notes on obsecurity

We've been in Athens approximately 32 hours by now, though it feels much longer... such a stark change of pace makes for minor adjustment issues. I have mixed feelings on the city. I certainly don't hate it, but I'm not sure if I love it. I feel remarkably safe here, as far as big cities go. For whatever reason, greek people strike me as relatively harmless - probably a deceptive personal fable, but makes for a less-edgy perspective. All our guidebooks talk about the city being typical city - big, dirty, noisy. And while it certainly holds such qualities, it doesn't seem so in proportion to its size. I suspect this has been a change since the Athens Olympics (in '04). The Metro (subway) system is the slickest I've seen (event-planner envy) and the roads are in good condition (as far as European roads are concerned). [Side note: There are six SERIOUS gamers in this internet cafe and they're shouting about their computer games in greek... brings a new understanding to 'computer nerd.']

Thus far, in Athens, we've done a lot of walking and hit a few museums. We ate dinner atop some huge hill (starts with an 'L') , with absolutely sweeping views of all Athens, last night. Athens is a BIG city! It just sprawls and sprawls... We watched the sun go down over the city; it was all very picturesque. I went to the matriarchy museum I was all excited about; I was disappointed. But I did meet a really interesting guy, Miguel, from Spain, who was particularly interested in talking religion. It was a good challenge for me to discuss my ideas on faith, church and God in simple english (his english was good, but not technical, and he really knew little to nothing about Christianity).

We ate very greek today - yougurt and honey for breakfast (their yougurt is different than ours' [first of all, it's spelled 'yougurt']; it's much creamier and thicker [and probably more fattening]), for lunch - souvalaki (which is essentially skewers) on fried pita, and for dinner a greek salad [a new favorite] and some sort of spicy-ish pork stew dish.

Greece has a seemingly inordinate number of stray animals (cats and dogs) - harping back to my Mexico theory. It's strange, coming from Portland, where we just don't have strays at all. I just can't explain how bizarre it is to see dogs running around, with no home.

I know you've been wondering about the toilets, so let me share... again, with the Mexico comparison, there's some debate as to whether or not toilet paper is flushable. Some bathrooms have signs, some don't. Mom seems to think that it's fine to flush in new plumbing, but not in old. Many of the toilets have two flush buttons, like a big flush and a little flush (Sunday family - like in the bathroom in Googleville).

Most hotel rooms come with two sets of two towels - a normal sized bath towel and a HUGE (as in, size of a small bath towel) hand towel. We've had incredible luck getting seperate beds in our hotels (something we didn't have the pleasure of in Italy, w/the exception of the convent in Siena). And every hotel has had a bathtub shower... a true source of joy, after my experiences flooding nearly every bathroom we had in Italy.

Mom's turn on the computer. So long for now! Love to all.

P.S. Danny, Ryan - how was your last show?! Sorry I missed it!