Big City vs Small Village

We spent five days in Athens over my Birthday weekend. We went to five museums, ate five dinners and went to five archeological sites. We also went on some long walks. We were very loyal to our Rick Steve's Guide Book! His guided tours of the archeological sites and the museum were very good as were the walking tours. As we found out after we returned home, there are parts of Athens that are not safe to walk through. So it's not a bad thing that we stuck to Rick Steve's. I think Athens is having a very hard time. The economic crisis has caused a lot of people there to be living on the margins, Greeks and emigrants alike. But as usual the people were wonderful and we enjoyed being there very much. I was asked what I liked best. There were so many things that I liked that it is hard to choose, but I'll have to say the reconstructed Stoa of Atalos. It was rebuilt in 1950 to be exactly as it was when it was new, and in the same location at the ancient agora of Athens. It is the long colonnade building with two levels. It was used for shops, offices and a place for gathering, standing in the shade and leaning up against the columns. The columns were made smooth for the bottom 6 feet so that it would be comfortable to lean on them. I like to imagine what it would feel like to live at different times and places. The stoa gave me a chance to imagine! Then, what I liked least. The overwhelming graffiti, almost everywhere you look, to me is devastating. It is so destructive and depressing. Poor Athens.

We spent a wonderful day with our family in Athens, visiting, going to a festa and watching and participating in dancing, eating a wonderful dinner, and going on an excursion to the temple at Sounion  And eating more. Another nice thing that happened is that friends happened to going to Athens during the same time, so we had dinner with them one night, actually on my Birthday! They didn't know it was my Birthday, I told them later. So, for me it was a surprise birthday party, a surprise to spend it with friends.

Now the small village. We went on a walking tour of Vamos last weekend. It felt like we had come home after our excursion to Athens, back to the familiar sights of an old stone village. A wonderful meal, a tiny surprise dessert (actually two this time) and raki. In Athens we didn't always get the surprise dessert and raki, so it was good to get back to that tradition! We are definitely spoiled.

So many things about Athens I didn't mention. The market (all meat) was stunning. We went expecting a market like in Catania Sicily. That one had all kinds of food.  The one in Athens, at least the big indoor area was all meat, it was huge, huge, huge. You will see some pictures of it. And it was not static, I mean the butchering was not always finished so there were lots of meat cleavers and sounds of meat cleavers and ...... It was a lot of reality at one time. We ate lunch in a small restaurant there. But it was hard especially for me, I had the view of the market, Grier had the view of paintings and the kitchen with tasty smells.

We rode the night ferry there and back, that was fun too. We had our own cabin. I went straight from the ferry to work. Felt a little stunned, but made it through the day. Yikes this is getting long! Now for pictures.

How Spot the Cat lead us to Ela Thalasa the Dog

A week ago today we were making arrangements to catch Spot the Cat and take
her to a friend that volunteers with a group for getting stray cats and dogs
neutered. Spot the very sweet girl Cat had been spending a lot of time at
our house purring and rubbing on our legs an attempting to break into our
house. Of course this behavior is encouraged by the fact that we feed her!
Bur even so no other of the many cats (5 or 6) that inhabit our area of
Stavros are as friendly as her. So, we figured that very soon we would be
faced with a sweet Spot the Cat and many cute kittens trying to break into
our house. So, this is why we decided to try to get her neutered. So last
Saturday we spent the morning attempting to catch Spot, failing and finally
succeeding late in the day. Hurrah, we are out of the woods! Just take her
down to the Stavros Bay beach meet with our friend and hand her over. Then
she would be delivered back to use for the night and then we could let her
go the next morning and be all set, back to our peaceful routine of pet
management.

But, when we met to hand over Spot who should be in or friend's car but the
future Ela Thalasa. So, not thinking very far ahead, (actually not thinking
at all, I just saw a cute dog with one sad brown eye) when asked if we knew
of anyone with a fenced yard, that could keep the dog for a few days, and
then take her back down to the beach to let her go (dump her), I said that we
have a fenced yard and could volunteer to help out. So the dog came to our
house, for a few days.

Monday morning (dump day) comes along, it's raining, it's cold, the dog is
even cuter than she was when we first saw her, and we thought about going
down to the beach all summer long seeing this cute, sad one eyed dog, with
no one to care for her while we relax, sip, cold drinks go for a swim, read,
sleep, eat tasty snacks while she begs for food and water, just didn't sound
very good.

It's been ten years since our dog Hovenweep died. We thought at that time
that we would not want another dog. It was too hard to lose Hovenweep.
Dogs are so short lived. But here we are.

I think that the dog and cat situation here is just very old fashioned.
There was no neutering back in the old days and stray dogs and cats were mostly left to fend for
themselves (as were stray people for that matter). There really wasn't much
that could be done. Although as I pointed out to Grier, we could have done
the kitten management like my grandfather used to do it instead of getting
Spot neutered and then we wouldn't have a dog. But when I told him how they
did it in the "old days" he wasn't too interested in being "old fashioned".
My grandfather used to drown the kittens in the bath tub before their eyes
were even open, while my mother stood at the bathroom door crying and
begging him not to do it. And my grandfather was a lovely man who really
liked cats. So, picture the scene of Grier drowning kittens in the bath tub
while I cry and beg him not to do it. I think getting a dog was a better idea.

The dog's name means "Come here Sea". By the way Spot the Cat is called
"Voula" in Greek. Think I'll call her Voula Spot. But what will we do when
the time comes for us to leave Crete?

The picture of Ela Thalasa and Oka and Nogan shows a little bit of the wary attitude of the cats. But since she does like to chase cats their skepticism is well founded. The picture of Voula Spot is an action shot but you can see the black spot.