The Grease of Greece

I knew Greek food was unhealthy, but I had no idea until I tried this.

3 Slurrps

Which of these is more scraggly?

It's hard to tell. One is older, and has had more time to 'age'. But one is live, and has a good chance of having little critters in it.

Tour bus

Oh, what I wouldn't give to never have to be on one of these buses. Yes, the double negative is on purpose, thank you very much.

Oops

I have no idea how two parked cars got into an accident this bad, and I am too scared to ask. Must be some crazy gypsy magic.

Greece part deaux

Have I introduced this hairy mountain man? I had to drop Ariel for this Burnsides wannabe. Jeff and I have a long history together. If you want to understand our group dynamic, rent the Odd Couple. Somehow it works. Better when we're just navigating the outdoors (where he invariably gets lost...although truth be told he probably has a different perspective), but exploring the cities of Greece were almost as fun. Jeff'll be around through all of Germany, so you'll see a bit more of him. Maybe even in compromising situations (for all the ladies out there.) As always, stay tuned!

Indulgence

Ariel enjoying her cookie just a little too much...

Achaia Clauss

Greece's oldesy winery and the most interesting. Well, not by default, but they had barrels there from over 150 years ago and they were still ageing nicely. How many relatives can you say that about? How many do you want to?? I kid, I kid.

Avgolemono

The quest has ended. They serve it EVERYwhere in San Francisco, but seemingly nowhere in Greece. Until we found this restaurant in Tripoly that served it. Quite delicious, but a little heavy (I'm sensing a trend here in Greece.)

3 Slurrps

Feta

Now you can say you've had feta, or you can say you've had a feta picnic in the romantic town of Nafplio with a fresh loaf of Greek bread, vividly red vine-ripe tomatoes, and a beautifully bright Katamala olive paste. I'll choose the latter in spirit and practice every time.

3 Slurrps

Monopoly

Can you say slaughter? Ariel's only happy in this picture because I told her I'd cut the juice to half on the thousands of dollars she owed me. What's that in euros - about 10¢?

Greek Independence Day

As far as I can tell, Greek Independence Day means every single school person from kindergarten to 12th grade has to march in a parade. Here are some of the aforementioned adorables in Nafplio.


And here is the fabulous afterparty! Well, to be honest it was kinda lame, but why would you, dear reader, want to read about lame?

Ariel

All the way from Oakland...here's Ariel! Just in case you wanted to know how to spell her name, she's licensed it to a detergent company so you can pen her a letter with the correct salutation and have clean clothes - all at the same time. Ariel is going to be traveling with me for about a week and a half in Athens and southern Greece, commenting all along the way about how big my feta gut is getting.

Little Korea

Somehow I got transported from Cairo via Roma to Seoul, not Athens. I wound up meeting two lovely Korean women at 3:00 am when I finally made it to downtown Athens. I just followed them to a Korean guesthouse where there was very little English spoken. The second night I stayed there (if you count the few hours I slept the first morning as a night) I got to partake in a very traditional Korean meal, complete with homemade kimchee(!) and the requisite salt and pepper chips, dried cuttlefish, and beer as dessert. Well, I'm not so sure about that last part being traditionally Korean, but it was fun anyway. Check out my hosts and another guest on the left and my two comrades on the left.

4 Slurrps
LudiCris Rating of 4

I don't remember the name of this dish...

...but I remember the taste. Slurrpilicious! Fresh tsatsiki makes the difference. It might be soutzoukakia, according to this page.

4 Slurrps

Eye on Egypt

• 
  1 - Cairo is as romantic of a city as they get. I'm sure it's no Paris (I've never been) but it feels like you're constantly in an Indiana Jones movie. Now that's my kind of romantic!
  2 - For a society that trys to cover up almost every inch of a woman in public, they have the most and raciest lingerie I have ever seen on display...in the same public space *scratches head*. 3 - They must have had help from the aliens to build those pyramids. Have I mentioned space lizards?
  

Liquid Gold

Having over three hours to kill in Roma between Cairo and Athens, I purused the duty-free shops for as long as I could stand. I swear if you've seen one, you've seen them all. How about some more Toblerone? Anyway, I gave up and went in the Air France lounge. Looking through the endless bottles of Campari in two coolers taller than me for a non-existent beer, I was about to give up when I spotted this beauty hiding behind the second cooler! Draft beer in the airport that you could draw yourself? It's enough to make a whole fraternity weep.

But do they really have to kiss?

Does this scene remind you of a movie perchance? I found it touching. This must be one of the greatest grandfathers in the world today.

Full Egyptian Breakfast

Foul (pronounced 'fool'), ta'amiyya (basically felafel in Egyptian), and hearty bread make a simple and filling breakfast. It's no nasi lemak, but I could get seriously used to this.

Easy rider

Trish, an accomplished rider, took me riding the day after going to the Pyramids. Galloping through the desert at full speed after having been on a horse for roughly ten minutes was by far the second most dangerous thing I've done on this trip so far (the first being eating lhap), of course).

Brick by brick

Pshaw. I could have built these by myself. Assuming I had alien technology like the ancient Egyptians, of course. Space lizards, man, space lizards.

Slow boat to nowhere

Woe is me. Here I am stuck on a sailboat (felucca) on the Nile, watching the sunset with Trish and two new Italian friends, Bea and Sara. Sometimes I think I'm the unluckiest guy in the world. Can't you tell by my expression?

Tea 'n' Tabacco

This venerable ahwa, El Fishawy, was the perfect place to escape the hustle of Kahn El Kahlili market. Locals, merchants, and tourists alike partook of mint tea, flavored shisha, and an endless barrage of street hawkers.

Scooby Dooby Doo, Where Are You?

I was slightly disappointed I didn't see any reanimated mummies here in the Egyptian Museum, but by the 'end' of the endless array of galleries, my feet would not have been able to initiate the kind of locomotion required to escape. To picture the inside of the museum, think one or two less items than in the last scene of Raiders and slightly less organized.

Kushari

For a city that is decried as a food wasteland, I sure ate well for the week. This is kushari (pronounced kosharee), a hearty mix of pasta, pasta, rice, lentils, fried onions, and a spicy tomato vinegarette. Great late night - just be careful with the hot sauce (not pictured). The greatest thing about the kushari restaurants was the fact that you only had three menu options: small, medium, and large :)

4 Slurrps

Free Spirit

Think you're pretty spontaneous? Meet Trish, a girl travelling from Nairobi home to Canada. She (and 800 others - including myself, but I think we've covered that) got stranded in Schiphol for the night when her flight was cancelled. While we commisserated over the free hotel dinner (crawfish in Amsterdam? Amen!), she brought up the fact that she had passed on a chance to see Cairo and was regretting it. I invited her along with me to Egypt, and the rest is history...according to the Flobotomy blog, that is.

LudiTrish Rating of 5

Fly like a wooden statue

Would you believe I carved this myself with the chainsaw I 've been carrying since Seattle? No? You're right! I just used my pocket knife.

Delayed!

Got to Schiphol en route to Cairo from Dubai. (Visualize that flight path if you will.) Got stopped in my tracks because, as we found out the next morning, a ground cart ran into the plane and damaged it, delaying us until they could get a replacement plane. Lucky me, I spent the night in Amsterdam. Unlucky me, I was too constrained by time and distance to make it to the city. But look what I found in my hotel room!

U to the A to the E

1 - Ok, so I hate to start with a rant, but what does Skype have to do with degrading the moral integrity of UAE? Makes me happy that the U.S. doesn't have a firewall that bans the Smurf home page (or Skype).
2 - When does everyone in the Muslim world sleep? It's tough trying to recover from near death when you get woken up by the call for prayer on the city-wide loudspeaker every 30 minutes.
3 - I am now convinced roasting a leg of lamb over hot coals from a fire in the middle of the desert is the only way to cook it.

4 - If the schwerma here is 1/2 as good as in Lebanon, I'd like my last meal to be in Beruit.

J to the umana

Jumana, my friend who unknowingly let me into her country of residence with a deadly disease, who then proceeded to take me to the hospital, who then let me rest and recover in her penthouse condo, who then took me camping when I was better - not once but twice, who is a virtuoso on violin and a ham on the harp (in the blues sense), who gives the best hugs in the world, who is as an amazing person as you'll ever be lucky enough to meet...grazie mille!

Burj Al Arab

Reputed to be the world's most luxurious hotel, it costs over $55 for tea for one.

One day I will play tennis here...one day.

Camping in Oman

As soon as I felt a bit better from the death throes from India, I went camping on the beach in Oman. Wickedly beautiful country. Between the snorkeling right off the beach, the incredible rocky, scrambling hikes, the roast leg of lamb on the campfire for dinner one night, the impromptu guitar-drum-violin-singing jams, and the millions of brilliant stars that I stared up at as I drifted off to sleep, let's just say it was spectacular.