April 4, 2013

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It’s All Greek to Me

Three months after we were married, Cathy and I embarked on a “trip of a lifetime” to Greece.  It did not begin well.

We flew from Denver to New York and then took a long overnight flight from JFK to Athens. From the airport we took a bus to the Syntagma Square area and our hotel. The bus driver appeared to be a homicidal maniac, weaving through traffic at high speeds with seemingly no concern for pedestrians, other vehicles or his passengers. We felt lucky to reach our destination alive. Had we known – as we soon learned – that everyone in Athens drove like that, we could have sat back and enjoyed the ride.

Tired and feeling the effects of jet lag, we did some brief sight-seeing and retired to the hotel for a good night’s rest. My internal clock had not adjusted to the new time zone, so I awoke shortly after 2:00 a.m. and could not go back to sleep. At about 4:00, I quit trying and decided to go jogging. Moving as quietly as I could so as not to wake Cathy, I turned on a desk lamp, opened a map of Athens, and mentally created my running route. I refolded the map and slipped out the door, leaving the map on the desk – I had memorized where I would go and my mind is like a steel trap.

I jogged at an easy pace to a hilltop that was perhaps two miles away. I paused for a few moments to enjoy the first rays of dawn over the city before starting back down the hill. Nothing looked the same as I returned. I might as well have been in a foreign country. Oh yeah, I was. I missed a turn and within minutes was completely lost. Continue reading →