Davis shares her adventures abroad

Gravette woman working in Germany travels Europe and visits Greece

Lisa Davis and her husband Jerry Davis visited the Parthenon in Athens, Greece.

Lisa Davis and her husband Jerry Davis visited the Parthenon in Athens, Greece.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

My Foreign Travels - Athens

I need to start my first tale with a bit of an introduction. My name is Lisa Davis, I own a home in Gravette, and I am a member of First Christian Church in Gravette. My choice of profession, however, is a little unusual - I am a Human Resource Officer in the Foreign Service, and currently working in Germany, which means 1) Hilary Clinton is my boss right now (actually about 10 people over my boss) and 2) I help people, teaching them how to manage their careers, and do a LOT of listening - some days, a person will be just leaving my office and someone else will be walking in! So, needless to say, it gets a bit tiring and overwhelming at times and I need to get away.

I must tell the rest of my story with explaining a little bit about my husband Jerry - he is a retired marine, and works for the same folks I do, but he fixes computers for a living. And, as an added benefit, he gets to travel all over the world doing this - I think, at last count, he had been to 75 countries - I only have about half of that under my belt. If he is working in a country close to where I am and I can fly to be with him for the weekend, I do. Needless to say, when he was travelling in countries in the middle of Africa, I declined this particular pleasure, but when he goes to an interesting place, I volunteer to tag along.

So, on to my first trip to Greece. Jerry had a job to do in Athens (fixing those computers again), and he was supposed to be there 10 days. The plan was for me to join him and we would fly back together (more on this later). Let me describe what it is like to call someone in an overseas hotel. You dial an impossibly long set of numbers and then someone answers the phone in a language you don't recognize at supersonic speeds, and you timidly say "English"? Usually, most hotel folks have a little bit of English and you can get connected to the hotel room. This does not always mean that the connection is good, and I have been on the other side of conversations where I only hear about every 4th word he says (and folks wonder why we have such a good marriage).

We spoke every day before I got there, and then he came out to get me at the airport the day I came in. No surprise, all the signs were in Greek - I can read and speak some Russian and I'm doing pretty well with German right now, but I must confess, I was completely lost (and Greeks speak faster than any other group of people I have ever run into).

I was armed with a phrase book and quite proud of the fact that I could say "Excuse Me," "Thank you," "Good Morning" and "Toilet," but that was about it. Needless to say, I didn't have a lot of conversations there! Anyway, back to the trip. We got back to the hotel about midnight the first night, and fell into bed. Up at 5 the next morning, husband dear hadthoughtfully arranged a sightseeing tour on a boat all day, and after a 32 Euro breakfast (That's about $50) in Arkansas dollars, and was fortunately included in the cost of the room, we headed off on a bus to pick up the boat. I did notice he didn't mention until after we wereaboard that it would be a 12 hour boat ride, but I still had a good time!

We came on to the boat to sounds of Greek music, and he got to pose for pictures with a cute Greek girl in costume, but I got to pose with a cuter Greek guy in costume! Nice way to start the day. I had found out that it was about 3 hours out to our first island, so I took along reading materials, and I am ashamed to say, work stuff, which I did get done, and no, did not spend the whole time doing.

We got to our first island, Hydra, which was really charming. Most of the streets are too small to hold vehicles, so they use donkeys to get around and little horse carts, which was really neat. And, to my husband's dismay, plenty of souvenir shops. I did enjoy those, but he usually stands outside while I "shop till I drop" (or he drops me a look). We walked around the Island, and it was really a nifty little place! Took lots of pictures, and even got some Italian ice cream while we were there.

Back on the boat, to an island named Poros. Poros wasn't quite so quaint, but they did have some fantastic Spanakopita, (Picture a Mcdonald's pie, only with spinach and cheese inside). Fantastic!

Back on the boat again to our final island, Ageana. where we took a bus tour, got to see a pistachio factory, hear about Greek history and tour a beautiful ruin, which once was a temple of Athena. I had no idea the Greeks grew so many pistachios! They are famous for them - they had sesame covered pistachios, roasted pistachios, pistachio ice cream, etc. We bought a couple of pounds, which my husband took immediate custody of - I don't think he trusted me not toeat them!

Anyway, back to the boat and back to our hotel, and we ended up Greek style, eating dinner under the stars at 9 p.m. at night - Way past the time we usually do!

The next day was history day - we toured the Acropolis, and the Parthenon, which was built as atemple and started in 447 BC. The sense of history is just phenomenal. You can hardly stand in one ancientruin, without being able to see another one. And to make it even more interesting, the Greek government has done a fantastic job of putting signs everywhere explaining what the buildings are, and about when they were built. I do have a particularly vivid memory of touring an ancient public toilet - (stone seats - ouch!), and seeing Socrates' (a Greek philosopher) prison cell.

The other neat thing is that this area still holds public concerts and, because of the heat during the day, after dark (with no street lights, very dark), there are musicians playing around the Acropolis, and I heard everything from blues to classical music. We were able to wrap up the day and drink Retsina( a wine flavored with pine resin, better than it sounds), listening to Greek music under the stars.

I have no idea how many miles we walked that day, but there is so much to see and do, it is easy to get lost in the history and the magic ofGreece. I had to leave the next day to get back to work, and Jerry did end up staying an extra week, but I will never forget my mini vacation in this ancient land, and hope to return some day.

News, Pages 12 on 08/31/2011