An avid Snowboarder, rabid NRA supporter, Starving Artist, Military Junkie, anti-fru-fru Glorified Private that basically posts incoherant ramblings and things better left unsaid.
I guess I should finish up the whole Greece Trip thing, shouldn't I?
Day Four consisted of leaving our beloved hotel. We packed up and had to be out in the busses by 0900. We were heading back to Kosovo, but we were going to get the opportunity to stop at two places on the way. The first was Amphipolis, where we got to stop by and see another Museum. This was just a quick stop, it wasn't a very big museum, we walked through it in about 15 minutes easily.
Golden leaf thingees the olympians wear! Gold is a big thing in Macedonia, at least way back when it was.
My camera was still acting up, so I didn't get a lot of choice pictures within the museum, that and we had to take pictures without the flash, and this particular camera has to be held perfectly still or it will blur.
Anyway, the next stop after the museum was was what is called a Hellenic House. This was escavated recently and the paint on the wall is still visible. This house dates back to 300 BC, which is amazing!
Yes, we got a lot of ruins, this one had us crawling around on the walls to prevent ourselves from stepping on the tile.
Unlike the previous days, this day was kind of dreary and wet, but the scenic view was still splendiferous. I decided to sit on these steps and had somebody take my picture wiht the background of Greece only to have a bug fly into my eye while they were taking my picture.
And even more ruins. Some people were kind of feeling like the old rocks were getting old, but I enjoyed touring them. I never thought I would get this opportunity so I was all over it!
There are a lot of poppies here. I thought they were perty.
The great wall of Amphipolis was built way back during the time of Alexander the Great. This wall surrounded the city and was, well, it was big.
So I couldn't resist the kodak moment and got my mug taken sitting on it.
And to give you a perspective of the sheer size of this thing.
It is big. We weren't here for long touring the Wall of Amphipolis, but we did take the opportunity to climb all over it.
I leave you with something you may or may not have seen or heard of before. The Lion of Amphipolis. This is a huge statue that dates back to the time of, you guessed it! Alexander the Great! This thing is big! We got a group photo at its feet.
Spending all morning at Amphipolis touring ruins, we got to stop by in Asprovalta for lunch, where I had a Gyro. Actually, I had two. Asprovalta has beaches. And it also has a really pretty church that I went inside of to get a look around. The murals in these buildings are amazing, they are very ornate and extravagent.
I got some pictures of Asprovalta, but not many due to my finicky camera. However, they are not currently on the web.
Which brings me to another homework assignment. Put up some pictures of Asprovalta.
Actually, Asprovalta was a last minute shopping place for us (on top of eating there). We were only there for about an hour and due to the rain, the beaches were empty. I still got a picture of me on the beaches.
When I get around to it, there will be a picture of me on the beach here
But honestly, in all senses, Asprovalta wasn't much different on face value from many places. It was a touristy town, and becuase of its beach, and the content of some of its postcards, I was quickly alerted that in prime season, you will see a lot of people topless.
I'm glad I went when I did. Say what you want about nudes, but there are some people in this world that you never want to see without something covering the blubber of their skin.
After Asprovalta, we got back in the bus, and headed back for the border.
I got my passport stamped heading out of the country (very odd) and I have to admit I was a bit let down by Greece's Passport stamp. The last time I got a Passport Stamp was in Suriname South America. That thing was really pretty.
Maybe this fall I will get some prettier stamps. Or when I go to Bulgaria at the very least. We also got a chance to shop at the duty free shop coming across the border. *cough* RIPOFF! *cough*. I picked up a bag of Bounty Chocolate bars with creamy coconut filling. My latest weakeness.
No, that is not an excuse to send me a crapload in the next care package. You folks have been far to kind to me, I have been spoiled, and boy do we get a lot of junk food in those care packages! And I'm a sucker for Chocolate!
Well, considering I have been back from Greece for Three weeks now, you know the story from there!
Your Intellectual Type is Visionary Philosopher. This means you are highly intelligent and have a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a variety of different ways. Like Plato, your exceptional math and verbal skills make you very adept at explaining things to others - and at anticipating and predicting patterns. And that's just some of what we know about you from your IQ results.
Yes, I know I'm good at math and patterns. I think this is what I got last time i took this too (which was about two or so years ago). I need to find other IQ tests.
I have the high speed results elsewhere. But regardless, its kind of fun to take. I don't generally give actual raw scores online. People will think I cheated.
I put up my art page with the ability to leave comments a long time ago, but for some reason they never appeared on the actual page so I never read them. And being deployed, it was hard for me to manage it and to get around to actually read it.
Until now.
I finally got the coding on my art page fixed so that the comments left to me by people would show up on the actual page, which makes me think pretty cool. Though some people show very little class.
I don't mind when people tell me my art sucks, just as long as they explain why. If they can't explain why they don't like it, that's fine too, as long as they're tactful about it. There is plenty of art in this world that I don't like for whatever reason, and I've seen a lot of art from people who are really good but I just think that the art sucks. That's the beauty of art. You don't have to like it.
I wish I knew when he posted that comment, it was probably several months ago, and it bugs me that I'm only now seeing it, because my art page is a static blog. I use blogger to update it. I use blogger to update a lot of my site really.
UPDATE - Mystery solved, comment made on March 18th. What a loser.
I'm doing more with my art now, though I wouldn't classify it as being Fine Art, more illustration wise. I'm going to try to put up a page for that art specifically. Unfortunately, with only a sketchbook and a scanner, I've gone to doing mostly cartoon type stuff.
When I get home, I think I'm going to sign up for some art classes. I really want to get back into my art.
In a semi-related note. I just watched Rocky Horror Picture Show for the first time ever.
I've made a few friends from Task Force Tornado, the all male unit from Kansas posing as Infantry. One in particular, a guy named Nate, has become a pretty good friend of mine. Actually, I've acquired quite a few good friends from Tornado, I'm not sure if its just because I'm female and they're having withdrawals or what, but don't worry, I've been on my guard in that arena. And I think they got the hint too.
But they're still pretty cool guys.
Meanwhile, Saturday before yesterday Nate asked me if I wanted to go see Fred Trevalena with him, sort of a 'date' but as friends, nothing more. So I went to see Fred Travalena, we had a good time, and he informed me that Saturday was my turn to pick what we were going to do.
At the time I had no idea what we were going to, there isn't a whole lot to do on Bondsteel. YOu could catch a movie in the theater with the horrible surround sound or work out in the gym, or play pool at the MWR building. Or go get a Rootbeer float at the cappuccino bar. Hey, if you really want to get fancy, you can go out to eat instead of going to the DFAC. Your choices are Burger King or Anthony's Pizza.
The arena is pretty limited. And you have to watch what you do, because I hate to say this, but the command can get a little anal at times.
Well, one of the Specialists in my unit had managed to acquire a pretty decent copy of Star Wars, and since I didn't have any other ideas of what to do, I thought maybe he wouldn't mind sitting down and we could watch a movie.
Well, apparently he liked the whole Star Wars thing. He mentioned repeatedly that it was one of the coolest dates he had ever been on, when a girl supplied Star Wars. We went to his hutch, and his roomies wanted to see it too. At first we were watching it on a 13 inch screen when we decided that it was a wee bit to small. So one of the other soldiers got his projector out and we hooked that up to the Xbox and hung a sheet and VIOLA! Instant big screen TV!
I won major kudos, and the movie was pretty good, besides the time stamp of the obviously pirated copy.
Don't worry George, when it comes out for real, I'll get a legal copy.
We got chinese at the DFAC and some fruit juice in boxes, all gathered around and watched Episode Three, meanwhile trying to keep it on the low down before everyone came into the hutch wanting to watch it. And there were a few people who came around wondering why we hadn't said anything to them about having flippen' starwars in the barracks.
I guess that's the best screening I'm going to get of it meanwhile, because by the time I do make it to a real theater with decent sound, Star Wars will likely have left the building.
Unless they have decent theaters in Bulgaria.
Meanwhile, Nate has the 'date' for this Saturday. He's questioning whether or not he can top Star Wars however.
If all else fells, I have a DDR Pad. We were doing that, it was laughable. And funny.
And of course, after Star Wars, you can't forget Karaoke. I sung more songs within my range, though I did have fun singing Joan Jett "I love Rock and Roll", however, sorry, I didn't get it on film.
But I don't think you need it on film after my last lovely rendition.
The take with me and another guy named Richard singing "Lion Sleeps Tonight," by the tokens was particularly hilarious. I found out I can't keep a straight face and hit those high notes when another person is on stage with me.
The guys in Tornado want to throw a party and get me to invite my girl friends from Med Falcon. I noted that the problem with that is I wasn't exactly buddy buddy with a lot of girls in Med Falcon (true, I get along during work, but my idea of fun and their idea of fun don't actually coincide), hence why I have started to hang out almost exclusively with people from outside of the task force. Or guys from within the task force.
Mostly guys. Hardly any girls. Cooincidence? I wonder?
Everyone is talking about Star Wars right now. Why not? Supposedly the final episode is better then the last two combined, not that I would know, I'm deployed in a combat zone with the nearest theater playing it (in english) is many many miles away.
Unless you count piracy. Which is prevalent here. Becuase Kosovo has no copyright laws.
And we have to get our fixes in some how.
Well, one of the good Specialists in my unit had managed to acquire a copy of Episode III and has been playing snibbits of it out of order, mainly dueling lightsaber scenes, and now I know who kills Count Dooku.
He tells me that he'll ruin it for me further after lunch.
We even had the unit Psychologist come in asking if he needed to seperate us (or confiscate the movie) to which the good Specialist said no and he whispered "darn".
I just want to borrow it so I can see it in full. Unfortunately, in that regard, rank has no privelege. Especially concerning this specific Specialist.
Guess I'll be watching Episode III on a laptop.
Not that it really matters, I'll likely watch it again when it makes it to the post theater (with the crappy sound system) that I get to watch it for free on anyway. So regardless, George Lucas won't be making money off of me anyway. So I feel less guilty about the pirated stuff.
My internet stopped freaking out long enough for me to put a video up. It only took slightly over an hour or so, which is impressive considering usually it will stall long enough to register a download time of about 3 days.
So anyway, about four or so weeks ago (I don't remember, it was just a long time ago) I got to do Karaoke. Now, I don't hold a tune and I'm not much of a singer. I know that.
I just didn't realize exactly how bad of a singer I was. I mean, I knew I was bad, I just never knew how bad.
I also learned another thing. The PT uniform is very unflattering. Somebody mentioned that I should pull down my pants or something, I didn't realize that I had them pulled up above my belly button, or whatever. I look like a freakin' geek in highwaters. Well, now I'm making a conscious effort to keep my PT pants hugging my waist. Though with an elastic band around the top, they don't like to stay put around my hips. They like to ride up. Hence the High water effect. *Grr. . .*
So I put together a stupid little video of me singing excerpts of four different songs. I don't even remember what order I put them up in, but it includes Matchbox Twenty Disease, Three Doors Down When I'm Gone, No Doubt Don't Speak, and a duet to Kid Rock and Cheryl Crow Picture, which I sang with a guy named Mason. And, for kicks and giggles, I included an excerpt of the concert with Lit, including one of the highlights of my participation in the song My Own Worst Enemy where he gave me the microphone for a split second (I feel like a major dork in this video however, but I had fun and that's all that counts.)
So, without further ado, here is the Karaoke video.
After touring the acropolis, we headed back to the main part of our tour to grab some grub. I had a Gyro without the Pita, which is called something else but still pretty good. However, I like the Pita.
One of my battle buddies treated me to some ice cream. Although I really didn't need it, I couldn't resist the ice creamy chocolatey goodness. And its an american ice cream bar, or something, because it has an American Flag printed on the side. Or maybe its a wannabe american icecream, to capatalize on that which is America.
YOu know, I really didn't need that Ice Cream Bar.
Then we headed back to the Ruins via the Ampatheater again, and I saw these ruins behind me and wanted another picture (complete with Ice Cream Cone thingy)
I just thought this archway was way cool :)
This be the reconstruction effort that is currently underway to restore parts of Philippi, I just thought it was cool and took a picture of it. And its one of the few where I'm not actually in the picture!
I think every time I saw a piece of Philippi sitting there with lettering still etched in the side, I got a picture of me with it. I don't think I could resist, or something
This is a partial greek statue that resides in the northern part of Philippi that still stands, and has weathered over 2 millenia of snow, sleet, rain, the ottoman empire, and tourists.
So what's one more going to do?
I'm sorry, I just looked at this thing and all I could see was CLIMB ME
I think when you think of ancient ruins, you think of pillars. I saw some more, with ruins strown about behind me, and so I took this as a sign.
Um, you might get sick of me posing for pictures, but I'm sorry, I ain't done yet.
This is all that remains of Bascilica B. Just ruins, but these are actually pretty impressive, I saw a drawing of what it probably looked like and I thought that was pretty dang sweet. So anyway, you have this entry way type place and thats pretty much the main gist of Philippi. This place is literally in ruins.
And right before the Bascilica, stood a pillar with something written in Greek on it. I hope I didn't desecrate anything by taking a stand and posing for pictures.
Some more. . .
Behold, the private water closet for the supreme beings that ran Philippi. Unlike the puny underlings, who had to share the public toilet (and a few priveleged folks that had indoor plumbing!) this is where the great ones urinated and defecated! Alexander the Great may have even once stood on this very throne!
Um, hold on for just a moment.
By the way, the following are the public toilets.
I managed to sit on one of those too.
The highlight of my trip, sitting on an ancient Greek Toilet. I think they are better then some of the common european toilets, let me tell you. But thats a post for day Four. (which was the shortest day of them all)
I love these walls. We crawled all over them.
Um, don't mind me, acting like, once again, a dork. I just saw this broken pot and said "that looks like an egg!"
I'm just curious how long these ones have been around.
What, you think I would pass by a perfect opportunity to take advantage of these old pedastel type thingees just laying around?
Just over from under my left foot, the second line. It says Philip. See! Something discussing how Philippi is named for King Philip of Macedonia. Or something. Anybody speak Greek?
Tis ancient coffins. Made out of concrete. Which tells me that unless I want my bones excravated in a thousand years, don't get buried in anything fancy.
Greek Kitty! I'm telling you, cats are everywhere here, man!
A monument simply known, as a three niches. You can sort of make out the left one, but its hard to see.
And I had to climb up into it.
Um, about this time, my camera started freaking out and I thought I had dropped it, or something. Which made me a tad bit frustrated. And as you can see, I took a lot of pictures.
Of course, then we went to the Site of Lydia's Baptism, and for you Christians out there, she is the first European to be baptised into the church as described in Acts 16 as well.
It was a really pretty and quite a relaxing place. It wasn't very far from the ruins of Philippi, only about a mile or so away.
Because my camera was freakin' out, I didn't get any pictures of the site with me in them, but I did manage to get a shot of it.
One of the soldiers even got baptised while we were there. I think it would be pretty cool to be baptised in a place such as this, but being in a religion that believes in Baptism by full immersion, its a bit shallow and that would actually be difficult here.
But still, it was a very neat experience, and I probably would have been a lot more spiritually inclined if I had a functioning camera that I wasn't fretting over. I mean, I seriously thought I had broken it or something.
Turns out, it just ran out of batteries. I put regular Double A's in and discovered this thing chews them up and spits them out with no more thought about it.
Anyway, there is a Greek Orthodox Church on the site and we went in there and had a small devotional and sang a couple of Hymns. One I had never heard before, the other turned out to be one of my favorites. (which for the life of me I don't remember, I would have if I wasn't trying to recount these events two weeks later, my feeble mind is fickle on such matters! I guess I shall consult the tape, I video taped us singing a verse within the church.
They had a little shop at the site of Lydia's Baptism where you could buy an assortment of various different items of religious nature and I picked up a little picture of Paul. Since this was a trip about him and his journeys, I thought it was appropriate.
After spending an hour in Lydia, we headed back to the hotel, where we were treated to Dinner. I had chicken, it was good.
Like my hat? I picked it up at Kavala the day before and started wearing it around. We also got back to the Hotel pretty early that day, around fourish, and I spent the evening walking around on the beach and getting into my PTs and diving into the swimming pool. See, I had no swimming suit so I had to make do with what I had.
No pictures. Just a recount in a journalistic fashion.
But this day really was one of the highlights of my time here in the Balkans in general. Philippi was particularly amazing, just to be able to see all of these ancient sites was pretty sweet in my opinion. And it got a traveling bug going within me, see? I really would like to take advantage of my youth and see the world.
You know, things have been going on besides my trip to Greece (which happened over two weeks ago, and I'm still trying to post it) so I thought I would mention some of the other things going on.
Fred Travalena came by the Balkan states to perform a show for us. Though he caters to an older crowd (I had never heard of him) he proved to be entertaining as he is a pretty good impressionist. He had a few people down pretty good. Though he came across as being a conservative, it didn't stop him from poking fun at some previous republican presidents and candidates in harmless jest. I had a pretty good time, I think I need to take more advantage of these USO tours. They have been a nice break from reality from time to time.
Also, Lit had a great interview in the Guardian magazine. Click on the DANCON issue and scroll to page 20 to read it. The author also posted the full interview on his own website, which was cool (they say 'y'know' a lot) They say they're going to talk to some of their buddies about coming up here too.
USO and MWR are definitely doing their part. Can't wait to see what other things they have in store for us.
3 down, one day to go. And I took a bunch of pictures in Philippi so I think this one will have to be sectioned off into two parts. And it will likely turn more into a picture show with me narrating now and again.
Wednesday was completely devoted to Philippi. Philippi is in ruins now, but it is quoted extensively in ACTS 16 of the New Testament. Specifically, they talk about two places in Philippi, the Prison and the Lydia's Baptismal font.
I got to visit both, along with some kick butt ancient ruins! I've always wanted to visit ancient ruins, and this was my chance!
We got to Philippi around 9 in the morning, and we first made our way to the ampitheater.
That's my shoddy excuse of putting pictures together to get a panoramic effect. I once did the same thing to my bedroom. (unfortunately I don't know what happened to that image, I think it went down the same time my website crashed last September)
Anyway, here we had a bit of a history lesson, learning about Philippi and what kinds of cool and gnarly things happened here back during the battle of Philippi in 53 BC. Also, Philippi is named after King Philip, who was the father of Alexander the Great.
Of course, I had to get a picture of me in the Ampitheater.
And in various different poses within it.
Ok, a majority of these pictures have me in them. I was constantly passing around the camera for photographs, although I did take a lot of pictures of the surroundings. As well as video. I had my video camera on me, I was constantly tape recording around these parts.
Columns! Actually, I think these columns were recently restored or something, becuase I was looking at pictures of Philippi taken in the past through books and stuff I was looking through and these weren't there. But I still thought they were hella cool!
Philippi provoked a childhood instinct within me. If it was there, Climb it. So I was all over this place exploring. And I saw one or two pillars just standing there asking for me to stand on them and pose. Kind of going in to terms with my Internet Patron War Goddess or something, I couldn't resist.
And then, there was the first piece of architecture directly quoted right out of the Bible.
And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat [them]. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast [them] into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. ~KJV : ACTS CH 16 V 22-28
I present to you, Paul's Prison.
Behind me is a mountain, which sits the Acropolis of Philippi. Going back to my motto of the day, if its there, climb it, I headed up the side and started checking out the scenery. It was pretty awesome.
That would be Philippi in the background, or whats left of it.
Still climbing, we got on top of the Mountain and took a good look around, and started taking lots of pictures. To include the buildings behind us, which back in the time of Paul, would have been a kind of look out tower to keep an eye open for the enemy. Or whoever. We just ended up walking up there and goofing off for the next hour and a half, or so.
My next destination, just behind me.
The following picture is the highest point of the acropolis. We had people climbing on top of this thing, yet for once, I didn't heed my motto and maintained a safe altitude within it. I had a shaky grasp and I didn't want to risk falling here. The climb up to this thing wears you out.
But if I get another chance to make it back to Greece (very strong possibility) I'll be sure to have another go and then I will climb on top.
Me and some of my Battle Buddies crawling around the forementioned entrance. They started stripping of their shirts, (to be a guy) yet later they were all pretty red so I didn't feel so bad :)
And you can see somebody in the background climbing around.
Just because I didn't climb to the very top of the Acropolis, didn't mean i didn't climb it!
You see that little tiny window on the picture up there? This is it, and that's me posing in front of it. I look nice, red, hot and sweaty. Ick. It was a warm day.
That is not Philippi in the distance. Just a town that borders Philippi called Krinides. But this is an example of the view. Though it was a bit hazy.
Yes, I conquered this mountain! Me! Take heed in the beautiful view that surrounds this ancient rock!
And down in the distance, sitting on the dome of the rock, is the banner of Greece fluttering in the breeze. My next destination.
They don't seem to have the same etiquette for their flags as we do ours. Still, it is an awesome site!
Flag poles are not exempt from my motto.
Next up: Philippi, Part II, the ruins themselves. To come shortly to a website near you!
The second day consisted of a day in Kavala. In previous rotations, this also included a trip to the island of Thassos, but they cut that out because it proved to be rather long and cut out a good portion of the day. See, it took you an hour to get to Thassos, you spent two hours on the island exploring what you could in that two hour time frame, and then you headed back to Kavala which took another hour so WHAM! Four hours out of your day.
I would have liked to visit Thasos, but I was eager to use my limited time to explore Kavala. And check out the souvenir shops. :)
We bussed down to Kavala the old fashioned way. By Bus. This was one of the views off the bus that I had and I just started snapping pictures. It is a very large city, and the roads are not very big and everything is really close together. Very different from the typical American City. I really thought it was cool though.
They had some of the walls plastered in flyers (in Greek of course) that were kind of cool, including a communist one now that I look closer at it, so I asked one of my battle buddies (who actually severely out ranked myself) to take a picture. I kept handing off the camera quite a bit. "here, take my picture! Here, take my picture! Here, take my picture!"
They all knew it would someday land on my blog. I'm known for being the Task Force Blogger. So they didn't really mind. They were all pretty cool about it.
Of course, being in Greece, it wouldn't be proper to go to a Restaurant and not chow down on an authentic Greek Gyro. I've had Gyros before, in Seattle, which was good, but not the same. For one, every Gyro I had before didn't put Fries in it. They seem to always put Fries in the Gyros here. Its an interesting concept.
Everyone was chomping on the Gyros.
Next up, we hit the museum of Kavala. I got a nifty little souvenir ticket of the place (and ended up getting two more identical to it when I went to Philippi the next day and Amphipolis the day after.) I couldn't resist getting my mug with the Greek Pottery. Being a potter of sorts, sort of, (well, how many people do you know that can successfully throw a pot with their friggin' feet?) I have an appreciation for the Potters of old. Besides, I studied this stuff in art school, I couldn't resist being their to witness it in its original habitat of Greece (well, now in a museum, but STILL!)
Of course, being a couple thousand years old, a lot of the statues were of course, missing their heads and hands. Still, very very cool.
That didn't stop me from acting like a complete dork at times.
Yes, that video camera is in my hands. I took lots of video.
Heading back, this is Kavala at its best, most pictures you will see of Kavala will include its Acropolis. Which is that castle type thing in the background over my head. Which was to be our next destination. But first. . .
Greek Boats! Take my picture!
Look! Communists! So they are here, somebody mentioned the Communists to me before.
This is the Aquaduct, which used to span like 3 Kilometers or something and was how they got water to the city. This is the only portion that is left. I don't remember exactly how old it is, it was built sometime in the last millinia from what I understand. But don't quote me on that.
While we were heading up to the Acropolis, we acquired a friend. He had actually been hanging out with one of the groups a good portion of that morning. I hear later he got a hold of one of the infamous greek Cats too. I missed it.
It was quite a walk down these narrow roads and passageways to get up to the Acropolis (you can see how high it is) that wound around every which way in that portion of the city. The streets are small and the buildings are really close together, which didn't leave a lot of room for movement with the occasional car. And it was quite a hike.
Most Greek towns close shop for a couple hours around 1330 for religious reasons (most people here are Greek Orthodox) so we took this opportunity to see the Acropolis. Of course, I got my picture taken and then we spent the next hour and a half just crawling all over this thing.
And I took lots of pictures. Or handed off my camera and had somebody else take pictures.
This is a view of the city of Kavala from the Acropolis. You can see how tight the buildings are together.
And I look about 12 in this picture. (no, not complaining mind you, just an observation, I look like a little kid)
A veiw of the Acropolis from the inside, the SouthEastern portion of it at least.
This is me on the roof of that one building, the roof was made entirely out of rock. Very sturdy, and very cool! (I said Very Cool a lot, you should see the video of me narrating. I think I said Very cool every time I turned to shut it off for that clip. Gar! Find a new word!)
Just me in the northwestern more part of the Acropolis, you can see the castley effects of the Acropolis, and theres the Aegean Sea behind me (which you can barely see)
Another shot of me with Kavala in the background. But this time, you can see that I'm indeed in the Acropolis.
That door just begged for me to climb up on it and hang for a moment.
Moving down the street, I thought the buildings and the road were cool, we were headed for the monument of Muhamed Ali (i probably misspelled that, and no, its not the Boxer, I just know its spelled differently then normal)
That would be the statue there, and this is taken by yours truly. For some reason, when I snap the shot myself, I rarely smile.
I discovered an elusive Zebra Elephant! You know, now that i think about it, I think i've seen one of these little bouncy toys before that was that of a Zebra Elephant and I thought it was as funny then as I do now. But I couldn't resist, I hopped on and had somebody take my picture of me playing on a toy that I outgrew about 17 years ago.
EEK! PUPPY!!! Its. . .so. . .darn. . .CUTE!!!
Somebody asked me why I didn't smuggle it back to Bondsteel with me. Er, two reasons. One, pets aren't allowed on Bondsteel (and that's something that I'm supposed to enforce in my position) and Two, the owners are both standing right there.
I just no that I'm suffering from lack of animal contact anxiety. I've always had some kind of pet or critter stinking up my room in the past and I've gone without an animal for nearly four years now. That's a long time.
Must get pet when I get home.
Oh well, if I keep going on Vetcaps, I should have that cured, or at least pacified.
Um, anyway, back to Greece.
I crawled up on a rock at the base of that statue (and the church that accompanies it) and felt another kodak moment coming on.
Somebody else ended up jumping in the water. We all just kind of dawdled along this rock bed for a while and enjoyed ourselves.
I ended up getting a few more pictures taken.
Iraklitsa, which is where I was the day before, is behind me. Of course, you can't make it out, but its there in that land mass, I promise.
Of course, we turn a bit more and there is the sprawling outer parts of Kavala, complete with grafiti on rock.
By this time, the shops were starting to open back up, or at least one in particular who knew we were coming. We came along and gave her lots of business. I went shopping and got a bunch of souvenirs (that I now need to send home.)
Strange, I took no pictures of these souvenir shops. Maybe I took some video?
After walking around a good portion of the rest of the day shopping and doing whatever else, we grabbed some grub at an Italian Restaurant called La Roccos where I ordered a Pizza. I love Hawaiin pizza. But I think back and I think I should have gotten something a bit more traditional Italian. Like Lasagna or something.
We got back to the hotel at around 2100 that evening where we retired to our room and I talked with my roommate and started going through my stuff and showing her what I got (er, I got quite a bit). I was beat, but we had a good time talking until pretty late that evening.
That wraps up Tuesday.
SideNote: from the comments I got from my previous Greece Post, some people seem to think I'm still in Greece. As much as I wish I was, this is a recap of the events that happened last week, not this week. Sadly, I'm back in Kosovo working once again. But its all good. Bulgaria is up for July!
note - This map is copyrighted somebody, but I don't remember who. . .
The Drive was long, but we were given entertainment in the form of Bruce Almighty, Two Brothers and View From the Top via the entertainment center on the Bus.
And I had my feisty little iPod to keep me company. Unfortunately, all my plugs are American and every outlet was European. *grumbles*
I brought a lot of electronics with me and learned that my digital camera chews up Double A's like they were going out of style. Good thing I brought a few.
Anyway, back to Greece.
We drove through F.Y.R.O.M. (Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia) which looks a lot like Kosovo and therefore wasn't very exciting. Then we got to the FYROM/Hellas Border.
And I took a picture while we waited.
Hellas is Greek for Greece. Though they don't mind if you call them Hellas or Greece.
Besides, you drive within a mile of the border and you are greeted with this sign.
Now, there is a bit of political strife in regards to names within the Balkans on what to call FYROM (because a lot of people think FYROM is a stupid name) because you can't just call it Macedonia on account of the fact that there is a region in Greece known as Macedonia. It's like, say for instance, that British Columbia decided to break off from Canada as an independent country and called itself Washington. Or maybe that's a bad analogy, as they would probably continue to call themselves British Columbia. Anyway, then we would have to call it the Former Canadian Province of Washington (FCPOW, hmm, that doesn't flow off the tongue).
The point is, see the deal with the confusion of Names? Greece doesn't like that FYROM decided to call itself Macedonia once they broke off from Yugoslavia so in all its infinite wisdom, somebody in the UN came up with the idea of FYROM to appease both sides. From what I understand, its not working.
Anyway, we moved out of FYROM and into Greece in the region of Macedonia. And I was formally introduced to the phrase 'its all Greek to me'.
Fortunately, a lot of signs had a Latin alphabet as well as the Greek Alphabet to help those of us poor fools who can't tell Omega from an Upside down V.
I just thought the signs looked cool.
Ok, to make you a wee bit jealous, this is the view from my balcony. The splendid and glorious view, with a crystal blue pool just off the beach of the azure Aegean Sea.
This is the view just by the pool up to the hotel.
They had this private hotel for us, there is enough soldiers that every time we come we rent out the entire hotel to us, with our own private beach and everything. The only downside to the hotel is the European plumbing. You can't flush paper down the toilet, which means that you have to throw it away in a little trash can next to the toilet. Even if you have to do a number 2.
Being trained in the part of the Western Hemisphere that is the United States, I almost flushed toilet paper down the toilet a couple of times. Apparently, it clogs the sewer system for the entire hotel.
Lovely. Anyway, moving on from the Too Much Information Department. . .
This is me on the beach. Look, my clothes aren't camouflaged and there isn't a weapon for miles!
Yes, I know, I've gotten quite famous for being an advocate of boomsticks, but when you've been lugging one around for the last four months without firing one single shot out of it, you kind of get sick of it hanging off your shoulder serving no purpose otheer then to provide a vector for knocking other people around in the knee caps.
Anyway, back to the beach. It's a private beach, the sand was pebbly and kind of hard to walk on, but it was really nice and relaxing. I would love to go back here in the heat of summer, and then I'll remember to have somebody send me a bathing suit!
Well, if it was a little to chilly to swim in the Aegean, it was perfect weather for collecting Sea Shells! I wanted something to bring home right off the Aegean and though Sea Shells are pretty much everywhere, I thought, Hey, why not? They're SPECIAL SEA SHELLS!
So I lined them up on a rock after finding them and took a picture. Nothing particularly exciting by any means, I just thought they were cool.
I tried to get a few pictures of me on the beach. Yeah, after being forced to wear camouflage twenty four seven, I decided for my little outing in civilians, I would attempt to look like a girl. I even brought make-up. What did I do? I wore a hat and sunglasses most of the time. And I didn't touch my make up bag. Usually I wore the hat backwards.
Nope, no Americans in this group! None what so ever!
See, we were trained on trying to blend into the populace and appear sort of unamerican. The thing is, Americans stand out like a Doberman in a pack of chihuahuas. But we were to avoid the military thing. That was sometimes a problem, I went with two Colonols and a Major in my unit, and I hung out with them quite a bit and often found myself reverting to calling them by rank.
We eventually went by a first name basis, just for the purposes of Greece. Its an old habit.
After settling down at the hotel, where I shared my room with one other girl, we got back in the busses and went down to Iraklitsa, which is where we ate dinner and spent the next three hours just walking around. Very relaxing, as soon as we got out of the bus, everyone started taking pictures.
If we weren't mistaken for americans, we were definitely tourists. And you would pick up on the Americans as soon as they open their mouths. We're undeniable.
We walked along the boardwalk for a while trying to decide between which restaurant to eat at when we settled into our environments. Most of the restaurant signs were in Greek, so we couldn't even phonetically pronounce them much less know what they served outside of the fact of the Octopus tentacles hanging outside drying outside some of the restaurants.
When we finally found a restaurant, we looked at the menu and were a bit baffled by it.
I couldn't make anything out on the menu, well, other then the price, which consisted of us going to the owner of the restaurant, pointing at what we wanted to eat, and grunting. They didn't know much English, we couldn't speak an ounce of greek. There was that language barrier thing going on.
I eventually got gutsy and ordered the Kalimari and the Scampy.
I have had Kalimari once before, there is a greek restaurant in Hohenfels that we escaped to every once in a while to get away from the D-Fac up where we were (which was nasty) and I didn't know what it was then. Now I know. Its kind of hard to not know what it is when they don't even bother to cut off the heads of the food. (I didn't even think about whether or not they bothered gutting the food)
It was good though. The scampy still had the exosceleton on it and I just ate the first one on my plate whole, then noticed that it was a little crunchy. A little Too Crunchy. Hmm. . .
I then started to strip them of their outershells, being a bit unnerved that my food was looking back at me. They didn't even chop the heads off the fish.
I was a bit more leery of eating the Kalimari, though i have eaten Octopus before. The Kalimari was really good though! I cleaned my plate of that, delicious! Kind of rubbery texture, I'm not sure if the Squid Kalimari or the Octopus Kalimari was better.
Then there was the other factor of Greece that I never knew about.
Cats.
Cats are everywhere in Greece. And this is a stray, probably not owned by anybody. Strays are usually finicky creatures that dart away from you if you try to touch them. Not in Greece. They sit at your feet and beg for food. They still won't let you pet them, but it won't stop them from rubbing against your legs.
I was warned about feeding the cats. I went ahead nad started feeding her my scampy heads anyway. I also threw some of the legs at her as well. She seemed to enjoy them. But I couldn't get her to jump over the baring to fetch the food. For one, a giant dog was over there, and its universal that Dogs and Cats hate each other.
Anyway, after the delicious dinner, we hung out and walked around the beach, trying to find something to do, as it was more of a place to eat and not so much a place to shop.
But I found Ice Cream!
You wouldn't know it was Ice Cream by the sign however. Unless you spoke Greek. Most Europeans sit down and eat when they get something. But not Americans. No, we walk and eat at the same time. We're always in a hurry to get some place (well, at least I am) so we kind of missed the atmosphere of being in Iraklitsa. To just sit down and enjoy the atmosphere.
Instead, we started exploring the piers and such. I then handed off my camera nad had a picture taken.
Ick, I'm going to do something that is totally being a girl and say that I can't stand how fat my face looks in this picture! Maybe I should have laid off the ice cream?
Anyway, we walked all over Iraklitsa and enjoyed ourselves. Somebody even saw an octopus in the port. Dang, I missed it. But he took a picture and shared it with me. That was cool.
After trying to find things to do, and buying a Mars Bar (yeah, I need to start laying off the chocolate), we headed back to the busses and prepared ourselves for a quiet and relaxing time at the hotel.
I got my laptop out and proceeded to dump my pictures.
Alright, after my last post, BNCOC got canceled for me and suddenly I feel loads better.
Its not that I didn't think I could do BNCOC, its just that the timing was really, really bad. And I would rather have more then 48 hours notice in the future. Besides, if it was something like PLDC, which is required at my rank, then I would just buck it up and drive on, however I do not require BNCOC to be a Buck Sergeant.
Besides, I'm not sure I'm ready for that rocker yet. But that's a whole 'nother post.
Meanwhile, now that I will indeed be spending quality time back at the ranch 'aka Bondsteel', I've got a whole bunch of things I need to do in my spare time and I need to make time to do them.
I like lists. So I'm going to make me a list and cross things off as I accomplish them. Sometimes, I don't get everything crossed off, which is alright, but being able to cross things off feels really good.
Empty out remaining 35 emails out of inbox.
Answer all remaining snail mail.
Mail care packages home (I got some goodies for my family that I've accumulated since Germany, and I still haven't mailed it. What's wrong with me?)
Post info about Greece.
Write a handy dandy post about today's Vetcap, complete with Pictures! Its up on my neglected Milblog.
The 3 fronts of the webcomic (er, that's something involved with my Webcomic)
Spread the love with the Lit concert to the various members of the task force that were there.
Upload Blackmailable file of me singing Karaoke online.
Keep track of Devils Arithmatic (Davison), Red Vs Blue Seasons One and Two (Nate), Freaks and Geeks (White), PS2 complete with FFX and FFX-2 (Wong), and any other wandering DVDs I might have out there. Oh, like Sin City-bootlegged edition (Shull)
This list can be edited, added too, or taken away from. I shall go about marking things off as I accomplish them, which always feels oh so good!
Now I get to go see Ring 2 at the post theater. Movies take a few months to get here, yes I shall be missing Star Wars this week, unless I want to get a bootlegged copy but I've been told that I'll ruin it for me if I do so. Those generally consist of somebody sitting in a theater with a camera. Its kind of funny because sometimes you can see the heads of the people sitting toward the front.
But Ring 2 will be authentic. I probably should go get a shower first however, I smell of Cows and Pigs, courtesy of the Vetcap. Which is on my list.
I don't know when I'm going to be able to tell you about Greece, most likely long after the whole appeal of the trip has been whisked out of my mind and the monotony of Bondsteel comes back into play.
I just got back and I've been told I'm going to BNCOC tomorrow, Basic Sergeant School that is. That's a two week course and I doubt I'll have much internet access.
And it seems that if I put any thought or feeling into any post I write (I wrote a doozy about my first day in Greece), Blogger deletes half of it. Or if I post anything in regards to my experiences and trials with being a Sergeant, my internet times out.
I'm a little frustrated right now, at a lot of things. Greece should have been the key to helping me relax and escape for a while, but it seems that I came back to a headache.
Pardon me if I'm quiet for a little while longer as I try to recoop and get my thoughts together.
Strange, I was in better shape before going to Greece then I am now coming back.
I feel the need to just give up on Blogger. I'm getting so freakin' frustrated with it that I don't know what to do with myself. If I want to post anything of any consequence that takes up more then two paragraphs, it usually freezes and dies, and I've had it up to here on what to do with this thing.
First its Greece. I typed up this long post on my experiences there and so on and so forth and the thing deletes most of my post as I'm trying to preview it. Then I wanted to type something about my feelings of what I'm going through right now, and the trials and tribulations of being a Sergeant in Todays army, and the thing delets that too after I try to post it (though that was partly my fault, I did copy it, but then I tried to copy something else too without thinking what I already had on my clipboard.)
Anyway, I'm just frustrated right now. I have to go to BNCOC in the morning and I'll be doing that for the next two weeks. I don't know if I'll ever post anything about greece or not. This whole thing is turning out to be a huge chore for me because half of the time the internet ceases to work.
Yeah, so I am conservative. However I didn't like the phrasing of some of those questions. I wish they offered more choices because some of those were questionable.
I would Quote Tex, but it Might not be Appropriate
Yep, I'm back from Greece. Had a flippen blast too! But considering I just got back, I'll have to arrange my pictures and get back to you on those in a little bit.
But anyway, I'm back. . . Just a quick notation. Now I need to go back to my room, take a nice hot shower, and chill.
Then tomorrow, I have to fetch Jadacious Maximus and play soldier again.
in that my alarm didn't go off, but I have a great biological clock for this sort of thing. I woke up myself ten minutes after it was supposed to wake me up.
Anyway, I'm off to Greece and I'll be back some time later this week. Although I am taking my computer, I don't intend on using it all that much. Its more of my dumping ground for the many many pictures I intend on taking.
I'm just in the hospital right now tying up last minute errands (like emailing my battle buddies important information, cleaning out my inbox, taking a second to update my blog, that sort of thing)
So anyway, I'm in civilians for the first time in almost 4 months and I feel naked because I turned in my weapon yesterday and I don't have this extra weight on my back that I've come to be used too. Feels weird not lugging around a weapon everywhere.
And then I had another Red Vs Blue marathon with some of my new friends in Tornado. At this rate, I think I will have everyone on Camp Bondsteel watching this thing by the end of this deployment. . . well the guys at least. I haven't gotten any other girls hooked on it yet.
UPDATE: Red Vs Blue is a cartoon based on Halo that I'm slightly addicted too.
Tornado is Task Force Tornado, which is the infantry (well, actually they're Armor posed as infantry for purposes here in Kosovo). I'm in Task Force Med Falcon, which is the hospital.
ATTENTION MURRAY: (permalinks should be fixed. Note Should)
Man, I've been riding high on that concert for the last week, I can't express how much flippen' fun I had! Lit has since become one of my favorite rock bands and I've even been lurking in their forums. Well, ok, I haven't really been lurking, I posted pictures. Thought Lit lovers would appreciate them more then anybody else.
So um, there are some more pictures for you to paruse at your leisure, most of them link back to my site.
And I'm still working on getting videos online. The only way I can get things online is through FTP, and the internet connection from my laptop has proven to be particularly horrendous. It takes me about 6 minutes to download a 100K file. These are like 16 megs.
And everyone in the hospital has jumped on the any soldier bandwagon, well, at least it feels like that. Which reminds me, i need to update my site. I got so freakin' spoiled the first few months I was here, pratically getting a letter/package/something in the mail everyday, many times two or three +, that now that I'm going into this dryspell, I'm thinking, "where's my package?"
Of course, I still need to mail these letters I have sitting in my hut as I sit here typing this out. I've got about fifteen letters to return. And I need to see if I can find that invoice for that Mug so I can give Murray a post card because he's feeling out of the loop.
Or he could just send me his address :)
Hopefully, I'll have enough time after I get back from Greece (after giving the task force a swift kick in the fourth point of contact to send me info for their respective sections) I'll have a website up for Task Force Med Falcon.
Why oh why did I agree to take this assignment on?
In my section, the NCOIC (ie sergeant in charge) often disperses bits of information starting with the phrase "do you want the good news or the bad news?"
Sometimes I say "give me the good news, that way the bad news doesn't seem as bad" or sometimes I say "give me the bad news, so the good news can cheer me back up", depending on the circumstances.
Well, this is one of those good news bad news situations. I have to dispense with the bad news first.
Sofia Bulgaria is no longer on. Neither is the 25K DANCON road march. I was looking forward to both with much anticipation, and had to cancel them yesterday (well, technically, I postponed Bulgaria and will await the next road march, I hear they're having a 2 day 50 K road march, now that's an idea!)
Which brings me to the good news. I'm going to Greece instead. I had to cancel the Road March because doing both the Road March and then walking around Greece the next day was a very bad idea and would have left me very very miserable. And i can't do two retreats right after one another so Bulgaria has to wait until later this summer.
More specifically, I'm going to the community of Fillipi Greece, which is now in ruins. Now, if everyone flips open the New Testament, you will notice that one of the books in the New Testament is labeled Phillipians. In fact, I think there are a couple of books named Phillipians. These were specifically letters written by the apostle Paul to the people of Fillipi (also spelled Phillipi, depending on the map you read). This retreat is actually in relation to the journeys of Paul and the whole retreat is focused on him.
Being a Non Denominational Religious retreat sponsored by the chaplains, I shall be going to Fillipi and afterwards get to shop in Kavala which is right on the Aegean Sea. We get to explore Greek Ruins!
I'm mucho excited! I probably won't be blogging for those days, but I will take lots and lots of pictures and post a few online.
Gosh, I think the army should deploy me more often! What, with free concerts, Karioke (which is particularly scary) Kajukenbo and opportunities to see Greece and Bulgaria, I don't think I've had this much fun in a long time!
