On the bus!
With Michele at Musee Rodin
Michele’s studio
From the museum, we went to a communal restaurant in the 14e for a quick lunch, a playground where AJ showed off his mad climbing skills, and then we stopped by Michele’s studio (she does fused glass work).
The hat is distinctive
Love AJ
After a late arrival in Paris — and getting to bed at 10 pm, which is never good for me or the shortie — AJ slept in kind of late and woke up around 8 am.
When I asked him what he wanted to do in Paris, his first response was: “I want to see the Eiffel Tower.” Fair enough.
So after a breakfast that included a chocolate croissant (or pain chocolat, as they say here) we headed off on the métro to the Eiffel Tower.
I should preface all of my writing about Paris by saying that I have not been here in 12 or so years. It has changed, a lot, as one might expect. One of the biggest changes is the sheer volume of tourists. I remember there being some at my last visit, but now, OMG they’re here in droves. No matter where you go, it’s full of people and the lines are really long. I remember waiting in lines, but not like this.
Anyway, after reaching the Eiffel Tower I found out:
I am proud to say that AJ was a trouper on the stairs. He complained very little about the vast quantity of stairs and requested very few breaks. I also used the age old distraction of “oh look, we’re almost there” even when really, we weren’t even close, but “oh look, only 20 flights to go” doesn’t sound nearly as encouraging.
Babushka on the Seine
I felt both helpless, as there’s not much you can do with a kid who really needs a nap when you’re many flights of stairs into the air on an iconic landmark being jostled by people speaking a zillion different languages, and comforted by the fact that I didn’t have to worry about him running away again, as, well, he couldn’t.
Fortunately, I did manage to get him to eat enough that we survived the rest of the trip and the stairs down. He made the very correct observation that he got far less tired going down the stairs than going up them.
On the Seine
Around halfway though our trip he shouted: “I have to poop!!” (such a demure child our boy) and he then spent a long, long time in the one tiny bathroom available on the boat (“wow mama, this is even smaller than an airplane bathroom!”), during which time a small crowd of dour-looking French moms and tiny, impeccably dressed French girls doing the potty dance amassed. Oh, the glares. I will not go into any greater details of that particular adventure, except to say that it was not as well executed as one could have desired, and the petite sink had no soap. Curse you tiny sink!
By the time we returned to our seats, other people were occupying them and the boat was returning to the dock. AJ looked around in wonder and shouted (his preferred, and frequently only way of speaking) “We’re done already?!?! Wow, I spent the whole boat ride pooping!!!”
And how.
On the plane to Paris
Thank you note for the hotel maid
Katerina’s office
Kostas and AJ
So after a lovely morning of hanging out with Katerina’s mom, Styla, her brother Adam, her sister in law, Marie, baby Styliani and her aunt, we drove up Hill St. George to see Church St. George (I’m all for convenient naming of things!) We then drove around a bit to close to the border of the former Yugoslavia and saw Lake Dorian (which is half on the Greek side and half on the former Yugoslavian side and is apparently shrinking) and the British monument to the Balkan war. We then tried to visit a vineyard, but they closed 15 minutes before we got there. Of course.
We drove back to Kilkis, drove around the city, looked at all the places Katerina used to live, and toured the city. It’s a very cute little city. Last but not least, we visited one of Katerina’s lavender fields: she is the Greek national expert on aromatic plants!
Pirate Jackson (arrrrgh)
We then went to the university (where Kostas is a professor) and saw the art museum. They had a really amazing display of prints- both from stone and from wood. Not too surprisingly many of the topics seemed to relate to Greek Gods and mountains. Just like Minnesota! 🙂
From there we walked around the rainy city and visited a rotunda, and walked around the grounds where there are additional old ruins. Kostas told me that every time they try to dig under the city for construction, they find more ruins, and construction screeches to a halt until the city figures out what to do next. They had apparently started digging for a metro system and found amazing ruins, so the project, which was supposed to be done this year, is currently on hold and is now projected to be done in 2017, which Kostas doesn’t believe will happen either. We also saw the Galerius entrance with its elaborate sculptures.
Gelato quartet
On the topic of food: Ermis the four year old LOVES tzatziki (the Greek dish of yogurt, cucumbers, garlic, salt and olive oil). I mean the kid LOVES it. K&K would order a plate for the table to share, Ermis would see it, grab the serving spoon and shovel it down before any of us could get near it. And the looks we got if we made towards it were enough for us to keep our distance. We started asking waiters to give us the plate first and would distract him while the rest of us stole a scoop before he spied it, demanded it, and vacuumed it up. It became kind of a joke — did we think Ermis might like some tzatziki with his meal???
We finally figured out we needed to order 2 plates: one for Ermis and one for the rest of us- provided we hid it behind some other food out of his line of sight. AJ caught on to the massive tzatziki consumption and commented: “boy that Ermis sure loves Suzuki!!”
Greek yogurt dish/Japanese method of teaching kids how to play music/motorcycles – close enough.
Watering the plants
Today we went to see Aristotle’s birthplace. It is a beautiful and amazing place with lots of history (as you probably could have guessed). There are remnants of of the town wall and the bottoms of giant containers that were in the basements of houses and held food or oil. There is also incredible plant life, many species of which Aristotle described. (I probably don’t need to mention that Kostas and I enjoyed looking at them).
The city was originally built for shipbuilding as the trees in the area were good for making ships. Because Aristotle was Alexander the Great’s teacher, the city was spared during one of the many wars undertaken by Alexander’s father, Alexander and Alexander’s son. The coasts were gorgeous and we hiked up and down steep hills and enjoyed the view. AJ also took part in ancient culture and helped to water the plants just like they did in olden days. 🙂
Ermis ready to inhale tzatziki
From there we went to a village, Lerissos, and had a delicious fish lunch. Fair to say it’s pretty obvious who grew up near and ocean and who didn’t. Orestis, Anna and Ermis all clamored for, bickered over and enjoyed eating squid, octopus and fish. AJ had the chicken and pasta. I did try everything, but I have to confess I don’t like it when my food is looking back at me, so, needless to say, I’m not so fond of the fish with heads. (I guess we know who also didn’t grow up next to the ocean…)
After lunch we played at the beach and AJ collected shells and buried his feet in the sand. A good time was had by all.
Throwing rocks into the sea
Today’s adventure involved all of the great elements: sea, sun, rain, mountains and gods.
We started off in Thessaloniki to meet Katerina, who had a work meeting there. Part of our adventure involved walking along the sea where AJ and Ermis scampered around and collected as many rocks to chuck into the ocean as possible. It ended up that they both collected giant rocks, which they stuffed into their pockets — probably about doubling their weight — and then fighting over them, because while AJ had five rocks to Ermis’ two, Ermis had the bigger rock which they both somehow really needed. Now we have seven rocks rolling around on the floor of the car. Winning!
At Olympus waterfall
From there we drove to Mount Olympus, which was grey and overcast and looked ever the part of a home for dark and brooding gods. (Side note: before we started our trip, we read a bunch of books to prepare, including a children’s version of the Greek myths. After finishing AJ had two comments:
Fortunately, we did not meet any gods. We did, however, hike to the holy monastery of St. Dionysius that was built in the 1500s. People hid in it during the Second World War, so it was bombed by the Germans. It’s still really amazing to look at now and is currently being renovated.
Then we walked to a beautiful waterfall and admired the many plants and caterpillars along the path. (Again, mostly it was Kostas and me excited about the plants, but it sounds better if it was all of us, so work with me, people!)
Once again, AJ felt he needed to lead the pack even though he had no idea where we were going. Fortunately the whole family has quickly figured out how he is (not so much for the staying with the group or in sight — especially since he’s way overtired,) and now I have an additional five people to shout after him when he wanders off. Better yet, they sound really cute when they do it as they yell something like “Jacquexxi!!!” It amuses me to no end when they tell him he’s going the wrong way or to come back or listen (what do I know? It’s all Greek to me) and despite the fact that he doesn’t know what they’re saying either, we get the gist of it, and he responds back “yeah yeah, I’m coming.” He was so worried about the language barrier before he got here, but it’s such a non-issue. It turns out that “Get back here, you’re going the wrong way” is universal.
After our hike we drove to Panteleimon, which is an old town built with stone houses that does not allow cars, and requires all new houses to be built in the same way. It’s very charming and has an amazing view of the ocean. Also, bonus, good restaurants.
Burial mound
Yesterday we drove to the museum of Aigai in Vergina, which contains four burial mounds — including the father of Alexander the Great (Phillip II) and his son, Alexander IV.
Apparently, no one is yet quite sure where Alexander himself is buried — the historical texts have conflicting information and much digging has not yet revealed him. (I say follow England’s lead on Richard III and check under parking lots.)
The museum is located under the actual burial mound. In addition to many amazing artifacts, you can still see the original tombs in their original locations, including paint on the tombs and the elaborate fighting scenes of Greek gods and myths. You’re not supposed to take photos but Kostas said, “come on guys, it’s Greece,” so he was my human shield as I snuck a flash-free shot.
With the elaborate artifacts and amazing historical details and descriptions, the whole thing was really amazing. AJ responded appropriately by commenting that if you’ve seen one ceremonial suit of elaborately constructed armor, you’ve seen them all, yeah yeah with the incredible meticulous and delicately constructed and golden oak leaves and acorn crown symbolizing Alexander the Great and power and Macedonia — are we done yet??
The next stop was an incredible park with fields of white daisies and Greek trees that grow in and near streams. We all enjoyed running around and, as an extra nerd bonus, looking for wild Arabidopsis plants (well, okay, Kostas and I were probably the ones who really got into that).
Last, we went to Edessa to see an amazing waterfall and some of the open air museum of water works, which had an old waterwheel to grind wheat into flour. We also checked out the old part of town where you could see building construction of wooden beams and rocks. Pretty amazing. AJ and the kids enjoyed collecting poppies, lilacs and other flowers and giving them to Caterina and me.
Greetings all — we survived our flights to Greece!
Bonding over chocolate
There was a tad more drama than we would have liked, with lost seat assignments and unsympathetic German gate agents (“well, hopefully someone will be willing to switch seats with you. There’s nothing we can do,”) but everything turned out just fine. AJ enjoyed watching Frozen on the in-flight entertainment, and he did manage to fall asleep, which was good.
We got to Thessaloniki around 2 pm, and Kostas picked us up from the airport. We drove to Kilkis (the small town outside Thessaloniki where they live) and met up with Katerina, Orestis (11), Anna (8) and Ermis (4). Katerina and Kostas are some of my good friends I met in grad school at Michigan State. I haven’t seen them in over 10 years since they moved back to Greece.
iPad wins
Despite not speaking the same language, AJ and the kids bonded instantly over playing games on my iPad, eating chocolate and generally acting like kids. AJ found a kindred spirit in little Ermis who is also a non-stop talker and mover. Needless to say there have not been many moments of quiet stillness. 🙂