Athens

Athens, Greece

Posted by Elaine Ellis on December 16, 2009
90 Days in Europe / Comments

My posts are completely out of order at this point. Here are the places I’ve visited in order, Reykjavik, Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Istanbul, Athens, Barcelona, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich and Interlaken.

Andrew Hyde gets us lost. Do you see cacti there?

Andrew Hyde gets us lost. Do you see cacti there?

In Athens, I got my first glimpse of what it must be like to travel with locals.

The first night I’m in Athens, a colleague of Andrew’s not only gives us a restaurant recommendation, but takes us there personally, introduces us to the waiter, who then gives us complimentary ouzo shots. The food is phenomenal, and this is a local’s favorite.

I am under no illusion that I am seeing the real fabric of the countries I am visiting. In and out in most countries in three days, I hear more English spoken at the sites I’m visiting than whatever the native tongue is. I’m not visiting local favorites, I’m visiting tourists’ favorites. Both have their pluses, but as I write this post, I’m starting to crave a more authentic version of what I’m doing.

I loved the Acropolis. Who wouldn’t? 25 centuries of history reside in Athens, and it is evident

At the Acropolis

At the Acropolis

everywhere. The subways have exhibits to the artifacts they found while building out the infrastructure for the subway. Even the H&M shows you how they are built on artifacts. One of the locals I meet at Startup Weekend talked about that if you get a building permit, you hold your breath that they don’t actually discover anything while digging. Which of course they do because this is Athens, and it has 25 centuries of history everywhere.

The Acropolis Museum is an incredible building, and is a can’t miss if you go. Provides great perspective on the Acropolis. And is only a Euro. We got frappes, the coffee drink of Greek choice, at the coffee shop on the roof.

At a church right below the Acropolis

At a church right below the Acropolis

I also got to meet some incredibly nice and brilliant people at Athens Startup Weekend. Their hospitality was wonderful, and it was the only leg of my journey where I’ve really gotten to speak to the people living in the countries I’m visiting. One of the cultural nuances that I find hilarious is that everyone is in scarves and jackets. And it’s seventy degrees Fahrenheit. As Vicky told me, if they don’t wear scarves now, what will they wear when it’s 100 degrees out? I wore short sleeves and looked like a tourist. Well, the short sleeves and my albino pallor created the tourist luster.

One other aspect that I find fascinating is that Greece with all of its amazing history is refuting the legality of other countries possessing its historical artifacts. Like the incredible Elgin Marbles. The Getty Museum from Los Angeles had to return more than 40 artifacts to Greece. Including this incredible wreath.

If your nation’s historical artifacts are plundered a century or more ago, chances are you’d like

Plundered Wreath Gets Returned

Plundered Wreath Gets Returned

them back in their rightful country. But where does it begin and end? Every museum has an Egyptian exhibit (including Greece). A lot of these artifacts were taken under auspicious circumstances.  France just agreed to return several items to Egypt that were stolen. What is the statue of limitations on plundering or is there one at all?

It makes me more thoughtfully consider when looking at artifacts about where they belong. Can’t wait to get back and discuss this with Bruce Wyman.

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It’s Always Sunny In Europe

Posted by Elaine Ellis on December 05, 2009
90 Days in Europe / Comments
My friend Jackie recently e-mailed me to ask if I was having as much fun as it looked like I was. I loved her concern. Let’s be clear. I’ve been in 9 countries in nearly a month, and that is stressful. I don’t speak any of the languages, I can’t get a good night’s sleep in a hostel, and I think Scandinavia cost me part of my retirement fund it was so expensive. It’s a different kind of stress, and easier to overcome than job or personal stress.
 
Lest you think my whole life now is eating lovingly handcrafted danishes while drinking cafe con leche in front of spectacular sights, I thought I would start sharing some lowlights.
 
It’s All Greek To Me
Before leaving on my journey, I purchased my friend RIch’s hackentosh from him.
 
For those not familiar with a hackentosh, a brief explanation. Our Lord andSteveJobsGod Father, Steve Jobs, has not graced his flock with with a netbook yet. While I trust in our Father, I didn’t have the tithing available to purchase a Macbook Air and needed a lighter laptop than my MacBook. After all, I needed the room for more H&M purchases. A hackentosh is a Netbook that runs on Snow Leopard or Leopard by the divine grace of software.
 
Unfortunately, our Father decided to punish his straying flock. Any hackentosh that upgraded its software would be turned into pillars of salt, and thus would no longer work. Snow Leopard Genesis 2:21 - And the Lord said, “Snow Leopard upgrade 2.2.1 would render Intel processors incompatible.” Rich was kind enough to let me know about the Lord’s decree. Unfortunately, I decided to upgrade iTunes while in Istanbul thinking it wasn’t in the same strain. Our Father’s lesson was fierce and vengeful, and my hackentosh was turned into a pillar of salt. Meaning it wouldn’t boot up. At all.
 
Purchasing computers can be stressful under any circumstances. Purchasing a computer in a foreign country such as Greece where most of the store employees don’t speak English is an all new stressful high.
 
Like most situations where I don’t understand the language, I point to what I want and make expressive gestures. But this time, it’s not a Danish. It’s a Netbook.
 
“Has a keyboard and Internet access? I’ll take it,” I say in expressive Elaine style gestures.
 
But the netbook has one tiny, minor snag. It’s operating system runs in Greek. Through more expressive gestures, we indicate that it should be easy to change.
 
Except it’s not. And it’s in Greek, so consulting the help section isn’t actually helpful. Because it is literally, all Greek to me. So I battle it out for several hours by Googling tech questions on my iPhone and then trying to translate that into Greek. An excercise in ridiculousness of epic proportions.  
 
This is made more ridiculous by the fact that I’m literally next door to a tech event being hosted by Microsoft. I throw up my arms finally and go to get help. A very kind soul and one of the event’s judges, George, goes way out of his way to help me to get my PC up and running. 
 
It has been humbling for someone who despises asking for help to have to ask for help repeatedly. The kindess of total strangers again and again has been an unexpected highlight of the trip.
 
The Emotional Spin Cycle
 
I was reaching a dire point when it came to laundry after my hotel living. Hotels will do your laundry for you. But they want your first born’s college fund to do so. $15 to wash a pair of pants and $5 per pair of underwear. At those prices, I might as well buy new clothes (and I did). I finally found a lavenderia (laundromat) that required travel on two metro lines to get to it. I offered to let my friend Andrew throw his laundry with mine. I mean afterall, he did let me crash for free at his hotel in Athens.
 
I started the first washing machine without a hitch. As I was putting in Euros in the second one, it didn’t seem to be taking my money, and I was afraid I’d accidentally put in Kroners.
 
Oh no, it wasn’t Kroners. What happened is that washing machines automatically lock down at 9 pm. The machine spinning? Not my laundry in it. The machine not spinning? My laundry in it.
 
So I sat. Watching Andrew’s laundry spinning.
 
And spinning.
 
And spinning.
 
Despite being the crazy swearing laundry incompetent American, I made a new friend, Coco. Coco is apparently a common nickname for George in South America. I will now affectionately dub my friend, George G. Smith Jr., as “Coco” or maybe on occasion “Cocoa Puff” or “Cocoa Butter.” With my despised nickname of “Cornbread,” we’ll make a fine pair.
 
Coco seemed to be facing a dire laundry situation as well. The threat of dirty socks is a bridge that crosses cultural divides. After folding Andrew’s laundry, Coco and I began an expedition to find an all-night lavanderia. Whilst walking 20 minutes to a new subway stop, I questioned the sanity of trekking to an unfamiliar part of the city with a stranger, but I determined unclean jeans called for poor-decision making skills.
 
Unfortunately, after another 20-minute trek post metro trip, the lavenderia was closed. The devastation I felt was akin to Clark Griswold’s trek to Wally World only to find it closed. But as I didn’t drag a dog behind my car or anything akin to that, I didn’t take the Lavenderia hostage to get my Tide on.
 
At this point, Coco walks me another 20 minutes to my subway stop, so I won’t get lost. At this point, I realize that Coco is just being nice. He didn’t really need to do a second load of laundry that badly. And he wasn’t interested in me or going to mug me, he just wanted to help a frustrated foreigner. Coco – Wherever you are, I wish you a lifetime of happiness and Downy fresh sheets.
 
And for anyone wondering how I smell right now, I trekked back to the lavenderia in my pajamas the next morning, which had made it into Andrew’s washing machine.

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