When In Rome

When in Rome! I’m not sure if this saying applies here, but it seems like an appropriate way to start my post about Greece since I don’t know any sayings about Athens. It’s the hair of the dog, I suppose.

The biggest change I’ve noticed between Greece and London is that the food here doesn’t suck. Instead of paying the equivalent of $12 for a gray piece of meat with a couple pieces of iceberg lettuce called a “super burger,” there are tons of places to get gyros and tons of other delicious and cheap food. Gyros usually consist of pork or chicken that they slice off a giant rotisserie with a sort of hand-held weed whacker or a large sword combined with fries, tzatziki (basically cucumber and Greek yogurt), fresh tomatoes, and fresh onions. They are awesome.

In fact the food is so good that I’ve eaten myself to the point of having the “meat sweats” several times already (For those of you who are not familiar with the phrase, “meat sweats” is the scientific term that refers to when you break a sweat after you’ve eaten a lot of meat- trust me, it’s a real thing). Here Hunter samples the lamb and pita: 

(Photo: Cara)

This brings me to my second major difference, the language. These two differences are related because the most common time for me to flex my linguistic muscles is when I’m ordering food. In my first attempt to use Greek, I apparently looked so hopeless that the guy at Πίτα Παν (pronounced Pita Pan - ha) said, “You need help,” gave me the menu, and let me use my sign language (my second best language behind English but coming in ahead of French, Latin, and Greek) to just point to what I wanted. This was a setback for sure, but fortunately I got another chance. Here I sample the food at Pita Pan (sorry for the picture):

 

 

Upon making it back to Corinthos from a run along the boardwalk, I realized that I forgot where our hotel was. After wandering the streets for 15 minutes or so, I decided it was time to fall back on my Greek. I approached a cabbie washing his car and said, “παρακαλώ! πού είναι hotel Δία?” This roughly translates to, “Please! Where is [hotel] Dia?” Unsurprisingly, he gave me a confused look, but with a combination of Greek and sign language, I apparently got my point across. He informed me that in fact there were four hotels in Corthinos, none of which was named Dia. After thinking for a second, I realized that Dia was the name of my hotel’s wireless network, not the name of the hotel. So what I had really asked him was “Please! Where is the hotel whose wireless network is named Dia?” and that I had no idea what the actual hotel was called. A bit flustered after realizing that I was a complete idiot, I tried to thank him for his help.  Instead I mixed up the approximately four Greek words I know, smiled and said “Please!” and was off on my way. I eventually found my way back through a 15 minute process of elimination .

After the food and language barrier, the biggest change has been the climate. The best way I can describe it is “ideal-rayon-shirt-wearing-weather”-  it’s pretty much been sunny and 70s everyday.

All rayon aside, the scenery in Corinthos is unbelievable. Here’s the view from my hotel room:

(Photo: Me)

But it’s actually pretty sweet here:

(photo: Teddy)

 

Acrocorinth was used as a military fortress for nearly 2,500 years. I was impressed and inspired by the castle.  10 year-old Cam and 21 year-old Cam were equally excited to check it out. Here are the outer walls:

 

(Photo: Teddy)



And the view from the top:

 

(photo: Katie)

We just arrived in Nafplio, and it seems like pretty decent rayon-shirt-wearing-weather here as well

 

 

 
Venetian fortress in the harbor

The Cam and Lauriel Take on the Greece Fan of the Week is James Q. from Staten Island, NY. James is a “long time listener, first time caller” who “really likes” the blog, so hats off to you, James!

Please!,

Cam