We tried our hardest to assimilate—and we had lots of help in Greece. 4 cities—all couchsurfing with locals has given me a great appreciation for Greek hospitality. We had some of the best.
JESSICA SEZ: After spending months getting a LITTLE BIT used to the Arabic alphabet, and then breezing thru turkey where they at least use familiar letters – Greece comes along to kick you in the head like a mule.
Trying to read street signs and locate the ladies room – you almost wish you’d paid attention to those silly fraternities in college. Is this a menu or a physics test? Learning to sound out the greek letters became a favorite new game. We did passably well, and some of those letters will come back to help us when we hit kyrillic-kountry in the balkans later…
ANDREW RETURNZ: While most folks seem to spend a lot of time on the Greek islands, we only had time for 1—we took a boat from Turkey to the legendary isle of Lesvos…
Our host Grigoris was a great guy, and just down the road, his friend Panagiotis is trying to keep alive the traditions of the kafeneio (café-NAY-yo).
It’s a place to go drink coffee or liquor, and if you order ouzo, (more…)