Hello from Athens, Greece

Hello from Athens, Greece!

Dan and I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, earlier Monday morning and rented a car to drive around. We went to Heidelburg, had lunch there (schnitzel, saukerkraut, etc), and then drove up towards the Nurbergring area to find his car rental place... yes, we had 2 different car rentals at the same time for a matter of 2-3 hours... because Dan needed a better car to drive the Nurbergring and we weren't sure if Thrifty would approve of us trying to drive the little economical Hyundai around the 20km track. (We also discovered later on that the Hyundai would have NEVER made it out of the track alive, due to its lack of power!).

Dan rented a Renault Sport Clio, which seemed to hit the spot as a perfect balance (it still cost over 300 Euros to rent the darn thing since the maintenance costs are higher when you are purposely putting a car on the track at faster than 75 mph!). So, we went on the track twice and I was in the car with him both times. Dan was driving pretty fast with ferraris, lamborghenies, lotus', bmw's, etc.... and it was AWESOME. He even continually caught up with a red ferrari and eventually passed him! It was a lot of fun and well... just imagine a bunch of drivers who come out here to push it as far as they can without getting in to an accident.

Unfortunately, even though we bought a 4-ticket pass, we only got to go twice because the track continually shut down during the 2 hour open session because people were getting in to accidents. I surmise it was people who got so used to the PS2 version on Grand Turismo and forgot the realities of actually driving that thing. So, by the time the track reopened for our second session, when we were done, most of the employees were long gone since they were ready to go home for dinner. It was great and I was suprised I lasted both sessions because I often get motion-sickness... I even have videos on camera to prove I was on the track! :) I guess I lasted because the track was a bit longer than the Nashville SuperSpeedway. :)

Also, we go to drive on the autobahn... I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the autobahn!!! I love how everyone is alert, on the ball, and ready to let cars pass them in the fast lane. You really have to be on top of things to be running smoothly and it's great... I think many of you have heard me complain about the people who don't respect the fast lane. Later on, I found out from the dude at the Nurbergring rental place that in Germany, the traffic rules do not factor speed in to the equation. For example, if you are in the fast lane, going only 65 mph and a car going at 150mph comes right behind you and hits you, you are at complete fault for not respecting the fast lane. I just LOVE it!!!

On our way back, we stopped at a Japanese restaurant in Koblenz. We went looking for German food but EVERYTHING was closed... at like 8:30 pm at night! So dining at the Japanese restaurant was quite interesting because everything was in Japanese and German... we barely had english on the menu (coca-cola, beer, etc) so I read the Japanese terminology so that we could order. Dan had chicken teriyaki and I had a bunch of rolls. Then, I realized that for some reason, I end up eating Japanese in Germany, even if I don't plan it! For example, a couple of years ago, when I was in Berlin, I ended up eating at a Japanese restaurant with some people at the hostel I was staying in. I guess if I can't access an English menu, I can always look for a Japanese menu since they are so used to having a bunch of Japanese tourists!

Yesterday afternoon, we landed in Athens and are now staying in the Plaka area. You can see the Acropolis from the rooftops of this area. We had dinner at a restaurant that consisted of primarily locals. It was near our hotel but off the tourist track and it was cool because we got to see regular Greek people dining with their families, friends, etc... Since it was apparent that we are tourists, the waiter tried to charge us for extra fees on the greek-written receipt (charged us twice for dessert even though we shared a baklava). I thought it was humourous that it was SO EASY to point the mistake out to him, even though I can't read Greek! I think he already knew that he made the mistake and I found it humourous how they were trying to charge a tourist tax. :) Regardless, the dinner was WONDERFUL. We shared a Greek salad (no lettuce in their salad... just like my friend with Greek heritage, Paul K., says!), lamb with eggplant, spinach pie, and baklava. The spinach pie was so good - it was well, rather "simple" compared to the salty stuff we are accustomed to getting in the States... it was SO good because it actually tasted homemade. And the lamb was just tender and the eggplant was cooke in a tomator-based sauce. It was all just so nice!!!

Anyways, we better get going.. time to eat lunch and check out Athens during our one day here. :) We are already "behind schedule" because we lost track of the time zones... The reception desk called us this morning to confirm we were definitely checking out, since we were still snoozing.... (we thought we still had another hour!). Fortunately, they were cool with it. I guess they somehow knew that Dan and I are SO BEHIND on our sleep schedules ;)

P.S. I was just thinking about a Korean car..... and thought Hyundai... but Dan says it was a Kia Cee'd. It was built in Slovakia and the design work was done in Frankfurt. It's a typical cute European car.

P.P.S. Esther LOVES the cute little BMW's out in Germany.. especially the 1-series Touring! :)