Saint Sunday Chapel

Posted by Kanga.

This lovely little chapel is in the Central Market area. We visited it twice. Once on our own and again with our food tour guide.

It is quite lovely inside with paintings of the saints.

The soot from the candles burnt over the years has obscured the paintings on the ceiling so that only the golden halos show clearly now.

Nearby, was a shop with religious supplies that the average Eastern Orthodox Christian might need. (I did not take a picture, sorry about that.) The wares consisted mainly of candles of various sizes, including some that can be purchased by the foot, as well as pictures of the saints. What was really interesting was the bins of seeds and grains. It is traditional to cook up a special mix of seeds and grains to be eaten after a funeral. So, there were bins of these and cloth bags that one could put them in.

Athens, Greece: Day Four

Posted by Kanga.

We began our day by stopping in at a little grill restaurant (psistaria) next door. They didn’t speak English, but we managed to order the above. Quite fantastic, I must say. (7.60 Euros/$9.97 – the Cokes were 3 Euros – ouch!) The sandwiches are flat bread with pork, tomatoes, potatoes, and yogurt/cucumber sauce.

We went to a shoe store so that I could buy a pair of shoes. The ones I wore yesterday will need days to fully dry out and my sandals won’t be sufficient on the next rainy day. I sat in the park for a few minutes enjoying the pigeons.

Then we walked to the nearest farmers market. It was very crowded and stretched over many blocks of the street. (DaddyBird estimates 1/2 kilometre.)

The wares were amazing. Beautiful eggs, tomatoes, potatoes, huge cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, onions, garlic, olives, olive oil, and more.

We bought more than we could carry, so DaddyBird had to go in search of shopping carts and bought two.

Here are our purchases: eggs, cauliflower, olive oil, mushrooms, garlic, cucumbers, celery, dried figs, purple broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, onions, potatoes, cherry tomatoes, and leeks. We did not keep a count of all the prices, but the big tomatoes were 1.50 Euro and 2 cucumbers were 1 Euro. All the prices were very reasonable. The eggs were 0.15 each = 4.50 Euro/$5.90, although DaddyBird thinks he got more change back, so there may have been a discount for taking the whole flat.

Just so you can see how big the cauliflower is…

This cauliflower weighed in at 4 kilo (8.82 pounds) and cost 2 Euros/$2.62.

Athens, Greece: Day Three

Posted by Kanga.

Our outing began at the Victoria metro train station.

We were headed to the Temple of Hephaestus, but this turned out to be our real destination – the Acropolis and Parthenon.

On our way up the hill, we passed the Sanctuary of Zeus, thought to be the oldest site of Zeus worship. One of those buildings is the Chapel of St. Marina.

We were getting closer. It is quite a climb and we were going up the easy way (we came down the hard way). Any devout ancient Greek that made it up this hill to worship has my respect for their athleticism.

We came to the Odeum of Herodes Atticus, an amphitheater.

One bad aspect of being an off-season tourist is that some things are locked up tight.

This is the view looking back down at the other side of the Odeum.

This sign makes you want to reach out and touch the marble, doesn’t it?

Victory! We made it with only a little groaning, grunting and cussing from me. It was raining lightly which makes marble steps slick and dangerous. Not the best day to do this hike.

Proof that I was there. The building in the background is the Erechtheion – a temple to Athena and Poseidon/Erechtheus.

Proof that DaddyBird was there, too. The Erechtheion is to the right and the Parthenon in the background.

The Acropolis closed at 2:30 pm and it went from raining lightly to raining in earnest and we took a different route down off the hill. It was less than fun – steep, wet, slick – but we managed. Soaking wet, we stopped at a coffee shop for a snack and coffee. DaddyBird had Greek coffee (pictured above)

For the rest of the pictures of Day 3, click here.

Athens, Greece: Day Two

Posted by Kanga.

We wondered through the neighborhood…

…until we found a small souvlaki restaurant near this church.

Our intent was to have a small lunch, but the menu was all in Greek and we didn’t realize that the owner spoke English, so we pointed at the pictures in the menu and this is what we ended up with. Slightly more than a small lunch. Souvlaki is made very much like shwarma, but this happened to be pork.

We found the Victoria metro train station (nearest to our apartment) and took the train to the Monastiraki station.

This church seems to have been assembled out of parts of various other buildings.

I didn’t expect to hear street musicians singing in Spanish, but the day was full of unexpected delights.

When I turned around, there in the distance was the Acropolis. I was not prepared for this sight. It brought tears to my eyes. It brought the old Biblical Studies major and wannabe archaeologist in me to the surface.

We walked through the flea market. (Anyone need a stuffed aligator?)

We stopped for a drink and small snack…

…with the Temple of Hephaestus in sight.

We finally found out where the stray cats were hanging out. They have been conspicuously missing prior to this.

Now that we have found and tested the metro train transportation, we’ll be able to get an earlier start and get up close and personal with a few temples in the next few days.

I will be posting all pictures to this album
If you have difficulty accessing, let me know and I will find another option.

Athens, Greece: Day One

Posted by Kanga.

Here’s a view out of our window. The street is lined with mandarine trees. The streets are narrow and parking on both sides restricts traffic to one lane.

Our apartment looks out over a “square” with a small park.

Across the Agios Gogorgiou Square (the round park) is a church dedicated to Saint George.

The park full of pigeons.

St. George Church at night.

Here is our first Greek meal experience. This is at a restaurant in the building next to our apartment building. I had chicken and artichoke hearts. DaddyBird had canaloni. In the center is a lovely Greek salad with amazingly ripe tomatoes. Very delicious and it cost 16 Euros ($21.00). The restaurant owner recognized right off that we were English speakers and asked another customer to speak to us about what we wanted to eat. However, the owner knew “beef,” “chicken,” “soup,” “canaloni,” “artichoke,” and “salad” so we communicated well enough.

Exploring Fujairah: Part 1

Posted by Kanga.

I have the week off for Eid, so  no work this week, just work around the house and fun. Saturday was spent twiddling my thumbs while the Ikea delivery men assembled our new wardrobes, book cases and kitchen table. Sunday was spent ignoring all the unpacking, cleaning and rearranging necessary after this influx of furniture. So, when Monday rolled around, I decided we should get out for a drive and see things we’ve never seen and take pictures of whatever we come across. Our route was rather complex, looping around and doubling back. I’m going to publish it in multiple posts, so hang in there.

First, Al Hayl Castle:

This small fort is southwest of Fujairah city. The way is well indicated by signs, easy to find. (Click here for more info about the castle.) The caretaker was eager to give us a tour. He is Bangladeshi and his English is quite limited. He insisted on taking pictures of us posing in several locations.

He included his finger in most of the pictures, so I will just post this one.

DaddyBird was very brave and went up these stairs to see the second story. I did not. They are very narrow and the steps are very tall and the handrail is very wobbly.

And what castle doesn’t have a few holes through which to shoot arrows?

Here is a picture of our guide. Despite the fact that I was taking a picture, he felt compelled to point something else out to me.

This is the view of the valley from the watchtower.

This is the floor of what the caretaker told us was the store room. He said that they would put apples here and that the juice would drain down. That would not have been my guess.

This little lizard was quite well camouflaged.

We tipped the caretaker 10 AED for his trouble, but he was not impressed with this amount. So, if you go and get his tour, you might want to more generous than we were.

You can see all the pictures here.

Voyage, Not Particularly Bon

Posted by Kanga.

Oliver made his opinion about us packing baggage very clear. He did his best to get in the way and delay the inevitable.

We began our journey at the un-ostentatiously decorated DXB airport. The only frustration was the process required for paying an extra baggage fee for the third suitcase (because the website had stated clearly that we were allowed 2 each – LIE!). Instead of just being able to pay the person who was checking in our bags (as is done in any other airport) our boarding passes were carried to a different counter by a second person who turned it over to the staff of that counter. We then stood in line (too long) waiting for the first of the two people at this counter to match up our paperwork and ask us pointless questions. She then passed the paperwork to her coworker who actually took the money and gave us back our boarding passes. FOUR PEOPLE. Really, does it take four people to handle this transaction? No. It takes four people to delay you so that you stand in line saying, “we should have flown Emirates Airline.”

We proceeded to Heathrow Airport where getting to your connecting flight is so complex it requires a map.

And they give good advice.

It was not the best of trips. It was not the worst of trips. We really must stop this flying halfway around the Earth in one shot business.

I’m Not a Tourist Here

Posted by Kanga.

So, we have completed a marathon travel experience to reach North Carolina for our daughter’s one and only high school graduation.

It began like this…

[Dubai] At about 11 pm we dragged our suitcases out to the curb to begin the process of flagging down a taxi. DaddyBird remembers suddenly that he forgot the money that others have given him to buy a few things (iTunes cards and barbecue sauce), so he runs back to the apartment and I am left standing on the curb with three large suitcases and two smaller bags looking for a taxi.

A taxi pulls over almost immediately. The driver gets out and comes over to me. He begins telling me that it is a busy night. It is difficult to get into and out of the airport. I have a lot of bags. And then a sentence that I think was supposed to be along the lines of what was I willing to pay for this service, but ended with something along the lines of  ”how much give to you?” I needed to stall anyway, until DaddyBird had time to return. So, I made this guy repeat his request several times, saying that I didn’t understand what he was asking, which technically is the truth since his grammar was all backwards. He gave up just as DaddyBird appeared around the corner, got in his taxi and went away.

We got in another taxi soon thereafter. There was no discussion. The driver helped get the bags into the car quickly and away we went. He got us to the airport quickly. We paid the fare and tipped him well. That is how it should be.

The first driver must have seen a white woman standing near a hotel with a ridiculous amount of luggage and thought “here’s a tourist I can scam.” Sorry buddy, I’m not a tourist here anymore. I know I don’t have to haggle for a taxi ride.

As for the rest of the trip, our first flight via British Airways to Heathrow Airport was a little taste of hell. There were no vents above the seats to blow cool air and it was horribly hot the entire flight. We desperately needed to sleep, but could not. Second leg of the flight from London to Raleigh/Durham North Carolina was better temperature-wise, but sleeping was not easy or very satisfactory due to the discomfort of economy class seats. This flight was operated by American Airlines and I will say that the food was good.

We changed our currency and ended up with quite a wad of bills because about half of what she gave us was in $5 bills. Thankfully, she didn’t resort to giving it to us in ones.

Anyway, we landed safely, although exhausted and a bit smelly. We checked into the hotel and went immediately to sleep.  It’s about 3 am local time now, so I should try to get a little more sleep and try to adjust to the new time zone. Jet lag is a cruel mistress.

Three Nights in Monte Carlo

Posted by DaddyBird

I recently went on an unexpected business trip to Monaco. The magazine that I work for, Shufflegazine, had been invited to attend a trade show, but my boss was unable to attend due to other obligations, so he asked if I would like to go in his place. It took me about 3 seconds to say, “yes!”

The trip really was mostly business. The trade show, DISTREE XXL, is aimed at bringing together IT & consumer electronics vendors with distribution companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It was a good opportunity for the magazine to find out about new tech products that night be coming to our region and to get acquainted with some companies that we may not have had contact with yet. That meant I spent as much time as I could talking to representatives of the companies in attendance and almost none seeing the sights of Monaco. I had hoped to slip away for an hour or two to visit the museum or a historical building, but time and the need to talk to as many as possible just did not permit me to do so. I did get a little free time late one evening, but by then all the historical sites were long closed for the day and even the little local restaurants were locking up for the night.

So my glimpses of Monaco were pretty much limited to what I saw on the walks in Monte Carlo, between the hotel I stayed in and the hotel where the trade show was being held. That being said, for an almost completely “all work, no play” trip, it really was a pretty nice time, and a beautiful place to be doing business for a few days. Attending a tech conference for the magazine and talking to people about their cool new products isn’t bad duty at all, and Monaco is one most lovely places to get to do it. Also, the food served to the attendees of the show at the Fairmont Hotel was outstanding. So while it was busy and tiring, and even though there were many things close by that I hated missing, overall it was still a great several days.

Here are a few pictures:

I got to stay at the beautiful Hotel Hermitage in Monte Carlo. Certainly the nicest place I’ve ever stayed. One of “The Leading Hotels of the World” according to the publicity literature. This fortunate geek boy certainly can’t dispute that. It was gorgeous, very comfortable and the staff was highly gracious.

The elevators in the hotel were small, but nicely appointed.

My room was too big to capture in a photo without a very wide-angle, fish-eye lens.

Many channels available on the TV, including French, Italian and other European channels. Interestingly, channels for Dubai and AbuDhabi TV were also included. An episode of “The Million’s Poet” is on!

It was a fairly short walk between my hotel and the Fairmont where the trade show was being held, with some nice sights in between, in particular the Monte Carlo Casino.

Adjacent to that was a fancy shopping mall and the Café de Paris.

And across from that was the most adorable little police station that I’ve ever seen.

It was just a little further to the Fairmont Hotel where the show was being held. The Fairmont is a much more angular and modern building than the others. If you’ve ever watched the Grand Prix de Monaco, you may have seen the Fairmont. As you can see in the picture, the hairpin turn on the Gran Prix course is right in front of the Fairmont. Also the course goes through a tunnel that is underneath the hotel.

The Fairmont is situated right on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea and has bay windows running all along the seaward side of the building, so while at the conference we were constantly treated to spectacular views.

Sometimes the sea and the sky were unbelievably blue.

I have several more pictures from Monaco to share, but I put them in another post. Stay tuned!

KL Flora pt2