Tortoises of Greece

In Ukraine we saw plenty of stray cats and dogs around and in Greece we saw many more. We weren't expecting, however, to see so many tortoises out and about in the city.  Our first sighting was at the Agora near the Acropolis in Athens.  This guy was at the Temple of Hephaestus which is the best preserved ancient temple in all of Athens.

The tortoise's role in Greek mythology is a symbol of silence and also fertility.  In one story the nymph named Chelone was transformed into a tortoise because she refused to attend the wedding of Zeus and Hera.  

This guy was spotted at Kerameikos which is an area of the ancient Greece frequented by prostitutes.  My wife takes me to the darnedest places!

The real tortoise paradise was the National Archaeological Museum.  On the bottom floor there are areas open to the outside and amongst the bushes and trees you will find many tortoises.  

Some were just hanging out with the ruins...

... and sunning themselves.

And the tortoises had free reign of the place.  Here's a video I shot of some of the tortoises we ran into and towards the end you'll see a tortoise that decided to take a short cut through the museum itself.  

My 500,000 Drachma Bill

I came back from our trip to Greece with lots of little trinkets and souvenirs and I would say of those my favorite item would be this piece of Greek currency.  I present a 1944 bill worth 500,000 drachma. These were produced during the German and Italian occupation of Greece in World War II that caused hyperinflation in the economy.  It got so bad that bills in denominations as high as 100,000,000,000 were produced.  

After Greece was liberated the drachma was reevaluated at the rate of 50,000,000,000 to 1 and these bills became worthless.  My particular bill itself isn't worth too much in the collector's market as there are literally millions of them around but I like it as a reminder of the events of World War II and the idea of having  500,000 drachma in my pocket.

May 9th Celebrations

In America, I always knew Victory in Europe Day as May 8th but by the time the German surrender was made official with the Soviet Union it was May 9th in Russia and so their V-E Day or "Soviet Victory Day" as they called it, is celebrated the next day.

The relationship in Latvia between the Russian and Latvian populations is at times contentious especially with respect to citizenship requirements, language laws, and the views of recent history.  May 9th continues this as typically Russians view it has a wonderful celebration of military superiority while Latvians typically see it as the trading of one occupation for another from German to Russian rule.

As an interested American it is hard for me to find moral equivalency between the Soviets and Nazis but then it is hard to also consider what fifty years of Nazi German rule would have been like compared to Soviet rule.  Perhaps an oversimplified view would be that it would seem to be trading persecution based on religion and ethnicity for political persecution.  Of course, neither is desirable but can you say one is more preferable if forced to choose between them?  It was with these sort of thoughts in my mind that we went to the May 9th celebrations in Riga.

We did see some interesting pro-Russian sights including this car decorated as a Soviet tank.

The event was held at the park surrounding the Victory Memorial to Soviet Army monument and upon arrival you are given a Ribbon of Saint George which is the symbol of the highest military decoration given in Imperial Russia.  

There were several veterans from World War II there as well and it is a tradition to walk up to them and give them flowers to honor their service.  The photo in the bottom right corner is of one of the benches that the wives of deceased soldiers sit at and you can give flowers to them there.    

Along with flowers for the veterans, flowers are also laid at the war memorial itself.    

Flowers, flowers everywhere.

There were also food and souvenir stands as well as a concert that went well into the night. 

In the afternoon a cold front moved in and storms were approaching which brought with it some amazing clouds.

The Acropolis Cat

As you might imagine we saw a lot of animals around Greece but none proved to be as majestic as the rarely seen Acropolis Cat.  So much majesty, so much beauty, so much no giving a crap about anything else.  

Running Into The Kardashians In Santorini

By far the most unexpected part of our trip to Greece was running into the Kardashians on Santorini.  Laura and I had been joking told that we should keep an eye out for the family as they were also visiting Greece.  We assumed they would be at some exclusive resort and joked about it a couple of times while walking around town.  Well, while we were walking around the town of Oia there out of the clear blue sky was 1976 Olympic Gold Medalist in the Decathlon Bruce Jenner.  

A little bit behind them was Kourtney Kardashian and her husband Scott with their kids.

They had their personal security surrounding them and so they started bugging me about taking photos.  I stepped down the alley way and got a photo of Bruce's son Brody Jenner and his wife Kris [in the white dress on the right].  I felt like quite the paparazzo.

Marvel With A Mango: The Best Gyro

As our trip to Greece winds down I thought I on safe ground to crown the best gyro I had while here.  I've had five or six in my two weeks and the best one I ate was at a little cafe we found off one of the main streets on our way to the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.  I never snapped a photo of the name of the restaurant although it may be printed on the wrapper of the gyro.  I need to upgrade my Greek alphabet skills a little bit to know for sure.  

The grease was dripping out the bottom of the wrapper and I haven't even turned it right side up yet!

In Greece when you order french fries with your gyro there is a 50/50 chance that they will actually put the fries in the gyro itself rather than adding them on the side.  I think it was the added fries and the paprika that gave this particular gyro the crown of "best gyro."

A Santorini Sunset in 45 Seconds

As we talked about it last night, Laura and I have watched more sunsets on this vacation than we ever have in our nearly eleven years together.  I guess that is the point of taking a vacation like this right?

Here's a video I took of one of the sunsets from Santorini sped up to take place in just 45 seconds.