greece is the word and matzah is everywhere

More details on Greece, then. Basically when in Athens I really did get to see (and know) the city. The central part of it is small enough to be highly navigable. I have gone from the girl who got lost all the time and couldn't read the map to showing up in a brand new city and taking buses and walking everywhere and it all just working out all right. Athens, though maybe not the most aesthetically pleasing city, does have a lot of character to it. Athenians like to go out drinking and partying at night in the Psyrri district and the men spend hours in front of the kafeneios (coffee houses), talking and smoking and drinking coffee. There are lots of museums and we can't forget the Acropolis and the Agora and lots of Roman ruins in between. The Plaka district was pretty touristy but still quaint and adorable. I did really enjoy the taverna thing; eating platters of mezzedes washed down by the house wines that come in large wooden barrels. Everyone I interacted with was very friendly, something I've definitely learned to appreciate as a traveler. It was really nice spending time with Rory, too.
The day trips I had were mostly great. Sounio was particularly stunning, even the bus ride there. The Temple of Poseidon is atop a hill covered in green grass and wildflowers overlooking the ocean...actually, the hill is really more of a cliff. The views are spectacular, and Lord Byron even graffitied his name right onto the Temple. Way to go, Lord Byron. I always knew those Romantic poets were all good-for-nothings.
Nafplio was a long bus ride, nearly three hours, and it passed by ancient Corinth, Mycenae and Argos. I didn't make it to the temple of Epidavros unfortunately, but oh well, guess I'll just have to go back to Greece. Nafplio is sort of a tourist sea-town, but the tourists it attracts are mostly just Greeks and a few Scandinavians and Japanese (everywhere I have traveled this year there have been Japanese tourists, literally everywhere!). First thing I did was climb the Parampali fortress which was built a few hundred years ago, I think during the Ottoman era. One thing I learned about Greece is it isn't just the "ancient" stuff, there's the Byzantine and Ottoman stuff too that's also everywhere. Really great views and I literally met the only other American tourists during my entire trip-it was a family from Spokane taking a ten week vacation. (I know, ten weeks?) Greek teens obviously never go to school because they were everywhere I went and it was definitely not vacation time for them. Ha. I saw some crazy costumes at the Peloponnesian folk art museum and tried to go to the archaeology museum but it was closed. I walked around the wharf and visited the worry bead museum and tried to find an elusive gelato place Rory told me about.
Aegina was sort of a dud- I took the ferry from Piraeus, not a very attractive city, and unfortunately the weather wasn't that great and I didn't make it to the temple on the other side of the island but at least what I did see was nice; ruins of an old synagogue and some Ancient Stuff and took a nice walk and ate dolmades. Aegina is famous for pistachios. Hmmm.
All in all a rather wonderful trip. Passover was nice, I had two seders even though I'm in Israel, both drastically different from one another- got through the Haggadah in 10 minutes on the first night and then in 2 1/2 hours on the second, so there you have it between Israelis and Americans! On Monday Elie and Arielle and I journeyed to Abu Ghosh, which was lots of fun and yesterday I saw Scarlett Johansson's latest film. Pretty awful but I still love Scarlett. Friday and/or Thursday I will hopefully be at Rainbow Gathering!