Acropolis

During our stay in Athens, we spent a full day exploring the ruins of the Acropolis. Mind you, the Acropolis isn't just the Parthenon. Rather, it's an ancient citadel with a number of buildings, theaters  and temples. Though the hill has been inhabited since the 4000 BCE, it was only in 500 BCE that Pericles organized the construction of the Acropolis' most famous sites: the Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Erechtheion, and the Temple of Athena Nike (the Temple of Athena Nike is the building completely covered in scaffolding).

At the base of the Acropolis is the Theater of Dionysis. This theater was built in the 5th and 4th century BCE and was dedicated to Dionysis, the Greek god of wine and patron god of the theater. The chairs/thrones you see were especially created for VIP theater patrons such as the head priest of Dionysus (I'm pretty sure I could follow that religion... honoring the god of wine) and important politicians.

Here you can see the theater from above.

There is another theater a bit higher up, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. Unlike the Theater of Dionysis, which was used for plays, the Odeon was used as a music venue and had a seating capacity of 5000. Built in 161 ACE, it was commissioned by the wealthy Athenian Heordes Atticus in memory of his wife. Is it still an active music venue!

We then headed further up the hill and entered the Acropolis plateau through the Propylaea. A monumental gate, the Propylaea was built in the 430s BCE. In ancient times, the Propylaea served as a controlled entrance to the Acropolis. Those not deemed ritually clean were denied entrance. Luckily, we made it through.

Directly across from the Parthenon is my favorite building on the Acropolis: the Erechtheion. Built between 420 and 406 BCE, the temple was dedicated to the legendary Greek hero Erichthonius (a mythological early ruler of ancient Athens who was raised by the goddess Athena).

My favorite part of the Erechtheion is the Porch of the Maidens. These 6 pillars were actually built to conceal a giant 15-ft beam needed to support the southwest corner! Beautiful and functional.

And of course, we saw the Parthenon. Begun in 447 BCE, the Parthenon served as a temple to the goddess Athena, the patron deity of Athens. It has served many purposes: aside from being a temple, it was also used as a treasury; it was converted to a Christian church in the 5th century ACE and dedicated to the Virgin Mary; during the Ottoman occupation in the 1460s, it was converted into a mosque. As you can see, a part of the Western front is under construction (as my Dad said, "In the history of the Acropolis I bet there has always been scaffolding.").

The Eastern side, luckily, was uncovered.

From the top of the Acropolis hill, you can see the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Though most of the structure is gone, you can get a good sense of just how huge the temple must have been based on the massive size and height of the remaining columns.

Down the hill from the Parthenon is the Temple of Hephaestus. Begun in 449 BCE, this temple was dedicated to the god Hephaestus, the patron god of metal working and craftsmanship.

It makes sense that this temple was dedicated to Hephaestus, as there were numerous potters' workshops and metal-working shops in the vicinity of the temple. Like the Parthenon, this temple was eventually converted into a church. From the 7th century to 1834, it was the Greek Orthodox church of St. George Akamates.

Athens trip - an introduction

For most of the month of May, Bobby is in Athens, Greece, doing research. He is visiting the University of Athens and is working with his colleague Sergios, pictured here. Luckily for me, May is a month with a lot of national holidays in Denmark, so I was able to visit Bobby for 11 days!
During his month-long stay, Bobby is staying in a dorm. While the price is quite nice (4€ a day!), it was not the most ideal sleeping arrangement for a couple. I think it's a testament to our relationship that we slept in a single bed and still like each other! Though I'm pretty sure these bags under my eyes are not leaving any time soon.

We really enjoyed exploring Athens. The history and ancient ruins are simply stunning.
At the National Archeological Museum, we saw statues created as long ago as 3000 BC, and were stunned by the artistry and craft, not to mention the unbelievable realism, that Greek sculptors attained so many years ago. This particular statue is especially interesting. Recovered from an ancient shipwreck in the Mediterranean, half of the statue was buried in sand, while the rest was exposed. The exposed part is the part of the statue that is eroded: different sea creatures eat away at the marble. But the part of the statue that was covered in sand remains pristine!

We also saw some of the slightly more modern cultural sights, including the Evzoni, or Presidential Guards. Don't be fooled by the short skirts and pom-pom-ed shoes, though; these are some of the elite Greek Army infantry men. Guarding the Presidential Palace and Guard of the Unknown Soldier, they have a very unique way of walking. It looks a bit like bull trying to waltz.
Greece is an Orthodox country, so the religious holidays aren't always on the same date as Catholic/Protestan holidays. When I arrived on 5 May, the country was celebrating the Orthodox Easter. We saw little shrines like this all over, including in the parking lot of the dorm.
Our good Danish friends Thomas and Thomas visited us for a long weekend. We had a lot of fun exploring the Acropolis (future post), eating good food (another future post), and traveling north to Delphi (yet another future post) with them. As you may remember, we travelled to London with them last May, and took a week-long driving trip through Jutland, Denmark with them over the summer.

Thomas and Thomas (or T&T, as we like to call them) helped me celebrate my 29th birthday in Athens! The waitress at the restaurant we visited that night was kind enough to put a candle in my dessert, though she didn't sing. But that's ok, I got a nice rendition of the Danish birthday song from Bobby, T&T. All in all, it was a great birthday and a great trip. Bobby and I finally have a tan (which especially suits my California skin), we got to eat and drink new and delicious things, relax by the sea and the pool, and visit some amazing sights. We hope to go back to Greece to visit more of the country, especially the islands!

Long weekend in Porto

Bobby and I spent a long weekend together  in one of our favorite cities: Porto, Portugal. Bobby spent 3 weeks of April in Porto, where he was doing research with an old Stanford colleague.  We love Porto for many reasons, and the weather is definitely one of the reasons! Though Bobby had some chilly and rainy days during early April, Spring had properly set by the time I arrived. Every day I was there was had warm, sunny days.

Another reason we love Porto is it's run-down charm. This city has more abandoned buildings than any other city I've been to, and yet we find this to be part of the city's charm! Of course, there are beautiful well-maintained buildings with amazing tiles and decorative balconies, but the grittiness of the old buildings makes the city feel like it's actually lived in. No museum affect here!

Many of the run-down buidlings are illegally inhabited by various people: out-of-work young men and women (of which, unfortunately, there are many in Portugal), young starving artists, and the usual riffraff. However, this building was too far gone to be inhabited by anyone. It certainly is pretty, though.

Not even churches are spared from abandonment!

Another reason we love Porto is the food. Oh, the food! It's funny, we know several people who have been to Portugal and had terrible food experiences, but we've only had great experiences there (minus a particular meal of wild boar's anus, from our first trip to Porto in summer 2009). We tried a new restaurant this time around: DOP. We enjoyed the full menu course with accompanying wines. After a few amuse-bouche, we enjoyed this wonderful appetizer: foie gras wrapped in apple with a port wine reduction. Delicious!

This dish featured a very large Madagascar shrimp with Portuguese beans and a lobster foam.

This dish featured Portuguese rice (very good), lobster, and a type of fish from the Doro river.

On the side of the dish was this little piece of lobster and special caviar (very prettily presented), which was unlike any caviar I've had. The texture was much more smooth than your typical caviar, and the eggs melted instead of burst in your mouth. Quite luxurious.

We were also served some fantastic Wagu beef. This particular dish was quite creative (though a bit of a parlor trick, which we've seen at several other restaurants): it was served with a glass lid over it, and when the lid was removed, fragrant smoke drifted to our noses. The burnt-looking trigs are actually bread, and the beef was perfectly seared. The next dish, which isn't pictured, was another Wagu beef dish, and it was equally delicious.

The dessert centered around one ingredient: celeriac (celery root). It sounds odd, but it actually works. On the left is a very dark chocolate triangle with a celeriac and creme mousse. Holding it up is a brownie with chopped and roasted celeriac. On the left is a celeriac ice cream, which was quite tasty. All in all, it was a very lovely meal.

But don't worry, Bobby and I don't exclusively eat foam and root vegetable desserts. We also enjoy the food of the common man :) This grilled chicken was really, really good, and we licked our fingers more than once.

We headed to the ocean-side city of Matosinhos, which is just a 30 minute metro ride away from Porto. We enjoyed our favorite Portuguese meal there (and it's a meal we get every time we're in Porto, and often more than once per trip): grilled seafood and vinho verde! We started with some grilled green peppers, which were (sadly) not at all spicy, but still flavorful.

Little fried sardines were served, but we waited for our main course...

Big grilled sardines! Honestly, we can't get enough of these. The crispy, crackly, salty skin, and the perfectly cooked flaky flesh of the fish pair perfectly with a fresh salad, boiled potatoes, and a bottle of vinho verde.

Couple the meal with the warm weather and you get a very happy Carla!

Yet another thing we love about Porto: cheap and good drinks. It's just so lovely to sit at a little café or restaurant overlooking the Doro river while enjoying a pitcher of Sangria.

And, of course, the port wine. Ah, the port! We enjoyed a nice meal at a restaurant accompanied by a bottle of wine. Instead of dessert, we opted for the port tasting. We ordered only one tasting, and it's a good thing, because the server poured us 6 healthy glasses of port! We had a late bottle vintage Graham's, a 1989 vintage tawny Kopke (tied for first place in our opinion), a Niepoort rosé, a Niepoort tawny, a very interesting chilled ruby Kopke, and a 40 year old vintage tawny Graham's (the other first place port).

It was a refreshing and revitalizing weekend in Porto. The food, long walks, afternoon naps, and warm weather prepared will help me to get through this cold Danish spring and prepare me for Athens, Bobby's next adventure!

Easter weekend, plus Bobby's excellent scallops

We spent 6 days in Paris for the Easter holiday, where we visited Kate and Iris, took long walks in Paris, visited our tea guy, and enjoyed many lovely meals. But before our time in Paris, we spent some time in Rennes, where we had this great view from the apartment kitchen.

One of Bobby's French colleagues showed Bobby how to open, clean, and prepare fresh scallops. So when I arrived, Bobby took me to the weekend market to buy some fresh scallops and then he show me his new kitchen skills! First we opened and cleaned the still-living scallops.
Bobby then heated a sauté pan and melted some butter.










A few cloves of garlic and a fresh chili flavored the butter.









And then the scallops were tossed in, briefly browning on each side. Once the pan was taken off the heat, Bobby added a few spoonfuls of very fresh crème fraîche and a bit of salt.
We ate the scallops directly out of the sauté pan, with some fresh bread to sop up the sauce. I was absolutely amazed with the meal Bobby prepared for us! It was so, so, so delicious. Thank you for a delicious and memorable lunch, Bobby!









After Rennes, we headed to Paris, a 2 1/2 hour train ride away. We stayed with Kate and her partner, Alexsandr. It was the first time I had met Alexsandr (Bobby had met him several weeks earlier when Bobby first arrived in France for his research trip). Aleks doesn't speak much English, and I've lost most of my French, but with Bobby and Kate as translators, we all got along famously.
Aleks has two daughters of his own. Bobby and I had a lot of fun playing with them, though we kept getting them riled up and in trouble with Kate and Aleks (I think this picture perfectly shows how we interact with the kids: lots of motion, and you're pretty sure someone is about to get hurt). Yep, we are that aunt and uncle: we love to play, someone usually ends up crying, and parents end up grounding us along with the kids. What bad influences we are!
We were fortunate enough to be in Paris on Iris' 3rd birthday! Kate bought a beautiful cake for Iris and we all sang 'Happy Birthday' to her.


Iris is growing up so much! Each time we see her, we are amazing at how much she has matured since the last time we saw her. Though she is starting to become very girly (she received several Barbies for her birthday and loves to be a princess), she still likes to rough house with Uncle Bobby.





Since Bobby and I arrived on a Wednesday, we had two days of afternoons to ourselves since Kate and Aleks had to work and Iris and the girls were in school. Bobby and I took long walks through our favorite city. We visited places we used to go to when we lived in Paris, like a great Ethiopian restaurant in the 15th and our tea guy (good old Bonthés) in the 18th. We spent time in cafés, drinking café crème or wine while Bobby sketched and I read.
Iris spent Easter weekend with her dad, and Aleks' girls were with their mother, so we had an adult weekend. Over the course of the weekend, we ate and drank a lot, played cards, and listened to music late into the night. We took a nice walk along the Seine with Kate and Aleks, then we all had a nap.






Sometimes it's nice to have an adult weekend :)

















For our Easter dinner, Aleks prepared his family's recipe for leg of lamb. It was kind of nice to relax and have the boys cook dinner!














The boys did a great job and we enjoyed a really delicious lamb dinner. Thank you Kate and Aleks for a great holiday weekend!