The Search for the Ever Elusive Pita

There are certain things I associate with a country and for the most part, these associations have rung true. Like Crepes in France, fresh Pretzls in Germany, Strudl in Austria... So you'd think that Greece would not let me down when I tried to find Pita. In a way she didn't let me down, there was pita available at most restaurants and certainly at every Gyro stand. But whenever I tried to find fresh pita in the grocery store, there was none to be found.

Lunches are generally picnic affairs and we try to vary things a bit and often try to inject as much of the local staples as possible, so I thought pita at lunch would be a nice change up when in Greece. At first we found NO pita in the grocery stores we went to. Bakery's too. None, zilch, nada, nichts, kanenas... Now these were not always little stores - even the large ones where they had everything else - Greek and otherwise. "Where are the Pita?"we would ask. We usually got a shrug and the best we got was a 10 pack in the frozen section. Now the frozen 10'r was an improvement, but it still wasn't the same.

Often with will and determination there is a happy resolve to these kinds of quests, but alas, I must admit defeat. We never did find a source of the fresh pita. Perhaps all of the Gyro stands have the market cornered? Maybe Greeks don't eat it? Maybe you can only get frozen imported from... Canada? Whatever the case, we never did track fresh pita down and will have to make this a priority should we ever find ourselves in Greece again. I hate to think we were simply missing something obvious - though that is a possibility as well. I will have to resign myself to the fact that the frozen 10 pita were pretty good (once they thawed) and the ones from the Gyro stands and restaurants were great.

Fresh Pita - Where are you?

Zoom Zoom

Today and yesterday.... well, yesterday we rented a quad for yesterday and today. (I forgot to say we are on Santorini, Greece).  The fastest speed we hit was 52km/hr. I was with the crazy driver Dad. Dad and  Mom also let me drive by myself for 5 minutes or so. We zoomed to a town called Oia  (Eeya) and watched a sunset. Today we zoomed to a red sand beach and a black sand beach.

At the red sand beach, we tried to snorkel but the water wasn't clear enough and there wasn't much to see.  Also, I tried to balance a thin rock on a thin rock, but it wasn't working for me so I put them together like a T for sitting on and then it all collapsed.

At the black sand beach we found some beach beds under umbrellas for free, that felt very tropical. I went snorkeling and saw and eel at this beach. He glared at me so I swam back and told Mima to get out of the water.

I think the place we are staying, is the best place we have stayed  so far.  It is good because it is comfy, they clean our room each day, there is a swimming pool and cake every day so I think Life Is Good!

I think that is it for this blog entry, I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Mattias

ps - don't forget to write comments.

Quad - ruple

We are on Santorini Island.  We rented some quads. On them today, Daddy let me drive for a bit. Frightening, hey!?  He totally took his hands off the steering and accelerator and let me drive. We went to three beaches. One was rocks and we didn't stay long. Another was a red sand beach and the other was a black sand beach. We stayed at the black sand beach the longest.  At the black sand beach, me and Mattias would swim in the water and snorkel with Daddy. We also would lie in the sand and bury ourselves. Yesterday we drove on the quads to Oia ( EEH-ah) and watched the sunset.  Tonight we are going on a night ferry that will arrive at 7am.  I am looking forward to Rhodes Island.

Groovy Greeks

Classic Greek vs our version
Corrupt police sounds like carped police - Emiliaism
Socrates sounds like great soccertes - Mattiasism ( disappointment at learning he wasn't a soccer player)
Typical Greek corner today - looking one way you see riot police and civil protesters (every other day event right now) less than a block in the other direction a ceremony marking the end of the German occupation, more police, but his time dressed in their best....hmmm. The irony not lost on too many on that one.

So here we are, in the heart of the city of Athens. Athens wasn't even on the original itinerary, but Greece, well it is so enticing! Getting from Croatia to Greece is an interesting dilemma and a long way given the options, we opted to take a ferry to Italy, wrong direction - we know, and then the 17 hour haul to Greece. The first ferry time flew by as we met some really fun Brits doing a year trip too- we hardly saw our kids, they were having a blast with their new friends Charlie and Billy, while we were being taught a new card game that Bernie, well, I'll leave that unsaid.

Surprisingly - in Greece, everything so far has been just that....surprising.

For me, Athens is nothing like the city I remember from 24 years ago( to be honest I was dreading coming) - it is cleaner, more welcoming, the hostels are great and the site-seeing really is amazing. The sights haven't changed much I suppose, but my outlook likely has!

For Bernie, the history has been fascinating (bit of a history buff he is) and the photography is fantastic.  Mostly the later as a result of the man we met who cleaned his camera.  For about 6 weeks, Bernie has been disgruntled at a dust speck you can see on most of his photos. He tried cleaning it himself, but ... When we arrived in Athens he did some internet searching and found Picopoulous cameras. Off we went - and discovered a man who had been in business -with his father- since 1935. His father was the only Greek to ever produce cameras - named Picca ( pic from the last name, ca for camera) . And he was totally up to date with his knowledge of digital cameras.  Bernie got a scolding for trying to clean it himself ( apparently it was obvious once opened).  The kids got a glimpse of his camera collections - wow! and the best part, the man was brilliant - a doctorate from Cambridge in Philosophy.  He was friendly, fun and obviously loved his work. It really helped that his English was good too - it meant for some great conversation. What better Greek to meet!?


The kids have enjoyed learning the Greek history (nice and gruesome) and seeing some for themselves, but today, they found the best thing yet - at Hadrian's Library ( yes, a Roman in Greek territory) they scouted out 9 tortoises, one a wee baby. They were in heaven.

Sorry for the lack of photos on the side bar - we are having trouble finding a connection fast enough to upload them... wait for Croatia tho, they are pretty great!

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who are Canadian.... we know we have lots to be thankful for....

Till next time,
Karen