Relaxation and Reflection

Today was a sort of day off. We didn't have any plans for the day and ended up sleeping for more than 12 hours! That occasionally happens to me when I'm sick, but I don't feel sick at all -- rather unprecedented. It has been exhausting the last few days, we've gotten a lot of sun, we haven't slept that well because of jet lag, and late at night I was cutting down a paper to 3000 words to submit it to two conferences (before a June 1st deadline). Coming out our flight out was very delayed and very stressful, since it looked like we were going to be stuck in Warsaw and we were told there were no hotels there since Obama was in town. Luckily, we were able to get a flight from Warsaw to Munich and from Munich to Athens, but that meant we showed up at our apartment around 1 AM.


[Joe and Suzy with us at an outdoor restaurant.]

This is my first time in Greece, despite studying ancient philosophy for almost ten years now (wow, that's a strange thought). One of the really surprising things is how much of the writing I can understand, without being able to understand any verbal communication. I can tell Alison the etymology of all sorts of words, yet can't understand anything anyone says, except hello, please and thank you. It is a bizarre situation, but a pleasant surprise, since I thought I would less of the writing.



The museums have been interesting. The archeological museum just has some absolutely amazing things in it, especially the statues -- it has the best art in Athens. The Acropolis museum is a beautiful piece of architecture and does a nice job of helping you understand what the Acropolis was and its history. We went to the Benaki museum today, which is interesting because it covers Greek history from the bronze age until today, so you really get a wonderful bird-eye view on things. Although I don't think this was meant to be the message, the effect it had on me was to realize how great the golden age really was: it really does seem to be the best.

The food has been quite good with a fair variety of vegetarian dishes. We went to a really great place tonight, at the top of the stairs pictured below. There was bread rubbed with garlic, red peppers with yogurt sauce, spinach pie, some of the best baked potatoes I've ever had (with olive oil and garlic), grilled mushrooms, and fried zucchini balls.



A few people asked how often I'll be updating this. That depends on my time and internet connection, but I hope for every few days...