I need a vacation from my vacation!
The most famous ancient oracle of Apollo at Delphi, located at the slopes of Mt. Parnassus above the Corinthian Gulf. Traditionally, the oracle first belonged to Mother Earth (Gaea) bu5lster was either given to or stolen by Apollo.
Behind us is the ancient citadel above the city of Athens, Acropolis of Athens, that contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, the most famous being the Parthenon.
For Nick,I finally remembered to take a picture of your famous “bougatsa” !
Behind is the fascinating web of Byzantine, Turkish and Latin ruins. The Byzantine era is usually dated from 330 AD, when Constantine the Great established a new Roman capital in Byzantium, which became Constantinople, until the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453.
The famous modern bridge that was built to, protect the people from tsunami
The heart-shaped pond, in Mt . Olympus.
The famous Greek philosophers who shaped the world:
Socrates , ( 469-399 BC) is the most famous philosopher of Ancient Greece and is considered as the original founder of Western Philosophy.
Plato, an Ancient Greek philosopher, born in Athens during the Classical Period in Ancient Greece, founded the Academy.
Aristotle ( 384-322BC), while also interested in ethics, studied different sciences like Physics, Biology, and Astronomy.
Peter, a physician from Vienna, Austria (on my right) flew over to meet us on our last three days in Athens. The last time we have seen him was about 7 years ago, when we stayed at his place and toured Austria and its neighboring countries.
Taken at the lobby of our hotel, Electra Palace.
FORGETTING ABOUT MY ORIGIN
As our tour guide was discussing about Catherine, the Great and her favorite food, which was the head of the fish - particularly a salmon head, she then asked the group, “Has anyone ever had fish head ?” I enthusiastically responded, “Yes Mary, and salmon head is the best ever!” Everyone turned to me and asked, “What particular ingredients are needed for that salmon head?” Then I realized that my daughter felt embarrassed about my “owning to have had fish head”!!! Then I had to explain that my love for fish head originated from when I was growing up in the Philippines! Realizing that it is a foreign dish among the Americans. And fortunately, where we now live, fish head is being sold in the market, and I would always look for that, when I go out to buy something!
Today is the day that we fly , in about 10 hours, we shall be in the USA! Yeay, I can’t wait to have some rest!!! This trip has been truly fascinating and exhausting! Waking up early and climbing up those ancient ruins every day is a real work out! Thus no matter how much they fed us during this trip, we never gained weight!
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Hi, Maria
Fish head is the best! How do you prepare it?
I love reading all the Greek philosophers. They gave the world so much!
You had a great trip and you certainly deserved it!
Take a few days off to recover and rest up when you get home.😎
Frank 🤘🎸
Hello Frankie 🎸😎!!!
You must have had fish heads while you were in Italy, as it was a European thing, as Spain introduced that to the Philippines.
There’s so many ways to cook it- soup, stew, grilled. I told my daughter, “Now that you learned that fish heads is a favorite dish of the royalty, you might consider having a taste of it to know why!” She cringed at the thought of eating fish heads!!! ( Oh these Americans!) 😂😅🤣
Although, traveling to Greece is not my first time, it became more meaningful now as I did it with family!
I certainly have a week off before joining the workforce.
Thank you for appreciating my hard-earned postings! I had to climbed up mountains to obtain those!
Enjoy an amazingly awesome Spring weather Frankie 🎸😎
Welcome back, Maria!
Yes, I had fish heads in Italy in soup and stew; rabbit is a delicacy there.
I'm used to eating "weird" things from growing up in a very "Italian" family. So I've had things like cow's tongue, lung, liver, spleen, and stomach, goat brain, and pigs feet (pickled).
One of my biomedical engineering professors invited me to his home, and his wife served picked pig snouts.
Relax this week and recuperate from all the fun you had! 😎
Rock On! 🤘
Frank 🎸
Hahahaha! Very interesting that what you had experienced, I had! That’s why I am surprised how my husband’s family was not as exposed to all those unique gustatory experience. My husband does not even speak Italian, except the “special words”.
Oh I loved the cow’s organ cooked with various spices! They are really full of flavor!
As I recover from that high-strung vacation, I am back doing multi- tasking, doing laundry, at the same time sorting out purchases made from the travel, blogging and clearing my emails.
Thank you Frankie 🎸😎!!!
Cheers,
Maria 🌹
Lol The Italian “special words” are the best ones!
I learned them from my grandfather when I was just a small child. He couldn’t speak English very well, but he loved swearing in Italian.
Haha I repeated some of those words for years without even knowing what they meant because it made me sound more Italian. 😎
Frank 🎸
Hahahaha! That’s funny! As it does really sound so Italian because of the “passion” they placed on those special words!!!
And I agree with you, that when my husband’s family would say it, they say it with flair (almost pretending they could speak Italian), when that’s the only words they knew! 😂🤣😅
Haha
I learned some of the Italian dialect from Naples that my family spoke.
When I got to Italy, I realized it wasn’t even close to grammatical Italian, sad I had to relearn everything the right way! 😂
When I was learning Italian, it’s hard to converse to the Italians in the USA, as they all came from different regions of Italy and have dialects of their own.
Now I gave up on learning and speaking the language!
But it is quite an experience anyway!
So, I understand when you say that you have to relearn everything the right way! I can imagine how rich your experience was going through those various phases of learning! Very impressive Dr. Physician-Musician 🎸😎!!!
I bet you did!
By the way, in our trip, someone from the group who’s originally from Spain, reminded me of you, that carrries on the same life’s humor as you do. He is tall and his wife is just a few inches taller than me. He has been the jokester of the group!!
Yay! Soon back home in your own bed what a blessing. Safe travels. You're probably up in the sky ✈️ home by now.
Hey Brenda! Got home safely last night. Took a really good warm shower and slept like a dead log! I didn’t even know if I moved!
Woke up refreshed! And ready to start the day in a beautiful Spring weather!
How is your PPC doing?
Have an awesome day Brenda!
Cheers,
Maria 🌹
These are wonderful images. Thanks so much for these posts sharing your adventure in Greece.
Jim.
I am glad that you enjoyed my posting of our trip to Greece!
Those were hard-earned images Jim! I had to climbed up mountains to get to it! 😊
Have a fabulous day!
Cheers,
Maria 🌹
Great pictures from your vacation, Maria! Now it's time to return back to reality!
Have a safe flight!
Isaiah 😊
Thank you Isaiah! Those images were hard-earned! I climbed mountains to obtained those! Never even thought that I have to work hard for those images ( a work-out well deserved)
I am glad you enjoyed my posting!
Have a fabulous day in a beautiful Spring weather Isaiah!
Cheers,
Maria 🌹
I had a feeling you had to do a lot of walking over that terrain! Hopefully you had some comfortable shoes on and took your time.
Oh indeed Isaiah! I had to invest on a really good shoes before the travel as I know we shall be trekking on a challenging terrain in our travels!
There was an accident in the early part of out Greek Island trip, that a lady lost her balance, and as she was trying to protect herself from falling is when she caused so much damage to herself, not only breaking her left foot and straining her right ankle and breaking her left arm with the fall. It was painful to watch, as we can’t save her until the momentum of the fall stops, then we can’t even touched her . Someone called the ambulance. Help came promptly, and sadly, she and her friend had to be flown back to the USA! What a way to conclude a vacation.
Anyway, the most significant part of my trip was the trip to Ephesus! It was a bit emotional to see the place where the apostle Paul was imprisoned .
Now, I have to read the entire books of the Ephesians, with a deeper understanding after seeing his condition while writing those.
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Definitely sounds like a fantastic time was had by all Maria and I ALWAYS have a short vacation just after a long one in order to recover!!
The bougatsa look very good but... maybe a little shy on the icing sugar in my opinion!!!
Have a safe trip home my friend and catch up again soon ok!!
👍🥂
Good morning from the beautiful spring weather of USA!
We really had a great time Nickster! Although climbing those steep mountains just to see those ancient ruins is not a joke!
That’s why no matter how much they feed us to start the early morning workout, we never gained weight…only meaningful memories of our significant travels!!!
I was so keen on remembering to take pictures of your “bougatsa “ before I even garnished it with powdered sugar and cinnamon! But this just a proof that I listen, didn’t I , Nickster? Yeah, I had your bougatsa with icing sugar and cinnamon, and it’s delicious!!!😋😋😋
Cheers,
Maria 🌹
Good evening from the beautiful spring weather of France Maria!!
I do remember climbing up all those steep mountains was no joke... and I was a lot younger then!!
Haha! That certainly explains the lack of icing sugar from your photos!!
You most definitely do listen though!!
Happy to hear that you all had a FANTASTIC time and made it home safely my friend!!
Catch up again soon ok!
Cheers!!
👍🥂
When I first visited Greece, I never thought climbing up those steep treks was a challenge until about 35 years later! Hahahaha😂🤣😅!!!
We visited the Olive Oil farm, and the choices of the various olive oil is just incredible!!!
I think I am moving to Greece! What do you think Nickster?
We all age my friend!!🤣🤣
The choices of olive oil there are indeed numerous but I have always favoured the Spanish over the Greek for some reason.....
Probably the taste!!!
Buying a Greek island for holiday purposes has always been pretty close to the top of my "need to do things" but only after I have bought one in the south Pacific first!!
Cheers!!
👍🥂🥂
Oh is really your plan?
I will show you some properties on the side of a resort which may interest you. It’s in the Philippines!
Let me gather the particulars and I’ll send them to you Nickster!
Much appreciated my friend!
Cheers!
👍🥂