have a balcony that overlooks the old harbor, a loft, and a great view! Check out the pictures… Anyway, there are a gazillion shops and restaurants around here. I’ll do some looking around tomorrow before we go and pick up Butler. Pictures should be up, but I don’t have enough time left on the wireles to put tags on them, I’ll do that later. Tomorrow will be our last day in Crete, and sadly it will be mostly in the car and in Herakaion. The day after we fly back to Athens. Dad and Butler leave that same day, I stick around for one more before I go. This trip has gone by too fast!
I knew that Greece was more “open” to things like nudity and sexuality than the US, and I knew that coming from Yemen, it might be a bit of a shock. I was not prepared for just how open they are. When I was in Athens, there were several “Greek Women” calendars that featured totally naked women on the covers. It wasn’t bad, they weren’t in any sort of sexual situation, just perfect bodies out at the beach. When we got to Crete, things were a bit different. There’s a newsstand right in front of the hotel that sells magazines. In addition to the usual Playboy and Hustler (the European versions with lots O’ nudity on the covers) there were a bunch of much “harder” magazines as well. We’re talking full penetration, right on the cover, right out front.
I was shocked on several levels. There’s the obvious, I find it odd that that kind of graphicness doesn’t faze anyone. I’m also shocked that those sorts of magazines are still being made. I would have thought that the dirty magazine would have gone the way of the adult theater. The internet has made it incredibly easy to have access to pornography. That has obvious downsides, but a not so obvious upside is that it takes that material and puts it people’s bedrooms directly without the need for a shop or newsstand. I wonder why people who want that sort of thing still buy magazines?
I remember a shop that I used to go to when I was in college. It was in Johnson city and I’d drive down from Ithaca on occasion to look for LPs and singles. All he sold was records (not cds, records) and old girly magazines. It was a great place to go to score quality jazz and classical LPs. His usual clientele seemed to be after “Frampton Comes Alive,” Styx’s “Paradise Theatre.” anything by Rush, and maybe a couple old copies of Penthouse forum. I went back there a couple of years ago and sure enough, it was gone. He just couldn’t compete with the internet…
We had been seeing many restaurants advertising “toast” on their boards outside. We thought that was a rather strange thing to advertise. Today I found out that it meant toasted sandwiches. That makes more sense…
There are innumerable roadside shrines here. They don’t look like much, just a white box on a pole with a small cross on top. There is usually a door with a small window in it on there and through it you can see what is inside, usually an icon and some candles. I don’t know what the significance of these things are, or who sets them up and maintains them. You can see many Orthodox priests around, all of them in long robes. I have yet to see one without a full beard.
Will add more as I think of stuff…
People sometimes ask me why my blog has the tone it does. This poster is why. This is a Greek communist election poster from the latest election. There’s good news and bad news… The good news is that the communist party only got around 5% of the vote. The bad news is that the socialist party got around 35% of the vote.
Was no one paying attention to what happened in the Soviet Union? Hell, hasn’t anyone paid attention to what has happened in Greece? This current government is the first non socialist government they’ve had since going to elections. That’s 40 something years of awful economic policy. Guess what? greece is the poorest country in the EU and has some of the worst economic fundamentals as well.
People all over the world want to turn to socialism (and communism) when things are not good. They have to understand that socialism will never eliminate “unfairness,” poverty, or lead to improvements in the standard of living. Socialist governments will make all of those things worse. Every economic theory makes that point and history has born them out. I will continue to trumpet the virtues of capitalism and rule of law in this blog until I no longer worry about seeing signs like this one anywhere in the world.
I’ve got new pictures up, you know the drill by now. Click the “recent” button on the right (under “My pictures”) for the first 12 or so, click on “The rest of them” for, well, the rest of them. I’m going to try to take more pictures of this place, the last couple of days we have been in the car and there never seems to be a good place to stop…