Last Days in Greece

Posted on June 21, 2017 by R.J. Proffer

Maria and I had our early morning flight back to Athens, completely sleep deprived and clutching cups of coffee as our lifeline that would see us through the day. Once at the airport we took the train to our old Athens hotel. Once there, we had a continuation of the same issue last time- they refused to allow our travel agent pay for our hotel. Maria and I resigned ourselves to a phone charge before I gave in and let them charge my card…no matter that I had already paid my travel agent the money. They wouldn’t take my Discover card, saying that their machine didn’t take it. I pointed to the receipt from last time that said otherwise, but their inability to be accommodating had them politely refusing to allow any respone but “no” now. I bite my tongue and paid with my Visa.

We fell asleep and woke up in time to go out to eat dinner, like real Millenials. Our late nights of partying with Greek gentlemen were coming back to haunt us, “Remember me?” We decided to eat dinner on the rooftop of our hotel, which had an incredible view of the Parthenon, alight with bright lights and glowing in the surrounding darkness, high in the mountain. There wasn’t a better sight in this city. Despite the frequent injustice of paying for water, it was another truly amazing night in Greece.

My photo was terrible, so I enjoy this stolen but properly cited one:

We spent the night enjoying the view, paying entirely too much for WATER, and enjoying our meal. Since our sleep schedule was off, we headed to the room and watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding on Youtube. It made so much more sense after being in Greece ourselves, moussaka, everyone being named Nico, the list went on. We finally fell asleep, to have one last day in Greece. ONLY ONE!

The next morning we were in a mad rush to be on time to the train station to go on a tour of the beautiful city we had neglected the first night we had been in Athens and the previous night before when we had chosen sleep over sights. Alas, it was not to be. We missed out train, close enough to see the doors shut and it starting to pull away. No doubt saying lots of colorful and child-appropriate words, I decided we would catch up with the tour group and join late. Maria was game, and we waited quite impatiently for the next train.

We arrived in time to watch the tour group begin to walk to the Tomb of the Unknown soldier, a rather unpleasant-seeming woman leading them all. She refused to let us join, said we were supposed to pay online and not in person (um, where? The pamphlet had not mentioned a website.) Feeling defeated, we walked away, wondering how on Earth we would see this historic, magnificent city now.

Onto the rescue, was a young woman handing out pamphlets for the Red Bus every major city seems to have. She offered it cheaper than the other woman (who had denied us anyway, but it was ok, we were in a better place now and deserved someone better) because I was a teacher. Not only would we be getting transportation around the city on a very hot day, but we would get a free tour that would be starting in an hour! Lucky us!

Before we left we observed the changing of the guard. I always find such dedication to duty impressive and patriotic, I wished I had joined the Navy or found a way to serve my country that way. Instead, I’ll continue dealing with the snotty teenagers and forcibly educating them. “You WILL love to read!”

Interesting costumes, eh?

The bus that might as well have been a luxury limo with a sunroof, led us through downtown Athens that we had barely squinted at when driving on a scooter through throngs of cars. We glimpsed the magnificent museum holding centuries of artifacts and history, statues of famous Greek actresses, government buildings, ancient houses, busy fish markets (those are still a thing?). We passed churches, the Temple of Zeus (of which I have a terrible picture, with those damn telephone lines obstructing our view), and Hadrian’s Arch.

Maria lost a rubber band or thought my face was ridiculous

Um…OK? White pride made its way in to Greece?

These buildings are beautiful!

I LOVE THIS LOOK!

Fishy fishy…le poisson le poisson, hee hee ho ho ho…

A Greek Orthodox Church

Zeus’ temple (no worship continues)

Hadrian’s Arch…he sounds important

Onto our tour!

Unfortunately, not enough people turned up for our tour, so we sat with the tour guide, an enigmatic man with a hooked nose and of course, glasses. You couldn’t have a Ph.D. without them, right? He hopped up when the clock hit the prescribed number, and began talking about the history of the region, and led us on a walk, talking all the while and giving me vivid flashbacks to my beloved History classes at UT Tyler. At one point, reaching the site of an ancient place of gathering and voting of the Greeks, the first democracy, I lost my breath. He pointed out Alexander the Great had stood at this spot. I made a shocked, yet thrilled groan of excitement, and Maria shot me some side eye and said, “calm yourself,” and “are you having an intellectual moment over there?”

As our Intellectually Sexy tour guide pointed out, most tourists never come to this location, unaware of the significance it holds. If one were going to visit Athens, they must visit the Pnyx, and stand on that hill overlooking the city, surrounded by the dust and dirt of so many ages, the same dust that was between the toes of those early Greek voters. Bits of pottery littered the ground, one from each age in Greee. Our tour guide picked a few up and told us what millenium they were from, before discarding them into the dirt again.

From there our I.S. Tour Guide took us by a church, pointing out the pagan and Christian symbols that had merged on the outside, how one world had merged with the next. He took us to a ancient side people used to believe was the prison of Socrates before he was forced to commit suicide. It was actually an ancient fertility site, Philopappos Monument on Philopappos Hill. He gave us a great image of women coming there at night and howling like wolves, and drinking the water form the natural spring inside, supposedly granting them fertility.

From that tour we said goodbye to I.S. Tour Guide and hopped on a Red Bus headed to the History Museum. We only allowed ourselves two hours before we left, to make sure we could still make Acropolis. The sun was lower, and the light was incredible as we headed up the steps to the top of the hill.

The area was covered with a blanket of fellow tourists, traveling for hundreds of miles to see the Parthenon, sadly damaged by the Ottomon Turks in the Great Turkish War against the Venetians. It is still a magnificent sight to see, and I’m very glad to have been able to travel there.

Upon our return to the hotel, we got ice cream, which I don’t remember getting but the picture I have of us eating it and the relief from the heat we got. We felt our trip had been one of the better ones, and I would be sad to leave Greece.

The next morning, we tried to go swimming one last time (every time we had tried the water had been too cold despite the heat of the day continuing) and were disappointed one last time.

We packed up our luggage and ate one last lunch, before heading out of our hotel. We took the train to the airport, the same as we had gotten from it before, but this time, the train was late, and stopped before the last stop, so we had to book it to the airport (and me with my luggage handle that refused to come out). We almost didn’t make it in time. We rushed through the airport, dodging people stupidly standing in the middle of the walkway chatting and oblivious to traffic, and made it to the gate in time. My luggage was flagged, so they searched it, making a mess of my clothes and making me worry we were going to miss our flight. Each flight attendant was disconcerted with my red, sweaty face, and told me everything was fine. Yet, when we reached our terminal, the flight just started boarding. We very well could have missed it.

The flight back wouldn’t end, stretching on in an impossible length of time. Two little, blonde, and friendly Canadian boys were seated to the right of us, both named respectively Leo and Alex. Now we had children to distract us instead of a couple obsessed with cheese. The boys laughed at the lines of caution from the flight attenants, reminders of exit doors in the front and in the rear. “In the rear,” they sniggered. “Are we in Toronto yet?” No, their father answered, they were in Munich. The boys were entertaining with their commentary and the little French phrases they would say. I was sad to see them go once we got to the Toronto Airport.

Of course Maria and I had to eat at a truly Canadian joint once there, Tim Horton’s y’all! Maria texted Trey and begged him to clean his car seats of the perpetual dog hair before coming to pick us up. We got on our last flight and reached the US. Once there we had to go through customs, and when an Asian woman asked me to help her check in on the machines, I walked her through some of it. After another asked, I had to hurry and check in myself before I was mistaken for a worker.

When we finally stumbled out of the airport in Dallas, there was Trey waiting for us. I slept on the way back and woke up to find us in the Walmart parking lot. We went inside for basic provisions, and were greatly embarrassed to be seen with Trey because he insisted on driving a cart around the store.

Five minutes later, we were at Maria’s apartment, and I fell fast asleep, grateful for the journey, but glad to be back in the good ol’ US of A.

i. Michael, Dr. “Parthenon at night.” Pixdaus, Pixdaus Ltd, pixdaus.com/parthenon-at-night-by-dr-michael-architecture/items/view/163701/. Accessed 19 June 2017.

Getting into the Social Game

Posted on May 13, 2017 by R.J. Proffer

Once we’re out of college, it gets really hard to make friends. At one point you just needed to like the same TV show as the girl sitting next to you in your English Novel class, but now it requires a lot more.

There are other challenges. People are more flaky now, full of the fear of “missing out” on something else better that might come along. Doesn’t that make you feel awesome about yourself?

I am no expert, but I will share my tries at the social scene after moving to a new city, and the pitfalls to avoid.

The Meetup Group

My first attempt at socialization was joining Meetups that seemed to be everything I wasn’t getting out of my previous “city” (calling Tyler, a place where everything closes at 9 and The Place people go is the ice cream drive through. No, I’m not kidding)

See? Not kidding.

The group will remain anonymous, but touted themselves as a group of professionals, which turned out to mean they all work professional jobs. They were nice, funny, and friendly. I met my now boyfriend at my first meeting, though that was not at all what I was looking for. I’m not complaining! We met at a hotel bar downtown and while awkward at first, with me questioning inwardly why I had ever shown up, it was soon engaging and very fun. We extended the evening into a dinner, and I was pleasantly surprised.

Fast forward a few months, the evenings I spent with the Meetup were fun, but I was feeling like the men leading the group were just trying to meet girls. They didn’t seem to know I was seeing someone in the group, and I didn’t want to blurt it out unnaturally. They also drank copiously, and giving myself a two drink minimum when I went out with them wasn’t working once everyone started buying shot rounds and shoving them in my hand.

After one too many Saturday mornings spent laying down and trying not to move and induce intense nausea, I found myself ignoring Meetups involving alcohol. Which is unfortunately, the focus of each of their meetings. I might have to find a new Meetup, but they do work! And I have my amazing boyfriend, who spent this morning fixing my garbage disposal.

Lesson learned-Don’t take on more than you can handle just to fit in. Do what makes you happy, and find people interested in doing the same things.

2. Form your own group

Because sticking with the large Meetup concentrated on getting wasted every weekend wasn’t fitting my style, I decided to try to include select people from the Meetup who seemed cool, in weekend hangouts and excursions. There are so many things to do in Austin, between concerts, sightseeing, restaurants, and the things to do outdoors, you have a lot of options. Go on a Google search for things to do in your city, and ask some of the local cool people (who might be hanging out in your nearest Starbucks in work out clothes while also typing up their dissertation on Communist literature) on some of the hole in the wall hangouts.

The first one went very well. I invited a girl to come along with my ex and I to hike the Greenbelt. We picked her up early in the morning to beat the heat, grabbed some ice coffee (none for me, I’m weird and therefore suffered greatly in the hot temperature of the day) and headed for Scottish Woods Trail to park the car and head off. My ex and friend brought their dogs, and this slowed us down a bit, but we still enjoyed it. It was a nice workout, and we saw some beautiful falls and hills. My friend raved about the hike, saying we needed to make this a weekly thing, because it was fun and she needed to get into shape.

My friend after this weekend offered to go to my first orchestra performance, and to our hike on Saturday morning, and blew both off, asking to hike Sunday instead. When she didn’t even respond to my text, I figured that was it.

Lessons learned-1. People show you how much they care. Don’t try to make it happen if they aren’t willing to put in the work. 2. Making friends is hard work. It’s okay I don’t have a super close girlfriend in my city right now, because I have my sister. I won’t stop trying though.

3. Work

That lady you work with who always seems pissed off and almost never has a conversation with you and is always in her own world? Maybe she’s itching to be your next friend! Maybe not. Only one way to tell.

I attempted to get a group of people in my work out for a teacher night out. I sent out a text a week ahead to gauge interest and invite everyone, saying to invite anyone else whose number I didn’t have.

I stayed late at work in order to attend, since I don’t live in the town I work in. I worked with some students past 6:20, which is an abominably late amount of time to stay after work. I showed up at the restaurant, got a big booth, and waited.

When the clock passed 7:00, I suspected everyone was forgetting about it, so I sent a few texts out, one to the group, and one to a few individual people who said for sure they wanted to come. I bought two margaritas because it was still happy hour, and ate most of the chips.

That moment when everyone bails on you and you get to drink alone.

Twenty minutes later, and two angels in disguise showed up as my coworkers, and I was no longer the weird person sitting at a booth with tons of silverware, under the false impression she has people coming. I drink to you, people who showed up!

Lesson learned-Try not to count too much on people. Before you go out of your way to get something together, make sure people are more than slightly interested. Always have a backup plan.

Now

I’m still in the trenches, trying to make friends in the big city, but I’ve come a long way, and hopefully, if you’re in my shoes, you will too!

The Eden of Greece

Posted on September 6, 2016 by R.J. Proffer

The next morning, we woke to our alarms and reluctantly dragged ourselves out of bed. We got some breakfast as a nearby restaurant, which had a beautiful view of the ocean. Our cook ended up seeing us there for supper later that night, prompting a question as to their hours. It turns out in the tourist season these “lazy” Greek workers work over or around twelve hours a day! And people want to blame the economy on them.

Kalimera!

Our breakfast was a strange egg, tomato, and greasy bacon sandwich. It was a bit filling for first thing in the morning, and my hands looked like they had ripped personally into the pig itself, with the grease and red tomato juice dripping down my fingers, but quite good!

Aaaand I may never eat bacon again, now thinking of Barney’s teacup piglet.

We made the switch over to our new hotel, and very grateful to do so. The elderly man at the last hotel insisted on making a copy of my passport to hold onto, and when we came back from the club, offered us a nightcap. While there’s nothing wrong with sharing a drink, he gave us a rather creepy vibe.

Already at the front desk, looking perfect and well rested was Hot Niko. Maria and I felt none the worse for our night out, but still, getting an average 3-6 hours of sleep every night was having its effect on us. Who knew how these underpaid, suave and beautiful Europeans did it?

We asked Niko for advice on how to get the most out of our time here. We showed him the map we were given, and in his posh accent he said, “Well, here you have Knossos Palace, but you are young, you would not be interested, so, you want to go to-”

“I’m interested.” I said quickly, confused by the generalization. He looked bemused. “I was a History major.”

“Yeah, she’s weird.” Maria said. “So how do we get there?”

Niko laughed with Maria, smiling a perfect white smile as he did so. I ignored both of them, feeling a superiority associated with the rampant oppressive anti-intellectualism I experience as a geek.

We took a couple of buses to get to the palace, in the adjacent town, after stopping at a tourism shop and purchasing tickets to Santorini for the next day, at only 75 euros, including bus, the ferry, and bus tour. We were impressed with ourselves for making a good deal with Maria bringing up another tourism shop had offered it for a cheaper price. The woman accordingly lowered it, and Maria later expressed regret she had not said the price was even lower.

Onto the palace!

The famous bull horns, a symbol of the Minoan Empire

While in an enormously long line waiting to get into the palace, Maria and I spoke about how disappointing our East Texas town was for dating. It was difficult to find someone your age who was eligible, employed, and not “good-naturedly racist.” Two girls ahead of us in line turned around and spoke to us in their beautiful European accents, asking who these men were, were they Israeli, and did they hit on us last night?

Ancient artwork replications, the originals are in the museum.

These two, statuesque women proceeded to tell us how two men had been hitting on them last night, only to find that yes, they really were not going to sleep with them, and they parted ways after being disgustingly narcissistic. That morning, one had been texting them to ask if they were going to meet up at their hotel. The man called her another name, and they realized they had met two new girls that night, and were trying to hit them up accidentally. The girls played along, and got the men to come into their hotel lobby. The men looked around, saw them, got flustered but said hello anyway. They left, texting “where are you?” and the girls sent them a reply “oh, we went to your hotel, mistake!” They viewed it as a victory for women with standards.

Their adventure led to a conversation with us, and though the men we were referring to were in East Texas, where they would live forever with people who thought like them, dressed, ate, looked, and talked like them, we decided to travel through the palace together. We joined an English speaking tour that cost 40 euros, and deeply regretted it. The woman’s English was not all that good, and she used many words that were in fact not even English, leaving us rather confused and feeling cheated. Thankfully the two ladies, who were from Romania and very educated, had both studied architecture and could tell Maria and I about the ancient ruin regardless of our subpar tour guide.

Maria in the throne room, a spectator to all the political going-ons in the kingdom

The actual throne of King Minos! Mind if I sit here…?

This palace had three stories! And the queen had her own room. Hmm…problems in that marriage?

Making memories in ancient places!

The famous red bull depiction

We ended the tour recounting our histories in learning Greek myths, near the exit, sitting on a bench and staring at that ancient road. This had me wondering how many countless souls had ridden in, selling their wares or visiting the palace, over the centuries. Such a place of magnitude and history. I couldn’t believe the impact this place had on the Greek mythology ideas and even leading to the English word clue from the yarn Theseus apparently used to retrace his way out of the Labyrinth. ii Not only did this influence a way we tell adventure stories (involving a maze or intricate problem for the hero to find their way out of, i.e. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) but depictions of even the original story exist and continue to be made today. That’s just the story legacy, the memory imprint that is made in the modern mind.

Our Romanian friends Cerasela and Iulia joined us in walking down through the city to the shore. We discovered an ancient ship dock that predated their modern one, and found a relatively empty restaurant to have dinner. We compared cultures, spoke of the Communist regime of Romania (of which I had been ignorant) and its effect on their families, Donald Trump (because Donald Trump), churches, womanhood, relationships, and then some more Donald Trump. It’s not just that every European is dying to know why Americans seem to love Donald Trump, it’s just so much fun to dislike that man and everything he represents…bigotry, white supremacy, xenophobia, sexism and basically an encompassing hatred for all those not exactly like him.

Don’t want to be closed-minded? Travel and meet people different than you!

We got a bus back to our towns together, and got a picture with the help of a friendly lady working the little cute station. We said our goodbyes, and took down names for later contact. They had been very interesting and intelligent traveling companions.

Maria and I made it back to our hotel, briefly considered swimming, but our night jaunt outside found the water entirely too cold for our taste. We got ready for bed, only to have her movie star handsome friend Nasos come over to hang out and talk. I call him that because he looks like Josh Duhamel. He admonished me for not contacting his friend, I had seen a girl in his profile picture and thought it was better to not hang out with them again. He assured me it wasn’t like that, and I got to ask him what it was like for young people in Greece with the economy so low. He informed me of his salary he made as a physical therapist (lower than my meager teacher salary in a small town in East Texas) and that he was forced to instead to work at his father’s business. He told us excitedly at one point, that his sister would soon have a baby.

“I’m going to be an aunt!” Nasos said with such genuine excitement, Maria and I forgot our manners and howled with laughter.

“You mean uncle.” I snorted. We apologized, and told him truthfully any other case we wouldn’t have laughed, but for his excitement made it such a funny moment.

I showed him SNL’s Greek God sketch for a laugh, and we parted, Maria and I gratefully sinking into our comfortable beds, knowing we would have to wake very early for our bus to Santorini, a place Maria had been wanting to see more than life itself…

Santorini!

I thought Maria would suffer a heart attack and die on me if she did not see the beautifully smooth blue rooftops and white buildings of Santorini. We woke early, and managed to grab a quick bite as they were setting up for breakfast. Rushing through and picking up some bread and quickly sipping an espresso before running to the bus stop, we sat waiting about thirty minutes for our bus.

Up with the sun, to a deserted beach!

Our bus took us to the ferry, where I instantly connected to the Wi-Fi and started taking a nap listening to Twenty One Pilots on Spotify. Maria had to close her eyes on planes and boats so as not to get nauseous, and I had a little too much fun teasing her for it. I was paying for it now.

Maria was in hog heaven.

Once we arrived, our bus took up the mountain in a very steep, sharp turning road that had me wanting to close my eyes, but like a bad soap opera, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. The streets were so crammed with people that we moved like cars in Austin morning traffic. Some people squeezed through with luggage, snapping irritably at people who elbowed them out of the way. I thought one older woman and a man were going to start fighting over him blocking her way until she shoved by using the luggage as a battering ram. Tourism sightseeing at its best!

Maria and I were both getting hungry, and quickly becoming irritated and frustrated with the other pushy tourists. We couldn’t stop anywhere to look at anything without people standing too close to you and pushing you along, when you definitely don’t want to go anywhere.

“…Don’t stand, don’t stand so close to me…”

Finally I had had enough, and told Maria we should eat something before we started choking someone. We fought against the crowd, bought some sandwiches. We were eating them outside the restaurant, but soon started choking on the revolting cigarette smoke people kept blowing in our faces. It was unpleasant, trying to enjoy your bite of sandwich when, along with the taste of tomato, cheese, and turkey, you got a breath full of nauseating smoke. We took our leave of the restaurant, and brought what was left of our food to a square with a good view of the water.

Finally in a place without fellow tourists bumping elbows with you, Maria and I got some good pictures, and soaked in the scene. Taking slow, relaxed bites of my sandwich, I looked over the square. Foreigners selling their wares and demonstrating their toys to the passing children, being dragged along by their parents, with the Greek gentleman playing his guitar next to an old and magnificent in appearance church, and the sound of his music and the water was soothing my ears.

A passing tourist couple took our photo for us. I trusted they wouldn’t run off with my phone.

From this stop, we were taken to the next town by the bus, and left near Black Beach. Maria and I were excited at finally being able to get in the water after being disappointed last night. However, upon changing into our suits, we discovered that the beach was inhabitable to human beings. The ‘black’ part of the beach described the small, sharp stones that littered the ground instead of being mostly sand. Under the crystal blue water, with the water itself being clean, below were slippery, sharp stones that kept the area shallow and not fun in the least. We ended up sunning ourselves and drinking local beer, and with me reading some on my phone.

Why are all these people still trying to get into the water? Are their feet made of stone?

We were quite happy when the time came to make our way to the bus stop, at the old abandoned hospital. (You don’t need those on an isolated island, right?) We had a hard time finding it, and when I decided to risk looking stupid to the locals, I asked a preppy couple sitting on a nearby brick wall.

“You need directions?” He laughed at me.

“Never mind then.” I said, taken aback at his rudeness.

His boyfriend gave him a look, and he changed his mind. “Wait, the hospital is that way.”

“Thanks a lot.” I said, wanting to go into Teacher Mode and threaten him with going to speak to his mother. Maybe next time.

We made it to the bus stop with time to spare, and took the ferry back. The view was incredible coming back down the mountain.

Our ferry waiting for us

We returned to our hotel, and decided we weren’t going to let the sexist treatment we had received last night keep us from renting a scooter. Our ride through Athens was still sticking into our heads, so we stopped by to rent one. The man was decidingly against letting us rent a scooter.

“Have you ever driven a scooter before?” He asked suspiciously.

“No, I’ve driven a mini motorcycle, pretty similar.”

“No, is no good. If I give you scooter, you drive, you crash, you break face, you break arm, is no good. I give you four wheeler.”

Um…thanks…?

He charged us full price for the day, despite the fact we were taking it for two hours instead of twelve, and tacked on fifteen euros more “for gas.” I was really not enjoying the “extra” charges we were accruing due to being young single women in a foreign country. Maria and I took turns driving it down the main street, and ended up in another frustrating situation with a male. A guy came over, turned off our engine without asking, and tried to get us to go to his restaurant. After we refused him, we had to call him back to help us turn it back on. I was getting really frustrated with the men of this country.

I momentarily lost us down a highway that seemed promising at first, but ended up going into another town. Thankfully Maria realized this, and we turned around before going to too far.We were faced with the issue of what we were going to do now, turn the four wheeler in early or go eat? We ended up using it for little more than an hour, and were decidingly more broke from the experience, having used all of our cash.

We returned the four wheeler to our misogynistic “friend”, and grabbed dinner at a nearby place. Because Maria detests cats, all the homeless cats in the area managed to find her and try to woo her over.

Needless to say, it was not working. But I finally got Maria to split a meal with me!

After we had dinner, our friends Nasos and Panagiotis wanted to take us out, and I’ve never been one to refuse a drink. We stopped at a Irish pub, and I of course got a car bomb. The guys were quiet for the most part, interjecting at times that sitting at the table with us was like “being in an American movie,” while we were wanting them to talk more to hear their beautiful Greek accents. Glad to give you a new experience!

After drinks they took us to a Greek club (finally! Greek music after listening to lame American songs we can hear anytime!) and we all danced, not oblivious to the weirdly fixated stares of older Greek men sitting at the bar with a lot of free time on their hands. We stayed up far too late, but enjoyed walking around at this hour much more when we were with males, because they kept the hawkers from touching us.

I asked Nasos why he had his cat in almost all of his Facebook photos (Maria once again hates cats, and this did not bode well for them), and he questioned why that was strange. I told him cat ownership/obsession is mostly associated with girls in the US. The “crazy cat ladies.”

Nasos started preforming for us, talking about his cats and holding his hands out dramatically.

“What are you doing?” We laughed.

“The reason is I am the cat crazy aunt.” He said, smiling at us. “The gay cat crazy aunt, I like the women!” We laughed sheepishly. He wasn’t very secure in his English, we should’ve been more considerate.

Panagiotis and I walked around the pier, stopped for pizza, and didn’t get back to our hotel until 5 am. Maria and I had to leave at six am to get to our flight on time, so the guys hung out with us for a bit more so they could talk to our cabbie and make sure we weren’t scammed again. Maria and I realized then that we were out of cash, and forgotten to get more. Thankfully Nasos covered us, and made sure the cabbie didn’t take a longer route. They were modern Greek heroes, and we were quite grateful we didn’t end up making it a close call.

Goodbye Crete, thank you for the memories! Back to Athens and our snooty hotel.

Summary

People in Greece don’t need sleep to function.
You can’t visit Greece without going to Santorini.
Somehow riding a donkey is important too.
European beaches are not for swimming, they are for showing off your body.
Sand can be quite painful when it’s surrounded by millions of sharp rocks.
Don’t go barefoot to Black Beach on Santorini.
If you ride a scooter, you can “break your face.”
Cats play hard to get.
Cigarette smoke goes with everything in Europe.
There are still Greek heroes.

Thanks for reading!

i. Credit to How I Met Your Mother.

ii. “The Origin of “Clue”.” A Way with Words. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Sept. 2016.

New York, Nevada

Posted on December 2, 2014 by R.J. Proffer

The next morning I was amazed at our view of the Strip and the airport, we could watch the planes make their way into the air, one by one while watching the always moving city go about its morning. Mountains loomed in the background of everything, standing majestically tall and making me want to go hiking. Maybe next time, we only had high heels because we’re starry eyed first time independent travelers.

We dressed as casually as we could (our feet were still suffering from the injustices of walking everywhere the night before, we had obviously made bad shoe choices) and made our way to the Strip. We had a good look about the rest of the street before making our way to the New York section.

Wait-aren’t we in Vegas…?

Our eyes were inevitably drawn to the promising sight of Hershey’s, and found the largest collection of our favorite candy. I had to take a lot of pictures of that because I knew most of my students would want to see candy, not the Titanic memorabilia we were planning on seeing. I could hear it now, “ugh, so lame Ms. Proffer!”

I want!!

We stopped by a magic shop and got to see the magic of flying cards and cat in a bag (don’t touch, the sign warned us but it didn’t stop me from wanting to). We wandered the Strip some more, took Snaps of a man drumming quite well on some plain white buckets, and made our way to Caesar’s Palace again to really take a look about the place. Did Caesar really live here?! Apparently they get asked that a lot.

Our room issue (and Camille’s persuasive words and talent) the day before got us $75 resort credit, and so we dressed up again and made our way to Olives, a very classy restaurant in the Bellagio. We were sat next to an Asian family with the most adorable and well behaved daughter who had to sit on her knees to reach her plate. My food was drowned in pesto which is usually a good thing, but not after half the plate has been consumed. So I stole from Camille’s plate and was overwhelmed by the taste of her chicken and the sauce they had with it. Few things have tasted that wonderful.

My pesto meal-2 stars

We made our way to the casino in Mandalay Bay, after a horrible altercation with a very high and rude man who told me I would be a lot more attractive with longer hair and then proceeded to get handsy with me. Of course I thought of very good comebacks once in safety, but lacked them in the moment.

I bet five dollars in the casino with very disappointing results. I did not win a million dollars, which means I will have very disappointed students who shook hands with me in the bet that if I did win, I would owe every student passing my class $50 (a very large sum to them).

Maybe next time!

I did get a shout out from a man in suit, asking for my number for his friend.

I never did get that to you, did I? Maybe if you lived in Texas, I do like a man in a suit.

We observed some older couples having a lot more fun than we were (hence some alcohol that was forbidden to Camille). There were some high kicks by the older men with noticeably younger women, is that a Vegas thing?

My cousin back in the Dallas area then began Facetiming us and telling his break up woes amid a cocktail of unwise liquid. Camille told my cousin over the phone to ‘make me go dance with the old people’ at our hotel, and he obliged. So we went back to see if the party was still on. Fortunately for me, it wasn’t, and we returned to our hotel room complaining of foot pain and other ailments. Instead of partying with the elderly couples we took turns taking warm baths with the LUSH bombs we had purchased earlier. I included gold glitter in mine, because why not?

Most of the fun was the posing with the statues in our hotel. We had a little too much fun with that. Pictures not included for reasons of that we like our jobs. And classy reputations, don’t forget that!

Allons-y!

Vegas Baby!

Posted on December 1, 2014 by R.J. Proffer

Nothing offers more perspective than being single during the holiday season, suffering from various family feuds, and stuffed in the backseat amid boxes of Christmas decorations and being forced to listen to crooning of Always by Atlantic Starr. That’s what puts my situation into focus. We’ve all been there-at least, I hope it’s not just me!

But let me not overshadow my amazing Vegas trip with those unpleasantries. I was supposed to leave for Vegas with my ex.

But with him needing to ‘think about things’ which is code in Nice Guy Language for ‘I’m too much of a pansy to break it off so I’ll be hurtful so you will’.

That led my amazing sister in law, Camille, to forking over the cash of her own to pay to go with me so I wouldn’t be alone. Seems familiar, “What Happens in Vegas” anyone? Here we were, excited and nervous on our flight and carrying really heavy luggage filled with the flashiest clothes we could find. I was sat next to a cute insurance salesman, and our casual flirting left me comfortable in my singleness for Vegas. I wasn’t as awkward as I remembered!

Camille told me that I needed to clear my head and have fun, and she would make sure I got to kiss an attractive man before we went home. She promised to help pick a good one.

Upon our arrival we found our hotel stuffed with casino machines everywhere there was an empty spot, leaving no doubt to our location. We took a cab to our hotel, the Mandalay Bay.

After a problem with our room was resolved, dressed in our Vegas outfits, which for me was a tiny deep red dress and little black booties. I was not prepared at all for the cold air outside, the walking around only did so much to keep us warm!

Camille looks excited!

We took a cab to the Paris section of Vegas, and put down a reservation at Mon Amie Gabi while we wandered around the place, with its blue and cloudy sky painted ceiling, little shops, and hawkers giving out info on the hottest parties and clubs. Camille is unfortunately nineteen, and so we were left out of that part of the Vegas experience. Next time! At least the man who was irate at us failing to get tickets from him, was nice enough to point out the lipstick I apparently had on my touch. Real classy!

Our table had a front seat view of the Bellagio Fountains with the most incredible waiter in existence to top it all off, François the French guy. Was he French? Or just an amazing actor? Regardless, I was impressed with him. I got to practice my now limited French with him and ate unbelievable French cuisine while watching the Fountain show. Free bread too. Step up your game, American style restaurants! I’m not paying extra for chips!

We splurged on a pricey yet huge Eiffel Tower filled to the brim with strawberry daiquiri which was sweet but also very strong, and made our way to Caesar’s Palace, sipping and giggling in our awe of the city. We saw some wonderful things, such as the statues in Caesar’s Palace, a butterfly style ceiling, the bright lights of the city, and video commercials on multiple screens hanging on the sides of buildings.

My impression of Vegas so far-5 stars!

Our poor feet were torn by the end of the evening, we walked outside to wander about the Paris section and in pain driven desperation got a cab back to our hotel. Collapsed into our comfortable beds commenced and before I knew it we had ended our first night. Man those beds were comfy!

R.J. Proffer

I'm only Becky on the weekends

Category Archives: Trip