Spring has arrived

It's been a long time coming but I think spring has finally arrived in Athens. It was pretty pathetic to read that NY and DC were like 80 degrees and we were barely getting to 65! But then again I have heard from the locals that there are only 2 seasons here winter and summer - and I am beginning to believe them now.

I had a "Spring Break is over party" on Friday night and the regular gang came and we shared our spring break adventures. The countries covered by my friends were Ireland, Slovakia, the Netherlands. Denmark, and some did some island hopping in Greece.

I bought an outside table, finally, for my patio where I ate breakfast and lunch at yesterday. Read the paper, marked papers - it will be used a lot. The weird part is that the patio is not off the kitchen it is the furthest from the kitchen - so I walk throught my dining room and living room to the patio! I get great afternoon sun.

Yesterday I just did local errands - found a seamstress, picked up dry cleaning, bought fruit from local market, etc. then last night went out to dinner with John and Flynn. We tried this Greek taverna near our school, so we were waiting for them to take our orders but then they came out with all this food. We were very confused but supposely unknowingly to Flynn he ordered for all of us and tons of food. this is a problem when you don't speak the language to protest something like this - so we just went with it - took a lot of food home and spent more that any of us were planning to spend for dinner.

I got home around 11 and at 11:30 a friend called and she said "So what are you doing tonight?" I re-looked at the clock - yes 11:30pm. Well I said I am going to bed soon. She was wondering if I wanted to go out to a club. As most of you know me, I need a little more heads up if I am going to out at 11:30pm! I was done for the night - i would have taken a nap earlier in the day to begin my evening at 11:30pm! I feel old.

So today I might stay in my house or on the patio all day - catching up on emails, planning for all my visitors this summer, making all the floral photos I took into cards and doing some planning for school.

Enjoy your day too!

Toys to Toast

Today it was another beautiful - sun was shining, blue sky and quite breezy. As I really didn't have much else to do, I headed to Beethoven St. to find the toy store which featured Dick Bruna toys - he illustrated Miffy. She was a rabbit - simple drawing with using blue and orange colors a lot. Hard to explain - google it! Unfortunately, just a month ago it closed (to many other toy store owner's surprise!).

I took the tram back to museum quarter and the line to Rijks Museum was long so I decided to come back later in the day. However, I didn't get back to the area in time. I am really glad I went to the Van Gogh museum and not too upset I didn't make it the Rijks.

I did a lot of walking around again today. Sat a long time in a square by the university and listened to Irish music then walked to Vondelpark and sat on the grass for about 2 hours and wrote postcards and people watched.

Since Amsterdam was a large port for East India - there are a lot of great Indonesian restaurants. Blaine for the B&B recommend this one Sabo Sama which I ate at this evening. Good food and people watching. Now I am heading home (B&B) to read my book and relax. Are you wondering what the toast part of my entry is about - my face is toast right now - I even put sunscreen on it but my face feels like it is burning up - although I haven't seen it yet. Therefore toys to toast!

It has been a fantastic spring break and I can't wait to see all my photos - and print some. Stayed tuned. Dank-u

A-V (Amsterdam to Van Gogh)

What a full day I had today! I moved out of Maes B&B (b/c I could only have it for 2 nights) and took the tram to the outskirts of Amsterdam to Blaine's B&B. Blaine's partner Peter owns the Season's restaurant I went to last night for dinner. It was much further out than I had expected but it was a good opportunity to see another point of view of the city.

I took the tram back into the city and got off at the Flower Market. I strolled around there and then headed to Newmarket and the Red Light District. There were many women standing in the glass window doorways wearing skimpy bikinis not so much lingerie but more like bikinis. This was at about 11 am! There were a lot of "coffeeshops", hash stores and sex stores in this area. Even though it was broad daylight, I felt uncomfortable.

I continued my day of walking to Dam Square - the heart of Amsterdam. Locals call it "the Dam" and this is where a dam was built in the 13th century on the Amstel River. There used to be tides in the canals and it used to be salt water - now with the controlling of all the dams and locks there are no tides and all the canal water is fresh water. Here at the Dam is the National Monument and Koninklijk Palace. There are many street performers (mimes) and protesters in this square.

I started walking again and ended up back in the neighborhood where I stayed the first nights. It was beginning to rain and chilly so I headed to Pancake Bakery - a touristy restaurant but it was warm, cozy and had these unique pancakes. They were between a pancake and a crepe - I had apple and cheese - and there was Dutch syrup which was kind of like molasses.
When I finished my late lunch the sun was shining and it turned into a gorgeous day. I saw the Anne Frank statue and the triangle pink granite plaque which was the Homomonument. It is the first memorial for all the gay men and women who lost their lives in WWII.

I decided to take a canal tour from 4-5pm. Not time like the present! The captain of the boat opened the sky roof and the back of the boat and I soaked in the sun and enjoyed the canal tour with some other folk. There are about 250,000 house boats on the canals.

I continued my walking and end up at an Irish pub for cocktail hour sitting outside and people watching. Then I continued to the Van Gogh Museum. It was about 6:30pm. I started with "Colours of the Night" exhibit where I learned a lot about Van Gogh and saw the Starry Night painting. Then I had dinner at the cafe before I continued to tour the rest of the museum. As Friday nights are late nights for the museum to be open - they provide jazz musicians to play. So as I toured the rest of the museum - seeing Sunflowers, the Bedroom, and other famous paintings by Van Gogh and other artists I listened to jazz music! Not bad!

By 9pm I was exhausted and hopped on the tram to head to bed.
Other observations about the day: Everyone rides bikes and pedestrians need to be careful. No one wears helmets. Women in high heels, dresses, raincoats, carrying flowers, coffee, cell phones, purses, packages ride with ease and balance! Men in suits with briefcases, coffee, groceries, etc. also ride confidently around the corners over the bridges. Babies are placed in a little seat at the front or in a wagon in the front or kids are strapped in the back - it's pretty amazing sight.
Everyone I have seen are skinny or fit. I have seen the best looking men here and men with button-downs and suit jackets.

Keukenhof Gardens

At breakfast I met an English couple who had had many visits to Amsterdam and had just gone to Keukenhof the day before - they gave me good tips on the best time to go and how to get there. I wasn't planning on going today but then decided I better since the weather was beautiful and I had to move B&Bs tomorrow. So after breakfast I headed for the train station to the airport and then took a bus to Keukenhof. This is where the world's largest bulb garden is and I hit it at peak time! Peak more about the flowers versus the number of people - but there were bus loads of people there.

Breath-taking is an understatement to describe the vibrant array of flowers - mostly tulips, hyancins (sp?) and daffodils. I probably took about 100 photos. Wait until you see these! It was truly amazing. Outside the gardens I could see fields and fields of blooming flowers - absolutely gorgeous. And the smells - purely fragrant.

Words cannot really express the beauty of this garden.

Germany-Amsterdam

Natasha drove me to the Kaiserslautern train station where I boarded at 11:40am - I switched in Frankfurt. Even though I was at this train station 13 years ago, I sensed I had been there before. I do remember MaryLynne took a picture of me outside the train station as this is where my jar of Skippy peanut butter had run out!

I had to switch again in Cologne due to technical problems - but DB was efficient and had a train ready for all us to board - even with our reserved seats indicated. The trains are great in Germany and the view was green and had spring in the air. Everything was in bloom and people were tending to their gardens. Animals had babies all around them - I think I saw more lambs then I did sheep. It was a great example of spring!

I arrived in Amsterdam at 5:30pm - walked to find my B&B and fortunately found it without a problem. But look out for those bicycles!!!! They are everywhere and they will run you over if you don't look out!

Most of the B&B's I found were run by gay couples as Amsterdam has a huge population of gay and lesbians. The house I am staying at is from 1790 in Central location! Fortunately I only had to hike up one narrow and steep set of stairs to get to my room. Lovely room and one floor up was where breakfast was served.

I took the advice of Vlad (one the BY&B owners) and set off to Anne Frank's House as evenings it may not be as crowded. There wasn't even a line - thankfully! Although we all know the story of Anne Frank's Diary - walking through the house was an incredible experience. I have to say the area where they lived was larger than I had anticipated but I surely wouldn't have wanted to stay there for over 2 years. There was a lot of video from her best friend, Mae Gils (somoene who helped Anne's family stayed hidden in the business (spelling of name I don't quite remember)) and from her father.

After the tour I went to a recommended Brown Cafe for dinner (De Reigers). It had delicious food - I had a steak.

Productive day I thought!

Bitche, France

So today (April 14) Natasha and I went on a road trip to France! The border was only about 30 minutes away. We went to a small town called Bitche (some pronounced it beach others bitch)! How could I resist not going to a town with a name like that! It was actually a beautiful day and the town has a huge citadel.

The tour of the citadel was great. We had headphones and the tour led us to many places in the underground galleries of the Citadel. Almost every room there was a movie reenacting the war of 1870. So instead of just reading or listening to what happened we were also able to watch a movie to truly get a sense of how it was.

The first castle was built in the 12th century and then later was constructed into a citadel. The first citadel was demolished in 1697, then rebuilt around 1740. We watched the makings and events during the war of 1870 between the French against the Bavarians. A Prussian garrison settled in the Citadel until 1918 when the French Army got it back.

After a bit with history, Natasha and I bought a bagette, Brie, eclairs and drinks and found the town park and had a picnic. It was a perfect outing!!!!

For dinner we went to Rosenburg for a German meal of schnizel and beer. Then of course we (the boys, Natasha and I) all played Apples to Apples! All the boys are really cute telling me that they don't want me to leave and maybe I could come back through Germany before heading to Athens!!!!

quaint Germany

Sunday morning I flew out of Athens at the early hour of 8 am and had an easy flight to Frankfurt Germany where my friend Mark picked me up. We drove an hour south of Frankfurt to a small German village called Bann (not Bonn, Bann). The small village has basically one bakery. It was so nice to see green grass, trees and red peaked roofs.

Germany seems to ticket for everything- ya know honking the car horn is against the law - you can get a ticket. Everyone in AThens would have multiply tickets!!!!

Natasha had made a nice Easter lunch and we all hung out for the day. She also made a typical German dinner of potato salad and brauts! Today (Easter Monday) the kids went to school and Natasha and I went to the Rembrandt base for Starbucks and a Cinnabun! Then we went shopping in their American store - they had all the American products which I cannot find anywhere in Greece, like Ziplock bags, all products in English, Reese PB cups, Real Simple magazines, Vera Bradley products, etc.!!!!

We then headed to a burg (German for castle). Photos will have to be posted after my trip. It was a pretty significant castle with many remains left. Today was also a beautiful day - 75 degrees - flowers blooming, trees buds ready to pop, green grass, etc. Really lovely quaint countryside.

Tomorrow, Natasha and I are going on a day trip to France! Wait until tomorrow to find out which town I will be visiting......

Bouzoukia Night

Tonight was like no other I have ever experienced. I was told I had to go to a bouzoukia performance - they are very famous and it is traditional Greek music. So a group of us from the elementary school decided to go - I think there were about 25 of us. And I heard the dress was everything from jeans and high heels to formal dresses (a little broad - so I went with a black cocktail dress). My friend Stavroula and her husband "Peter" (it really is something else in Greek - but I don't remember) they picked me and off we went. I heard there would be dancing and something about flowers but I didn't really know what to expect. Our tickets included dinner and wine.

It was definitely an experience (maybe once in a lifetime) . I was really thinking that it would be this old man playing the bouzoukia and then the tables would cleared like a dance floor at a wedding.

Well it was nothing like that. It was like a Las Vegas show. Like a rock concert. Loud and dancers and rock concert leather outfits ..... so hard to explain. And of course all in Greek. We sat at long tables and some people danced on their chairs. At the end I did go and dance on the stage with my colleagues though. And no breaking of dishes (they don't do that anymore) now you buy flowers (carnations) and throw them up at the performers - it was really different.... fun but different.

And when you order alcohol like vodka or scotch you don't get a glass you get a whole bottle of it!!!! As I looked around the audience it was mostly native Greeks - not tourists - quite an experience!!!!

I was picked up at 10pm and was dropped off at 4:30 am!!!!! Glad I am on vacation!!!!