First Days in Greece

Hello everyone reading this Blog--Paul here.  Rachel and I have been traveling to Greece.  We had a layover in London on Sunday en route  to Thessanoliki, Geece.  We met our friend, Liz, at a hotel near Victoria Station.  As always, I am a fearful flier so my last few days have been stressful, but I am glad to report that we have made it safely to Greece.  

At this time I must interject how lucky I am to have parents who know me so well.  On our flight to London we had a 2 hour layover in Dallas.  My parents met us at the airport and brought us dinner.  Not only did they bring a fine dinner from Subway, but they also brought Rachel and I 12 cookies delicious cookies which we enjoyed at every opportunity along the way.  I love Macadamia nuts.

In London, Rachel and I went to the Globe theater for a production of King Lear.  We did not purchase tickets in advance wo we had to stand with the rest of the plebians around the stage.  It was fantastic such an awesome plae to watch a play.   I had purchased to the play so we had read a little of it before seeing it performed.  Shakespeare was meant to be performed... The nuances of the drama and Shakespeare sense of humor is hard to appreciate on paper.  

Yesterday, Rachel, LIz and I flew to Thessonaliki.  Upon arriving, we learned that Greece is not conformed as well as other countries to the use of English as a standard international language.  The saying "that's Greek to me,"  could not be more true.  This is all to say that we spent about 1.5 hours searching for our hotel in the city.  I enjoyed it as it was a great treasure hunt, but the girls were much less amused as they were carrying more luggage.  After no less than 10 greek pedestrians who we stopped for help, we eventually found the area around the hotel.  One text message later, we found our friends Scott and Megan.  

We are staying at an inexpensive hotel but it is great.  It is right across the street from an ancient Roman Forum.  After arriving, we went to a local outdoor cafe/bar along the coast, had some cheese and wine and played some UNO.  We were looked so sophisticated. 

Tomorrow, we are going to see a museum, explore the roman ruins across the street and down by the coast, and finally travel by train to another nearby city-- Meteora.   Till then, Chao or whatever the Greek equivalent would be.

Breckenridge Dec 2007

We finished our clinical duties Dec 14, and left for a long drive to Colorado on the 15th. Paul and I along with 7 other friends from medical school enjoyed a week in the winter wonderland. Our first adventure was on the drive up to Colorado. 5 of us drove up in a rental mini-van and drove through the night on a 16 hour drive. As we drove through New Mexico, Paul woke up and noticed that we were getting low on gas and reminded Scott to get gas at the next stop. Well about 70 or 80 miles later, we had a couple jerks and came to rest on the side of the road in the middle of no where... out of gas. We attempted to knock on some houses that were around ... but only a small dog would respond. Luckily a kind family stopped and picked up two from our party and took them to the gas station -- 10 miles down the road. We were so close ... if only Scott would have been more fuel efficient. A cop had to bring our friends back in the back of his car -- a comical scene. They bought two gallons of bottled water, poured out the gas, and filled it with gas. I'm sure this is very non-legal and environmentally wrong, but the cop did not seem to mind. So an hour added to the trip, and we continued on down the road.
We skied for three days and had a great time. Scott did his first black, on like his 8th day ever of skiing. Than shortly after we had him go down a double black. He was able to roll mostly down this one, but no injuries and much laughing.
Also, is a video of us all skiing.
We also went to our favorite sled hill and went sledding. The hill always has large bumps that kids like to add in. They cause you to go flying, but the painful part is when you land back on the snow right on your butt. We all had a pretty fun time with this. Again, no injuries except I think Paul left with a pretty good headache.
The last day, we went snow shoeing. This was also pretty fun, except I don't think any of the snow shoes stay on very well. And everyone had to keep stopping to re-adjust the straps. We hiked up hill for about 2.5 miles and than came back. Here is the greatest video of Megan, Scott, and I racing through the snow in our shoes. It makes me laugh every time I watch.
On the drive home, we hit a major snow storm. At times we were driving 5 mph and were only following the tire marks in front of us. This turned our 16 hour drive into 22 hours. But we made it home safely for Christmas!!
If you would like to look at all my photos from the trip ... go here http://picasaweb.google.com/rhassan11/Breck2007