Ted Kennedy

I was very moved by Ted Kennedy's funeral yesterday, as I have been by his death and remembrances all week. As a son, father and liberal Kennedy's funeral made we weepy at least five times.

I wasn't planning to watch his funeral, but caught the start of the proceedings at Camillo's Barbershop in Tenleytown. All the barbers there - a great American melting pot of Italians, Filipinos, Salvadorans, Thai, and Korean men and women - were rapt in attention. The only dude not paying attention was some loudmouthed Washingtonian talking about his vacation and one of his clients, a Chinese manufacturing group. After my haircut I rushed home to catch the rest of the ceremony.

It was a beautiful service, equal parts celebratory and sad. I'm not a big opera fan, an actual anti-fan, but was undone by Placido Domingo (with America's official cellist, Yo-Yo Ma, accompanying him; who is our second-best cellist? I fear the gap between one and two is huge!). Got weepy then.

For those scoring at home I was also a puddle after: Teddy II's story about climbing the hill shortly after being fitted with a prosthetic leg (tearing up as I type this in fact); when one of the commentators read Jackie Onasis's letter to the Senator after he stood in for his assassinated brother and gave Caroline Kennedy away at her wedding; after Patrick Kennedy talked about his dad holding a cold compress to his head until he fell asleep; and finally when his grand kids, nieces and nephews offered prayers to Kennedy's political beliefs and fights.

I thought Obama's eulogy was great, too. He looked very presidential and like a regular guy mourning a good friend throughout the service. It was also nice to see President Carter, a rival of Kennedy's, in the front row with the Obama. And of course, I have to take a shot at Bush, who looked like a squirming frat boy delayed from going to a keg party by a 'stupid funeral my dad said I HAVE to go to.' What an idiot.

To many, Kennedy was a cartoonish caricature of a liberal but his funeral summed up that he was a man. A man who took his responsibilities to his family and his country seriously. He wasn't perfect, and had some serious pitfalls, but in general he stepped up for his kids, his extended family, and politically - for 50 years in the trenches and tedium of passing legislation - Kennedy stepped up for the underrepresented, the poor, the neglected, the public interest.

Growing up in Jesse Helms' North Carolina, you knew that every two years any Democrat running for office would be featured on a billboard, TV ad, and flyer next to an image of Ted Kennedy. It didn't matter if you were a conservative like Robert Morgan, a serious and successful and forward-thinking moderate like Jim Hunt, or a reformist liberal like Nick Galifinakis, you were negatively compared to Kennedy. And it usually worked.

How sad that in my home state, being compared to someone who's life work revolved around access to health care, and whose legacy includes increasing the minimum wage, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the National Cancer Center, and voting rights, was a liability.

But what do you expect from folks like Helms. Ted Kennedy, and the entire Kennedy family, was in politics for the right reason - to make the country better, to make sure that every American was given his or her birthright, the American birthright of an opportunity. Jesse Helms got into politics mainly for two reasons: cut taxes for rich people, and thwart the civil rights movement.

Sadly, many Republicans have similar motivations, especially about slashing the size of the federal government and repealing the New Deal. I remember when I was in Florida and Representative Connie Mack decided to run for Senate. In an interview he indicated the reason he first ran for Congress was to relax federal oversight of the banking industry, or Rep. Tom Coburn telling audiences two years ago that, if elected, two of his top priorities for the U.S. Senate would be a constitutional ban on abortion and cutting the size of government by 50 percent (ignoring that unless you slash defense spending or cut Social Security in half you can never ever do that).

Not exactly lofty goals, but then again we are talking about right-wing nuts here.

Finally, as sad as it was to see Kennedy pass, the silver lining is that the week offered a spirited display - and defense of - liberalism. The New Deal, and liberalism, believes that government has a moral obligation to help those less fortunate achieve the American dream. Whether we're talking about health care and Social Security, federally-insured banking, mortgages, student loans, etc. government has to step in.

And besides doing things that the private sector can't or wouldn't do - provide for the common defense, build highways, provide rural electrification, among many examples - government is also better at democratizing capital. The democratizing of

money is the most exalted goal of liberalism, something the free market does not do effectively.

Unregulated free markets lead to the hoarding of wealth - it's human nature, but extreme human nature for the wealthy to hoard their money - and government spending - on tanks, roads, health care, the environment, etc. - spreads it around.

That's why liberalism is better than any alternative, and why Kennedy's legacy is so vivid and substantial.

But the funeral of Ted Kennedy showed that even if you removed the politics from his life, he was still a substantive guy who lovingly served his family and friends.

Long live Ted Kennedy, the Kennedy family, and the ideals they personified personally and politically.

A Few More SHORT Thoughts

• Perhaps one reason conservatives like Helms or Limbaugh hated Ted Kennedy was that he was not a hypocrite. Unlike folks like Mark Sanford, for instance, Kennedy never claimed to be Mr. Family Values, and though he was a womanizer for a time he stepped up for his kids and extended family;
• Let's hope the proud reminders of Kennedy's and liberalism's accomplishments the last week will temper the coverage of the anti-health care nuts swamping town hall meetings, and hopefully spur folks who put Obama in office to vocally push back;
• I remember my mom crying during Robert Kennedy's funeral in 1968, and yesterday Evan got to watch me cry at Ted Kennedy's (Ariadne was at a birthday party);
• I probably lobbied Kennedy twice in my years in DC - he was always a good vote so we didn't need to bug him much - but still got a thrill whenever I saw him in the halls. So much history - tragic and triumphant - in one dude;
• Some of you know this already, but the first time I ever voted was for Ted Kennedy for president. Even though I wasn't 18 at the time, in March 1980, since I was eligible to vote in November I was allowed to vote in the NC Democratic primary. Kennedy was swamped by President Carter in the primary, and the next day my parents and I 'kind' of made the paper. Carter won our precinct 120 or something to 3, the votes of me, my mom and my dad;

Mega Sports Updates

It’s been a busy - and random - sports week since the last post on Carolina Hellenic Blue. In the last four days we've been to two Nats games, one United game, and watched some Greek soccer and basketball. Here’s a quick rundown, in no particular order:

Hellenic Hoops

As part of the preparation for the 2009 European Championships in September, the 'new' Greek basketball team is playing a series of exhibition games and tournaments. Thanks to our new dish, I was able to watch Greece lose to Serbia last week 82-83 in Athens.

It's considered a 'new' team since - for the first time in years - the Hellenic squad is without Theo Papaloukas and Dimitris Diamantidis, arguably the two best Greek hoopsters on the planet.

The new team is also notable for having two Greek-Americans on their roster: THE Ohio State University's Kosta Koufos, and Nick Calathes (whose last name roughly means 'person with basket' or ‘basket maker’ in Greek). Koufos left school early, and had a decent rookie season last year for the Utah Jazz, and is the only Greek or Greek-American in the NBA. Fans may remember that after years of having at least one and usually two Greeks in the league, there were no Hellenes in the NBA during the 2007-2008 season.

Koufos was one of only two active NBA players in the game versus the long-time European hoops power, with Nenad Krstic of Oklahoma City playing for Serbia.

Neither Greek-American had a great game, though each had their moments and Koufos started. Calathes looked a lot quicker than anyone else on the floor and had a number of nice takes to the basket. His scoring though was off set by 5 turnovers while running the point as Greece’s back up one. Spanoulis led Greece with 21 points, and Sofoklis Schortsianidis had a great game off the bench. Greece's 'Baby Shaq' looks like he has lost a lot of weight.

Though they lost, Greece looked pretty good especially when former Houston Rocket Vassilis Spanoulis was running the point. Greece’s starting five – Spanoulis (Panathinaikos), Nikos Zisis (CSKA Moscow), Efstratios Perperoglou (Panathinaikos), Antonis Fotsis (former Memphis Grizzilies, currently Dynamo Moscow), and Koufos – make them one of the favorites to medal or win the European Championship next month in Poland.

Nationals

As noted a few blog posts ago, my Nats fever was cured by two moribund losses this week (witnessed in person on Wednesday and Friday nights). Let's hope the offense – which finally scored some runs on Saturday and Sunday - and John Lannan get back on track.

I went to the Strasburg press conference on Friday, which was kind of dull and staged (actually, they were ON a stage near third base). But I was impressed that about 1,000 fans showed up. Like the Caps until a few years ago - the Nats only draw around 20,000 a night - the Nats have a small but dedicated fan base, one that seems energized by Strasburg's signing.

DC United makes the blog!

Evan and I went to see David Beckham and the L.A. Galaxy take on our hometown DC United on Saturday night. Unlike the last time he visited, a packed house of 40,000 to RFK to witness his MLB debut two Augusts ago, last night's game drew around 20,000 fans. Not only that, Beckham was consistently booed and mocked by the hard-core DC United fans (Screaming Eagles and Barra Brava, etc.; we had seats directly behind them.). Beckham made a few nice passes but overall was no big whoop, and the game itself did not have much flow or rhythm. DC United kept Landon Donovan, who played despite having the H1N1 virus, in check and he only had one or two nice runs but that's it. In general, the excitement generated by that game matched the final score, 0-0.

But United will take the tie; they’ve been struggling of late.

One more football update, then I’m off to bed.

Panathinaikos lost at home to Athletico Madrid, 2-3, on Tuesday in the play offs of the European Champions League. The Greens dominated the first half but still trailed 0-1 after 45 minutes. In the second half, Athletico Madrid scored two nice goals where they simply schooled – embarrassed - the Panathinaikos defense and keeper.

Sebastian Leto scored a nifty goal to get Pana back in the game, but Athletico tightened up their defense and that was that.

Game two is Tuesday in Madrid. Panathinaikos has to score at least 3 times and keep Athletico to one goal or less to advance, so the Champions League season in probably over for the Greens.

In contrast to Panathinaikos, who drew a match against a team from arguably the best league on the globe, Spain, Olympiacos easily defeated a team from Moldova in game one of their series. Game two, in Pireas, is Wednesday.

Voyages to NC, Greece, and the 15th and 16th Centuries

We're done with our busy summer of travel, a summer that saw us visit southern New Jersey and the shore, Long Island and Manhattan, Athens, Crete, and the Peloponesos, and finally North Carolina's Outer Banks. I also had a work trip to Seattle in there some where.

I think Ariadne and Evan can safely say they are the only kids to have visited the islands of Manhattan, Crete and Okracoke this summer.

While in North Carolina I read two great books that focused largely on the 15th and 16th centuries: "Empires of the Sea" by Roger Crowley that describes the battles (Malta, Cyprus, Crete and Lepanto) between the Christian west and the Ottoman east after the fall of Constantinople; and "A Voyage Long and Strange" by Tony 'Confederates in the Attic' Horwitz about the forgotten history of the exploration of America between Columbus' voyage of 1492 and the heralded 'first' Thanksgiving of 1620.

[Coincidentally, one reason the Spanish decided to finance Columbus' voyage was to find a western rout to India and China after the old route that headed east was cut off after the fall of Constantinople. So both books were really about the worst day in Greek history, the fall of our city in 1453.]

Horwitz' book in particular is a great and fun read. He mainly answers the question 'why does American history place so much emphasis on the Pilgrims at the expense of Spanish settlements in Florida, New Mexico, etc., and ignore other English settlements like Roanoke Island and Jamestown?' He comes up with some interesting and funny answers.

I started reading 'Empires of the Sea' in Chania, which was cool since Crete and that city featured prominently in that tome, and Horwitz's book on the beach in Avon; of course AVLAS had a chapter on Roanoke Island and the Lost Colony. Reading both books, on location, made me think of place, especially while we were vacationing in my home state.

One of the most interesting paradoxes of Greek-American life is the emphasis on the family. But if the Greek family is so important, why have hundreds of thousands of Greeks left theirs for a better life in America? Family becomes important again in America, but moving and emigrating come first.

Movement and mobility are two of THE most American traits. The Hurwitz book reinforced that for me. Nothing is more American than leaving the Old World for the New World. But of course, many new Americans did not stop there. They kept moving west for a few hundred years, and still do. There have been other migrations, millions of African-Americans moved north during the two World Wars to find work, and Latinos are now moving all over the U.S.. To move, to change, to start again, to be mobile, is to be an American.

That's one reason I think immigrants make such good Americans. Just moving here, leaving your homeland and family, makes you an American.

But sitting in the Tar Heel State reminded me that by that standard, southerners may be the LEAST American of all. I'm not just talking about the fact that at one point the south officially left the United States and took up arms against the flag, Constitution, etc.

I'm referring to a southerners love of place. Southerners came south and stayed put, by and large. No going west, not many (until now) immigrants compared to the rest of the country, not much migration north for work (at least for white southerners except for folks from Appalachia). In that regard, southerners are probably more European than they'd like to admit. If you look at the Civil War, the U.S. fought for ideals: save the Union, demonstrate that democracy could work, end slavery, conclude the unfinished political debates started during the Revolutionary War (federal vs. state power, slavery, etc.). The south fought for a bad ideal - plantation economies based on slave labor, similar to the serf-defined agrarian economies of Europe - but also fought for a place.

And as readers of this blog have read before, I believe that our ideals - not our place - make us Americans.

Just to wrap up this incredibly long blog, one of the interesting thing Hurwitz points out is that pre-Columbian Native Americans in the south - unlike their more nomadic brethren in the plains who followed the bison - were also focused on place.  They generally stayed put.  

So it may just be a southern thing. I guess some folks just love barbeque, humidity, and college football too much to pack up and move.

I'm cured

For what it's worth, Colin Balester coupled with an incredibly humid night has cured me - at least until Friday - of my Nats fever.

Nats Fever?

As Evan and I prepare to leave for tonight's Nats game versus the Rockies, it's hard not to get a little excited. It may not be full on 'Nats Fever' but at least we're a little warm. The recent winning streak and improved play, coupled with the Straburg signing, finally gives this franchise an actual pulse.

More importantly for Kasten and the Lerners, it's proof that their plan is actually a plan. The young talent - Zimmerman, Flores, Lannan, Dukes? - combined with the potential talent - Strasburg, Zimmermann, Detwiler, Marrero - could actually lead to a decent team.

Here's hoping the current cast of starters continue to improve next year on our way to a 75 win season. And that Strasburg pans out so that in two or three years we actually have a contending team.

Homer

I love Homer Simpson, and the Greek Homer - and I too am a homer.

I could happily spend the rest of my life in only 3 places: Greece, North Carolina, and DC. Though I'd like to go to South America, Holland, back to Glacier, Alaska and southern Utah, I'd be happier visiting Crete again, finally making it to Thessaloniki, and most of all seeing more of my home state.

Our stop over in Elizabeth City, NC, on our way to Avon on the Outer Banks, prompted this post. One summer I'd love to drive or bike or whatever from town to town along North Carolina's inner coast (it that is what it's called) - visiting Elizabeth City and Edenton and Bellhaven and New Bern and Bath and Swansboro (where I applied for a job once, with the NC Coastal Federation), eating seafood and barbeque at every meal.

That could actually be an itinerary. And one day, I'd love to mimic fellow alum Charles Kuralt and drive the length of North Carolina on US 64, from Manteo to Murphy.

We stopped here after picking up Ariadne at camp on Friday, and our Avon rental doesn't start until Saturday so this is our half way point. This town is cute. It's on the Pasquotank River with a few sea food places on the water. I had a great plate of grilled flounder and crab with a feta cheese salad (which featured feta, tomatoes, cucumber, some lettuce but also chow mein noodles and relish - and it was great! ) at the Marina Restaurant last night. Truth be told, it is across the Posquotank in Camden County and technically part of Elizabeth City.

Elizabeth City also has a downtown on the river that is a mix of old - a store that sells sewing machines and fabric, two fish houses - and new with two bakeries/coffee shops and a nicer restaurant in an old storefront on Water St. Three places - the river side park with a blues band, the coffee shop with a jazz combo, and the local arts society with a sloppy rock band - had live music downtown last night. Elizabeth City still feels southern and North Carolinian, but with enough funk and modernity to hold your attention.

I like it, and feel even more smug - and more of a homer - about my home state(s).

Break Up the Nats!

How about our hometown Nats, winners of 6 of their last 10, 7 of 11, 9 out of 14, and three in a row including two come from behind wins. The last two wins were pretty exhilarating thanks to two 8th inning, opposite field bombs from clean up hitter Adam Dunn.

The recent streak gives a Nats fan some legitimate hope for the future. As Evan and I discussed this morning, with this core of Zimmerman, Dunn, Gonzalez, Willingham, Morgan and a hopefully healthy Flores behind the plate, and a maturing and talented pitching staff led by John Lannan, Craig Stamman, Jordan Zimmermann, the Nats could actually be a 500 team next year, or at least win a semi-respectable 75 to 80 games. Once you do that - and if the pitching continues to improve - in two years they could win 85 to 90 games, or better yet become the next Tampa Bay Rays and get really hot.

And I haven't even mentioned number one draft pick Steven Strasburg! Of course, the Nats will still need to sign or develop a closer. I can't imagine they think Macdougal is the solution there. But this kind of dreaming and scheming is just another great reason to follow and love sport.

Go Nats!

A Few Random Thoughts

• Good article today in the N&O on how much ol' Roy is enjoying the latest Tar Heel championship. As Heels fans, we need to step back and enjoy it too. This may be our golden age; the talent and results from the Dean Dome are spectacular and unparalleled in college hoopdom. And as great as watching a national championship team and guys like Hansbrough and Lawson on the court, I am giddy with anticipation for the upcoming season. The Noel team of 2006 was great fun to watch (it's funner to watch a team that is the defending national champ), and I expect this year's Ginyard team to be equally fun.
• One Greek soccer note: Panathinaikos defeated Sparta Prague 3-0 yesterday in Athens to advance to the round of 32 in the UEFA Champions League. The Greens lost the first game of the two-game series 1-3, but advanced due to away goals and aggregate goals scored. I was hoping to watch the game on the Dish Network, but we are having problems with our Greek sports channel (trouble that is supposed to be resolved today, a day late).

Good Problem to Have

Unlike last year, were I mainly found myself listening to singles - "Handlebars" by the Flobots, "100 Yard Dash" by Rafael Saadiq, or "Golden Age" by TV on the Radio - lately I've had lots of good albums (as archaic as both of those terms - singles and albums - sound) to choose from on my daily commute. In no particular order, I've enjoyed listening to the following:

"It's Blitz" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Actually, this list IS in some order since this record has been my favorite since it came out over the summer. This band gets better and better on every record.

"Wilco (the album)" by Wilco. This disc sounds like a greatest hits album made up of all new material. There are songs that sound like Summerteeth, YHF, Sky Blue Sky, even a little A.M. in there.

"No Line on the Horizon" by U2. This record has grown on me quite a bit. There are still a few weak songs on here but tunes like 'Magnificent' and "Breathe' make up for them.

"21st Century Breakdown" by Green Day. Sounds and feels a lot like 'American Idiot' but that's like saying he plays a lot like Albert Pujols.

'Santogold' by Santogold. Not that new, but this album full of great singles such as "LES Artistes' and 'Lights Out' has been in my heavy rotation for a long time.

"Townes" by Steve Earle. A little self indulgent if you ask me, and not as strong as some of his stuff was 5 years ago, but always good to listen to Steve Earle.

"Back from the Dead" by Spinal Tap. England's loudest band keeps milking their 1983 mockumentary with this record. There is not much new material but there are reworked versions of "Listen to the Flower People" and "Sex Farm" and it's still Spinal Tap. But for the first time on record you do get THREE versions of 'Jazz Odyssey'!

Half of Fame Ceremony

Thanks to the magic of Tivo, I watched almost all of the Hall of Fame induction ceremony today.

I was a little underwhelmed by Ricky Henderson's speech. It was nice but there was no third-person references to Ricky this and Ricky that. During the broadcast, MLB Network (which by the way we watch a lot) showed the list of the top five run scorers of all time; Henderson is first on the list of Cobb, Bonds, Aaron, and Ruth. You can argue about Ted Williams, Willie Mays, and others, but you can also easily argue that those five may be the best baseball players of all time.

I also liked that Hank 'The People's Home Run Champ' Aaron got the loudest ovation of the day, save Henderson. And how about Tony Kubek's 'you have overcome' shout out to Hank Aaron? Obviously a valid point to include Aaron with Martin Luther King, Jackie Robinson, and Barack Obama - but from Tony Kubek? Who knew?

Great stuff all the way around. We went to Cooperstown 4 years ago, and it's a great trip. It's a great little village in a gorgeous part of New York state.

Last Greek Blog

I forgot to blog about two profound issues that came up on our great trip to Greece.

One is diet and eating habits. It's been common the last 5 or 10 years or so to see articles extolling the traditional Greek diet. When I worked at CSPI the magazine even featured an article entitled 'Zorba the Dietitian." And just last year NPR ran a three-part series on the virtues of the traditional Greek but especially Cretan diet. The gist of all the Greek-diet press was that until recently most Greeks fasted for between 120 and 160 days a year - eating no meat or dairy products - and even when they weren't fasting ate plenty of vegetables, olive oil, fruits, lentils and other non-meat proteins, and very little red meat (some lamb at Easter, Christmas, and feast days).

But recent press has also lamented how fewer and fewer Greeks are eating that way, and we noticed that on this trip. Everywhere we went there were plenty of ice cream novelties, salty snacks, and chocolate bars and pastries on sale, and Greeks are scarfing them up. We didn't notice that many overweight Greeks - nothing to compare to the many overweight folks I run into on the DC Metro everyday - but statistics say that obesity is on the rise in Greece. And in Chania, Crete of all places we saw a few ads for liposuction and the "Crete Obesity Center." To be fair all those ads were in English so maybe they cater to American, British, and Aussie tourists, but it is still odd to even have to think about poor dietary habits in Greece.

The other unexpected dietary issue we ran into was diabetes in Spilia. Both Theo Taki and Thea Toula have type II diabetes, and I did not expect to discuss how Ariadne's pump worked to my relatives there. Granted, Thea Toula is 87 years old, and despite her age and the diabetes looks great and is still pretty active. We ran into her at dinner one night, at her daughter's house, and they were eating a healthy Greek meal of grilled fish, greens, and fruit. My cousin pointed out 'almost no carbs!' But i have to admit, it was pretty depressing to think that folks who have eaten healthy food for 70 and 80 years could still have developed diabetes.

The other hot-button issue we ran into in Greece was immigration. I think at every meal, at least at every dinner, we were approached by an immigrant from China, west Africa, or south Asia peddling bootleg DVDs, trinkets, and goofy toys. We saw the same thing in the Plaka and on the waterfronts of Chania and Nafplio - immigrants selling handbags, statues and art work from China and Africa, and these gelatinous toys meant to look like a splattered tomato when you threw it on the floor.

But immigration was even more prominent in Spilia. My uncle casually mentioned that Spilia is probably a 50-50 village now: 50 percent Greek, 50 percent Albanian, Bulgarian, west African and south Asian. Immigration does not seem to be much of a concern, at least in Spilia. My uncle and cousin stated that most if not all the immigrants become Greek, learning the language and sending their kids to the local public schools, and even getting baptized into the Greek Orthodox church.

My uncle has even built a dormitory behind his house with bunk beds, electricity and running water to house workers who help him with the olive harvest in October and November. My cousin John told us they mainly hire guys from Senegal, give them free room and board in the dorm, and pay them 30 Euros (approximately $45 - not $20 as originally reported; my bad) a month for two months. I may have misunderstood my cousin, but he went on to say most of the Senegalese workers send half of their money home.

My cousin did say that in other parts of Greece, mainly Patras in the northwest Peloponnisos, immigration is a problem. Patras is a port city with ferry service to Italy (and then beyond). There, immigrants from the middle east - Kurds, Iranians and Iraqis according to my cousin, mainly dumped in Greece after being caught in Turkey - do not want to settle down but are in Greece of only one reason: it's a stop between Turkey and Italy and other EU countries. So rather than finding steady employment they often turn to petty crime, prostitution or selling drugs to pay for their passage to Italy.

The changes in diet and the immigrants from third world countries made me change my perspective on Greece. Growing up it was understood that Greece was a poor country. That's why Greeks like my parents left. But while hardly on par with European countries like Germany, France, and the UK, Greece is a relatively prosperous country now. And instead of exporting people like my parents, poor people are MOVING TO Greece. And relatively well-off Greeks are eating more and more like Americans, with a liposuction center in Crete as one bi product.

A few more Hellenic musings

A few more thoughts on our trip to Greece:

• I must look Greeker than I think.  More than half the time when a Greek spoke to me – at the Acropolis Museum, at restaurants, on the ferry boat – they spoke to me in Greek first, assuming I was a native.  Kind of cool.
• One thing that makes me very un-Greek – I don’t smoke. Unbelievable to see how many folks STILL smoke there.  However, that may change.  The week we were there the Greek government started to enforce a new ban on indoor smoking in public places.
• Two of the best things about visiting Greece: unlimited access to frappes, and the little periptero stores on every corner. The periptero stores sell sodas, water, stamps, key chains, newspapers and magazines, batteries, etc. and are everywhere.
• Athens seemed very clean, at least in terms of litter and air pollution. But graffiti has gotten worse, one by-product of the riots in December 2008. And you still see cars parked on sidewalks and all over the place, on curbs, in front of fire hydrants, street signs, etc.
• Driving in Greece was kooky by also fun.  I drove from Chania to Heraklion, and survived getting lost in the latter.  The drive from Athens to Spilia is easy, at least until you get to Tripoli.  That drive is on a modern, 4 to 6 lane highway. But the last 50 miles to Spilia is on old fashioned mountain roads complete with hairpin turns, steep climbs, and crazy Greek drivers.
• We used a travel agent for part of our trip, and it really worked out great.  Our agent - Dina Kastranaki at Fantasy Travel if you're interested - made getting from the hotel in Athens to our ferry boat, our ferry boat to our hotel, and picking up our rental car in Chania and later Athens, incredibly easy (mainly by providing a car service).  She also hooked us up with a fantastic suite - with a nice balcony overlooking the harbor - at the Porto Venezzo Hotel in Chania.
• We didn't have as much luck with our flights to and from Greece.  We flew from Dulles via Paris on Air France, and outside of the excellent food our flights stunk. We had trouble with our seats, our luggage weighed too much for Air France, we missed our connecting flight out of Paris, and AF lost one of our bags.  Last time we traveled to Greece we flew from JFK direct to Athens, and a direct flight is the way to go.  Next time we plan to fly direct to Athens from JFK or Philadelphia.
• Probably the most ironic thing you see in Greece is tourists on package tours.  What could be less Greek than traveling around in a group, doing what someone tells you, going along with everyone else?  I wonder if any tour leader ever tells his or her group “The essence of Hellenism - from Socrates to Kazantzakis to Charisteas - is the exact opposite of what you are doing right now.”

If you are not on Facebook and want to check out my vacation photos you can go to: http://www.me.com/gallery/#100039.  This MobileMe gallery includes video, which will be coming soon to Facebook.

Trip to Ellas

I'm glad to be home after 10 days of vacation, but I still wish I was in Greece. We had a good to great vacation in the motherland, visiting Athens, Chania in Crete, Nafplio for a day, spending 3 days and 2 nights in my mom's home village of Spilia in Messinia before wrapping up our stay with a trip to the Temple of Poseidon on Cape Sounion south of Athens.

Greeks are famous for living in the moment, and I think part of that may be due to Greece being such a tantalizing place. For a small country there is a lot to see and do, 3,000 years of unmatched history to soak up. If you didn't live in the moment you would go crazy in Greece contemplating which site to visit, taverna to eat in, fish to pick out the back of the kitchen to eat, even which relative to visit. So instead of lamenting a wrong choice or bad relative Greeks just live in the moment, reveling in what they have or where they are right now.

Democracy, reason, Kalamata olives, the Olympics, and living in the moment. A great legacy for a great place.

For me, the highlights of the trip were: the new Acropolis museum, visiting my family in Spilia, and Sounion, though it's hard to leave out Greece's two loveliest towns - Chania and Nafplio.

The new museum is excellent. It's a cool modern building just south of the Acropolis and on the edge of the Plaka (our hotel, the Philippos, was a block away). And the inside is elegant which beautiful and dignified displays of the artifacts from classical Greece, topped off by the third floor display of the Parthenon friezes and metopes (the ones not looted by "Lord" Elgin). A wonderful, beautiful space filled with the building blocks of western civilization.

Spilia, for a small village, is a charming place.  All four of us had a good time there but the kids especially enjoyed that part of our vacation. The good karma and affection from our many relatives - 4 surviving aunts and uncles plus countless cousins, second cousins, and I think some third cousins - is beautiful and palpable. And since no one there speaks English it's a great place for me to practice my Greek. Both Ariadne and Evan understand a little Greek, but despite a real language barrier our kids got along great with their Greek relatives.

They also enjoyed visiting the family farm, checking out my mom's portion of the family olive grove, and picking fresh fruits and vegetables from my uncle’s garden. Our first day in Spilia we ate at my uncle's house, and except for the spaghetti they offered as part of the kids' meal everything they served - the roasted chicken, the Greek fried potatoes cooked in olive oil, the Greek salad, feta cheese, olives, greens, bread, wine, watermelon, and cantaloupe were all home made/home grown/home cooked. To call my uncle’s family locovores would be an understatement.

Finally, wrapping up our trip with a visit to Cape Sounion was both magical and fitting. Though it’s on the water, the cape surrounded by mountains AND oceans, and is topped with the Parthenon-like Temple of Poseidon. We were there at sunset, and it's a stunning site at that time of day. For me, Sounion IS Greece: mountains, ocean, temples, and stunning. I’m ready to go back right now – pame!

I'll share some more random Greek observations soon.