To the Beach!

This weekend was filled with firsts for Griffin...a first all-day excursion to the beach, first sand in the diaper, first full night of sleep in Greece, first fireworks, first time trying bananas, and first cucumber, olive oil, salt, pepper, oragano, parsley, and dill.

Let's cover these one at a time, shall we?

First of all, Griffin had been to a beach on Santorini, but we spent less than an hour there, so really this was Griffin's first real beach excursion. We spent most of the morning and into the afternoon on Vouliagmeni Beach. Griffin actually went into the sea with us, but I didn't dare bring a camera into the water, so here's a shot of him just before venturing into the sea. He wasn't sure what he thought about the water at first, but after he got used to it, he absolutely loved to splash and swim with Landon. We ate lunch and Griffin even napped on the beach for about an hour. That evening we went swimming in the hotel pool, mostly to get pictures of Griffin's face when he swims because it's so darn cute.
And perhaps you'll think I've gotten my comuppance when I tell you that jet lag and an inconsistent sleeping environment have left Griffin getting up 2 or 3 times during the night. Anyway, this weekend he started sleeping through the night again, hoorah!!! It's been three nights in a row of solid sleep. I don't want to jinx myself by calling that a pattern, but I'm definitely grateful for it.


Oddly enough, the first night that he slept 8 hours included a midnight fireworks show. We put him to bed at around 10 p.m. and then at midnight Landon and I were jolted awake by an explosive noise. Because I'd been watching the news about the riots in Iran right before I went to bed, in my sleep-stupor I told Landon to stay away from the windows. Luckily, he ignored me and opened our curtains to discover that there was a fireworks show on the beach across the street from our hotel. We were able to watch it from the sofa in our room. It was pretty darn impressive. Even more impressive was that Griffin slept right through it.


We've been trying to ease Griffin into eating solids. So far he's tried rice cereal, apple sauce, mushed pears, smooshed peaches, bread, and this weekend: bananas. He does really well with most of the stuf we've offered him. The only problem he has is that he's apparently allergic to powdered dry milk (since all of the food labels are in Greek, that's a guess based on the translation of the girl at the front desk...yes, food science at it's best).


Anyway, we've been really pleased with his progress into the land of solids...and then we went to dinner on Saturday. We found a little mom and pop restaurant near the beach where we ordered a Greek salad and a couple of gyros for dinner. The owner (I think) of the restaurant came over and made faces at Griffin and offered him a little slice of bread. We didn't object because we already knew that Griffin liked and could handle bread, so we fed him little pieces until our salad came. When our salad arrived, the same guy came over and before Landon or I realized what was going on, he had a cucumber from our salad skewered on a fork and in our baby's mouth. Griffin made a ravenous face and started lapping at the olive oil and seasonings. Landon, as politely as one can launch himself across a table and jerk a fork out of your hand, did just that. The owner chuckled and left. We thought that was the end of it. Nope.


Five minutes later he was back with a waiter (presumably his nephew or something) and again before we could remember the Greek word for "no" had a cucumber in our baby's mouth. Griffin, recognizing a good thing when he tastes one, clamped down on the cucumber with his two little teeth and refused to let go. Luckily Landon kept a level head and was able to fish the cucumber out of Griffin's mouth before things got too dicey...but the whole time I was wishing I knew the Greek words for, "Get that fork out of my baby's mouth before he chokes!" and also, "If he has an allergic reaction to cucumbers, you're in big fat greek trouble!" Luckily, Griffin neither choked, nor had an allergic reaction, so we just paid our bill and left.

Knowing where you are...

You know you're in Greece when:

1. You wake up in the middle of the night and you don't need to consult a clock for the time, just listen to the noise level of the club next door- Our hotel is next door to a club/music restaurant called suca cuka (pronounced soo-ka coo-ka). At midnight the party is a low rumble. At 2am, it's in full jumpin' bumpin' swing with lots of Cher, DePeche Mode, and Mambo No. 5. At 4am they enthusiastically throw out all of the glass bottles into the dumpster on the street.


2. You can park anywhere....anywhere...as long as you put your hazard lights on- This surprised me, stick on your hazard lights and suddenly it's legal to park diagonally in the middle of the road. I'm not lying, I've seen this.


3. You dress up to go everywhere- Every single Greek woman I've seen in this part of town looks like she just stepped out of a fashion catalogue. Some of the fashion is tackier than others, but still, almost everyone makes a statement.


4. Everyone is wearing oversized sunglasses- I don't know if the sunshine here is terribly damaging, but I'm in the tiny minority when I walk outside without sunglasses on. And interestingly, all of them wear HUGE sunglasses, the kind that cover 3/4 of your face...lending the entire population a look of giant fashionable insects.


5. Any blank public wall is in want of grafitti- There is grafitti on just about every public wall, and not just the sloppy scrawl either (though there is plenty of that), but there is lots of really artistic, delicate grafitti artwork. It's almost like walking through a modern art exhibit everytime I walk to the store. My favorite grafitti I've seen thus far is an elaborate declaration of the phrase BUNS CREW...hmmm, I wonder what the qualifications are for that type of a group.


6. Feta cheese is elevated to an art form- I liked feta cheese before, but WOW!!!! I think almost every native dish has some sort of a feta component to it, and the supermarket has an entire section of the store devoted to the different varieties of feta. This stuff is addictive, I tell you.


7. You get two parks within walking distance of your hotel- I love going to the park with Griffin. He is fascinated by the outdoors. He likes to sit and pull on the grass and compete with the birds to see who can squawk the loudest: Griffin wins every time. We picnic often while Landon is off at work.

Leaping off the wagon...headfirst

Some of you know that back in February Landon decided that he would stop eating chocolate for one whole year. He claims that his occasional acid reflux was triggered by chocolate. He kept it up rather well while we were in the U.S. However, just before we left for Greece, a co-worker staged what can only be termed a "chocolate intervention." He told Landon, in no uncertain terms, that fasting from chocolate while in Europe was near blasphemy...to which I say a hearty AMEN!

Anyway, as the pictures below will prove, Landon and I have wasted no time in sampling the cocoa delights of Europe. Today was his birthday and we celebrated, as one should, with chocolate.

But first, let's talk about the birthday dinner: We have a tiny kitchenette, truthfully I feel like I'm cooking in a Polly Pocket kictchen here. But considering our resources, I felt pretty pleased with the birthday dinner I made for Landon.

Spinach salad with poached pears and fresh cherries and a self-made raspberry viniagrette; Roasted red pepper pasta with gouda cheese; and raspberry juice.

We don't have an oven so I couldn't bake a cake myself...but I did find a pre-made cake round at the supermarket, so for dessert we frosted the cake round with nutella. After his first bite Landon said he might want a nutella cake every year. That's cool with me because it was the easiest birthday cake I've ever made.

We topped the evening off with Landon's favorite chocolate: Swiss Toblerone. Yes, we were trying to induce a good old-fashioned birthday sugar headache...and we suceeded.

Griffin was shocked and slightly offened that we didn't leave any Toblerone for him.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Landon!!! I love you.

Looky, Looky!

I am so smart, I figured out how to write my name. It's like preschool all over again, only this time it's in Greek!

Καμηλ

And Landon's name looks like this:

Λανδον

And Griffin's is by far the coolest:

Γριφιν

An Odyssey to Santorini

In the Greek classic, The Odyssey, the epic hero Odysseus takes a ten-year journey through the Greek islands encountering all manner of mishaps and adventures including shipwreck, a cannibalistic cyclops, seductive sirens and more. While our journey through the Greek islands notably misses out on the cyclops, I'd definitely still classify it as an adventure.

We boarded a passenger boat and took a 5-hour ride through the Greek islands to arrive at our final destination of Santorini: a.k.a. Greek paradise. Unfortunately, about 1 hour into the ride, the boat's engine died and we sat stranded in the waves for about 45 minutes before the crew had everything up and running again. 45 minutes may seem like too short a time for cabin fever to set in, but I was pretty sure some of the other passengers were considering mutiny.

Santorini was fantastic! It was even more gorgeous than these pictures convey, but you'll have to settle.

Griffin and I at sunset on or balcony

The sunset on Santorini

Griffin at breakfast...what a goofy grin!

Walking around the city

Our hotel was built into the side of the cliff and gave us the most perfect view we could have asked for. My father warned Landon, "Don't let Camille get used to this kind of lifestyle." Truthfully, I'm not sure that I ever could get used to it.

Sundry thoughts about Greece

I was waiting to post until I had some sort of profound theme or at least a humorous anecdote to tell. But apparently I'm running low on both humor and profundities so we'll just have to settle for a stream-of-conciousness post; hang on tight, this could get messy.

Let's talk about food. The food here is great, no surprise. Greeks really know how to make your tastebuds tingle. We've found a restaurant here that we really like, called Mythos (pronounced mee-thos) and actually spelled Μύθος. Yum, yum, yum! Also, I love that the produce from the local market is mostly locally grown so it somehow tastes and smells better, richer, fuller. Truthfully, I was fairly picky when it came to oranges before, but after eating the most exquisite oranges on the planet (Florida has NOTHING on the Mediterranean) I'm pretty sure to turn my snotty little nose up at Colorado oranges for the foreseeable future.

This weekend we finally made the trek to downtown Athens. I know that a 30 minute metro ride doesn't sound like a trek, but with a 5 month old and a few added bus tranfers because of metro construction, it certainly felt like one. We spent the entire afternoon just roaming around the city. I think you'll get the idea best through picturtes:

Griffin asleep on the bus on our way to Athens

Greece Parlimentary building
Landon and Griffin at the Naional Gardens (I love Griffin's face in this one)

Me in the National Gardens (oddly the only picture with me in it, guess who was holding the camera)

A view of the Acropolis from a square in the city. We didn't hike up to the Acropolis, we're saving that for some other weekend (Apparently, it's free on Sundays)

Stopping for some dessert before heading home: the BEST baclava and lemon cheesecake.

Safe, Happy, and Exhausted

I suppose I should have known when I saw the cutoms officer stamp our passports, cigarette smouldering at his elbow, that I was in for a bit of a cultural baptism by fire. But I suppose before I delve into my musings on Greek culture (all 12 hours of culture that I have thus far experienced) I should bring you up to date on the trip.

Our flight from Denver to London lasted about 8 hours, Griffin slept for 6 of those hours...this child is an angel. Sleeping on a plane has never been one of my talents, nor Landon's, so I'd say we got a few hours in if you add it all up. We landed in London at noon local time where we had a 9 hour layover. Instead of finiding a cozy corner of the airport to sleep, we left the airport and headed out to see the city. I'm glad we did because Landon had never been to London and who knows if/when we might get the chance again. It was a crash course, to be sure, but well worth the effort.

Griffin's First Train Ride

Buckingham Palace

After Lunch in St. James' Park

Big Ben

Our flight to Greece left London at 9pm, and we hoped that Griffin would once again sleep through the majority of the 4 hour flight. This time we weren't so lucky but Griffin was still a really good baby on the flight and only really lost his patience with the whole process as we drove to our hotel from the Athens airport at 2:30am.

To answer your burning question: yes, it is all Greek to me! And yes, Landon and I have made that joke with surprising regularity and we have yet to find it unfunny. We are staying in a bed-and-breakfast-type hotel just down the street from the ritzy Greek shopping district. I discovered today that it would be possible for me to spend our entire savings on a few pairs of shoes and couple of handbags if I had the mind so do so. Thankfully, I've no intention of doing anything of the sort.

I also have decided that I need to learn the words for "cute baby" in Greek because I'm pretty sure that's what all of these people eyeing Griffin are saying, but I can't be sure. I just hope they aren't saying, "weird Americans."

This afternoon we went to lunch and then to the supermarket a few blocks away and it was definitely a testament to how laid back Greeks really are. At the sandwich shop all of the outdoor tables were full of mostly mustached men, none of whom appeared to have ordered any food, but all of whom were clearly enjoying taking in the afternoon and talking about very amusing-sounding things, but it was all Greek to me. (See, it's funny when it's true)

The supermarket was also quite an experience. This was where we got the most "cute baby" type comments. One Greek grandmother told us our baby was adorable, but that he was so fair skinned that he needed a hat in this sunshine (We only understood this because a younger woman there stepped in and translated for us). Anyway, so far everyone has been really kind and friendly and they don't seem to even be peeved about the fact that we can't speak Greek. I'm hoping though that in three months I'll sound at least a little less clueless when I go to the supermarket. But for now it really is all Greek to me...ok, maybe the joke is starting to get a little lame.