Lessons learned the hard way

When a piece of baklava and a piece of Kata'i'fi are inhabiting the same take home box, it is incredibly difficult to actually eat either.  I am currently covered in honey, mostly victorious against the offending baklava.  Tomorrow's Kata'i'fi breakfast has no idea what's coming.

Oh to have this problem every day of my life!

After my 10 hour day of walking, I was pretty under the weather Monday (actually I am still not quite well, but much better than I was).  I essentially wasted the entire day, leaving the hostel only to forage.

Early Tuesday a new room mate arrived - Pavlo from Spain (I think he said Lucena, near Granada, but I can't be sure).  He only had one day in Thessaloniki and wanted to know what he should see - so I volunteered to be his directionally challenged tour guide for the day. We wandered back to the White Tower, Byzantine culture museum, Rotunda, Arch of Galerius, and a few other sites.

My most significant new site of the day was the Thessaloniki Archaeological Museum.  It houses specimens from prehistoric Greece to the 18th century.  The Alpha Bank coin collection also resides here - and this exhibit was worth the entire price of admission.  There were samples of coins from several centuries BC, to Phillip II of Macedonia, to Alexander the III (AKA Alexander the Great), all the way through Roman and Ottoman times.  The coins which had duplicates displayed both sides - but many of them are one of a kind, thus only one side of the coin could be seen (a photo of the other side accompanied these).  For all of the reading and lectures I've heard about Alexander and Phillip, it really comes to life more when you can see the silver coins minted at their decree.  It's also interesting to see the changes in coin size through the ages - macroeconomics even then meant that some currencies lost or gained value according to conditions, and currency reflected those changes in size and weight variations over the years.  Alongside the coins were some of the molds used to cast the blanks, and the dies used to stamp the designs!

There was also an amazing collection of sculpture farther into the museum, plus my favorite red on black/black on red pottery from Ancient Greece.  Last was the "Gold of Macedonia" exhibit, which displayed various gold/gold encrusted artifacts from Greece.  Photos here didn't turn out well due to lighting, but here I found solid gold olive leaf crowns, several centuries old, that looked like the day they were made.  They looked so delicate - even the pistils of the flowers in one of the crowns were present, tiny wires of gold that must have been painstaking to make, and which I am still amazed have managed to survive the ravages of time.

The rest of the day I spent wandering around the touristy area with Alicia.  I finally got to sample some halva, a sweet dessert made with sesame seeds, honey, and cinnamon (those last two seem to be part of a pattern here, and I think I like it) courtesy of Helen and John - their kindness lingers even 5 days after they left the country! 

Today I slept in (at least compared to yesterday).  First stop was the train station to go ahead and get my ticket and confirm the train time to Kalambaka (one of two towns near Meteora).  I bought my ticket (a whole 9 Euro, at least getting around is sort of cheap) and proceeded to walk all the way back up the hill with Pavlo to see Vlatadon one more time, and get one last overview of the city.

Something important to note about Greece.  People here will sit over a cup of coffee for literally hours on end.  I have seen people sit more than 2 hours talking, over a single cup of coffee.  One of the travel tips I read mentioned this phenomenon, and offered that perhaps coffee is expensive because you are paying for the product, as well as renting your seat.  I am not sure when Greeks actually do work, because there are always millions of locals at the cafes, drinking coffee really slowly.  I have finally mastered the art of taking 2 hours to drink 3 ounces of Greek coffee, and I used this skill to burn most of the afternoon before I got on the train.

I now have a view of the pillars of stone that the monasteries are situated on top of (although I can't make any of them out at the moment).  Kalambaka is obviously accustomed to tourists, so it is cleaner, brighter, and more Anglophone friendly than Thessaloniki was.  I really like it here so far, the view is amazing no matter where you are, and the town has very old world charm.  A very nice change of pace after Thessaloniki's very modern, plain, somewhat run down metropolis feel and architecture style (ancient things, of course, excepted).

I also have the first private room and double bed I've seen since I was in the US.  I kind of like it, actually - and the hotel is very nice.

Tomorrow I will be scaling Meteora's rocks to visit 14th Century monasteries, gaze upon beautiful frescoes and mosaics, and venerate icons older than the 'New World.'  I haven't been this excited since I hit the tarmac in Athens.

I also may not be in touch much the next couple of days, depending on the pace of this place.  I wouldn't mind having a couple of quiet days to do some mental house cleaning, and if Meteora is conducive to it, I can't think of a better time or place to do it.