Adventures in Greece - part 1

So this evening, I am supposed to be studying – again – my test is less than a week away, but instead, I have had coffee with a friend, eaten dinner whilst watching Smash and Home & Away, and have spent the last half hour crying with laughter at the thought of a musician called Cunty Joe. At that thought I realised that there was little hope of much more going in tonight, so I would write a blog about when I went to Greece, which seems like an inordinate amount of time ago.

I have always wanted to visit Greece. I studied a lot of Greek architecture and literature at high school and university, and have always been fascinated, at what has survived so many thousands of years. Nothing that we build today will ever last that long.  Plays and theories that we come up with today may not even last 100 years let along 1000 or more like the philosophers and mathematicians of ancient Greece.  So after waiting what felt like a lifetime, I finally got to plan a trip to Greece with some of my favourite people – Caroline, Alex and Tahnee. I was allowed three nights in Athens, after which we were heading to the Islands for some much needed rest and relaxation.

The first day of our trip was mainly a travel day – we left on a Sunday. I was still feeling rough from the Friday night, and Caz & Alex were feeling rough from the night before. I left home still needing a fringe trim and a trip to the phone shop to find out how to make my phone work abroad. I managed the fringe trim and decided to take my chances with the phone. After a hungover brunch, we all made it to Gatwick, having forgotten something, and we were making good time until we decided that we needed McD's and then ended up running for the gate. Happy times.

We arrived in Athens and were immediately hit by the heat. It was late at night and by the time we cleared customs, Tahnee was ready to meet us at the airport. We were all excited to see each other and happily jumped into a taxi and looked around to see where the ruins were. We made it to our hotel and walked up and down endless flights of stairs and we changed rooms a few times. It was a small room, but we did not intend on spending much time there. We had a balcony and if we leaned over it, we could just see the Parthenon lit up. We were starving, so on the advice of the hotel owner we headed down to a square, and sat outside at 11pm, in 25 degree humid heat, and ate the most delicious Greek meal. Saganaki cheese fast became a staple of every meal that we had. We were all excited about visiting the ruins the next day.

 

 

 

 

 

Me at the Parthenon (too hot for a fringe!)

At 10am when we left our hotel, the next day, it was already in the late 20's. It was a stunning day without a cloud in the sky, and I was really excited. I was finally going to see the Parthenon, Agora and Acropolis. And they did not disappoint – we walked up hills, saw the delightfully dusty ruins, checked out the sheer size and volume of these places. It still fascinates me as to how these were built. We explored until the ruins closed at about 3pm, then headed to Monstiraki for lunch. We chose a place with aircon, it was 30 degrees and we were getting a bit weary. After what was to become our fav meal of saganaki and gyros, we headed up to Mount Poulopolos – and had an amazing view of the city. It was a hard walk and I was drained by the heat, but it was worth it.

We headed back to the hotel for a sleep and to get ready for heading out that night.

View from 360

We headed to 360, a cocktail bar that had amazing views of the ruins lit up at night. It was perfect. The weather was balmy – in fact the entire time we were in Greece it did not get below 25 degrees even at night. The drinks were brilliant and the food was delicious and the setting was just beautiful. Afterwards we headed down to a smaller restaurant for more saganaki and gyros and wine that came in a plastic bottle. A bit of a come down after the stunning cocktails. We laughed on the way home when some teenage boys tried out their English on us by chatting us up – they were all of about 15, it was cringe worthy.

 

 

 

Hadrian's Arch

The next day we headed to the Temple of Olympic Zeus and Hadrian's Arch. It amazes me that this is on a main road and that the people Athens drive past these amazing ruins every day of their lives. The ruins were stunning, the size and scale has to be seen to be believed. We headed to one of the first Olympic stadiums afterwards, again, the sheer size is overwhelming. We walked in the tunnel where the athletes have walked for thousands of years and stood on the podiums. Everything in Athens reeks of history, its intoxicating. 

Greek Guards

I was keen to head to the Temple of the Unknown Soldier, where the Greek Army still patrols and puts on a ceremonial show. Its incredible, they often stand in a half crouch with one leg outstretched, in the heat that was an Athens Summer, they must have been dying, but they looked cool and calm.

The stand of massive willies

After that, it was time for a bit of relaxation and beers. We headed back to Monstiraki and were confronted by a stand of massive willy key rings. Awesome. We shopped for a bit – I got the happiest jandals and we wandered through the markets. Lunch was more cheese, gyros and beers – yep even me. It was so hot that I too drank 500ml Amstels. We headed back to the hotel for a sleep and laundry stop. 

Guess which one is mine!

That night we had dinner at a traditional Greek restaurant, the menu was completely in Greek, unlike many of the other places that we had been too that catered for tourists. Whilst we had been doing the laundry, we had started shots – tequila for the girls and baileys or vodka for me. I might have been drinking beer but tequila is still a no go, and as Caz and Alex were witness to the last time they agreed! When we were in the traditional restaurant, where the lovely owner took the time to read the menu too us, we continued with the shots, and huge beers. It was roasting and the food was delicious – courgette balls are amazing. The owner thought that we were hilarious and on the way out insisted that we do a shot of raki with her. It was strong and I nearly choked on it, at which point she laughed and said oh you are the baileys huh.

We headed home, happy that we had loved Athens, and repacked our backpacks, the next day we were heading out to Naxos, our ferry was at 7am and we had to be up at 4.30....

Its Friday, Bitches

For a long time, every Friday, my friend Sarah would write this in the tab book at the pub. I would always giggle and love that she did that. She would often walk into the room and ask 'What up Bitches?' When Sarah left and the staff were boys, they couldn't figure out who was adding Bitches after Friday in the book. When the did figure it out, they didn't get it. You see very slowly women are reclaiming the word bitch. Its a term of endearment, hardly ever an insult these days. Or maybe that is just me. I have found much worse/unusual words to insult people with these days. Bitch seems old hand and more embraced these days.

Recently I ventured to Greece, with the bitches. I will have to write a whole blog about how amazing Greece is. The day that we were flying out and meeting our friend Tahnee, in Athens, she messaged, saying that she would be waiting for us at the airport with a sign that said 'Hey Bitches'. And that is how the girls trip continued. My birthday postcard was signed The Bitches, from Caz, Alex and Tahnee. That night we danced to Will I Am's, Scream and Shout and took great pleasure in singing along to the part where you are rocking with Britney Bitch. We farewelled each other at the airport with see you later bitches.

My bitches have left me now, although I am sure I will find some more, but they might not appreciate being called bitches. I am not sure that everyone woman I know has embraced this word as readily as I and a select group of my friends have. In fact I know that they haven't. If I spoke that way to some of my friends back home they would be surprised, and horrified.

This is what makes language funny and interesting – what offends one person, rolls of another's back. To me, language is evolving at an alarming rate. Text speak is coming into play a lot more. I am routinely told off by Caroline for my abbreviations, both when I speak and when I text her. Words such as Totes Amaze (Totally Amazing) or even worse Amazeballs. Or my new fav (favourite) Speny – when something is expensive. I can understand her point of view, I really can, but I don't speak as fast as she does, so I have to abbreviate to keep up! With the event of more communication in print rather than voice, there is so much room for interpretation. Emails and texts can be misconstrued. 1001 meanings can be read into a sentence, that can be a throw away to the person who wrote it. Or the lack of an email or text can be read into as well. We can spend hours analysing what someone meant by that text or lack of text. (I will often dash off a text on the bus, and not have a chance to read or reply to the reply for a couple of hours, when I will pick up the conversation again. I am getting very rubbish at emailing and texting, life is getting really rather busy at the moment. Or having time to write this blog really!) It was a simpler time when you just picked up the phone and heard the persons voice and the intonations in it. For example – Bitch said with venom is a clear insult. Where as, bitch said in a lighthearted, breezy way, is not offensive at all.

There is still an obvious pleasure when someone takes the time to send you a written letter or a postcard or just a long email. They have taken time to write to you, not just a few lines dashed off when they have a spare 5 minutes. I love sending postcards when I am traveling. I think of my not so wee nephew receiving them, getting excited about the mail, reading it, and maybe some day wanting to travel to the far off places that I have been. In the same way that I send them to my friends kids, in the hopes that when I return home that they will have some idea as to who I am and where I have been in the world. I still laugh at one postcard from Turkey arriving six months after I sent it. I like to think that it was delivered by a man in a fez, who had been going to extreme lengths to get it to them. I see him rowing, biking, flying, running to get it in their letter box. I am sure that there is a much more boring explanation then that, but mine is more fun.

Its clear that I enjoy language, I like writing, playing with words, and making them sound poetic and flowy, or juxtaposed and interesting. I guess that having a librarian for a mother, I appreciated reading and writing at an early age. I am taken with the classics, Shakespeare and I are old friends, I love the way his sonnets read and the way that he uses language. I love poetry and used to write a lot of awful, maudlin poems when I was growing up. When the mood takes me I will still write, but they tend to be more personal than my other writing. They are where I play with the way words sound, match and really say what I am feeling. I would be mortified if anyone else read them. I love a good novel or my absolute favourite is listening to song lyrics, which I can pick up very quickly. I love hearing the way they can express so much emotion in such an accessible way. I am a sucker for a good singer/songwriter, one person and a guitar and I am hooked. It is a source of amusement to a number of my friends, that I can recite songs back to them after hearing them a few times. I used to have great fun at our jam sessions, in the pub, my job was to remember the words and direct the people who had actual talent in singing or playing an instrument.

So there you go, that was a rather rambly blog. It has been a great distraction from what I am supposed to be doing – studying for my Life in the UK test, I have already done two hours today so I am ok.

Later's Bitches, this bitch needs to get her some sleep.

xx