Update not related to our vacation

Just under our contact information on the right side of the page, we have added a list of projects that we have been working on.  Proof to the cynics that we are not on a "2-year vacation"!

Cheers

Europe or Bust! Part 2

Athens: 1-3 October

After island hopping, we went back to Athens and hung out with our new Greek friends who hosted us the last time.  It was really nice and relaxing.  Nelly, the daughter of the family, took us out to a place called Beer Academy where I had the most delicious unfiltered beer of my life.  Or…at least within the last 14 months.  We spend the entire night with her and didn’t go to bed until almost 4am. It was really fun.  We spent the next day hanging out with them in the morning over a yummy breakfast and then spent the rest of the day in Athens.  We climbed up to the top of this hill that gives a view of the entire city, which was pretty cool.  We also went to the Acropolis museum, which we missed last time.  And after we were done with all that, we went to a MALL!  It was very exciting.  We had their version of Panda Express and I ate orange chicken, which for some reason I had been craving. We were going to watch a movie too, but didn’t have time.

Corinth: 3-6 October

We woke up early to spend some time with our hosts before leaving on the 3^rd for Corinth, where we would stay with an old friend from soccer of Craig’s, Kosta, who is Greek-American.  When we called Kosta to tell him what train we were taking to Corinth, it turned out he was taking the same one just a stop away.  So we chatted the whole hour on the train.  He gave us a little walking tour of the city and then we headed back to his house where his mom had prepared an amazing lunch complete with local organic wine.  Then we went to their land where they were growing grapes and picked a good 7 pounds of them to munch on.  The next day he showed us around another part of the area and then we went bowling.  It was the first time we had gone bowling since leaving the States and we had a lot of fun.  Afterwards, we had the best gyros that we have had so far in Greece.  And his mom let us do our laundry there, which was magical. Kosta and his whole family were amazing hosts and it really felt like we were in America with the American-ran household with Greek flare.  The next morning, we got up super early to catch the train back to Athens to catch a bus up to Litochoro.

Litochoro/Mt. Olympus: 6-8 October

Once we arrived in Litochoro, we were automatically blown away by it’s charm and how warm and friendly it was.  It was everything that you would imagine and ancient mountain town to be.  We were picked up by Perry, the owner of our hostel, and hung out with him for a good part of the night.  He was super helpful with all kinds of information about climbing the mountain.  We went to bed early (9pm) in order to get up at 4am and be well rested.  Since we had to wake up so early that day, it was no problem; we were exhausted!  We were eating breakfast with Perry by 5am and we were leaving the hostel by 5:15am to head up to the start of the trail.  We were hiking by 6:20am. It was pitch black, cold (luckily Perry let me borrow a woman’s warm windbreaker that he had at the hostel), and a little intimidating since we were the only ones around.  Our imaginations definitely got the best of us while we were hiking in the dark.  On one occasion though, Craig and I both heard an animal coming towards us from the forest and were completely freaked out.  Craig threw a rock in it’s direction and we kept on hiking.  The trail was really gravely and when we stepped, our shoes would throw back rocks and we would think it was some nocturnal animal coming to get us so Craig would hear a rock fall from his step and throw another rock frantically in it’s direction, which would get me freaked out and then both of us were imagining things.  A little while down the trail, we decided that we were way too freaked out to continue, so we hid against a big rock and waited for the sun to rise.  Did I mention it was cold??

Once the sun rose, it was a 2 hour hike up to the first official rest stop where most people who do the trail in 2 days sleep.  We didn’t stay there long; just long enough to buy some supplies and use the facilities.  We kept going and after 45 minutes or so, we really hit the hard part of the trail.  It was barren and rocky and very steep.  It was definitely a challenging hike.  Once we got to the top, which we had no warning we were nearing it (that would have helped us push through if we knew the end was near), we were super happy and energized.  We got really lucky with the weather too.  Normally, the weather isn’t as good this time of year, but it was sunny and cloudless for 90% of our hike.  At the top, it was still windy and cold, but it was definitely manageable. 

Going down the trail seemed to take forever.  In reality, we were going down much faster than we were headed up, naturally.  Once we got down to the parking lot where we started, Craig asked this older couple if we could hitch a ride down to the town (which is a totally safe and common practice, according to our hostel owner).  The guy gave all kinds of excuses why he probably can’t take us, but the wife was wonderfully nice and talked him into it.  Turns out, they were from New York.  He was originally from Greece and she Brazil and they had lived in the States for the last 40 years.  She was really nice to talk to but he was absolutely insane.  He basically was completely arrogant about Greece and shot down any thought that there might be something better or equally good outside of Greece.  He even stopped the car to admire the view and then told us that we would never find a view like that in California.  I’m quite sure he had never been because the view we were looking at is littered all over the Californian countryside.  But we were getting a free ride, so I kept my mouth shut. 

We leave tomorrow for Thessaloniki, where we got lucky again to couch surf.  Then the next day, we are headed back to Italy to Milan.  Enjoy the pictures! 

Europe or Bust! Part 1

Oh, Benin…you make it so easy to leave. 

We accrue 48 days of vacation for our 2 years in Benin so we planned a month-long Italian-Greek vacation halfway through our service.  We are hoping to return refreshed for our next year of service, and I have a personal goal to gain most of the 20 pounds that I’ve lost over the past year (gyros, pizzas, pastas, gelato!).

Once we got to the airport for our 5 am flight to Rome, we couldn’t wait to get out of Benin.  The airport has one terminal and only services a few flights each day.  We lined up to check into our flight and “security” was standing there checking everyone’s passports…and taking pictures of them with a digital camera.  When we asked why, we were told that the “President of the Republic” wants pictures of passports of everyone who leaves the country.  We were traveling with a volunteer who had just finished her service and was heading home who had an especially difficult time with the airport staff who wanted to assert their masculinity one last time before she left the country for good.  She had a painting with her and had to tape it to the outside of her checked bag, only for them to tell her that her bag was one kilogram overweight, but they were out of tape so she had to go buy more after removing a pair of shoes from her checked bag so she could re-tape the painting back on.  While she was waiting in line again to re-check her bag, some ignames (yams) fell out of a bag belonging to the Beninese couple in front of her, and the security guard ran in front of us while we tried to take a picture.  So disappointing.  (See picture below.)  Then we went through 5 more security checkpoints so 11 different people could check our passports (one had a rad game of freecell going on his computer).  Finally, eventually, we left.  So long.

Rome: 17-20 September

We flew from Cotonou to Casablanca to Rome.  We arrived in Rome late and went straight to our hostel, and explored a little.  Heather had already been to Rome before so I got my first glimpse of the Coliseum, Trevi fountain, Spanish steps, Parthenon, Vatican, and countless piazzas that dot the city.  We had delicious food, gelato, pastries, and cappuccinos.  One day we just bought some cheese and wine and had a little picnic at one of the beautiful piazzas, Piazza Novanna, before going back to where we were staying.  We stayed in a hostel the first night and for our second and third nights there we stayed with our new friend Paolo, who lives just outside the city.  We had trouble with the banks in Rome.  Apparently Italy recently passed a law that disallows their banks to change traveler’s cheques, which made basically all of our money null and void (we brought the vast majority of our money in traveler’s cheques, and the moneychangers charge up to 50% in fees to change them).  We finally, after an entire morning of trying, were able to get some money.  (We had to wait until Athens to change the cheques.)  Paolo was really nice and we were able to celebrate Oktoberfest in Rome with him the first night we stayed with him.  There was a La Mesa-esque Oktoberfest celebration going on with barbeque, beer, and line dancing.  The next day, we went to the Vatican and saw the Sistine Chapel (we had climbed the basilica and saw the Pope—on the TV screens in the plaza—the previous day).  Our last night in Rome, Paolo’s brother cooked a delicious Italian pasta dish that we enjoyed together before going off to the airport.  Heather slept in the airport just enough to keep me from nodding off, and we had to change terminals at 3 am because one was closing.  It was freezing.

Athens: 20 September

Our early flight to Athens was nice and short and we arrived in the morning and got situated with our hosts, a fantastic Greek family who live just outside Athens.  Our new friend, Mel, was nice enough to host us: his mother, who speaks English, his father, who speaks French, and his sister, who speaks English and French, were so great to us, and they even had a big dog, Lion, who is just like Ole Gunnar.  We got situated at our host house and explored the Plaka area of Athens and the Acropolis.  We ate lots of delicious gyros and I got off to a good start on my weight gain regimen.  We left early the next morning on a ferry for Santorini, but before that, we stayed up really late hanging out with our adopted Greek family.

Santorini: 21-24 September

The ferry to Santorini was about 7 hours long, most of which, we spent enjoying Amstel beers.  When we finally got there, we figured out the public bus system and met with our hosts, Vlada and Inese, a newlywed couple who were nice enough to share their place with us.  Santorini currently suffers from too many tourists.  The main island, Thira, had 11 cruise ships in port one of the days we were there, but the island is gorgeous and we took a little sunset cruise ourselves to a volcanic island and “hot” springs.  On our way down the steps to the port, we passed some other folks who were taking donkeys down (it’s easier, apparently) and one girl absolutely FREAKED OUT and had a complete breakdown just after we passed them because she thought that her donkey was going too fast (they were walking and she was American, unfortunately).  We also visited a red sand beach, but couldn’t visit the white sand beach because the boats weren’t running because of the weather (it has been really windy on all of the islands, which makes for choppy seas).  Vlada was nice enough to take us to his secret swimming place, though, so I was able to get in the (cold) water and take a little swim.  I ate lots of gyros!

Naxos: 24-26 September

After a few days we said good-bye and took a ferry to Naxos, the largest island in the Cyclades chain.  We didn’t have any hosts and didn’t make reservations anywhere, so we were hoping that we could get hooked up at the port when we arrived.  A really nice local lady who lives in a smaller town, called Agia Anna, hooked us up with a really good deal on a studio apartment 5 minutes walk from the beach.  She even made us frappe’s and gave us a small bottle of wine that her family produces when we checked in!  (And there was Wi-Fi!)  We definitely could have stayed there for a long time.  The town was small and walkable and there were really good restaurants that served inexpensive but really good food.  We really wanted to rent scooters or an atv but we didn’t bring our drivers licenses (Heather’s is expired, anyway).  It didn’t really matter, though, because Agia Anna had pretty much everything we wanted and needed.  The town is a little farming town with a pretty little beach and we went for a run one morning and kept running into farmland and kept having to turn around.  One day we took the public bus to Naxos Town, the largest city, and were lucky enough to find a bar that had happy hour from 2pm to 2am, so Heather finally got her frozen cocktail that she has been craving for the past 14 months (I opted for a mojito).  There aren’t enough great things to say about Naxos.  I’m hoping that we can go back and explore some more one day.

Paros: 26 September

We decided to take a chance and leave Naxos after only a few days to check out Paros, which turned out to be a big mistake.  Paros is slightly smaller than Naxos, but one really needs a car or scooter to explore the island because the buses don’t go everywhere.  We tried our luck with accommodations again and the guy we decided to rent a room from was insane.  He was dancing in the car and kept telling us that he dances to hip-hop, rap, and R&B and told us about his YouTube page where we can see him dancing at a local bar wearing an orange hat.  He was really drunk later that night and we decided to leave the next day.  He was creepy and maybe going through some sort of midlife crisis and lied to us about the accommodations.  We couldn’t even see any of the beaches, anyway, because we didn’t have a car or scooter and boats that went to “good” beaches weren’t running because of the weather. Not to mention, a dog humped Craig's leg.  A lot of people here have great things to say about Paros, but the less that we say here the better.  Not our favorite.

Mykonos: 27 September-1 October

We couldn’t wait to get to Mykonos!  Our last island stop.  We took the “fast ferry”, a catamaran that only took 45 minutes to get there.  It was really windy and the waves rocked the boat a lot while we tried to get in.  I was in the middle of the ramp to get onto the ship and it almost fell into the water (with me on it).  It was a long rollercoaster ride.  Heather had to “go to her happy place” while I turned on my iPod and stared out the window.  We were sitting just above the water level and saw the waves shooting up and over the side of the boat.  There were huge swells and we were stuck back in our seats the whole ride.  It was a lot of fun!  We rolled the accommodations dice again in Mykonos and found a nice German lady who hooked us up with a little apartment right in the center of town.  We visited the “party beach” and went out that night and partied way too hard.  While we were getting ready to go out, we turned on the TV and there was a show about Benin!  The host went to Abomey and Bohicon!  We were transfixed, trying to remember our “home” that we had left less than two weeks before.  We tried to get up early the next day to take a day trip to Delos but that definitely was not going to happen.  We woke up late and decided to check out some quiet beaches while we sorted out the details from the previous night.  We took the bus to a recommended beach, only to find out that it was a (mostly) nude gay beach.  The beach was still nice, though, and a friend we made on the bus let us stay at a private hotel beach for free (away from all the “action”).  We went out to a really good Italian restaurant that night (needed a short break from all the gyros).  On Sept 30 we took a day trip to Delos, a small island that has amazingly well preserved Greek ruins and artifacts, and we made a delicious pesto pasta dinner.

We have been discovering all of our “Beninisms” that we have acquired over the past year.  For example, I have been keeping plastic bags and water bottles to reuse them later.  I had a huge pile of bags that I had to force myself to throw away (I was keeping them for the woman who cleans that room so she could reuse them as trash bags).  We have also been insisting on breaking big bills wherever we go in order to get small change.  We have been hoarding change like the Beninese do.  There is a big problem with a lack of “petite monnaie” in Benin because everyone hoards coins!  They last longer than bills and everything is so inexpensive, anyway, it makes sense to just pay for everything with smaller money…EXCEPT for the fact that nobody ever wants to get rid of it and many vendors would rather lose a customer than to part with their precious coins.  We are entranced by all the technology of the developed world: everyone has a new iPhone or iPad, there are working gauges on buses, wine in bottles, and working refrigerators!  It has been a little reverse culture shock but I think that it will help us cope when we finally do come home (we joke that by the time we get back to the States, there will be an iPhone 12 and iPad 5 already…). 

Cheers!