I contribute to the conversation and also tour Delphi

I feel we’ve reached a new level of comfort in the touring van with George. Sometimes Ron or George will post a question, just for fun, about identifying the Roman counterpart to a Greek god or a historical event of any sort, just to see if I can answer the question. And I, cocooned in the knowledge that George can’t abandon me because he’s being paid and Ron can’t abandon me because he doesn’t know the confirmation code for our flight back to Seattle, call out whatever (wrong) answer pops into my head. George has become so attuned to the irrelevant things that grab my attention that yesterday, as we drove through a town, he noticed my eagle-sensor eyes linger on an unusually-shaped structure on the side of the road and he KNEW I needed to have the knowledge that it was the roof of an old gas station.

One thing George keeps telling us is that “It’s our tour”, which means that we can stop anywhere we want and so George offers lots of options as we drive around. It means that we get to see some tiny Greek villages that you’ve been seeing pictures of. What it NEVER seems to mean, though, is that we get to stop at any of these colorful JUMBO stores (above pic) we drive by. I was informed on Day One – it may have been the first question I asked as we drove out of Athens – that they are toy/clothing/junk stores. Finally, yesterday, I could not take it anymore and I asked if we could stop at one. I imagine you can intuit the look on Ron’s face as he declared that this stop would take valuable time from our touring of the 600 year old Meteora monasteries but I didn’t care. George said yes, we could stop – It’s Our Tour – although he allowed that he has never, ever been asked to stop at a JUMBO.

I got 20 minutes in JUMBO! It’s like WalMart and and ToysRUS combined in an IKEA size building and was definitely a trip highlight for me. I purchased some sparkle socks (necessary due to packing miscount by me) and some Hello Kitty antibacterial wipes.

Also, yesterday, we toured Delphi. I have to admit I was pretty wowed. It’s where people came to get their fortunes told, basically, with a lot of people parading around and the various city-states building competitive Treasuries to store their offerings to the Gods. The second picture here is the Treasury for Athens (rebuilt).

But enough about Delphi. As we drove, I managed to get the conversation over to the delicious feta cheese I have been eating and George mentioned that one of his favorite combinations is feta, grapes and watermelon, which I agreed would be tasty. George, however, lamented that it was a hassle to prepare due to the watermelon seeds and so he seldom ate it. Further probing revealed that the Greek people do not have access to seedless watermelon and you cannot imagine the gratitude and wonder on George’s face when I was able to share some helpful knowledge (albeit about produce) – finally!!!!!!

We headed up into the mountains on our way to the monasteries of Meteora and George popped us into this little mountain town called Agoriani.

We’re in Kalambaka now to tour the monasteries. We had time (despite stopping at JUMBO, Ron, see??) to tour one yesterday – St. Nicolas, I believe. 300 hundred steps up on a tiny spire of land, from about 1500 AD. Here’s the view down as we walked up and another nearby monastery.

Once at the top, we were allowed to poke around inside – here’s a monk’s room, which seemed trapped in the 70s, from a decor point of view.

We’re off to see the rest of the monasteries. I’ll leave you with a picture of a salad Ron ate in Delphi that I’m still sad I didn’t order. Food issues with corn, wheat, almonds etc are minimal here except that I’m sad I can’t eat all the baked goods I’m seeing. There’s veggies and cheese everywhere and I’m not even carrying an allergy card:)