Waiting for something to blog about...

Well, not much has gone on since I was in Greece. I went home for a weekend, during which the TA decided it would be fun to die 5 times on the way there and once on the way back, but I think I know what is wrong.

While I was at home I got to visit with the family and go on a ride with Schuyler (Suzuki RM-Z 250). It was pretty sweet since we are fairly close in riding speed. I am a little faster on the tight roads and trails and he is a little faster in the open washes and through the rocky canyons. We saw a few rattle snakes while we were out there, unfortunately I didn't see the first one soon enough and ran him over (right after Schuyler did), but I looked back and he seemed to be upset but moving fine. He was right over the top of a rise, so he probably had very little weight, if any, put on him (I think I was airborne when I went over him). Schuyler saw two more near the end of the ride, but they either got off the trail, or I just didn't see them. I am glad that my boots are mostly plastic and thick leather. We didn't have any crashes, thank goodness, but Schuyler did have a close encounter with a tree were it tried to joust him in the foot-he was ok.

I hate to blog without pictures, so here are some horses, aren't they cute?

Sunday

Here is a picture showing a layout of the hotels that I went to. Mine was the one in the middle.

Early morning today, I was told that I needed to be at the airport 2 hours before my flight by a guy at one of the dinners. So I figured that I would leave between 4 and 4:30 to get to the airport. I woke up at 3:30, got ready and packed a last few things and headed out about 4:30. The guy at the front desk thought I was crazy to be up so early, but got me checked out and ordered me a taxi anyway. Different driver, but another fast one, I think we were at the airport by 4:45-and it was closed. I told him it was ok I would wait for it to open. It opened up at 5:15, but nothing was operational until about 6:20. The airport is small (2 gates) so there were no problems really and I got thought it all ok.

I got to Athens on time, its only about an hour flight, and didn’t do much in the airport there except recheck my luggage and grab a bite to eat. Right now I am on the plane from Athens to Atlanta, the flight time is just over 11 hours and there are about 5.5 hours of it left. I think I have to do a bunch of stuff in Atlanta with customs, but I guess I will find out later.

Here is an overall picture of the downtown area. It would be placed to the right of the first picture and slightly overlapping. If you look at the left side of this picture closely, you can tell where the Egnatia Grand Hotel is. On my monitor it is about 2" from the left edge of the picture when you blow it up to full size (by clicking the picture).

That was the end for my Greece trip blog, I hope that you all enjoyed it. I will make one small post once I finally get more of the pictures uploaded to my photobucket account.

Saturday

Today was the day of walking. I got up at around 5:45 and took off to go see what the beach was like in the morning. I had thought about swimming, but it was a little cold, so I just walked along the beach and took pictures. I got to see some crabs and sea anemones in the rocks. My plan was to go to a museum that was on the map that they gave us for the conference. So I caught a cab at about 9, thinking that the museum would be open. This was the first time on the trip that the language was a problem. The cab driver knew no English at all and had to go into the hotel to get the receptionist to translate where I wanted to go. The only words he ever really said were “No problem.” He was also the fastest taxi I had been in, this guy flew, and his cab was a brand new Mercedes.

He got me downtown to where the museum was supposed to be, but it was not open until 10 and it turned out to be the wrong museum. So I walked around the streets of downtown for a while. There were a lot of jewelry and shoe stores, it was the most shoe stores I have ever seen so close together. I also walked down to the dock area and saw the lighthouse that was on a bunch of the post cards I had seen.

I went back to the museum that I was dropped off at and talked to the lady there who suggested a lot of site seeing that I just didn’t have time to do, but she did send me to another really nice museum. It was the Ethnological Museum of Thrace. It was in really neat looking building that was constructed in 1899. I had a lot about the history of the area and a lot of artifacts. Its website is www.emthrace.org.

After this I walked back through downtown to the dock area again and headed toward my hotel. I was getting hungry, but I didn’t want to eat at a place along the shore there because the seaweed was really smelly. So I ended up eating at a place just before my hotel. Again no one here really spoke English, but there was enough communication to order a salad and “meat” (I wasn’t sure what to expect). The salad was the tomato, cucumber, onion, and lots of cheese salad as usual. The “meat” was a large plate with a thick (1/4”) slice of bacon, a sausage, a slice of lamb, some really good chicken, a patty of some sort that was also pretty good, and fries. All in al it was a pretty good meal. I walked back to the hotel and took a small nap and then was off to the Thraki Palace to go swim and use their internet J. When the cab came to pick me up it was my non English friend again, but luckily they all understand the hotel names.

When I got that I headed for the beach, luckily it was not near as smelly of the seaweed, so I went in. It was a little cold so I didn’t swim around for too long. After swimming I changed into dry clothes and headed inside to use the internet. Well the internet refused to connect so I went to the desk and asked them; 10 euro for 24 hours of internet, ok so I took it. I went back into the business center and tried to connect “error.” Back to the desk, they tried about 5 different cards before they decided it must just be down. Well great, there went my free internet to talk to everyone for the last time before I left.

I thought about it for a bit and decided to head to the hotel that the BBQ was at, as I still had some time left on the card that I got there the first night. I decided to walk because I thought I might be able to get a connection somewhere along the way. I never was able to get one along the way so I walked the 4.6 km down the Grand Egnatia. Theirs worked perfect and the lady at the desk even gave me another free access card. Sweet!! I got online and chatted for a little bit, but it was late and I had to be up early so took off about 10:30. I ordered a taxi to take me back to my hotel (I figure I walked about 15 km today). Guess who my driver was? “No problem.” So hotel name, “No problem,” and we headed that way. I thought this guy drove fast during the day, we were doing 110 in a 50 kph area. One of the traffic lights stopped us when were flying back on the highway part of the road, I am pretty sure I heard a slew of about 15 Greek cuss words in a row as he straightened out the religious stickers that he had stuck to the roof. He dropped me off and I went to my room and packed and went to bed.

Here is some info to go with the pictures

^^^^In case you were unsure what this is, its one of the marble quarries. ^^^^

Friday’s excursion was to the island of Thassos. I think that it was the best part of the trip. We had a bus ride over to Keramoti, where we missed the ferry boat that we were supposed to take by mere seconds. It was ok though because one comes every 30 minutes. It is about a 30 minute trip over to Thassos, which is 6 miles away from the mainland. We got off the ferry in Limenas, which is also the capital of the island. While on the island we drove over to the Golden Sand Beach that I talked about. We got to go swimming there and ate at a restaurant that was there on the beach. We had the usual salad with bread, and then fish. There may have been a dessert, but I was to excited about the swimming to stick around and eat more. We were also able to catch some quick glances of the marble quarries that Thassos is famous for. I guess that the island is one of the largest producers of marble and is where snow white marble comes from, they also produce a grey colored marble. When we got back to Limenas we were able to walk around the town for a while before the busses left. There was a small amount of ruins in the area, and a lot of shops selling all kinds of things. After this we boarded the ferry back to Keramoti. That was pretty much the end of the day for me, I got back to the hotel and went to bed because I wanted to go around town Saturday.

Picture post

This was from the Friday excursion - Chrissi Ammos (Golden Sand) Beach. It is by far the nicest beach I have ever been too, although I haven't bee to many. It is on Thassos Island, and is much nicer than any of the beaches on the mainland that I have been to. As you can see I had been swimming by this point so my hair was all over the place. The second picture is Anton, he is on my "commitee on studies" for my thesis work and also played a large role in the conference.


Yeah, it was really nice on the island.

Thursday

I had to walk around the end of that point>>>>

Today is a somewhat free day for me; I went to a few of the morning talks because I felt bed that that was all of them I was going to while here. Unfortunately all the talks relating to my area were on Tuesday so I missed them. I took the bus to the Thraki in the morning and walked back, looking for a bank along the way. The walk is ~2 km, turns out the ATM is less than a block from my hotel. I got back and asked about troubleshooting the internet in my room. They had given me a CAT 5 cable before to try. Well a technician came by, he told me that the only internet at the hotel is dial-up (then why did they give me the CAT 5, and why is there a port for it?). Next he checked my room's phone, it turns out my it is not even capable of the dial up service, which is a pay for addition which I wouldn’t get anyway since I have been using the high speed here at the other hotels for free. Basically I would not recommend the hotel I am staying at. So I have walked back down the beach (a somewhat rock hopping adventure) to the Thraki to bum their internet service some more.

Banquet

Wednesday night was the banquet, I assumed a buffet like the night before, I was wrong. It was a more formal setting (and I was in my t-shirt and jeans) out on the deck of the Thraki Palace. This hotel has a lot of stuff outside, there is the pool and a smaller kids pool, of course it has a small pathway down to the beach, it has a lot of grassy area around it that includes a playground, giant chess board, archery targets?, and some game that looks like it is played with a ball (not sure I have not seen anyone play). There are also two kayak type boats that I guess you can take out on the sea, and a row of bicycles that I am guessing guests of the hotel can check out (I wish mine had that). I hear that the rooms here are very much like the ones at my hotel, but you’re not in them much so its ok. Anyway the banquet meal was long (9-12pm), it started with seafood pasta that had shrimp and clam? in it, next was a bit of sorbet (literally like 2-3 tablespoons), that was followed by a salad that had something in it that was way to strong for my tastes (it didn’t matter really I was getting full by now anyway), next was the main course it was lamb (very good), and dessert was a delicious chocolate thing; it had a semi hard shell, a soft almost fudge interior and a cake bottom, I think it may have been some sort of truffle.

Just so you understand...

Just so you can see what makes it kinda difficult to blog in Greece. I also had a similar problem when trying to do a blog in Paris.

Wednesday-Trip to Evros Delta

Morning at my hotel - the area that can be seen in the background is where my room is.

Today was the excursion to the Evros Delta, it is the delta of the river that runs between Greece and Turkey and makes up that boarder between the two countries. It is a partially protected wetland and from what they said a very popular bird watching area in the springtime. To get there we took a bus ride (a very long bus ride) down a little dirt road with the tour guide sounding mostly like a broken record, “to right, grey heron and spoon bills”, “to left a colony of black heron.” Then every once and a while she would add something else in that was a little more interesting. Once at the end of the bus ride we took a boat tour in some small boats (groups of 6) around the delta, all the little channels were kind of neat. Back on the long dirt road to Feres for lunch. Again really no clue what I was eating; salad (tomatoes, cucumber, and onion in oils), some king of meat ball thing that was wrapped in a leaf of lettuce, and some thing that was like pot roast on rice (it was really good). After eating we visited “the Church of Panagia the Cosmosotira (World Savior), which was built in 1152 by I. Comninos and is a miniature replica of the famous church of Agia Sophia in Constantinople” – it was a neat little church and is in the process of restoration. Apparently it was stripped of its artwork and such when the Turks were in possession of that area (a little bitterness with the Turks sensed). Then we headed back to Alexandroupolis. Now I am here at the Thraki Palace typing my blog. I think dinner starts at 9 and ends at midnight tonight.

I found this sign at the place where we had our boat rides around the delta, I'm not sure why it was there.

This was the boat that our group road in, it was by far the most

homemade boat in the tour.


Since I typed this I went out to the beach and fell asleep for about an hour, I am trying to upload some picture to my photobucket, but it doesn't seem to be working. They may have to wait until I get home.

Tuesday Night

Above is the Hotel Egnatia for the BBQ - Lots of meat and some other things, I have no idea what I ate.

Apparently this place is very alive during the night. It sounds like there may be a big party going on just down the beach. And I took a walk a little ways from the other hotel that the BBQ was at and there was a lot going on down the street that runs along the beach (it is closed to cars during the late night). Also, dinner is really late here, it seems that it is generally between about 8:30 and 10:30.

The rest of Tuesday

From the deck looking in.

I did go back to the hotel and shower, and then caught the bus that I didn't know was coming (I need to find out more about the busses)over to the BBQ at the Egnatia Grand. The food was really good. Right now I am bumming off their internet because my hotel doesn't seem to have any (I think just the one in my room is bad). Since it is my only contact with my world. I think the hotel that I am in is really old, it was rated as a 4 star--I think it is more like 2-3 star. It looks like they are still renovating (I read somewhere that they were working on it 2 years ago). From the outside the place looks like a dump, but then the lobby and dining area is beautiful. The rooms are so-so, they are pretty small, but who is going to stay in them anyway. I will take a picture sometime later of the room. I am having a hard time doing my blogs also because all the stuff on the page is in Greek.

Sleeping in

View off my rooms deck.

I arrived at the hotel at about 7:45 am and checked in. I went to my room and put my stuff down then spent about 15 minutes figuring out the lighting system, you have to put you key card in a slot at the door to turn anything on in the room. I then decided to take a little nap before I get prepared for my presentation (since I hadn't really slept much for the last 30 or so hours). Well, I woke up at 4:00 pm (so much for alarms) and my presentation is at 5:40 pm. Rush to get dressed and go, I got to the Thraki Palace at about 4:45 pm and registered for the conference. I then made my way to the room I was presenting at. Anton (from Sandia) was very happy to see me and said that he was worried that I might not make it there. Anyway I had about 20 minutes to look over my presentation, then Anton gave his and I gave mine followed by one more lady from Purdue. We had about 15-20 in the audience, and I was asked about 3-4 questions on my presentation (Anton helped answer a few as he knew some of the details of the chip that testing was done on). That was it for the evening session of the conference. Now I am sitting in the Egnatia Grand waiting for a BBQ in 2 hours – I am considering going back over to my hotel to shower since I didn’t get time before the conference (so since Sunday morning) and I feel dirty.

So Far I am in Paris

Well here I sit in Paris, apparently a 50 minute layover is not enough to make a connection here. I got to the counter in time to see them closing the door to the plane out the window. There are 2 reasons I missed my flight. 1. We left Atlanta a little over an hour after we were supposed to and 2. The Paris airport is a. Huge, b. confusing, c. Lacks any real information desks, d. There are 3 parts--View the image below:
At the bottom is the overall map of the airport. I believe we landed in area 3, we unloaded out of the plane and onto the runway-thats right, not even into the building-then we crowded into buses which carried us over to 2. At this point you still have no real clue as to where your next flight leaves from, but its in 2 somewhere. The signs pointing everywhere don't really explain much, I literally ran to get to my gate, just to see my plane leave.

So now I go talk to the Air France people to see when I can get going again. At first she says she can't get me in until Tuesday night (my talk is on Tuesday at 5), but then she "forced" me onto a flight Monday evening. I should be in Athens by about 10 or 11 tonight. Then I have a 5:30 flight out to Alexanderopolis. By the way I also had to pay 20 Euros to get this internet to buy the 112 Euro plane ticket to get on path again. I hope I can get reimbursed for all this.

Thats all for now.