Eating, drinking, and being merry...

Dear All,
So, we ended up stopping in a town called Kalamata on our way from Olympia to Nafplio. We were in a very nice hotel in a very noisy room, thank goodness for earplugs! And thank Vanessa for thinking of them!
We wandered all of their large, nice squares and pretended to blend into the night life. We don't blend! And we don't do night life too well either. We also walked to the beach and sat at one of the cafes lining the water where they have tents covering their couches, chairs and tables. People sit and order one coffee and are there all day so far as we can tell, we don't know what these people do for a living because they all just sit around spending lots and lots of money on coffee!
From there we took a bus to Argos where we changed over to another bus that took us to Nafplio.
Some interesting things about our time in Nafplio; we spent the most amount of money on a hotel we have so far. It was a holiday on Saturday and the other hotels we checked were full or 65 and up. Fun.
It also rained on Saturday on and off all day and then again on Sunday morning. SO we have some sort of excuse for all the time we spent sitting around in our hotel room watching trash in English on TV. Not a very good excuse but we'll take what we can get.
When we did finally get up and out and explore the town we found out how much we loved it! It's full of small pedestrian streets with stairs winding up everywhere. They have some great buildings and as previously stated we notice the architecture of things much more closely than the average Joe because of our father and husband. Amazing!
Saturday we managed to get out long enough to catch the parade at noon and have a nice lunch. It was fun to see the kids in all of their traditional costumes and then what looked like school uniforms and mom liked seeing the one marching band.
Another interesting thing about Nafplio is the castle and fortifications all up the side of the mountain and out at sea! It's pretty much all over the place and we were more than a little impressed. We took a long walk all around the bottom peninsula and then around through the cafes lining the water. We're walking a lot on this trip.
We had a pretty incredible dinner in a cute, full little taverna and then a great breakfast at a little creperie. Food, it's one of our favorite things on this trip that may be because we don't get it often. Ha!
Today after exploring some more we took a bus back to Athens where we are now. We feel familiar with it enough that everything isn't overwhelming and we know our way to the hotel, internet cafe, places to eat and metro! We can get everywhere!
Tomorrow we have to wander Athens once again before flying to London in the evening where we'll be spending a boatload of money on a hotel room. Great fun in Europe as always.
Yassou, Kristen Rose and Marty

More of Patra...

Dear all,
Update from the traveling Johnson girls.
So, several things about Patra- mostly things we didn't end up doing.
We didn't rent bikes and the reasons are simple- they drive like freaking lunatics here! And a bike path? I think not! You're constantly risking your life just crossing the street but trying to peddle a bike along side them while their beeping and driving crazy and Kristen is freaking out and peeing in her pants? Not a fun time! So we decided walking was our best bet, it's served us well so far.
We tried to get to the bridge in the neighboring town of Rio but no dice. They hate us! The information gal didn't tell us that the bus drops you off real close to the hospital but absolutely nowhere near the water and, consequently, the ferry. So after being dropped off in the middle of nowhere we wandered for some time, making fools of ourselves asking the guys at the bus station (who obviously didn't speak English) where the ferry was or how to get there or where we were or any sort of information they could offer and knowing they were standing there making fun of us in Greek while we smiled and nodded we decided to take a bus back to Patra. Great, a good two hours and 4.40 wasted but we're calling it "experience" it's supposed to be good for us.
We did get to the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit and were duly impressed, although we had to content with hoards of school kids and then they closed at two o'clock for their siesta, they opened again at five but it was a half hour walk from the city center and we felt we had seen enough that it wasn't worth the trek a second time.
So we made the decision to leave Patra the next day and yesterday we took a train to Olympia via Pyrgos. Olympia was great! We got a hotel directly across from the train station with breakfast included and dropped our bags and went out to wander the city and find a map. We looked and looked for the information office that was clearly marked on the map hanging in the train station but couldn't find it anywhere so we asked. It turns out the info station isn't in yet. They have it on all the maps and they're very proud of it but it doesn't exist yet! The guy we asked told us it was a small town- we didn't need a map.
And he was right. In our short wanderings around the city we saw pretty much everything. Lots of hotels, souvenir shops, restaurants and a large church near the square. There is a church everywhere you turn here!
We had dinner at a little hotel restaurant near the back of the city and mom had lamb chops with tzaziki sauce while I had moussaka. A good night over all.
This morning we got up and had the breakfast especially prepared for us as, so far as we could tell, we were the only guests at the hotel. Then we headed over to the archeological museum of Olympia and spent a good two hours wandering through there. It was incredible! There was just so much! I went to take moms picture in front of the large statues that decorated one wall of the temple of Zeus and the guard told us we couldn't use a flash (duh, I knew that) and that we couldn't pose with the statues. I'm sorry what? No posing with the statues? Like standing in front of them in a picture will somehow devalue them or damage them? I was ticked off! (Mom won't let me put a bad word in there) Anyway, mom stepped out of the picture and we took it without her.
From there we walked down to the archeological site where they have found all the stuff filling the museum and joined up with a tour group from Arkansas who had an incredible tour guide and listened in to all she had to say as she led them around the stadium, the temple of Zeus, the area where the Olympians stayed during the games, the parade aisle and the temple where they start the torch and still do. It was great! After they went on we did some exploring on our own and made it over to see the large Christian church put in on top of the ruins of the area after earthquakes had destroyed everything. Or, at least knocked it around quite a bit.
We headed back to our hotel around one to pick up our bags and have a quick lunch before loading onto the train for Pyrgos and then on to Kalamata. Mom and I have discovered Sudoku! It's dangerous but great fun, we're pretty sure it's addictive and we'll never be able to stop now we've started but oh so much fun!
Now we're in a nice hotel here before heading on to a town called Nafplia, we don't know when we'll actually be able to get there as everything will be shut down all across Greece from what it sounds like. It's a serious holiday here on Saturday and everyone and their funny cousin is taking the day off, apparently.
Now we'll sign off but as always we love hearing from all of you,
Kristen Rose and Marty

Corinth, Patra and the rest...

Dear All,
Yesterday was our day in ancient Corinth; we took the bus from Korinthos at 10:30 and ate a cheese pastry and some toast for breakfast. Ancient Corinth is great! It was especially great yesterday because it's free to get in on Sundays until the end of March! For two cheapies traveling Greece that was a serious bonus!
We spent a good half hour following a tour group and listening to their guide tell all about the Temple of Apollo, the Agora and Paul’s speaking there. Fascinating stuff all. It was good to hear the different ages and how things had progressed through the city from someone who knew what they were talking about. They give out information when you go in but nothing to what this woman was saying.
The museum was interesting- completely filled to say the least, they have sheds out back covering stacks of old stuff they just don't have room for! One room was completely dedicated to pottery from 1400BC to 1200AD or so and it was interesting to see how it progressed and the patterns changed and whatnot.
The courtyard was great with statue after statue of headless men and women, one tour guide (we listened to several) told us that the reason you found so many headless statues was because they made them standard and then the head was particular to who you wanted and just sat in a bowl type neck. Weird! They could also exchange heads or redecorate I guess. She also told us about the synagogue and the plaque- headstone type thing they found with menorahs on it and the words synagogue-Hebrew spelled out on it. Very interesting!
It was fun to walk the same ground that the apostle Paul had and see where he had spoken and preached. I couldn't help remembering my sisters and mine last trip through Greece and Erika insisting on having her picture taken as though she were Paul- preaching to the gentiles. Actually it was funny to go around anywhere in Corinth because everywhere I went I would stop and realize I had been there before, mom thought that was funny. Of course, so much has been improved and changed because the Olympics were there about ten months later and a portion of it was housed in Corinth so it got a nice face lift. Interesting to see how it's changed, nice that they have better trains and more signs in English for those of us Greek-impaired people.
Today we took a train to Patra, when we arrived we found out from a very informative gal in the Info station that Patra is the Capital City of the European Union this year! Very interesting! They have a cultural kick going on and a lot of things are going on and either cheap or free- love it! So we checked into the cheap pension she recommended and started up to visit the castle here and boy is it a hike straight up the mountain! (Okay it feels like a mountain it might be a tall hill, but there were endless stairs.) We got to the top only to find out it's closed on Mondays.
Tomorrow we're hoping to get down to the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit that is drawing people from all over Greece it's supposed to be so great. We're also hoping to get down to the information office where they rent bikes for free for about three hours! Can you even see us biking around Greece? Neither can I but I'm sure it'll be a blast!
There's a super bridge across the sea that we're told is worth traversing or at least taking the free ferry and taking your pictures from the sea. That sounds like a lot of fun so sooner or later we're going to try that.
Now it's 8:30 and we're pretty much pooped and have yet to walk back to our hotel so we'll sign off. Here's hoping everything is well with you and we're helping to fuel your desire to travel.
Much love, Kristen Rose and Marty

Exploring Athens...

Dear All,
Whoa, so much has happened since we last wrote!
First off, our second day in Athens all of the public transportation was shut down while the workers went on strike. That was fun! Especially since it was raining all day and we just got to walk around and wish we could take a bus somewhere or ride the metro. We did get into a better hotel and were able to check the train timetables out of Athens, eat at the top of the Hondos Center- a big shopping center- that has windows looking out all over Athens, and watch some TV in English! A pretty good day over all. Okay so the only thing on was CNN and the views were all pretty cloudy and unviewable but it was relaxing none the less!
And the next day was even better! We took a cruise that went out into the Aegean Sea and stopped at three different islands. Poros was the first and very cute and very close to the next island so you could see their harbor as well. A nice shopping area that mom and I sort of sprinted through in order to get to the boat in time for its sailing to the next island. Hydra was my favorite island; they have very few vehicles of any kind so they transport everything by donkeys! We literally saw them taking a washing machine and fridge up the city on the back of two donkeys! Lots of sweet, little winding streets and adorable gardens, little pensions and hotels that we wished we could stay at forever and ever. We stopped to get some post cards while we were there so a lucky few of you might be blessed by news from the road. Not many because Kristen’s cheap and won't let mom get many.
The third island was Agea and there we paid the extra 24 euros to take the "excursion" trip out to the temple of Athena Aphea and down to the Cathedral of St. Nickalaus. The temple was obviously incredible, it's absolutely ancient so impresses easily, we took all the standard tourist pictures and oohed and ahhed at the appropriate moments. The cathedral is a gynormous new building with lots of carving, paintings and gold and silver... just all over! Four huge chandeliers of gold light the place up and we were enthralled! Outside all of the tourist sights there were stands with pistachios for sale, apparently the island of Agea is one of the biggest producers of pistachio nuts in the world, somewhere like twenty percent of the world’s pistachio nuts come from this little island with about 15,000 people on it! SO they have pistachios all over the place, in ice cream and with sesame seeds on it, in honey or in lemon and salt- they have every kind of pistachio you could ever want.
On our boat ride back they had the entertainment bit of our cruise and we enjoyed watching the "traditional Greek dancing", I laughed really hard when mom got pulled up out of the crowd for some audience participation. She was laughing too and wasn't very good at the dance they quickly taught a handful of people they pulled up out of the crowd. Very funny!
Yesterday we got ourselves onto the Athens Public Sightseeing Tour Bus and rode it on it's loop around the city, noting where we wanted to go back to as we learned that our ticket was good on all the public transportation of the city except for the metro lines that went to the airport. Awesome! We walked down through some of the pedestrian streets to the central market where they have warehouses full of meat stalls, big goats hanging in coolers and butchers hacking at slabs of meat! It was fascinating! And then whole warehouses of fresh fish stalls, and not just fish- any kind of sea creature there is was in this building and they were yelling at you how cheap their particular fish or sea creature was! Holy moly I couldn't be in there long simply because of the people making eye contact and yelling at you, in Greek no less, about fish that they were all but dangling in your face! And mom wanted to eat in the little cafeteria there- I don't think so! I don't care how fresh you know your meat is, I couldn't stand the smell let alone the noise and... everything!
Anyway, it was a fascinating bit of our day and caused many laughs. Outside of it were stalls and stalls of nuts and cheeses, candy and all sorts of good things. We walked along the pedestrian streets again in pursuit of some food not inside a meat warehouse and came upon a little slovaki place out of the way on a little back street where mom was introduced to gyros. The best food of Greece, aside from the desserts. No one spoke English in the little stall so we were pointing at all the different types of food and asking what they were and how much it was and where we could find it on the menu, it was great fun! We ended up each getting one pita full of goodness and only spent three dollars!
We walked from there up through the National Garden and watched the guard change at the presidential residence. It was hilarious because there was this girl standing chatting at one of the guards who was standing at his little guard house. The guards aren't allowed to talk to you or acknowledge you or anything but she was just chatting away, and then when he went to change places with the guard down the street (which took maybe a half hour) she walked the whole way with him, just watching him. And then when he finally reached his other station she still hung around, chatting and watching. We were pretty sure she had just come along one day and decided to fall in love with him and came every day to propose. That or she's a friend of his who likes to torment him while he's on duty.
We went to the old Olympic stadium, rebuilt in 1896 for the first modern Olympics and were duly impressed. We were disappointed not to be able to go through the gardens to get to the top or anything but we looked on from the bottom with the busload of Japanese tourists.
From there we walked back through some of the gardens to see the temple of Zeus, it was closed and we couldn't get in which was sort of nice because we didn't look cheap taking our pictures through the fence, which of course we are cheap but it's nice to have people think its because of something else.
We walked up through the touristy shops near the acropolis and I bought a cookbook and we admired all of the things we would get if we weren't cheap tourists. Then we walked up the street that led to the acropolis and laughed that it was closed- one more for the record! We took lots of nice pictures from the bottom of the hill and were satisfied.
Being related to an architect does something to you so everywhere we go we admire or judge the buildings and remodelings that go on and there were some interesting ones all along the road to the acropolis. People actually live across from the acropolis! Really spiffy little places they have too! Of course, there are some duds along the same street as well but you're across from the acropolis!
Alright, I have to sign off but I want to let you all know that we have left the city of Athens and moved on to Corinth, tomorrow we're visiting ancient Corinth and then deciding weather to stay on another day or head on to Petra or Pyrgos.
We'll write again when we have the chance, until then we remain,
Kristen and Marty

We're in Athens!

Dear All,
What a lot to tell you!
First off, we are in Athens! It was a great trip and it all went well. Of course, whereas in Cyprus everyone spoke english and life was rather easy, here they don't speak english as often or at least not as much, they're not quite as helpful, though they try, and it's just generally different.
Secondly, our hotel last night was quite the laugh! We went to Omonia square where we were aware there were lots of hotels in a small area- the better to shop around if you know what I mean. So we went looking, found a place for 45 euros a night, a place for 40 euros and then- crazy! a place for 16! Guess which one we chose? Of course, since I had the backpack on I sent mom insdie to inspect the room and situation while I waited outside with the bags. Not such a good idea. It was rediculous, there was a note scrawled inside the wardrobe saying "This is the worst place in the world, there are fleas in the beds, cockroaches breeding under the beds and the noise sucks!" Turns out the message was prety much spot on! Actually, we never saw any bugs of any kind and I'm praying we don't have fleas but the toilet was pretty terrible, the noise was attrocious, we never saw the shower but to be honest we didn't really want to find it. It was an experience to say the least.
Needless to say we didn't want to spend another night there so today we went looking for a better hotel and have found a real jewel. Okay so it's the Mirage or anything but it's nice and we have our own bathroom with a useable toilet and shower.
Another thing, all public transportation was off today as they were having a strike. Great! It wasn't bad, we just spent our time in different ways than we had planned and stayed close by our hotel, well, at least within walking distance. And to be honest, our walking distance is growing.
Tomorrow we have booked a day long cruise taking us out to three different islands with lunch and entertainment provided on the boat between islands. We are super excited about this, it was sort of expensive but one of the expenses we deemed important and necessary.
We are planning on staying in Athens until Saturday morning when we hope to take the train to Pyrgos in the Pelopanese. I don't know how long we'll stay in Pyrgos but we're hoping to see Olympia over there as well and maybe some other smaller towns. Mom and I find we are not big city people, and not big on crossing the street in big cities.
There is a Tourist hop-on hop-off bus tour that goes on all day (on days they aren't striking) that we are hoping to ride on Friday, stopping off to see the tourist things like the accropolis and whatnot.
We love you all and hope you are keeping us in your prayers, we need a lot of them as we are both not real good with planning and decision making.
The end for now, Kristen Rose and Marty

Last days in Cyprus...

Dear all,
This is the last letter to be written from the island of Cyprus. Tomorrow we go on to Athens and all mainland Greece has to offer.
While mom is very laid back and relaxed about the whole thing I'm beginning to panic some. I know everything will be fine and it'll all work out but we don't have a plan that I can rely on and no real way to make one until we get there. This causes my poor self to be anxious.
Today we are doing our last bits of souvenir shopping and whatnot, planning exactly how much money we'll need so we don't overdraw and have to change our Cyprus Pounds into Euros somewhere that would just be a pain.
Saturday night we were picked up by my friend Colin from church and had dinner with him and his wife Roz at their house in nearby Sotira. They are the sweetest couple and have been very good to me while I’ve been here, Mom likes them too.
Sunday we said goodbye to all the people I've gotten to know at church and it's nice to know they're praying for us as we continue our travels. We also had a lovely walk along the beach, a long walk with many breaks and rests but a nice walk all the same. We even made it all the way to Nissi Beach nearly an hour away so mom could see the little island the area is known for.
On our way home we stopped at a restaurant so mom could try the local KEO beer and we could eat some fried, traditional halloumi cheese. While there we got to watch some of the game between Manchester United and... we can't remember who they were playing. But Man. U won and that's what counts. There was a whole table of English boys watching the game; I don't think they were really excited about the outcome.
That's all for now, look for the next installment from a cafe in Greece!
Love to all, Kristen Rose and Marty

The North...

Dear All,
Yesterday Diane drove mom and me up to the North side of the island, mom's first trip across the border, and we went to St. Hilarion Castle and Kyrenia.
St. Hilarion is accessible only through a road that goes directly to one of the many army bases, the Turkish army that is, here are all of these tourists driving by and they can't even use their cameras or take them out! Weird! Once you get to the top of the mountain where the car park for the castle is cameras are once again permitted. Diane waited in the car while mom and I went in and traversed the mountain peek that the castle sits on. One big mountain! The castle stretches from one side of the peek down around to the other side and it's all connected by stairs. Lots and lots of stairs! All the way up to the very peek of the mountain! Mom and I took lots of pictures and were more than a little impressed, me because it was so much more intact and spectacular than the last castle Diane, Vanessa and I went to and mom because it was her first foreign, medieval castle!
It was built by the crusaders as a halfway point between England and the Islamic infidels and also to protect the Cypriot community. Well, sort of protect, sort of lord it over.
After traversing the entire mountain in stairs we rejoined Diane and drove down to the coast town of Kyrenia where there is a major building boom going on! The North is only recently open to outsiders and people passing through the border so easy and they are taking advantage of the tourist industry that has opened up to them. The town itself is incredible! Large, impressive four star hotels, casinos, an ancient fort that sits on the water and small, meandering streets typical of any European country. One of the main interests was how different the people there were, you could tell they weren't European or Cypriot, they all had a distinct Turkish look to them. You could feel it was an Islamic country, between the girls with head coverings and the men filling the streets, presumably doing nothing, to their mannerisms and speech. Very interesting!
Also of interest was the incredible military presence all over the north side of the island! Acres of fenced off military lands, pictures of guys with guns warning you about this or that or that they'll shoot you if you take a picture. (We didn't really understand because it's all in Turkish, if we thought we were getting a little bit of an understanding of Greek- Turkish is definitely beyond us.)
But our drive back was incredible! Besides being stuck behind a lorie for some time there were amazing views of the odd rolling hills below. They rolled but then each of them seemed to plateau and atop a lot were small developments or villages! Incredible to be climbing a mountain, looking down on these hills and having a full view of the sea out beyond!
Last night after our day up north we went out for our big dinner out with a full meal of Meze, the traditional Cyprus meal with about ten different dishes. We went back to the restaurant Vanessa and I tried before and mom got to meet the waiter and owner that I sort of got to know. We had a really great time, the food was great, the wine was refreshing, the place was very traditionally Cypriot and was absolutely packed! And what a diverse group filling the restaurant, Swedes and English eating along side us as well as a large table full of Greek men and another larger table with a large Cypriot family; very large Cypriot family that seemed to span several generations!
Today is a lazy day, we tanned and read and managed to stir from the apartment after showers and a lunch of artichokes. Mom got to meet my fried Leo for the first time today and now we're here before going for a walk down along the beach. Tonight we're going to dinner with Roz and Collin, the couple I have gotten to know through church.
Much love to all, Kristen and Marty

Note from Mom...

Dear All,
Mom wants you to know, first off, we want to hear from you! Email us here or post a comment on my blogspot, www.wherekristensgoing.blogspot.com
We want to hear from you as much as you want to hear from us, and of course, you want to hear from us!
Mom can't check her own email due to technical difficulties (we don’t know how!) so email her here and I'll make sure she gets them.
Love you all, Kristen Rose

In Nicosia...

Dear All,
Today was our Nicosia day, Diane took us up around nine thirty so we arrived at about eleven-ish, she went on to a Do It Yourself shop and we started our tour at the Antiquities Museum, they just call it the Cyprus Museum but that doesn’t' really explain it.
We saw the pottery, terra cotta warriors, limestone and marble statues and loads of jewelry and blown glass work that has been found all over the island. We were amazed that some of the earliest pieces they've found come from the twelfth century BC! SO much history!
We ate our lunch in a little park, glad that the rain had stopped so we weren't huddled under trees while we spit out our tangerine seeds and ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
We wandered past the wall that encircles the old city center and into the church that is right on the border between the North and South. From there we walked on to the pedestrian mall where we wandered for some time, we gave up on any more museums because we wouldn't have the time to really appreciate them or anything else so we got ourselves ice cream and walked. Mom was truly impressed by the mixture of old and new, how some things seem to be falling to pieces and others held together.
When we got back to the bus stop we were first a bit panicked because we didn’t' know where it was, there was a great big outdoor market going on that we quickly stopped to buy some more greens before going to ask where our bus was to be found. Thankfully we got to it in good time and sat waiting for it to leave wishing we had spent some more time wandering the market and selecting our fresh veggies.
Now we are off to make plans for the next leg of our journey which we find creeping up on us rather quickly.
Love to all, Kristen Rose

PS from Marty- The fascinating thing about Nicosia is that it is a very large and modern city and then there is this walled city to the north of it and it is apparently very old and there is a UN buffer zone that is patrolled by UN troops. The buildings that are next to the wall are often falling apart and empty, then there'll be one that has been kept up and lived in. It's just very eerie, then there's a pedestrian walkway that is mostly very modern and most of the shops are nice to shop in, but even there it's a bit iffy in some places. There was an old Greek Orthodox Church amongst the buildings and then there was also an ancient mosque. Fascinating!

Also of interest is the way that they build here. There is a lot of development going on all over the place. They build very close to each other and go straight up, rather narrow and only 2 floors with a balcony on top sometimes and it's all out of concrete. When they are in the midst of building, you can't tell if the building is being built or it's in the midst of falling down. I told Diane that I'd love to see the inside of some of them and she got a kick out of telling me that I should do some research, by acting like I was interested in buying. Maybe I will. Also they leave a lot of the buildings unfinished on the top to go back and add another floor and we've seen where they have done so or are in the midst of doing so. It's all rather interesting to me. Diane said that I'm well trained by my husband to notice the buildings and how they're built. She's right.

Mom arrived...!

Dear All,
My mom is here! She arrived Saturday night around tenish and we brought her home, took her out to make a quick call home and then put her to bed. Sunday we got up and went to church where she got to meet the people I have gotten to know here and Roz and Collin invited us to dinner this next Saturday. That will be fun and I'm glad that mom will get to know them. It was the big licensing of the new pastor or whatever so an interesting service to say the least. We went out for lunch and got some typical Greek dishes at one of Vanessa's and mine favorite restaurants, we also learned that the waitress we thought was the first real Cypriot we had met or come across is actually from Bulgaria! But she knows five languages, including Greek! We're impressed to say the least.
Monday we didn't do anything! I take it back, we laid out on our porch all morning and mom ended up getting a sunburn, then we went walking all along the coast and sat for a while on chairs down at the beach. On our way back home that evening we ran across a guy selling fruit and vegetables out of the back of his truck, mom isn't big on my diet of carbohydrates so we stopped and got some things to break up the routine. Artichokes were two dollars for a bag of eight!
Today Diane took us out and we went up to one of the villages here, Lefkara, known for its handmade lace! It was absolutely beautiful and we got to se how they were made and talk to some of the ladies that do it. It seems to be the dying art that never dies.
After that we drove over to the monastery atop one of the mountain tops, only men are allowed in and I admit I was a little bitter about that but we had a very nice picnic and took a lot of pictures! We did get to go into the little church outside the monastery and use their restrooms but any closer and it seems we would temp all the monks to sin.
Now we're sharing a computer at the internet cafe and since mom isn't used to the keys sticking or a foreign computer I'm doing the duties. It's just painful to try and let her do it.
Yesterday was a big Greek orthodox holiday, Green Monday, apparently they all go out into the country and have a picnic and fly kites with their families. Tomorrow we are probably heading up to Nicosia for the day.
Love to all, Kristen Rose and Marty

Life is a Beach...

Dear all,
Yesterday I motivated myself and got up and out of the apartment early, it was an absolutely beautiful day and I walked the path that lines the coast to one of the large and gorgeous beaches, it's called Nissi Beach and apparently quite famous on the island. There is a small island that you can wade to and then there is a path to the top, I went out and sat for an hour or so just watching the waves come in and the little old man fishing in the shallows, he didn't catch anything the whole time I was there and I sort of felt bad for him but he seemed to be enjoying himself.
People of all ages and nationalities littered the beach and all of the little kids were buck naked running in and out of the water. I take it back, they weren't completely naked, they mostly all wore little sun hats. Europeans!
Last night was fun, I wandered the pedestrian strip and watched all of the young people and families that are here on essentially spring break. I find I can amuse myself quite well with people watching and my imagination and think it's funny all the people who pity me for being all alone.
And as for that, I won't be alone long, my mother gets here on saturday and I'm super excited, this means of course that I'll have to clean up the apartment and wash all of the dishes that are piling up. But I can't wait for her to get here.
Hope all is well,
Kristen Rose XOXOXOXOXOXOX