Unfinished Business

Like many others, I believe I suffer from a mild form of ADD. I love buying various "organization" office supplies, but the excitement wears off before I ever use them ("Trapper Keeper," anyone?). I love starting new craft projects that I seldom finish. My mom is still saving a cross-stitch project I started in 1991. There is a half-sewn dress next to my sewing machine in my closet. What happens? I don't know. I just lose interest, I guess. And yet, I still seem to carry around the guilt of just letting it sit there, incomplete (I like to carry around a lot of guilt in general - more on that later).

I am the same way with writing. When I am in the bookstore/giftshop/cardshop/whatever, I like to examine the various writers' tools they display. I especially like the blank "journals" with the cute or sophisticated covers, and quite a few of them have found their way home with me, where they are doomed to sit on a shelf and continue their lives of total blankness. They never stood a chance.

What brings this up now? Today, I was searching through the "Work in Progress" folder in my e-mail. And there I saw it - my travel log of the first 3 days of my 14 day honeymoon. Let's face it: there's no way I'm going to finish it. So what the heck. I'm posting it here. Go Athens! (because that's all you get).

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Day 1: En Route:
If you're running a travel agency, here's a great way to spread the good reputation: book flights on Alitalia from Washington, D.C. to Athens with a SEVEN HOUR layover in Milan. Good times. I made the mistake of packing my glasses in my checked luggage before I thought about the fact that I would be wearing my contact lenses for a good 20 hours with no chance of reprieve since the "no liquids" carry-on rule went into effect. Fortunately for me, Shawn and I managed to smuggle on some rewetting drops from the newsstand and some makeshift lens cases (ear plug containers). Unfortunately for me, the glasses were still checked. So what this meant was that, when I decided I couldn't wear those contacts for another minute, I was hanging out in the Milan airport at 6:00 a.m. almost completely blind. I felt like Elisabeth Shue's friend in Adventures in Babysitting, minus the rat. Thankfully, Shawn is resourceful and managed to get us into a 25 euro/person "lounge." We headed straight for the la-z-boys and caught a 5 ½ hour nap. But that SUCKED!!

Day 2-3: Athens:
We arrived in Athens in the early evening. We did not realize this, but the Athens airport is NOT close to the Akropolis. At all. We passed a number of shady looking hotels and prayed that they were not our accommodations. At this point, we had no idea really what to expect. Finally, the driver pulled up to the hotel, and it was wonderful. The Divinas Akropolis. Shawn and I checked into our room and then went down to the bar for a cocktail and, for me, the first of many many Greek salads. Tasty. They just don't have the same feta here. And they don't feel the need to throw lettuce in the mix either. Just cukes, tomatoes, olives (which I pick around), onions, and a nice square of feta - all in one piece. No comparison to the "famous Greek salad" at Port of Piraeus, a block from my office. One interesting thing to note about the Divinas, however. Their version of a king bed is two twins pushed together (okay, not that uncommon). What IS uncommon is that the two twins have separate sheets. So basically, Shawn and I slept dorm room style. Weird. The hotel had the most fantastic breakfast buffet, and the best of the entire trip by a mile. Among the sausages, pastries, fruits, eggs, etc., they had a little "Greek Corner," and nestled among some olives and tomatoes with feta was some kind of Greek cream pie. FANTASTIC! It was like a giant slab of baklava cut into squares but instead of nut filling had a cream custard. I was in love with this so-called "breakfast" and forfeited all of the other options once I tasted it.

So our first real day in Athens, we went on a ½ day tour that included the Olympic Stadium (not ancient - actually it was the first modern Olympic Stadium and was built in 1880), the Temple of Zeus, and the Akropolis. We learned that there are a ton of dogs just hanging around Athens. We saw some puppies at the Temple of Zeus, just chilling next to one of the broken columns. The Akropolis is a bit of a hike, but it is really stunning to see in person. There is detail, especially around the top of the Parthenon, that you can't really see unless you're up close.

I have heard Athens described in a negative way as a "concrete jungle." That does not do it justice at all.