Aegina Island, 2 Euro plastic wine bottles & endless Greek salad

The ferry to Aegina from Athens was supposed to take an hour so we were not at all surprised when we didn't arrive until an hour and forty minutes after departure. Luckily, we were sleep deprived (meaning we didn't get our usual 10 hours) and used the time to nap out in the ocean with a nice, cool breeze blowing over us and the other three passengers on the straining ferry boat. Aghia Marina, our stop, was the second docking along the ferry's route. We hopped off and eagerly climbed the hill leading from the dock to our hotel in hopes of finding a little beach side luxury before becoming paupers in Italy.

Our hopes were realized and the only complaint we could possibly make is against Greece in general, not the hotel in particular, and is in regards to the fact they don't let you flush toilet paper anywhere in the country, a nasty habit I had thought we left behind in Southeast Asia. Our room had a balcony complete with table and two chairs. We had our own private bathroom and shower, with a real shower curtain!! And best of all, there was a fridge in our room to keep our never ending supply of 2 Euro plastic bottles of rose and retsina cold for our afternoon drinking.

Breakfast was included and it had a sufficient supply of raw materials so that not even the pickiest among the guests could go away hungry. Thanks to the fact that their cereal supply is all completely bland and stale, I discovered that the white whipped substance Amir correctly identified as Greek yogurt is totally delicious when coupled with honey. They also offer up Amir's favorite traveling food, ham and cheese sandwiches, on the buffet line which makes for a hearty start to the day. For those of you who are coffee connoisseurs, I'll spare you a description of the vat of burnt coffee they provide. But I dig it. Add enough sugar and milk to anything and you'd be hard-pressed not to enjoy it. There's always tea, anyway.

We have managed to book ourselves a room very near to the only "sandy" beach on the entire island. What that actually means is that when there is low tide, there is enough room between the water and the rock face to erect an umbrella and beach mats, both courtesy of the hotel and both pretty much on their last legs. The best part of the free hotel accessories has been the tennis ball Amir discovered amongst a bunch of partially deflated beach balls. We've spent hours and hours tossing that tennis ball around in the water. You know what the best part of playing catch in the water is? The fact that no one has to go running after the ball when a catch is missed. You just reach behind you and pick it up with almost no effort whatsoever.

Every time we've been out for dinner here, I've ordered the Greek salad and Amir has ordered something he's expected will rock his world. Thus far, I've been the clear but reluctant winner because Aegina (pronounced Ay-gee-nuh, hard G) is renowned for its excellent produce much more so than its spaghetti carbonara or super dry chicken (thank god for mayo and ketchup). Tonight is our last night on our island paradise and I'm determined to find Amir a dinner worth its weight in gold. I'm thinking that the best way to skin this cat is to get him to order something very Greek, like moussaka or pasticcio, since Greeks can't possibly foul up their own national dishes, can they?

Tomorrow we leave on a 48-hour suicide mission bound for Rome. I can't even describe our journey in detail because I'm trying to block it from my consciousness. But it basically entails a ferry, metro, train, ferry, walking, train, metro and bus before we collapse on our dorm room beds in some ghetto hostel with moldy showers in a hostel that we chose for its proximity to the train station. Once we recover from that trip, we'll write about the wonders of modern day Rome and all its glory.

Athens: dirty but ancient

Our train arrived in Athens in the mid-afternoon which meant that by the time we walked to our hostel nearby and got settled in, we had given up on the idea of doing any major sightseeing that day. Instead, we contented ourselves with discovering the location of a nearby grocery store offering slim pickings in the fresh fruit department but great deals on 2 Euro plastic bottles of retsina. We also became acquainted with a cheap eatery a block from the market where we ended up eating 2 meals a day for the length of our time in Athens. I think I'd rather be struck dead than see another kebab pita sandwich again. Amir can't get enough of them, though.

On the next morning, we equipped ourselves for a full day of sightseeing and set off by Metro in search of the Acropolis. Once there, we quickly coined new terms for the Euroskanks abounding there that were area appropriate. Such as, Acropohoes, Acroposluts and pitachippies. Tickets to get into the Acropolis cost us 12 Euro each which, when combined with our hostel, left us 2 Euros for meals if we had stuck with our budget.

The Acropolis, with its Parthenon and Temple of Dionysus, was very, very old. Some group or other was in the midst of rehabilitating it so we could clearly see the old, yellowy colored stone contrasted sharply with the new white stone they were using to fill in the gaps. We walked around the ruins, all twelve columns of them, and then found ourselves wondering, "What next?" From the viewpoint at the far end of the Acropolis, we could see the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian's Library and some other equally decrepit ruins. So we basically saw the glory of Athens' antiquity in 40 minutes.

Not to be deterred from getting our city's worth, we walked onward and upward to the National Gardens a few blocks away where, for no cost whatsoever, we could enjoy a fountain that spit up water in amusing patterns, weird stone head sculptures and a misplaced zoo of goats, roosters and peacocks. There wasn't much to see on the botanical front, however. Afterwards, we decided to walk most of the way home to get a better flavor on Athens city living. What we found were boutique shops no one in Greece could afford, loads of cheap outdoor cafes filled with youth and age alike, a somewhat dirty and tacky attempt at a grand square (Omonia) in the middle of downtown and then back to the urine-smelling immigrant section where our hostel was located.

The next day, having exhausted our more ancient sightseeing options, we set off to explore both the flea and the Sunday markets near the Syntagma square, which Amir referred to as the stigmata square. We soon found out that prayer beads are all the rage in Athens amongst the Greek Orthodox. Who knew? Athenians are also very fond of cheap watches, used clothing and porno mags. These are the signs of a weakening economy, for sure.

The day after our marketing excursion, we took ourselves off to Piraeus Port by Metro and caught the Alexandros ferry to the lovely island sanctuary of Aegina where we booked ourselves in for a true vacation within a vacation.

Lake Ohrid: the almost vacation

We made it to Ohrid relatively painlessly by a 3 1/2 hour bus trip. At the bus station in Ohrid, a few taxi drivers offered to rip us off excessively but we bypassed them in favor of a metered taxi. There was no one at the hostel when we arrived so Amir went looking in the most obvious spot, the bar next door, and found the owner having a drink and chat with the bartender. Our room was a good deal lovelier than either of us had expected, complete with en suite bathroom and a balcony overlooking the lake just a few meters away. Sadly, we only got to enjoy it for one night before being awoken at 8:30am the next morning to the lovely sound of jackhammering going on in the alley next door. We found out that no construction is allowed during the summer tourist months and we had just missed the end of summer mark.

By 10am, we had relocated to a new hostel just a few blocks away with a room almost as nice with the added bonus of a kitchen, not that we had any plans to cook. The lake was absolutely beautiful and quite large. You could see straight through to the bottom where all the tiny fish were nibbling on our feet and calves. It was like a fish spa but much less expensive.

We spent our few days at Lake Ohrid mostly dealing long distance with a plumbing issue back home so the totally relaxing vacation within a vacation ended up not materializing. In spite of being somewhat chained to our laptop and Skype for those few days, we did manage to enjoy swimming in the lake, racing to the buoy and back, reading on the patio under an umbrella, and gorging ourselves in oodles of shopska salads (tomato, cucumber, black olives and shredded white Macedonian cheese).

When we left Ohrid, we took the bus all the way back to Skopje and then boarded a train (late, as usual) bound for Thessaloniki, Greece where we intended to spend the night and catch a train to Athens the next day.

Skopje, Macedonia

Last Thursday, we left Nis, Serbia for Skopje, Macedonia. Our train was scheduled to leave Nis at 12:15 but we knew from experience that the train runs a bit late. What we didn't know was that is runs 70 minutes late. By the time we arrived in Skopje, we were running a total of one and a half hours late. When we met up with our friends Dimi and Michelle, formerly of DC, and their 4-year old daughter Elena, Dimi explained that the Serbian and Macedonian train systems are basically on their last legs. It is considered to be the lowest form of transportation and Dimi had never taken a train or known any Macedonian who has. Now we know.

We spent Friday through Sunday hanging out with Dimi, Michelle and Elena and had a wonderful time. Friday, Dimi took off early from work and gave us a tour of Skopje, including the Ottoman style fortress, the former home of Mother Teresa (it was torn down by the government to make way for a road), an architectural hodgepodge of a shrine to Mother Teresa, and a Macedonian history museum containing about 7 exhibits ranging from early pottery and bronze tools to a diagram of Skopje as it was originally designed by a Japanese architect but not actually built.

Saturday was nonstop rain so we all headed out to see what Macedonians like to do on rainy weekends...shop at the mall. Three malls later, Dimi, Michelle and Elena took us out for a traditional Macedonian lunch. The food was amazing! We ate seeded breadsticks with two types of dipping sauces; two Greek-esque salads with chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and white or feta cheese; thick and fluffy pita bread; white beans served up cassoulet style; and a meat platter containing pork chops, lamb sausage and a bacon-wrapped, cheese stuffed pork sausage. Which meat do you think was Amir's favorite?

On Sunday we all piled in the car and headed off for lunch and a nature walk at a canyon. The weather was beautiful, sunny and blue skies. Later in the afternoon, we tried the country's best ice cream, according to Michelle, followed later on by dinner at an Indian restaurant. Let's just say that Macedonian restaurateurs haven't quite figured out the concept of saag paneer. It came out as a spinach dip that you might find at any summer block party in the States.

Today is Monday and we have bid Dimi, Michelle and Elena goodbye as they have gone to work, work and school. Amir and I are scheduled for morning haircuts and then we'll pack up and head out by bus to Lake Ohrid, about two and a half hours away from Skopje, where we will spend a few days checking out what some claim to be one of Europe's largest and cleanest lakes. It also has so many churches surrounding it that some claim there is a church for every day of the year. After Ohrid, we'll either head straight to Thessaloniki, Greece by bus or pass back through Skopje in order to get their by train. (Can't wait for more Macedonian trains.)

Catching up to Sept 1st (our anniversary)

SLOVENIA

After we left Peter's in Denmark, we decided to spend a few days at Lake Bohinj in Slovenia before meeting up with our friend Steve Bergen in Budapest for a week. It took us about 24 hours by train to get from Denmark to Slovenia. We booked ourselves into a small scale hostel and the owner picked us up from the train station, which is a service we always appreciate.

The highlights of Stara Fuzina (tiny town near Lake Bohinj) were eating out at the town's only restaurant that serves food where we tried fried cheese for the first time and discovered that there is no such thing as salad dressing in Slovenia. Fried cheese is a breaded , deep fried, giant triangle of mozzarella served with fries and mayo. It's Slovenia's answer to a 4x4 (4 burgers and 4 slices of cheese) at In-N-Out Burger (a west coast thing) with respect to potential coronary. We also loved the lake itself. We walked around all 12km of it twice in the two days we were there. Slovenia is the most gorgeous country we have visited thus far. It looks like Austria, at least what we could see of it from the train window.

HUNGARY

We made endless jokes about being hungry in Hungary that I'll spare you all in this blog. We met up with our friend Steve Bergen who was in Sweden on a conference the week before. Steve managed to find us the best apartment to rent so we had kitchen facilities and laundry-yay!-for the whole week. The city was very walkable so we did a walking tour of it the first day together.

Bergen and I went to the Budapest History Museum the next day. It was the weirdest museum I have ever been in. There were 4 floors of items spanning the dinosaur age to the modern art period in the 20th century. And the exhibits were in no kind of sequential order whatsoever. The highlights were 1) wandering up and down and up and down stairs in the maze-like cave of a basement that could have been an M. C. Escher painting and 2) the fact that they actually had peep holes in the wall of one room labeled 18+ that showed nudie pictures from the early 1900s.

On our last full day there, we all went to the thermal baths. There were 20+ baths of varying temperatures as well as different temperature saunas. It was a trip. The best were the three outdoor baths because it was a beautiful, sunny day and it made for the best people watching. Without their clothes on, we discovered that Europeans are definitely a fitter group than Americans are as a whole (Los Angeles excepted).

When we said a sad farewell to Bergen and sent him back to the miserable heat and humidity of DC, we went east to Eger for a few days of wine tasting. There is a horseshoe of cellar-like wineries on the edge of the town abutting the vineyards that are numbered and rated on a grape scale of 1 to 3. We visited almost all the 3-grape wineries and some of the lesser ones just for fun. The best wine we had was a local variety called Bikaner, or Bull's Blood, a red that was like a cab with an infusion of tempranillo. And at 3.50 Euros per bottle, who wouldn't drink it for breakfast, lunch and dinner? By the way, if you bring your own plastic 1L or 2L bottle, the wineries will fill you up for a Euro or two. Can we say AWESOME?

CROATIA

From Eger, we went straight to Zagreb for a quick one day tour of the city. It is another very walkable city and we got to see all the main attractions (churches, botanical gardens and cobblestony squares) by 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Our next train to Split didn't leave until 10pm, though, which meant several more hours to fill. Thank god for movie theaters and pizza restaurants. Sad to say, there was a dearth of English language movies which means we are now qualified to tell you all to stay as far away from the movie The Last Airbender as you possibly can. It didn't help matters much that Croatians love to talk during English language movies because they don't need to hear thanks to the subtitles. If we had had popcorn handy, we would have probably gotten into a brawl with the loud hooligans in the row behind us.

Split is a beach town without the beach. It's absolutely stunning with its harbor (pictures to come) and historic stone fortress relics and cobblestone streets not large enough for vehicular traffic. The hostel we stayed at had no kitchen facilities and we couldn't afford the restaurants so we made do with two days of sandwiches, cereal and beer. Both days in Split, we went swimming in the ocean. There are no beaches. Instead, there are cement walkways with benches that people reserve by covering them over with towels. From 6am to noon, the waters are crowded with septuagenarians, octogenarians and canes. After noon, the older crowd is replaced by a passel of swarming children playing a game of hit the tiny ball to one another. As you can imagine, there were plenty of tiny balls to be found in Split.

SERBIA

After Split, we went to Belgrade and then Nis en route to Skopje, Macedonia where we intend to spend a few days with our friends Dimi and Michelle Osmanli and family who moved their from DC 3 or 4 years back. Our Eurail pass doesn't cover Serbia or Macedonia but, fortunately for us, those countries are cheap enough for us to afford the train fares sans pass.

Belgrade has a citadel with WWI era canons lining the entrance as a warning to all not to mess with Serbia's superior firepower. A few blocks from the citadel is a pedestrian street lined with restaurants and overpriced stores. The best part of our time in Belgrade was eating lunch at a Serbian restaurant just off the pedestrian strip. Our waiter spoke zero English which shouldn't have been a problem as we ordered by pointing the dishes on the menu we wanted to order. Literally three tries later, we ended up, finally, with the dishes we had actually ordered. Who knew pointing to items on a menu could end so badly? We had to involve the head waiter who spoke enough English for us to communicate to him that we still didn't have the right dishes. As a saving grace, the white beans with sausage and the grilled pork with boulangere potatoes were delicious...after we poured off a cupful of oil from the potatoes.

We weren't thrilled with our hostel in Belgrade so instead of extending our stay two days, we opted to move down the train line to Nis en route to Skopje. Nis (pronounced Neesh) is a decent sized town complete with its own citadel and cobblestoned town square. The best part about the downtown is the super cheap shopping options. We both need new sneakers, having walked the last vestige of comfort out of our current 4-year old pairs, so we'll be spending 10 Euros each for new pairs here. Yay cheap former Yugoslavia countries!

It is our 3rd year anniversary today. We will celebrate by buying anniversary sneakers and finding a lovely restaurant to have dinner at. Amir started the morning with his favorite celebratory beverage, champagne. I'm starting mine with my favorite non-popcorn food, cereal. We walked to a giant Costco-like grocery store yesterday and picked up some blackberry wine, a bottle of local red called Verac and a box of Reisling so we should have plenty of afternoon beverage options. Happy Anniversary!

Tomorrow, onward and southward to Skopje.