Pennsylvania Adventures

On the 4th of July, we didn't go to any barbeques or fireworks shows; instead, we got on a plane and flew to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania!  We had a wedding in PA on Saturday, so we decided to extend the trip a little since neither of us had seen much of Pennsylvania before.  (I had actually been to PA a couple times, but only because the most convenient way to get to WVU to visit JW while he attended there was to fly into Pittsburg and then drive into West Virginia.)

We did the traditional Philadelphia things, like the Liberty Bell, ...

saw Independence Hall, which is just a few steps from the Liberty Bell, ...

and visited the Constitution Center on the other end of Independence Mall.

We did all the Independence sites on July 5th.  It was kind of nice to visit those things so close to our country's 237 birthday the day before. 

We also made sure to try out the local fare: cheese steak, soft pretzel, and several local restaurants along the way.

At one restaurant, they served a head of garlic on a bed of bread as an appetizer.  I'd never seen so much garlic in a prepared dish - I thought it was picture worthy.

For the wedding, we headed into the heart of PA to Northampton and Bethlehem.  Marc and Karina Ripper had a nice and personal wedding - They made it their own in a classy way.

The ceremony was at the Roxy Theatre.  This picture is from before the ceremony started.

And the reception was at the Bethlehem Masonic Temple.  Continuing the film theme with spinning film like table decor, ...

and slides as table place cards.

It was a nice time and we were glad to celebrate with Karina and Marc.  I didn't actually get a picture of the happy couple at the wedding though, so here's a picture of them from our wedding a couple years ago:

Congrats to Marc and Karina Ripper!

The Waltons Take On Cayman

She's alive!  This has been my longest drought in blog posts since I started this blog, but never fear, we're alive and well... and busy with work and life... thus, reduced blogging.  Honestly, I haven't felt like I have much exciting to write about... just the same ol', same ol'.  I kept thinking I'd post when we had news to share, and I got a little bored waiting for there to be news.  (For those who get my hint, no, there's indeed nothing to share)

But some exciting stuff has been happening!  The Waltons (+ John -- because he only married a Walton) took a week long trip to Grand Cayman last month.  It was the first time the 5 of us traveled together, and it was a success!

The view from our condo.

Standing at the pool looking back at our condo.

We stayed in a 3 bedroom condo on Seven-Mile Beach.  There was a kitchen, washer/dryer, and nice living and dining space.  It was within walking distance of a grocery store and a few restaurants that we visited during our stay.  Best of all, our condo opened up onto the pool area with just a few short steps to get to the beach.

 

There were tons of these little guys running around

My Dad, brother, and I went diving almost every day... I logged 12 dives for a total of 9 hours and 45 minutes of diving.  We dove with a great company called "Living the Dream Divers" - If you're ever planning on diving Grand Cayman, you must dive with these guys... we saw several of the other dive operations while we were there and researched many before we left... these guys are definitely the best.  We had an awesome time! 

We saw turtles, sharks, eel, and sting rays... lots of sting rays.  We also drove a wall where the drop goes down to 6,000 feet.  It was beautiful - My diving experience is admittedly limited, but that was the best diving I've ever experienced.  I don't have any diving pictures though because Jonathan has a Go Pro camera that he used on all the dives, so I'm waiting on him to edit down the footage.

And we got to see beautiful sunsets every night!

When we weren't diving, we were relaxing on the beach, reading, watching Kindle videos, or exploring George Town (the capital city) to find a highly-recommended Jerk chicken booth.

All in All, it was a good time.  I'll post a little more if/when I get pictures from the rest of the family ;-)

Greece 2012: Part 5 - Miscellaneous Other Stuff

There are few things about our trip that didn't really fit into a day by day recount, so I figured I'd write a summary post with all the other stuff. It may seem long overdue, but here it is: My 5th and final post about our trip to Greece.

Greek Language

I know a little Greek and have been practicing with John's Mom to learn Greek.  We do weekly lessons when the Hansens are in the US.  While we were in Greece, I could understand a little of what people were saying in Greek, but I wasn't very good at saying things back.  When I did say things, like "I like this food" or "Thank you" or other simple things, people smiled and seemed very impressed at the little I did know.

Most of the time though, I relied on John and his Mom to do my talking.  I was generally pleased with myself if I could keep up with what the conversation was about.  For example, I would know when they were talking about politics, but I couldn't tell you where they stood on any issues.   

Here's a little Greek for you: Με λενε Μαρλήτα Χανσεν (Which is pronounced "me lene Marleta Hansen" with all short 'e' sounds in "me lene")  It means "My name is Marleta Hansen"... well, literally, it's actually "They call me Marleta Hansen," but that's sounds odd in English.

Passing the Time

We kept ourselves pretty busy, but there was some down time.  Since I've been learning to crochet, I brought a couple of simple, "one-ball" projects to work on during flights and other free times.

The 2 scarves I started on the trip.  Green is a North Texas, "manly" scarf for John and the Purple is a fun light-weight scarf pattern.

We also brought several books.  On the trip (mostly while we were on the beach), I read the first Game of Thrones book and started the second.  I wish I had more time for reading when I'm home... it's been almost 2 months since we got back and I'm still on Game of Thrones book 2.

Greek Politics

While we were in Greece, most of the news and a lot of the conversation was about the election coming up on June 17.  Forgive me if any of my Greek Politics explanations are slightly off, but I thought I'd give a brief overview of what's going on because that seems to be pretty interesting to folks I talk to in the US.  Here's what I understand from my time there and some very limited research to fill in a couple holes:

Greek government is a little different than in the US.  They elect parties, not individuals; then, based on percentage vote, the seats in Parliament are portioned out.  The party (or coalition of parties) with the majority of Parliamentary seats (at least 151) leads the government.  Previously, Greece has been a predominately 2 party system with a liberal party (Pasok) and a conservative party (New Democracy).  In the first election of 2012 however, new parties entered the scene, which split the vote in such a way that no party had enough vote to secure enough Parliamentary seats, and the top vote getting party (New Democracy) was not able to form a coalition with other parties to reach the majority (151 seats) before one of the new parties on the scene (Syriza) called for a new vote.

Top 7 Parties in June 17th Elections - Depicted left to right as far Left-Winged to far Right-Winged - Click to Enlarge

The new vote was set for June 17th, about a week after we returned from Greece.  Here's a little bit about the parties running in that election:

• New Democracy - One of the original 2 party system.  Think Republican Party in the US (maybe not the same politics, but the major conservative party in the country).  Got the most votes in May 6th elections, but couldn't get enough seats to "form a government".  New Democracy also won the June 17th elections and the second time around, they formed a coalition with 2 other parties to successfully form a majority, but we didn't know any election results while we were there.
• Pasok - The other party from the original 2 parties.  Think Democratic Party as a similar party in the US.  Pasok, despite being one of only 2 parties previously, came in 3rd in the June 17th elections.  Pasok is one of 2 parties with which New Democracy joined as a coalition after June 17th to secure a majority.
• Independent Greeks - I explain this one next because it also has a similar counterpart in the American parties - the Tea Party.  Again, like New Democracy, not necessarily the same politics, but similar in that Independent Greeks split off from New Democracy (major conservative party) to form a more Right-Winged party. (Though, unlike the Tea Party, which is more like a sub-set of the Republican party, Independent Greeks is a separate party.)  Independent Greeks came in 4th in the June 17th elections and is not a part of the coalition majority.
• Syriza - This is a new and fairly popular party that split off from Pasok to form a more Left-Winged party (basically the opposite of how Independent Greeks split from New Democracy).  This is the party that lead the charge for a new election after no majority was achieved in the May 6th election.  Syriza is also important because their stance was that Greece could pull out of the Euro Zone if that's what it took to end the austerity measures. Syriza got the 2nd most votes in June 17th election, but they are not a part of the coalition majority.
• Democratic Left - This party falls between Pasok and Syriza on political issues.  One of the lower vote getting parties on June 17th (6th out of the 7), but they are the 3rd party in the coalition with New Democracy and Pasok that currently holds the needed majority to form a government in Greece.
• KKE - The Communists.  They got the lowest vote count of the top 7 parties in the June 17th election, but they have a lot more representation than a communist party would get in the US.
• Golden Dawn - This one is the most shocking to me... They are the Neo Nazi party.  Not exactly Hitler's politics, but probably not that far either.  Many people we talked to in Greece seemed surprised by the following this party got.  They've been around in Greece for a while, but they were more like a club (I think like you might find some Neo Nazi gatherings in some homes in the US), but it is new for them to be a reasonably popular political party - They got 18 seats in the June 17th election (coming in 5th of the 7 parties).  The bigger news for Golden Dawn while we were in Greece was that the Golden Dawn representative (who was on release from prison during the election - go figure) hit the KKE representative 3 times during a live TV interview/debate between the 7 parties before he was restrained by others.

The economic troubles were visible wherever we went and there were political posters splattered about offering their promises of delivery.  We saw lots of empty store fronts - In non-touristy areas, you couldn't go a block without seeing an empty store and malls once full of stores were a third full at best.  We came across a few stores with notes on the doors from the previous owners thanking customers for years of patronage and apologizing for having to close.  We even saw an electronics store down the street from the apartment in Holargos close while we were there.

We also heard stories of lengthened hours, cut wages, and very few available jobs.  Most people seemed to think that the major decision facing the country was whether or not Greece should leave the Euro Zone.  The new coalition government (as you probably know since the Euro has not collapsed) supported staying in the Euro Zone, which for the time being means a continuation of the austerity measure and no near-term relief for those feeling the economic struggles in Greece.

Greek Culture

A statue of Pericles down the street from the apartment in Holargos.  Pericles is one of John's favorite historical Greek figures and he is from Holargos, which is why there's a statue in the neighborhood.  The full body statue replaced an older bust of Pericles.

Being a Guest

There's a lot of culture to being a guest in Greece - You have to expect to eat - A Lot!  Everyone was very welcoming.  We never went to someone's house without them insisting that we eat, and some were upset when we couldn't come by a meal time so they could feed us more... not that it being non-meal time stopped them from serving us lots and lots of sweets.

By the way, if you've been wondering why I've been saying "sweets" a lot in my posts about Greece, it's because that's what the Greeks call them.  They'll eat cake and ice cream and cookies and pies any time of day and call them "sweets" (well, actually, they call them "Gleeka" which is the Greek word for "Sweets").

Decor

The decor was also interesting. Some decor is like what we see in the US, some is what you'd expect of Greece from movies, but others had elaborate and ornate decor that I didn't expect at all.  All the flooring in Greece is marble, which already makes things seem fancy.  There were times when I wondered if we were supposed to sit in certain chairs because their style was so fancy, but on closer examination, you could tell they use the fancy furniture daily.  It was interesting to observe in the houses of all the family and friends we visited.

Driving

Driving is a little bit like an extreme sport in Greece, particularly the parking.  We saw one car that had actually smashed in the bumper of the car in front of it to park.  Any time we were walking near roads, we'd have to get off the sidewalk once or twice a block to go around the car parked on the sidewalk... some people just walk in the roads to avoid this problem, but then you have to look out for the moving cars that squeeze through all the parked ones.  Apparently, when the streets were laid out in Greece hundreds or thousands of years ago, no one planned for car parking space.

Time

Time in Greece is more of a General concept than an exercise in precision.  Arriving "on time" would likely catch someone off guard and unprepared, and nothing started when it said it would.  Also, dinner is very late.  Most people don't even think about eating before 9 or 10 at night and most restaurants are open until midnight or even later.

Summary

All in all, John and I were glad that we were both able to get away from work for 2 weeks and make the trek over to Greece.  I enjoyed getting to meet family and see the sites.  I'd been to Greece once before, but we were only in the country for a few days that time as a part of a trip to Italy and Greece.  I got to see and take in a lot more on this trip... and this time I spoke a little Greek, so that helped too.  We may not be able to take many more trips like this just the 2 of us (*wink* *fingers crossed*), so we're glad we got the chance to enjoy some time away. 

Greece 2012: Part 4 - Last Few Days in Athens

This is post 4 of a 5 part series about our trip to Greece.  There are less pictures in this post because for our last few days in Greece, we didn't see many "sites"; instead, we spent much of our time catching up with friends and family in Athens.
 

Day 12 - June 7

On Day 12, we ate breakfast at home and relaxed a bit before heading back to downtown Athens.  We stopped at Monasteraki (which means "little Monastery" and is a metro stop near a square with a little monastery in it... thus the name). We ate souvlaki and gyros for lunch right off the square.  That area is very touristy, just down the street from the Acropolis so several of the restaurants were pretty forceful in trying to get us to eat there.  In the end, we found a table at a restaurant that didn't accost us to eat at it.

After a nice lunch, we did a little shopping at Plaka (the flea market we went to earlier in the trip, which is conveniently just off Monasteraki).  We went back to a couple of the shops we had noted from earlier and actually made some purchases this time.  We bought a few souvenirs to give away back home and some paintings for our house.  Then, we returned home for a little more computer maintenance before dinner. (We left John's computer with his parents, so we were getting it setup for them to use)

A painting we bought for over our mantle... we haven't quite made it out to get these framed yet.

Another smaller painting we bought to pair with the painting I bought in Greece back in 2004 (the only other time I've been to Greece... that was before I knew John).

For dinner, we went to Meropi's house.  If you remember from earlier posts, Meropi is Eugenia's good friend who owns a frame shop.  We went out to dinner with her one night in the first week of our trip, and this night we went to her house to have dinner with Meropi and her two daughters, Maria and Eva.  It was a fabulous feast and great company.  I particularly enjoyed chatting with Maria and Eva who speak excellent English and shared fun memories of John as a kid!

Day 13 - June 8

Day 13 started with another breakfast at home before we had company come visit us at John's parents' apartment.  Nota (a cousin), Yanni (Nota's boyfriend), and Flora (another cousin, Nota's sister), came over for a bit to visit and say hi. Much Greek was spoken... I caught a word here and there, but John enjoyed getting to catch up with his family.

We had lunch at home, and finally headed out for the day to go to Theo Taki's house.  Taki is a cousin (Sophia's brother - we met Sophia in the first week).  We had lots of sweets at Taki's house and enjoyed looking at old pictures of Eugenia as a child and young adult.  Taki's wife looks a bit like my Aunt Myra, so John kept making jokes about not knowing that Myra lived in Greece, etc.  Of course, we were speaking in English and she didn't understand, but it was fun none the less.  Taki is a joker, so we all had several good laughs that afternoon despite the language barrier.

After leaving Taki's place, we went to John's Godparents' house for dinner.  We had a nice dinner and some sweets.  We also met their 2 daughters and their new granddaughter.  John's Godmother and their 2 daughters all spoke English, so that made for some fun conversation.  One of the daughters (the one with a new baby) had gotten married around the same time as John and I, so there was a lot of talk about weddings and when John and I were going to have a kid.  We watched their wedding video; it was neat to see a Greek Orthodox wedding and make comparisons.  And we all had a good laugh when John's Godfather (from his baptism into the Greek Orthodox Church) asked John what religion he was.

All in all Day 13 was one of my favorites because I got to meet so many neat people.

Day 14 - June 9

For our last full day in Greece, we met up with a family friend named Peggy (lest you thinking she's not Greek, "Peggy" is just the English version of her name).  Peggy lives close to the beach, so we had lunch at a seafood restaurant right on the beach.  It was a bit windy, but the company was very nice.  Peggy also speaks English, which made for more conversation than some of our other visits.

This church was at the square where we met Peggy.  I know nothing about it.  It was just there and pretty.  I thought I'd throw this picture in the post since this post is light on photos.

View from our table at lunch

Another view from our table

Looking out to the sea from our table

Another nearby beach

After lunch, we went back to Peggy's place for some ice cream and a little more socializing before heading by to Holargos. 

In the afternoon, we sadly packed our things to prepare for our early morning flight the next morning.  We had one last dinner at the taverna around the corner and tucked into bed early.

Day 15 - June 10

We left the apartment in Holargos at about 4 am Sunday morning.  Our flight from Athens left at 7:20 am and arrived in Madrid 4 hours later at 10:20 am.  We had 2.5 hours in Madrid to get a little non-airplane food before our next flight that left Madrid at 1:00 pm and arrived in Dallas at 4:50 pm (11 hours later).

Thanks to the lovely Jen who picked us up at the airport, we were home by about 6 pm (which is 2 am in Greece... about 22 hours since we'd left John's parent's apartment that morning). 

Needless to say, we were exhausted.  Also, we both worked the next day. :)

Stay tuned for one more post about our trip to Greece - As you can probably tell, that will be a more general post, since I've covered every day of the trip in the first 4 posts.

Greece 2012: Part 3 - On the Beach in Tolo

Part 3 of 5 on our trip to Greece...

Day 7 - June 2

On Day 7, we ventured out of Athens. We went to Tolo, which is a touristy, beach town. We woke up relatively early and had breakfast from the bakery again.  Then we took the metro to the other side of Athens, where we got a taxi to the bus station.  A bus took us to Naflio, and from there we tool a taxi to our hotel in Tolo, which is just 15 minutes from Naflio.

Trip from Athens to Tolo - Click to Enlarge (Blue and Red circles explained in Day 8)

The hotel owner is a family friend, so we chatted with him for a few minutes and then headed up to our room.  I should say "Our Room with a View".  I just stood on the balcony and stared out for quite some time... it was beautiful.

From our balcony

Looking down from the balcony, we literally could have dropped things in the water.

Looking to the right from our balcony

The beach was off to the left from our balcony

I stepped back to get the balcony in the picture... just to prove I wasn't lying... these really are from our balcony

Standing in the same spot as the photo above, I turned around and took a picture into the room... See my happy relaxing husband? :)

After John broke my trance, we went down and walked along the beach and scoped out the restaurants of the town.  We discovered that there were 3 different ice cream shops, so we got some ice cream.  (By the end of our stay in Tolo, we tried all 3)  We also talked to the hotel desk about day cruises.  The only day of our stay that there was a cruise was Sunday (the very next day), so we booked a cruise to Hydra and Spetses.

We found a restaurant where the Greek National Basketball League championship final game was playing and watched that through dinner.  Then, we tucked in early that night because we had an early call in the morning for the cruise.

Day 8 - June 3

Day 8 was one of our earliest mornings.  We woke early for cruise and were downstairs for breakfast at the hotel by 7am, so we could eat and get a ride to the port for our cruise that departed at 8:30.

Leaving Tolo... it's hard to point out, but one of the buildings you can see is our hotel.

John being John :)

Spetses - We passed it on the way to Hydra and came back later.

Our first stop at Hydra came after 3 hours on the boat. (On the map earlier in this post Hydra is circled in Blue) Hydra, for those of you new to Greek, is pronounced: EE-dra, not: Hi-dra.  Hydra is famous for its naval contributions through Greek history and for the fact that they do not allow cars.  People get around on donkeys if they can't get by on foot, with an exception for garbage trucks... there are a few of those on the island and we did see one while we were there.

On Hydra, we walked around the bay at the port, which was very pretty.  We found a spot for some lunch and just enjoyed the island atmosphere.

Coming up to Hydra from the boat

Our Boat - It had to leave the port because there wasn't space for all the day cruise ships that come and go to be there at once.  It went around the corner and came back when it was time for us to go.

John sees what the statue sees.

Donkeys

Now we're on the other side of the bay - you can see the statue we were taking pictures with over there.

More donkeys

The monastery on the island.

After 2.5 hours on the island, we got back on the boat to go to Spetses (Circled in Red in the map pictured earlier).  The boat had gone past Spetses to get to Hydra, so this was a much shorter ride.  Spetses is famous for Bouboulina, who was a female Greek Naval Admiral.  (Well, it was actually the Russians who gave her the title of Admiral posthumously, but she was still the highest ranking woman in Greek naval history)

We first went to the Bouboulina museum, but we discovered that a tour had just started and another would be starting in 45 minutes that should still give us time to get back to the boat.  We wandered around the port area a little before returning to the museum.

Coming up to Spetses on the boat.  That big building is a hotel.

A statue of Bouboulina

 
At the museum, we found a very large crowd.  Apparently, it was a Greek National holiday (not sure what), and a lot of Greek people were using their holiday to visit the museum.  Thus, there weren't tour guides left to do an English tour.  Luckily the ticket seller spoke excellent English and offered to give us an unofficial tour.  Thanks Linda!

Bouboulina's house

Her scarf - It has silver threading

A model of her ship

A painting of Bouboulina that looks eerily like Washington Crossing the Delaware (small picture to the left)... but this one's earlier...

After our museum tour, we went straight back to the boat and we were back to Tolo around 7 pm.  We found a grill that served gyros (what you would traditionally see as the Greek pita sandwhich) and souvlaki (skewered grilled meat) for dinner, and we had ice cream for desert from a shop down the street.  Day 8 was a fun adventure, but we were both ready to hit the sack by the end.

Day 9 - June 4

We slept a little later on day 9, but we were still up in time for breakfast, which was a good thing because they were serving my favorite type of Greek pastry: Bougatsa! - Most people in the US know about Baklava, but if someone ever offers you a different Greek pastry called Bougatsa, take it!  There appear to be several different variations out there because we saw some earlier in the trip that didn't really look like what I know as Bougatsa.  (It should look like a flaky pastry)  The Bougatsa at breakfast was great and I probably had more than I should. :)

After breakfast we went out on the beach to swim.  It was a little cold, but we did swim for about half an hour.  Then we laid out on the beach for a bit before returning to the hotel to clean up for a mid-afternoon lunch.

At lunch we ate a ton at a restaurant on the beach... we were both stuffed afterwards, but it was good.  (PS I eat salad in Greece... a lot!  I like their salad because there's no lettuce, just: cucumber, tomato, olive oil, vinegar, oregano, and feta. - Delicious!)

After lunch, we decided to use the room as our beach, since it was right on the water, with more shade and less sand.  Given our large lunch and all the pastries I ate for breakfast, we had a very small dinner. - We split 1 gyro and a small ice cream (If you're keeping count, that's the last of the 3 available ice cream shops).

Day 9 was a nice relaxing day with no pictures because I'd already taken pictures of the view and I wasn't going to take our nice camera to the beach just to get basically the same view. 

Day 10 - June 5

On the 10th day, we were up in time for breakfast at the hotel again.  That morning, we rented some chairs with an umbrella at the beach, so we could sit out for a while and read.  We left for lunch to eat at another beach restaurant, and while we were at lunch it got very windy.  We went back to our chairs after lunch, but sand was blowing in our faces.  After a little while of being pelted with sand and deciding that it wasn't going to let up, we returned to our hotel room beach again for the last few hours before dinner.

Night-time view from our hotel room beach.

For dinner we had Pizza and a dessert crepe; both were very good. There are lots of Pizza and Crepe places in Greece, so even though it's not traditional Greek food, it seemed appropriate for our trip.  Plus, we'd had plenty traditional food by day 10.

I think day 10 is my shortest day description... all we really did was relax on the beach and read books, which was a lot of fun, but unless I were to retell the story of the book I read, there isn't much to say.  :)

Day 11 - June 6

We returned to Athens on the 11th day, but before we did, we had one last breakfast at the hotel - They had Bougatsa again!  The trip back to Athens was not as exciting as breakfast though. 

We decided to take the more economical bus back to Naflio, but the bus passed us up at the first stop.  Luckily some friendly Canadians were waiting for the bus too (so, yes there were 5 of us there with luggage and the bus drove right by), and they knew that the bus had another stop down about 3 blocks that the bus wouldn't get to for 15 minutes because it went to loop by the port first.  Then once we got to Naflio, we had a short wait before we could catch the bus to Athens, and about 30 minutes into our ride to Athens, everyone had to get off the bus and wait 5 minutes for a new bus to come because there was some mechanical issue.  The bus ride back was not as fun as the trip there because the woman in front of us had some BO issues that made John nauseous and made my eyes burn to the point of not being about to see out of my contacts. We finally got to the metro stop and took the metro back to Holargos and John's parent's apartment. 

John's parents were home when we got there and had made lunch, which was much appreciated given our difficult trip back!  We relaxed at the apartment for a bit and shared trip stories (John's parents had been to Germany while we spent a couple days in Athens and 4 days in Tolo).  We had dinner at the Taverna around the corner, and then called it a night.