Gray Skies over the Black Sea

The Black Sea is living up to its name: it is a dark - and today - very dreary sea.  We've had heavy clouds and last night a heavy rain as we crossed this body of water en route to Sochi, Russia. I write this from the ship anchored just off the Russian coast.

We didn't clear the wait-list for the shore tour - in fact, it turns out we weren't on the wait list after all - so we will 'see' Russia from a distance.  The authorities are strict here: you are either on a tour or you hold a Russian Visa, we don't qualify on either account so will take photos (and add to the blog later) of the shore and the two ships that seem to be 'guarding' us as tour groups tender to the shore.

The cruise continues to provide some fascinating stops and tomorrow we will be back in the land of passports and shore passes.  Today will be spent watching the deep dark waters and sky that surround us.

Having one HAL of a cruise!

We write from İstanbul.  Sitting in an İnternet cafe usiıng a Turkish keyboard. Cruise has been great so far. We have zig-zagged across the Aegean with stops ın Kusadesi, gateway to the land of St. Paul and then back to Volos, Greece where Jason rounded up his Argonauts and set out to find the Golden Fleece.  From there to Thessoloniki. Greece where the father of Alexander the Great is burıed.  We have had a great look at history. 

Will add photos and more detail when we are back to the land of the wireless computer.

Setting Sail

We are off to the Black Sea

We are off to the Black Sea.  The Westerdam is in port.  We will board in the early afternoon and set sail at 5 p.m.  We quite literally bumped into our Florida friends this morning on a Piraeus street corner. W.e met them on the Westerdam when we were assigned as table mates a few years ago; what a perfect way to renew a friendship aboard the same ship 

Contemplations are done - the cruise is about to begin.

Dog Days of September - Greek style

We couldn't resist the charms of the street dog we named Amiga, after a similar charmer who came into our lives during the Mexico days. . .

Amiga, our Poros friend

  And because our paths crossed during our brief visit, Amiga is now one of our travel treasurers - those memories that will linger long after we've returned to the Pacific Northwest.

Amiga and a fellow street dog entertained us

Our Grecian Amiga seemed to appear one evening while we were dining.  And the next day she showed up as we walked along the quay; much further south of where we had been when we first met her. She seemed so well-fed and cared for that we didn't suspect she was a street dog until last night when she brought several of her 'street friends' to entertain us at the restaurant where we were dining and ultimately was chased away by the owner.

Then she decided she'd be my 'guard dog' and watch -- or sleep on -- my Bagallini purse. (Another use for those all purpose bags!) All the street animals, cats and dogs, were well cared for on this island.  I suspect it is through the animal welfare efforts. This donation can was next to the visitor information booth :

Bus,Train, Plane, Bus, Boat: Poros

Flying Dophin High Speed ferry - last leg of our journey here

Our Big Adventure has begun.  This post is being written in Poros, Greece, an hour from Piraeus by fast boat; 2.5 hours by slow boat.  We arrived here 23 hours after leaving Kirkland WA. During that time we traveled on our trusty Metro bus to Seattle from where we rode the Link train to Seatac Airport, then flew Delta Airlines to Amsterdam, KLM to Athens, caught a bus to Piraeus and then the high speed ferry to Poros (pictured above).

I have to admit that at about hour 18 we were asking ourselves if such travel is worth it.  We could have stayed home, slept in a comfortable bed eaten better food and not looked like human paper clips trying to sleep in a Delta Airbus 300 or a KLM 737 plane.  As we dashed (quite literally) to three different transfer desks in Amsterdam's airport trying to acquire boarding passes, the question again came to mind.

But then as the KLM flight left the soggy gray skies of Amsterdam for the Aegean's blue skies and sunshine, we knew we were on the home stretch.

Hotel Manessi  Poros is the larg building on the right

 Our hotel, Hotel Manessi,is footsteps from the ferry landing, and just across the channel is the Greek mainland.  We watch the car/passenger ferry yo-yo back and forth from early morning to late at night. We've sipped Mythos beer, eaten the best gyros we've ever had, visited the monestery high up in the pine-blanked hillside, walked for miles along the waterfront and find that it is almost time to return to Piraeus and start part two of the Big Adventure.

The weather turned cloudy and rainy our first full day here - note the cloud cover in the photo below, however, today the sky is bright and the weather extremely humid.

Sunset from our deck

Octopus drying in the afternoon sun will be someone's dinner tonight

Greek cats on Poros lead happy lives it seems

Life's a Trip

Our life these days is one long -- full of new sights and sounds, places and people -- trip.  And we really do keep our bags in a semi-state of being ready for whatever comes along.

Our upcoming month-long trip has posed some new challenges to our carefree approach to travel. Half of our time will be on a cruise ship and half will be spent vagabonding. We are heading to new parts of the world - unknown fashion, unknown weather so I have been focused more on on suitcases and weather reports (http://www.weather.com/ is a favorite new site) than I normally would of late. 

HAL's Westerdam will take us to these places

I've just read that a portion of our cruise will be to an area of the world (Black Sea coast of Turkey) that seems to be known for gray skies and rain  (what WERE we thinking??!!) 

Our two carry-on sized roller bags are filled with clothes ranging from Joel's suit and a basic black dress for me which should carry us through cruise-ship 'formal' nights to our more usual travel wardrobe of  shorts and sandals. Warm weather, wet weather - got it covered.

We are on countdown to departure:  the part where packing is being done, travel documents being gathered, (checked and re-checked), yard care being arranged, home security is in place, and last minute projects being completed.  My least favorite part of travel are the days immediately before departure.

Joel continues to research possible destinations and routing's for our last two weeks (it was great calling the bank's fraud division to register our plastic and trying to tell them where we would be traveling when we don't know yet).

Greek fishing boat

Unless the Athens strikes cause some major upheaval to our travel plans we will head first to the island of Poros, about an hour's ferry ride from Piraeus, the port where we board our cruise ship.  We've booked ourselves at Manessis Hotel.

And so the adventure begins. . .

Me Jana: welcome and happy times

Me Jana is an old Lebanese folk ballad sung to welcome friends, share happy times and reminisce about the old times.


Me Jana's patio was perfect for a September evening

Me Jana, 2300 Wilson Blvd., in Arlington, Virginia, is a Lebanese restaurant where friends and I were made welcome, we shared happy times and reminisced about the old. It is a restaurant that we liked so well a year ago that we ate there three times over the course of as many days.  Returning last week, we again managed to squeeze in two visits during our whirlwind trip to Washington, DC.

It was the lamb chops that drew us back. We weren't disappointed.

.Last year we sat around one of the outside tables on each of the warm East Coast evenings we dined there, shared plate upon plate of mezes (tapas) and desserts, while sipping excellent Lebanese wines that we've never found elsewhere. It felt like 'coming home' when we returned this year. 

Accolades are framed and fill the walls (including Zagat).  I am surprised to read on-line reviews noting Me Jana's high prices:  obviously the reviewers haven't dined in Seattle.  From our Pacific Northwest point of view our feast was a steal!  The lamb chops are not to be missed.

Getting there: Hop the Metro orange line and get off at Courthouse station, Me Jana is an easy quick couple blocks away.

We forced ourselves away from Me Jana one evening to return to another favorite; this one in downtown Washington, DC.  The Oval Room, 800 Connecticut Ave. N.W., isn't very far from the Oval Office. And the restaurant's website lists the famous politicians and media who've dined there.  We saw no one of name familiarity; but that could have been because we were so focused on the many flavors and designs of the modern American cuisine created by Chef Tony Conte, that we didn't notice the other diners. 

We, who live in Pacific Northwest coastal cities, admit to being 'fish snobs' and ask questions like, "Is this wild or farm raised?"  We like 'em wild out in these parts.  So when our delightful, young waitress answered our question about the salmon, saying it was farm raised near Maine and saw our response she quickly added, "it is a boutique farm!"  Our burst of laughter had her trying harder to explain that the chef would only use boutique salmon which only made it more humorous.

A boutique farm raised salmon might be worth a try but none of us could bring ourselves to do it. 
However, Chef Conte's roasted beet salad will call me back again when in DC; hopefully I'll be lucky enough to be served by the same waitress.

Doing DC in a Day

It's possible to 'Do DC in a Day."  I just did it Monday, but I know I had but a teaser of all the city had to offer . . . there's a lot more out there to see - next time. I was in our nation's capital for a conference and had most of a day for sightseeing - thanks to flight and meeting schedules not meshing.  So, with temperatures in the 80's and blue skies above, I set out to see as much of  Washington D.C. and its neighbor where I was staying, Arlington, Virginia as I could in a few hours.

DC' area Metro Map got me where I was going

I used  Metro which provided a cheap and safe alternative to a taxi.  DC, however, could learn from Paris where a simple carnet (ticket) system gets you where you want to go on the Metro.

But with the help of some very nice humans who work for DC Metro, I mastered their computerized ticket machine (figure out destination, then figure out fare, then load money into machine to load ticket). I should have purchased a day-pass which would have simplified the purchase and saved me money. Even with help, I didn't quite do it right and  ended up spending more than I should have, but for my $8 (the pass was $7, a fellow tourist told me) I had a great afternoon's outing.

(Note:  After last fall's Athen's Metro pickpocket experience, I enter any big city train with arms firmly wrapped around my bag and ready for battle. I noticed on this subway, women with large bags wide open -- one woman had her wallet sticking out of the top -- and no one seemed to pay any attention to them - except me; I was flabbergasted. Maybe there is something to their 'safe form of travel' claim? Still made me nervous seeing all those open bags).

The Washington Monument from the Metro entrance on The Mall

I love DC. Emerging from the depths of the Metro tunnel (and it is a deep one) on to The Mall, I was again reminded of why: 

The U.S. Capitol

My afternoon was filled with the sights and sounds along The Mall. It cost me nothing more than my Metro fare.  And speaking of fare, we ate some of the best culinary fare I've had in a long time. Guaranteed to make your mouth water, watch for my next post.

This carousel has operated on The Mall since 1967