Awe-Inspiring Athens

For my birthday in November Marty gave me the gift of 4 tickets to Athens for the upcoming MLK Jr. weekend.  We have decided these American holidays are key to our easy and cheap long weekend trips because Marty and the kids have these days off but the rest of Germany/Europe do not so we can find cheap airfare.  And at 45 Euro per person, round trip to Athens, it really doesn't get much cheaper than that!  We would be hard pressed to find similarly priced tickets for an Amtrak train ride to Portland for the weekend.

So on Friday before the holiday we picked the kids up from school and headed directly to the sbahn which took us to the airport.  We arrived in Athens with no trouble - other than they were in the middle of a transit strike so we had to take a cab where normally we would take public transport but whatever.

Walking to breakfast just after the rainstorm

We all fall into bed excited for what the next couple of days would bring. And it poured and poured rain and then there was thunder the likes of which I had never heard.  So loud!! 

The Acropolis atop the hill.
Everything was SO green

And the wind was blowing and I thought  "oh, great! In trying to escape some of the Berlin cold we end up in even worse weather."  We all sleep decently but I fear we are going to be spending the rest of the weekend in our airbnb as the entire weekend was forecast to be wet and rainy.
We wake up to rain but by the time we muster the energy to get up and ready the rain had stopped and a mix of sunshine appeared.  It is nice when you have low expectations for weather.  I feared rain all weekend - which thankfully did not come - so the cool temperatures didn't bug me.  It was upper 50's and nearly 20 degrees warmer than Berlin.  So not balmy but better than where we had come from.

We walked to a breakfast spot right near our place - which happened to be right at the foot of the acropolis.  Strangely, in Greece there were no Yelp reviews.  I don't know if I've ever been somewhere in recent years where Yelp wasn't used.  But Trip Advisor was and any and all restaurants with a positive Trip Advisor reviews prominently posted them in their windows.
After breakfast (Benjamin had a gyro for breakfast because while in Rome... or Athens)  we walk toward our walking tour. I had found the  "free walking tour" through Trip Advisor before leaving Berlin and booked us a spot.  It is run but passionate historians and archaeologists who guide you through the streets of Athens and share their amazing wisdom and knowledge all because they love it.  It is run solely on tips!  Our guide, George was a amazing so we tipped pretty handsomely.
We somehow got spun around and were running out of time to make it. 

George, our tour guide, explaining
how the outnumbered Athenian army
won against the huge Persian Army at
the battle of Marathon.

In the end we had to hail a cab but just barely get to the tour in time before it started leaving the meet up spot.
We learned so much through our tour.  The kids, Benjamin in particular, was dragging his feet as we were walking toward the tour but once it started he perked right up and was always the one closest to the guide awaiting more information.  Benjamin and Josie, but mostly Benjamin has really been into reading the Percy Jackson book series. 

Marty read to him the first series and then lately he has been reading them to himself and is already on the 3rd book in the second series. 

Taking it ALL in

He also has been reading any book he can get his hands on about the Greek Gods and Greek Mythology.  He was in Heaven and knew every single answer (and then some) to any question about the Greek Gods while on this tour.  He impressed the guide and the rest of the adults.  Several of them pulled me aside and asked "how does he know so much about the Greek Gods!?"  Haha.  He goes all in when he is into something.
We learned about the history of Western Democracy and how important the Greeks were in education and academia.  We learned about Nike and that this means Victory and is pronounced "Nicka" not how we pronounce it when we buy a pair of shoes.  We  learned about the battle of Marathon and how a guy ran back to Athens to tell them the Athenian army had won and the distance between Marathon and Athens is the distance of the modern day marathon race (42.195 Km or 26.219 miles)

also learned that the modern day marathon was named after the this battle.
We passed the tomb of the unknown soldier and saw the changing of the guard.  I have never ever seen such an elaborate dance/production for a changing of a guard.  They did

 synchronized  moves and individual moves.  Quick moves and slow motion moves.
We walked to the site of the modern day Olympic stadium and

then back toward the acropolis.  The kids kept up with every step and every piece of information.  Seriously, they both really impressed me with their stamina both physically and mentally.
We ate dinner at a delicious gyro/kebab place.  Seriously, the best food we have eaten probably since arriving in Europe.  The Greek salad was  more feta cheese than vegetables!!
We headed back to our Airbnb and talked about what we wanted to see the next day.  One downside to just going for a weekend is you don't have that much time to see everything.  But I guess it is better to see just a few things than no things??

Olympic Stadium

We talk about either spending the day at the acropolis and Temple of Zeus and going back to the Olympic stadium because our walking tour guide told us that the locals go to the top and run around the backside of the stadium.  You get a good work out and an amazing view.  Or we also talked about taking a bus 90 minutes each way to the Temple of Poseidon which is down right on the coast of the Aegean sea.

The BEST Greek restaurant ever.  Even warm enough
to eat outside without heaters

Greek salad.  SOOO yummy

This kid ate gyros breakfast, lunch and dinner for 3 days in a row.  

Our nightly view of the Acropolis just a few steps from our Airbnb. 

The Power of Facebook

Just before Christmas I received a very nice Facebook message from a women here in Berlin that said she found me through my blog.  Interesting, I thought as we had no mutual friends. 

She was very kind and said she followed the blog and that she has a 2nd kitchen and that if I still needed stuff for our kitchen for our new place she'd be happy to gift or loan them to me.  She even mentioned that she had a car and I wouldn't have to lug everything with me back on a bus or a train.  She obviously had read about me having to trek back home with overly full arms through the city of Berlin with wardrobes and microwaves. 
How incredibly sweet!!  So amazing that she found me and reached out. 

We made a date to get together after Christmas,  our whirlwind trip to Barcelona and the kids were back in school.   What a lovely woman.  She and her husband welcomed me into their home.  We had tea and a nice conversation about family (they have 5 children and 8 or 9 - sorry, I can't remember- grandchildren) They both spoke perfect English.  We also talked about the differences between the US and Germany.  They both had spent some time in the States.  And lo and behold the art of grocery shopping came up.  In a way it is nice to know that even long time German residents and citizens often feel rushed and baffled by the checking out and bagging process here.  

On a side note, grocery shopping still remains a bit stressful.  It is so funny how something seemingly so small can be so different from country to country.  Most of the stores the checkers are SO fast and they fling your items at you at record speed. You are expected to keep up because the area that they fling them into is about the size of a notebook.  Seriously, I think people would buy more at their store if they made the check out process a bit more comfortable.  Customers either butt their cart right up to the notebook sized area and immediately just start refilling their cart whilly nilly and then have to pull over to a nearly equally small space to then rebag everything to then take to their cars or bikes or just carry which seems SOOO inefficient.  Or they have bags like we do and they have to rebag everything in lightening speed as stuff is being flung at you.  I have become a bit smarter.  I now put everything on the conveyor belt in the order it should go back into my bag.  Heaviest stuff first, then produce then rolls.  And I love it when the checker has to stop and look something up before ringing it in.  What a dream to get a couple of extra seconds to breathe before paying and getting the heck out of the way because ALWAYS there is another German right behind you and even if you are trying to put your wallet away they just push their way to the notebook sized area.  It is kind of rude but I get it.  If they are delayed because of me then they won't have time to get their groceries put away.  Also, funny story about grocery shopping.  So if you want to use a grocery cart you have to put in a 1 Euro coin and then you can use one.  When you return your cart and plug it back in to the stall your 1 Euro coin pops out.  So really it is just a deposit.  But if you don't know this - which we didn't when we first came- it makes things a bit comical.  When Elliott's family were here they went to the store.  And then Chris retold us the story after and we all died laughing. So in the states you would typically offer to take back a cart for someone who is walking back to the store pushing an empty cart.  But here no one would let you do that because they want their 1 Euro back.  So Chris offered to take someone's cart and they looked at him with a cold German stare and obviously he had no clue why his act of generosity was being met with such disdain.  Then when Chris was done shopping (he just assumed you had to pay the 1 Euro to use the cart and had no idea you actually got your Euro back) he offered his cart to another customer as they were walking into the store.  He said that person acted like they won the lottery.  Not only did he give them his cart but when that customer returned it they would get Chris' 1 Euro deposit.  So funny.

OK, so back to my new friends.  They honestly could not have been nicer.  After a very nice conversation she led me downstairs and let me borrow and hand mixer (yay!!  I see cookies and cakes on the horizon) and an immersion blender (soups, soups, yay!) and a few other essentials.  And then she drove me home in her car.  And all of this because she knows someone who lives in Seattle who liked one of Marty's Facebook posts about us moving to Berlin.  How cool is that? Thanks again, Karin!!!  We will see each other again soon. 💗

Special Mail

Our care package wrapped in Zoo lights newspaper
which was not lost on us :-)

Mail is a much bigger deal here.  We don't get much - junk mail or otherwise - but when we get something it is cause for celebration and reminds us that we are further away  (Germany and Seattle) than we realize or care to admit.  We often just feel like Seattle and all our friends and family are in a time trap and we will return to find everything exactly the same.  Mail and letters break that bubble a little.
THANK you everyone for your lovely Christmas cards and letters.  They made our days brighter.

My good friends, Lori and Steve, sent us a very cozy Christmas package.  Homemade, flannel pillow cases.  So warm and fluffy and perfect for curling up and reading a book with. SO appreciated.  Lori and Steve hold a special place in our hearts as they were there the very first time Marty and I met.  Marty was doing some cd giveaway downtown Seattle in the summer of 2003.  My good friend, Simone, and I had planned to go jump in Lake Washington on this particularly hot July day and when I got to her house she said, let's go get a free CD from Marty Riemer from the Mountain before heading to the lake.  I was game. Why not? I had listened to Marty for years and really loved the radio station.
When we arrived at the Rock Bottom Brewery in downtown Seattle the outdoor area where they were giving away CDs was packed.  We just popped in and grabbed a CD.  Simone had met Marty before so she said hello.  I must have too.  And then we were going to leave and go jump in the lake.  I saw my friend Lori and her husband Steve sitting at a table and they had room so they invited us to stay.  Lori, by the way, was an English teacher at Shorecrest when I taught there.   So we stayed and hung out with Lori and Steve, ordered drinks and maybe even appetizers.  Marty and his friends just so happened to be sitting at the table next to us.  We all started in on some discussion about who knows what.   But then I left and he left and we both were dating other people.

A few months later I called into the radio station trying to win a free trip to Mexico.  They did this every year and every year I had tried to win.  I figured I deserved to win being a high school Spanish teacher and all.  Well, he answered the call. I reminded him who I was and that we had met at the Rock Bottom a few months before then and my name went into the drawing.  A week or so later I got a phone call telling me I, along with a dozen or so other listeners, had won the free trip and Marty and the rest of the on air staff were also going to be on the trip, Yahooo!! Little did either of us know at that time that we would still be together nearly 15 years later.  But I digress, Lori and Steve were there at our first meeting and had they not been there Simone and I would've just jumped in the lake.  So we credit them a little with our getting together.

One of the four, beautifully
cozy, cute pillowcases

Their care package was extra sweet because they have been some of our biggest cheerleaders over here.  SO invested, inquisitive and up to date on what we are doing and the best letter writers.  I'm sure this is partly because Lori was an English teacher and partly because Steve was a long time West Seattle Mail Carrier.  But whatever the reason.  They are AWESOME.  Thanks, guys!!!  Much love from Berlin.
Speaking of mail, we obviously moved and have a new address.
Anyone who writes I promise to write back.  Not right away but eventually I will write back.
New Address is:
Riemers
Albertinenstrasse 12
14165
Berlin
Germany

Settling In

We are really settling into our new place.  It is funny because our old place really was pretty cool.  It was a 1920's double house - meaning it shared one wall kind of like a 3 floored duplex.  It was also an altbau "old building"  It was a single family home, three floors and was unique to anything you would find in Seattle.  It felt German.  It felt like we were living in

Old house - just the right side

 a retro place with a retro kitchen which we wouldn't probably choose to do but was cool.  A lot of the important things (heat, bathrooms, kitchen appliances, plumbing) had all been redone but a lot of the house was original... meaning nearly 100 years old.  The floors, in particular, always bothered me.  They were old and squeaky and never felt very clean.
We embraced that house though and loved living there but the furnishings were always a bit lacking.  Our bed was super DUPER uncomfortable.  Really not much better than a futon and as low to the ground as a futon.  The dining table was long, not really big but definitely functional.  The dining room chairs were highly uncomfortable.  The living room had one of the smallest, stiffest and most uncomfortable couches I have ever seen.  Marty always joked that the only thing it was good for was a two person tea party. The rug was one of those sisal rugs that would shed on everything as if we had a shedding dog and the rug was so rough it seemed more fitted for outside.  In addition to these likely cheap Ikea pieces there were many, probably over 100 year, antique wardrobes and desks and enormous bookcases enclosed in glass.  Needless to say, it was fine and it served its purpose but none of it was cozy or comfortable or "US." But we figured, why waste money on something new.  We are only here a short time so we will just suck it up and deal. 
Even though moving really sucked.  Big time!  In the end, as is most things in life, it worked out better for us in the end.  Our new place is cozy.  We have nicer furniture.  One of our two couches is SUPER comfortable and the other is definitely more comfortable than our tiny tea couch.  Our bed is a regular bed at a regular bed height and much much more comfortable.  We have some artwork on the walls - some of which was from our recent trip to Barcelona.  It is not a unique building in any way but it is light and bright and was built in this decade... or maybe the previous but definitely within the past 20 years.

Barcelona artwork

We don't have a yard at this place but we do have 2 large terraces and right behind the building is an open "yard" that belongs to the building complete with a small sand pit.  It has been too cold for Benjamin to test it out but I bet come Spring and if we get a shovel or two and some buckets he will love digging out there.

Needless to say, we have been loving our new place.  My new kitchen is easily 4 times the size of the old one.  It is also open to the rest of the house which makes it so much more enjoyable to cook from here. 

 The kids each have a desk which they love to draw or read at and we have a whirlpool tub and a sauna in our bathroom. So fancy.  Benjamin and I mostly enjoy the sauna.   Here's to "movin' on up"

First Dinner Guests

On Saturday we had our first dinner guests over to our new apartment.  There were still a few boxes here and there but mostly we had moved in and have made this place our own.
Our dear friends Fionnuala and Wolfgang along with their three boys came over.  Fionnuala has a birthday coming up and so it seemed fitting to have her and her family over as our first guests.
I loved it because right when they walked in they picked at and ate the remnants of my cooked cauliflower pan that was sitting on the counter.  Only a good friend would do this and exclaim, "YUM"  I was still making a few things but mostly things were ready.  They continued to pick at the stuff left over in the pan and somehow this just solidified our friendship.  I love when friendships get to that comfortable stage.  Like family.  Which we have felt with Fionnuala for a long time but this was just awesome. I know it must seem small but what I miss here more than anything else is history with anyone.  Other than my family nobody knows us for longer than 5 months but somehow with certain people history isn't dependent on the time you have known them but the depth of the friendship.

I even told her that when we first met her Marty and I asked each other if she was too good to be true.  She was so kind and genuine.  It felt like one of those movies where the super nice woman sucks you into some deep and dark plot.   Something had to be wrong with her, we thought. Haha!!  Really, though, she made that deep of an impression on us that we assumed something HAD to be wrong.  I told her I always hoped we get to that place in our friendship where I could tell her this.  Too funny now that I think about it.
Well, now it has been 4 months of consistent and sincere behavior so I think we just have ourselves a VERY dear friend.
We all ate and drank and laughed so much.  They have 3 boys.  Twins aged 6 and an older boy aged 13.  All 5 kids got along so well. Can't wait for the next time.

Oh, and when they came they brought a lovely housewarming gift.  A delicious, homemade loaf of bread and some salt.  Apparently this is the traditional gift you give when someone moves into a new place.  "As long as you have salt and bread all you need is not far"  I think is the translation.
Happiest of birthdays sweet Fionnuala!!

Intense Soccer Saturdays

Benjamin really does love soccer.  He has pretty much been on the

same team, The Wild Cats, with a bunch of his preschool buddies for the past 3 years.  He played Fall and Spring soccer, both of which were played outdoors - through rain and wind and even sometimes sunny weather, he played soccer.
He likes to compete and he likes to win and even though he was liking Lacrosse it didn't feed the fire the way soccer does. So when we found out their was space on the 3rd grade team we jumped at it.   He was able to join this team because a friend has her son on this team and she told me that there happened to be room whereas the 2nd grade team apparently has such a long waiting list they told me not to bother.

They do this little circle up chant to start and
end each practice.  Benjamin wasn't so sure about
it at first but now swings his arm around his team
mates and joins in. 

He definitely the youngest player being one grade younger than the entire team, he has never played indoor soccer before and hadn't played soccer for over 6 months since his Spring soccer team in West Seattle. And soccer is just a lot more intense than in Seattle in my opinion.
The first couple of times we went to practice he seemed to like it.  There aren't really games.  They have a 90-100 minute practice once a week on Saturday mornings.  They do some conditioning work and then play a series of scrimmages against members of the same team.
Each and every practice there are kids on the floor wailing!  They've been hit in the face or the neck or the shin but most commonly the gut.  Then they can't breathe because it knocks the wind out of the them.  When this happens, when a child is on the floor screaming and rolling around in pain the coach, who is hilariously calm, just saunters over with no real concern or alarm and slowly picks up the players two arms and tells them to breath and then slowly walks them off the court.  This happens no less than 10 times EVERY single practice.  It is a bit disconcerting because the entire court-full of young boys watching as their team writhes in pain and I have to assume wonders when will it be me on the floor.

Another interesting note is that there are a handful of parents who sit in the gym and watch practice.  Benjamin has asked that I stay and watch so I do.  But when I notice the other parents and if it is their son who just got hurt they barely seem to even notice.  I

know for a fact if it were Benjamin on the floor I would really and I mean REALLY have to hold back until he was walked off the court and then I would snuggle him and make sure he was OK.  The other parents barely seem to notice as they continue their conversations and sometimes but not always just give their injured child a brief pat on the back.
I'm noticing more and more than that it tends to be the same few kids getting hurt.  I'm starting to think they may just be good actors.  This past practice Benjamin fell hard on the court leaving him a bit bruised and with a huge floor burn (side note: I remember have dozens and dozens of floor burns from back when I played basketball and my dad spraying some god awful antibacterial spray that stung SOOO bad right into the sore - I told Benjamin about what Papa used to do to me and his eyes got big and he asked "why?  Why would Papa do that? "  Good question buddy....we all wondered the same thing.  Thanks for taking care of our floor burns though, Papa!!!  I'm sure you saved us from some horrible infection 😉 )
He came off the court and said "I fell so hard it took the skin off my knee! "  He didn't cry or roll on the ground.  Then he went back in and someone kicked the ball super hard and it hit him right smack in the leg and knee.  In the same spot as the previous injury. He teared up a bit and rubbed it but stayed in and didn't cry.  I'm certain that some of those previous injuries were much worse than Benjamin's but I'm also wondering if maybe they like to play it up a bit?  Those injured, screaming players did seem to be just fine with a minute or two
Anyway, this last practice when the number of injured kids rolling on the court seemed to be at an all time high Benjamin did ask if I thought there was any way he could try out on the 2nd grade team.  Unfortunately, I know there isn't and he decided to stick it out.  Hoping he isn't the one writhing in pain at the next practice.

Goals and Accomplishments

Since we met, back in 2004, Marty and I have had a tradition of writing out our past year's worth of accomplishments and coming year's goals on or around January 1st.  I think this came from something his parents used to do and we adopted it and adapted it to fit our needs.  It is quite amazing to look back at the past 13 years of our lives together and see where we were at each stage.  Marty is very organized and we have them all together, all handwritten with a description of where we physically are at (usually Starbucks at Alki) and where the kids are (once they came into the picture) What was a big deal then is not a big deal now.  Even so, what was a big deal when we wrote our goals just 12 months before were no longer a big deal after the year had past. 
This past year was BIG for us in so many ways.  We had lofty goals and in nearly every area we met them.  We have never had so many accomplishments as we had for this past year. We also have never had so many challenges. 
As per usual, we find a quiet coffee shop and make a date with each other and sit and talk through our past year together and individually.  What did we do?  What did we accomplish?  We look at what we set as goals and see if we met those.  Inevitably there are accomplishments that we didn't even know were on the horizon.   As well as missed goals or not even half way met goals.
We found a quiet little cafe close to our new apartment.  We had a nice little German breakfast and talked through our BIG 2017. What a year it was.  It had many ups and downs but through it all we weathered it together.  Even though sometimes it feels like work to do sit down and write out our goals and accomplishments I'm always thankful afterward and even more so when we look back on it 12 months later.  Not to mention 13 years later. 
It was a year for the books!  Our goals/accomplishments book.  And I'm so very thankful to have this in written form to look back on.