Thoughts on my own Greek Odyssey
The Star-Trib http://www.startribune.com/1513/story/551053.html is running a series on somebody who is traveling around Greece. I was talking to a friend about my own Greek experiences and remembered the following weird episodes...
Muse-O'-Mart: If you are going to Greece, know one thing....you DO NOT NEED to go on a guided tour of anything! O.K., so on our last day, we decided to take a tour of the Oracle at Delphi....kind of ironic because Marcy works on Oracle applications and I like babbling incoherently about people's futures under the influence of methane fumes. Anyhow, as our bus headed north out of Athens (and the guide points out a big swamp that is supposed to be Marathon- I thought it looked like my Grandma's swamp) you start to get into the Parnassus Mountains. Entering the foothills, the guide points out "here are the foothills of the Parnassus Mountains where the muses of ancient mythology lived!" then the bus turns off to a convenience store. I maintain that this is where the muses still get their essentials- milk, smores-fixins, smokes, etc.. Others maintain that it may be where they get slurpees and stale hot dogs. I guess we will leave this one to the scholars...
Laundry...open all day! O.K., so Marcy and I are trecking about Greece and are starting to get kind of grungy...time for some launderin'. Well, somewhere (probably Hania, Crete) we see a laundromat that is "open all day." GREAT! we think, we'll wander around all day and save the laundry for the nighttime- its a 24 hour laundromat. So, about 7:00 we come back to the laundromat to find the proprietor locking up. We mention to him "Hey! I thought you are open all day!" he replied "Yes, and now it is night!" Point taken...he did our laundry anyhow.
Feel the Wrath of the Janissaries! and would you care for a new lamp?...The Janissaries were Turkish mercanaries known (early) for their ferocity and skill in battle. With Greece under Turkish rule for so long, the Turkish influence is hard to miss. In Hania, there is the mighty Mosque of the Janissaries- a wonderful example of Turkish/Islamic architecture. I was kind of miffed to go and look inside to find it had been turned into a furniture store...then again, my ancestors weren't ruled by the Turks for 500 years.
If it looks German and its a tourist, it must be a German...I look kind of Scandinavian (being half German and Norwegian does that to a person). As Marcy and I trekked about, we were constantly talked to in German- usually by someone trying to sell something. Strangely, even the Germans wanted to talk to us in German. One German guy on a bus near Knossos said "Hallo" to me. I said "Hallo" back. This opened a brimmin' bottle of German prattle that I could only shrug at. The guy kept staring at me for 10 minutes, probably wondering what the Hell was wrong with me....More later! -Kyle
The Star-Trib http://www.startribune.com/1513/story/551053.html is running a series on somebody who is traveling around Greece. I was talking to a friend about my own Greek experiences and remembered the following weird episodes...
Muse-O'-Mart: If you are going to Greece, know one thing....you DO NOT NEED to go on a guided tour of anything! O.K., so on our last day, we decided to take a tour of the Oracle at Delphi....kind of ironic because Marcy works on Oracle applications and I like babbling incoherently about people's futures under the influence of methane fumes. Anyhow, as our bus headed north out of Athens (and the guide points out a big swamp that is supposed to be Marathon- I thought it looked like my Grandma's swamp) you start to get into the Parnassus Mountains. Entering the foothills, the guide points out "here are the foothills of the Parnassus Mountains where the muses of ancient mythology lived!" then the bus turns off to a convenience store. I maintain that this is where the muses still get their essentials- milk, smores-fixins, smokes, etc.. Others maintain that it may be where they get slurpees and stale hot dogs. I guess we will leave this one to the scholars...
Laundry...open all day! O.K., so Marcy and I are trecking about Greece and are starting to get kind of grungy...time for some launderin'. Well, somewhere (probably Hania, Crete) we see a laundromat that is "open all day." GREAT! we think, we'll wander around all day and save the laundry for the nighttime- its a 24 hour laundromat. So, about 7:00 we come back to the laundromat to find the proprietor locking up. We mention to him "Hey! I thought you are open all day!" he replied "Yes, and now it is night!" Point taken...he did our laundry anyhow.
Feel the Wrath of the Janissaries! and would you care for a new lamp?...The Janissaries were Turkish mercanaries known (early) for their ferocity and skill in battle. With Greece under Turkish rule for so long, the Turkish influence is hard to miss. In Hania, there is the mighty Mosque of the Janissaries- a wonderful example of Turkish/Islamic architecture. I was kind of miffed to go and look inside to find it had been turned into a furniture store...then again, my ancestors weren't ruled by the Turks for 500 years.
If it looks German and its a tourist, it must be a German...I look kind of Scandinavian (being half German and Norwegian does that to a person). As Marcy and I trekked about, we were constantly talked to in German- usually by someone trying to sell something. Strangely, even the Germans wanted to talk to us in German. One German guy on a bus near Knossos said "Hallo" to me. I said "Hallo" back. This opened a brimmin' bottle of German prattle that I could only shrug at. The guy kept staring at me for 10 minutes, probably wondering what the Hell was wrong with me....More later! -Kyle
posted by LMI1 at 7:44 PM
3 Comments:
I think that it is only fair to add that you may be of German and Norwegian descent, but that you were a skinny man trekking around with a "sturdy" woman. I would like to think that I added to the constant deluge of Germans trying to talk to us!
Traveling is so much fun! Thanks for sharing your stories.
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