Connections

Our trip plans are now complete! This might not sound like much of an achievement, but what many may not realize is that when I say "yeah, we're going to Greece" getting there is only the beginning.

Greece may be on the Euro and Athens new airport may have been voted tops in all of Europe, but my homeland is not too many years removed from antiquity (more like antiquainted). That is most apparent on Greece's national airline, the majestic Olympic Airways. The clerks still smoke at their desks. The flight attendants still wear the same uniforms that they were issued in 1963. And most annoyingly, if you wish to fly to any island or city in Greece, you MUST fly through Athens! That means that although far more time efficient than taking the boat, you'd never be able to go from say Limnos to Chios (which are fairly close to eachother) without going via Athens. Crazy! What this also means is that you have to buy all these tickets pretty much a la carte which really adds up.

So, with family scattered all around Greece, getting to Athens is only the beginning. One of the funny things about that is that it can actually be cheaper in some cases to fly to another country altogether! And that's exactly what we're doing! Rather than go to Corfu to visit yet another cousin, my lovely bride and I are taking a 3 day side trip to Venice. We sort of figured that since Venice is slowly sinking into the Mediterranean, we only have a finite amount of time to actually see it. I hope the Italians there are friendlier than the lady who works at the pizza place at the Rome Airport that we always seem to run into. She's not so nice.

While I'm excited to see Venice, the canals, the architecture and the gondolas, I have to say, what I'm really excited about is getting to go to a Prada store and a Diesel store IN Italy! They MUST be better!

Mmmmm...GYROS!

We Greeks are generally a fairly proud people. Granted we've basically been resting on our laurels for the last couple thousand years, but even still, we must be given credit for a few more modern gifts to the world. I'm not talking about Korres beauty care products or even the lovely Maria Menounos. No, what I speak of is the magical Gyro. Yes, the staple food of Greeks all over the world. The tasty delight that can bring warring nations together. The gravity defying meat cone that serves as a beacon to the hungry. The Gyro. A symbol of freedom, carnivorous creativity....and delicious goodness.

Well, to honor our national treasure, Chicago - widely considered the unofficial gyro capitol of the world - has bestowed on our tantilizing treat the honor of a visual homage for all of the world to enjoy. A team of artists captured snapshots of all of Chicago's many gyro restaurant signs and created an historic montage to be treasured by Greeks all over the globe. "A photographic tour de force.." says Petros Papaiannis president of the Greek Barber's Guild. "2 thumbs WAY up!" say Nikos and Yiorgos of Nikos and Yiorgos - Let's Make Movietime! .

Please click here to share in this ethnic treasure. A heartfelt efharisto to the good people of Chicago.

In the News...

Every morming when I get to work I spend the first half hour or so eating my breakfast and reading through a few of my regular blogs, sites, etc. There have been some pretty odd and seemingly harmless things lately that have made the local news here, like cows running loose in parks, or off-duty firemen found drunk in parks wearing blonde wigs and bikinis. Weird yes, but newsworthy? I guess?!?

Anyway, this morning, after getting the latest on our bikini-clad fireman, who is apparently ashamed and is a actually a very normal family guy (you dont say?), I stumbled upon (or maybe "ran aground" is a better way to put it) a story on Greece. I'm Greek, so naturally we like to read about our people when they make the news. We haven't had much good press since the days of stone tablets. The headline read something like "Greek Cruise Ship Sinks". Hard to make anything positive out of that.

I'm sure everyone's seen it by now, this Greek (actually Cypriot) cruise ship ran into some volcanic reef and over the course of the next 15 hours, sank into the bay off the coast of Santorini. I'm surprised the Americans haven't tried to blame Al-Qaeda for that yet. Fortunately no one was killed, although a French father and daughter are still missing. I'm hoping they're just shopping or something.

Most of the time when there is news about Greece it's either something like, 'oh they broke ground on a new McDonald's and had to stop all construction due to the inadvertent discovery of an ancient reliquary or something'. FYI, good luck digging anyplace in Greece and not finding something a thousand years old! Other times it'll just be something vaguely Greek, like Pete Sampras winning Wimbledon, or George Michael jerking off in a bathroom, or something worse, like a review of a new Yanni album.

The Olympics made for good news, 3 years ago granted, but since Greece has sort of been resting on their laurels for the last couple Millenia, it was nice to get the eyes of the world focused there (for something positive) other than fabulous beaches, amazing olive oil and lecherous men. For 2 whole weeks! That was totally worth the billions of Euros.

Anyway, I was saddened to see that a ship sank in Greece. I mean, this was no Titanic. The ship looked old and like it could have gone down with the next smash of a champagne bottle to the bow! The media'll spin it as some shoddy workmanship, or some lazy Greek crewman was drinking ouzo and cajoling with his mates breaking plates, when...'gamoto! xtipisame petra! grigora, fige!' (fuck! we hit a rock! Let's get out of here!). But I think I know what really happened.

Not that I'm some sort of conspiracy theorist or nutjob skeptic, but I do love my TV shows about UFOs, supernatural phenomena and lost civilizations. See where I'm going with this? Atlantis anyone? Come on, it could totally be that they hit some unknown entrance to Atlantis! Little known fact, but some scientists believe that Atlantis was not actually a continent in the Atlantic ocean, but an island between Santorini and Delos that sank during an earthquake and volcanic eruption.

So, in conclusion, I would guess that the ship ran aground on some poor bastard's submarine palace and that the Greeks will soon be hearing from some pissed off Atalantisan lawyers, suing for vandalism, littering and invasion of privacy. There goes the 2 weeks worth of profits from the Olympics! Take that Minister of Tourism!