Some general observations left out of the original postings

See the photos of the trip. The links are in the Photo section to the left. You should be able to see all the photos, but the link takes you to a specific photo that has relevance to the label.

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In each country we purchased a SIM card for my phone. Before we left the US, I had contacted Cingular and found out how to unlock my GMS cell phone. By doing so, it became possible to convert the cell phone into a local phone in each country we visit. The price of the SIM was 5 euros in Greece and 10 liras in Turkey. In these countries, incoming calls do not use minutes (or units, as they are calculated). Outgoing calls are quite expensive, however, and we added some units to the phone in each country.

The phone came in quite handy. We were able to call hotels if we were lost. We were reachable by people with whom we were trying to be in touch, both locally and back in the States. And we looked officially native, carrying around a phone, after all.

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There was a lot to keep track of on a trip like this: flight confirmations, reservations, passports, cell phones, plug adapters, chargers, people's phone numbers that we had learned, maps, car keys,.... We had a few frights that accompanied lapses of memory during the 19 days we were away. What did I do with my wallet? Where did we put the tickets? Who has the boarding passes? Did we remember to lock the car?

Leaving the hotel one evening in Athens, Rosi was not familiar with the custom of leaving your key at the hotel desk when you go out. When asked, the clerk said that it is preferred to leave the key, but if she wanted to carry it with her, that would be all right, “just don't losing it.” (sic) He repeated his admonition as we were going out the door, “just don't losing it.” A few hours later, we returned and I asked for our key, which the clerk pulled from the box with our room number on it. Rosi also asked for her key, and the clerk reminded her that she had taken it with her. Rosi was insulted by the suggestion, and insisted that he produce her key. Yoyi and I then added to the discussion that she had, indeed, taken the key with her. Rosi was adamant that she had left the key. When Yoyi asked her to check her purse, she reluctantly looked for them, and found the keys in her purse.

We were in the Athens central market that morning, and I put my hand on my cell phone holster,... and the phone wasn't there! “OH, NO!” I exclaimed. (“Oh, no” became a catch phrase on our trip. Someone would say, “oh, no,” and everyone's stomach would tie in a knot.) Could I have dropped it in the market? Or maybe on the street before we entered the market. Oi vey; how am I going to find this phone? OK, here's what we'll do: You walk through the market with the phone holster, searching for the phone. Maybe the merchants will see you searching and might figure out that you're looking for something, and maybe someone would have found the phone. Meanwhile, I'll go back to the hotel and see if it's there or on the ground between here and there. So far, 3 minutes of anxious strategizing. Right; and we'll meet back at this entrance to the market. See you in about 15 minutes. Off I went, putting my hand in my pocket to make sure I had the key to the hotel room, and... ... there was the phone – in my pocket instead of the phone holster.

It became a caricature of me to lose track of something, but everyone had at least a few bouts of forgetfulness. Somewhere I wrote down examples of the things we forgot, but I can't remember where I wrote that list; in fact I had not remembered that I wrote the list until Rosi reminded me.

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Many hotels have roof patios, where you can enjoy the view, and take advantage of the sea breezes. We went up to the top of the hotel in Athens one evening, where a couple of other guests were sitting and chatting over a beer. We took the elevator to the top floor. (Short digression here: Almost all elevators in these countries are small, accommodating at most 3 or 4 people. You call the elevator with the button, but if the elevator is already in use, it won't respond to your button; you have to wait until it is available to call it. Then, when it arrives at your floor, there are no automatic doors; you pull the door open to enter the elevator.) After a few minutes on the roof terrace we called the elevator to take us down. After a short while, we pushed the button again, but nothing happened; the light showing that the elevator was “in use” did not go on. Hmm. Push it again; still no response. Not wanting to show panic, I walked around the roof to find the stairs; the door to the staircase was locked. Back to the elevator to try the call button again. Nothing. Maybe the other guests on the roof know what to do in this situation. One of them came over to the elevator to see what he could do. He pulled on the door, and the elevator was there, waiting.

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Our suitcases got heavier and heaver as we traveled. While we were getting more and more physically fit, we were adding to the weight of the suitcases faster than we were increasing our strength. But somehow, Rosi's baggage started out heavier and always was the heaviest. We discussed this phenomenon one day, and Rosi attributed it to the weight of the fabric of her suitcase. We had a good laugh at her expense, when she proposed that idea, and she suffered several times later in the trip when we conveniently brought up how heavy her fabric is.