facts and myths

This is a giant plant of kebab, souvlaki, gyro, and psito pork/lamb.  And it was freaking delicious - intense, tender, smokey, salty.  Mmm, meat.

Eaten half in the rain, while watching the hustle and bustle of Monastiraki Square as the sun sets and all the lights come on.  I like crowds when I'm not entangled within them.

The one thing we never found was kokoretsi.  Regret.

windy island

"It's a young people island."
Fine words... when I'm not with my family.  No beach rave parties and drinking for 12 hours straight for Amelia.

mountains and sea

If there's anything I learned from island hopping, it's that you never get tired of gazing at rocks and water.  More majestically known as the mountains and sea.

So drive to Fira - and I can officially say I used that International Driving Permit I purchased at no hassle.  Cable car down to Skala Port.  Ferry to Nea Kameni.  And hike all the way to the top of the volcanic crater where you can still smell the sulfur.  Apparently, an eruption during the Bronze Age wiped out the Minoan civilization and carved out the caldera that outlines the West of present-day Santorini.  And some theorize that buried Akrotiri is the inspiration for the legend of Atlantis.
[This is me actually interested in a history lesson.]

sunrise sunset

Caught a bit of the sunrise over Crete from the hotel balcony before ferrying off to Santorini.

drowning in fish

So. Much. Fish.

I think I was close to reverting back to pescatarianism in Greece.  I notice I eat fewer ocean organisms when I'm living alone, so a trip to Greece funded by my dad was the perfect opportunity to eat back all the fish I've missed.
First things first, fried platter of seafood in Heraklion after much history and heat in the Palace of Minos... and then getting terribly lost.  Driving in the super narrow, unlabeled streets of Crete is not an easy task.
I love the sight of a plate piled high with fried things, and my guilty pleasure meze is definitely little fried fish.  Pop 'em into your mouth by the tail fin: meat, head, spines, and all.  Not sure where this pleasure comes from, seeing as my brother who was raised on mostly the same things as me, had no interest in the seafood while eating his first of many pork souvlaki/gyro platters.  Now, I have no idea what assorted fish I devoured in the open, seaside fish market restaurant we got roped into.  But after some Googling, I'm going to guess either marides or sardeles.  And the fatter ones might be gopa?  Then there were two red guys - fagri?  Definitely not barbounia because apparently that fishy is expensive.  Although, in the end, as much as I love seafood, I'm not so great at discerning white fish anyways - maybe fresh vs salt water, but that's the best I've got.
Kalamari, I recognize though, mmm.

I thought the quick and easy plating from banquet nights were just because they were trying to feed the bunch of us in a reasonable three hours time.  I would throw things on any clean plate if there were a hundred or so hungry mouths waiting outside.  But restaurant to restaurant, that's how it was done.  It could just be the places we happened upon (usually in tourist-y areas, of course), but I kind of decided I like the home-y and humble servings that were set before me.  The Greeks also spare nothing in the way of quantity for relatively cheap prices... reason for financial crisis solved.

In Elafonisi, there was only one option for lunch if we didn't want to go driving to find one.  At the top of the hill, a little place aptly named Panorama where you could see the entire beach all around you, we had some unknown to me (but fresh) fish.  Here you go to the kitchen to pick out your sea creature of choice and method of cooking - grilled, please.  With a sauce of lemon, olive oil, and cilantro.  If it's been a long time since I've had fish, it's been longer since I've had whole fish.  I really made an effort to share, I promise.
And this is my brother looking super concerned about the happy, loopy cactus creeping on him:


P.S. Final banquet of the conference catered right at the hotel.  Best thing I had that night - the meatballs.  Need more conference trips in my life.

scientists and their banquets τρία

Things are not going well.  So I resort to blogging. 

This is what people mean when they say your head's not in the game.  My head is definitely floating far far far away from research, and my muscles forgot how to science.  As I told Alicia, must have crossed one too many black cats in Greece.

I was on vacay for too long.

scientists and their banquets δύο

Mylos tou Kerata was a bus ride away, but the dinner menu they prepared for us was wildly similar to the previous night's.  My favorite was the first caponata-like dish of eggplant, tomato, and feta.
The garden outdoor seating was basically the epitome of fine dining in summer.  Greenery everywhere.  Framed fruits hanging on trees.  Fountain waterfall on the far wall.  Big lights and small lights once the sky went dark.  I didn't want to be awkward and stalk around people's tables to take a picture of the venue, so this is the best I got from my seat.

scientists and their banquets ένα

The statement that most confuses me in the English language is: I love airports.

I'm sorry, uh... I don't understand what you just said. 

The reasonings are usually the same, and I can respect them.  People watching, a favorite pastime of mine - in coffee shops and parks though.  Inactivity while still feeling productive - if I wasn't always trying to figure out how to sleep sitting up.  Being surrounded by chatter in so many different languages.  Something I've never really paid attention to... because everyone's faces always look so glum and exhausted and annoyed.

But in Chania, I heard the chatter in so many different languages.  So many countries were represented at the conference, so many braniac people talking science and things in Greek and German and Korean and Polish... and accented English.  And everything else I didn't recognize.

We missed the opening banquet due to a good 24 hours straight of airpots and planes - as if I needed another reason to hate the traveling part of traveling.  But the first official conference dinner was held a walk away at Palio Arhontiko.  I was skeptical about where so many people would fit if not in a hotel ballroom/conference room, but they filed us all into several long banquet tables.  This was going to be a family style dinner... with nine courses... lasting three hours.

They usually charge for the bread basket, but we didn't find that out until our first meal not provided by Aegean Conferences.  At restaurants, you can be assured that the delivery of a free bread basket would be followed by my dad berating, "Don't eat too much!"  Save room for the main meal.  Well that proves to be a difficult task when olive oil/vinegar/pepper are sitting on the table.  And the balsamic was flavored with honey.  And they brought out olive paste and sun dried tomatoes.  And I have a weakness for sauces.  And bread is the perfect vehicle.